Re: Rare Amateur Telescopes


Rich wrote:

I beg to differ. Early equatorial mounts were tuning forks. No
contact area to speak of,
thin little shafts trying to hold up heavy OTAs. Because of poor
design (like Cave) you need a very heavy mount to support any kind of
scope. Today, a mount with a 20lb head can hold considerable weight,
owing to better design.

Tuning forks, you mean dobs correct? I owned a 12.5" Cave observatory
and used the 16" Cave at the Syracuse Astronomical Society's Darling
Hill observatory for years. Both are rock steady compared a 10" Orion
dob. As far as todays 20lb Head: You mean like an Celestron ASGT which
has a settling time of 5 seconds!

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