Re: ATM's demise

[Bill McHale <wmchal1@umbc.edu>]

On Wed, 23 Dec 1998, Gene Horr wrote:
> 
> Yes and no.  I've only had access to three high end Newtonians,
> and one of those only for a couple of nights.  For the most
> part all of the commercial units, Newtonian or Cassegrain variant,
> were "slower" than the ATM Newtonians, which I admit made comparisons
> difficult.  I tried to get an apples-to-apples comparison by using
> the same brand & type of EPs, but different FLs to bring the powers
> to as close as possible.  Most of the comparisons were in DSOs,
> as I did not have extended access to motorized Dobs to compare
> high power planetary views.
>

Ok a couple of thoughts.  Ok, if you are comparing two Newtonians, if one
scope is faster than the other, the slower scope will probably have better
contrast at a given magnification.  After all the faster system will
probably have a smaller diagonal.
 
> It wasn't a comprehensive comparison in standardized conditions,
> but for the most part I was able to compare one from each class
> on the same evening at the same times.  Enough to feel pretty
> confident to state that the average ATM compares poorly to the
> average high end commercial OTA (which, granted, costs up to
> 10X as much).

The other question of course is how well did you know the builder of the
particular scope, and talked to them?  Many who make telescopes will stop
when it is good enough for their purposes.  Also of course, as you said,
you were comparing the Amateur tube assemblies with the best the
professionals have to offer.  While I think it is quite reasoable to
assume that an Amateur can beat a mass produced Celestron or Meade on the
first try, I don't think anyone ever claimed that we could beat the
absolute best that professional opticians could accomplish.  Of course the
best that the professionals can accomplish is still well outside the range
that the normal amateur is able to afford.

Bill

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