Any Aries lover there ?

The SAA is rather dull compared to the old times when engaged discussion raved here and also Valery Deryuzhin of Aries, Ukraine participated.
He somehow disappeared, who knows how the wheels of history touched him.
Last time, he posted here under the nom the guerre Vader...
The fond memories of past were back reading the Astromart ad 431263 for an Aries 10" Mak:

"Older model (original) Aries 10" f/13.5 Maksutov Cassegrain with adjustable secondary and helical focuser. I have mechanically enhanced this scope and implemented an internal cooling fan capability along with the rear side ring handle and finder bracket seen in the images. The scope was also professionally painted and looks mint. I have even included an original (as received) image in order to provide a sense of the enhancements I have made to this scope. The images above speak for themselves and it looks even better in person.

HERE'S THE RUB... It was sold to me with claims of a 1/11 wave figure but the fact is that it has never lived up to this spec in the field... Star tests show reveal far too much energy in the outermost diffraction rings and images are soft, irrespective of how well the scopes collimated. There is also a small chip on the edge of the primary. My conscience would never allow me to pass it off at as originally advertised, hence the price. My mechanical restoration efforts were a labor of love and I had hoped to have the optics ultimately restore as well. Personal reasons force me to sell it now and abandon the project. My hope is that there is an amateur or professional telescope maker out there with the expertise to analyze and refigure the optics. Hopefully the right person will see this telescope as a project worth pursuing and restore it into an observatory class instrument."
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Colour Delivery in SCTs vs Newts etc.
    ... >>> The commonest thing degrading images, is collimation (90% of SCT's, ... has the second mirror correcting for the spherical ... rear port of the scope. ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Re: Accu-scope questions
    ... I was leery about buying a used scope, especially on eBay, as it ... As I said, some images are as sharp as a tack, while others ... I never before used an iris diaphragm for taking pictures, ... Never before used a scope with a condenser that could be moved up ...
    (sci.techniques.microscopy)
  • Re: Poor quality of lunar images with 20D/C90
    ... > There's a picture at: ... The C90 isn't a big scope and it simply isn't ... >resolution than visual images? ... Don't take pictures of a full moon. ...
    (rec.photo.digital)
  • Re: Coupler for Nikon D200 Digital SLR Camera on a Zeiss Axiovert 200
    ... They perform very well off the scope. ... pictures even with fluorescence images. ... But if you have a SLR port, vibration, weight, and slow focusing ... There are many cons to using a DSLR. ...
    (sci.techniques.microscopy)
  • Re: 14" SCT diffraction pattern posted, comments welcome on degree of SA
    ... > disappears once the scope cools. ... > Those images were taken about 45 minutes before dew formed. ... > processing just to better bring out the rings. ... I've suspected at least 0.5 arcsec drive vibrations for quite ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)