RE: [ATM] Re: considering new design FW: Re: website down

["Donald Good" <donald.good@comcast.net>]

Don't say YIKES just yet.  Let's look at this for a moment.  This is almost
a zero obstruction (8% vs. the normal 20-30%), no spider diffraction
Newtonian.  The heart of this design is a flat that is slightly larger than
full aperture.  It is my understanding that a flat is harder to make that an
equal diameter conic (sphere or paraboloid) mirror.  Not only do you have to
figure a surface as free as possible of aberrations, but you have to nail
the focal length (at infinity), whereas the focal length of the sphere or
paraboloid only needs to be approximate.  Edmund Optics quotes a 6" 1/20
wave flat at $1800 US.  Custom Optical's 6.8" is only $750 CND and you get
the parabolic mirror too.  And Custom Optical goes up to 17".
http://www.edmundoptics.com/onlinecatalog/displayproduct.cfm?productID=1905

Ian also says:
"The design is simple enough for a determined amateur telescope maker to
reverse engineer. As a compromise I will provide the plans free of charge
under the condition all advancements to he design are to be made public
domain."

So I don't think he is too worried about ATM's cutting into his sales, as
long as it is not commercial.  I think that the note only applies to the
commercial environment.  My interpretation might be:
Note these prices are for the optic set only and may not be used for
commercial purposes, sale (commercial manufacture), resale (retail), or sale
within a device (part of other OEM optical device).

Now I am not endorsing or panning this product, just giving another
perspective.  It is not completely original.  Ingalls' ATM book chapter on
Telescope Housing (new Book 1, Chapter D.1, page 522, Fig D.1.2, subfigs V,
VI, and IX) shows full aperture flats with central hole.  In these cases,
the tube is fixed on the polar (RA) axis in a type of permanent equatorial
mount.  The flat is tiltable on the declination axis.

As far as web hosting, Ian said that his ISP had a monopoly, so maybe he
doesn't have a choice.  And DNS stands for Domain Name System.  DNS is how
www.customopticalsystems.com is translated into the numeric address (IP
address) that the computer understands.  It is 207.6.24.141 in this case.
If the DNS is broke, the computer does not get the IP address it needs.

Clear skies,
Don


> -----Original Message-----
> From: atm-bounces@atmlist.net 
> [mailto:atm-bounces@atmlist.net] On Behalf Of Woodchuck
> Sent: Saturday, January 08, 2005 3:27 PM
> To: atm@atmlist.net
> Subject: Re: [ATM] Re: considering new design FW: Re: website down
> 
> On Sat, 8 Jan 2005, mike collins wrote, quoting Ian Anderson:
> 
> > >Note these prices are for the optic set only and may not 
> be used for 
> > >commercial purposes, sale, resale, or sale within a device.
> 
> Let me add my "YIKES".  The high prices are not for the 
> optics, but seem to be only a highly conditioned lease on the 
> optics, which the "buyer" (really a licensee) cannot use as 
> he sees fits or ever sell.
> If you "buy" them, and don't want them any more, what do you 
> do?  Pound them into sand?  Or does that sentence parse 
> differently?  (What is the subject of "may not be used", the 
> prices or the optics?)
> 
> For an outfit that can't get decent webhosting,  (a challenge 
> for about a half hour), this sounds like a little bit too 
> much.  Sounds like Mr Anderson has been taking his Microsoft 
> shrink-wrap license a bit too seriously.
> 
> I'm still trying to figure out, absent working DNS, what this 
> mysterious system is.  A long paraboloid and a flat?
> 
> Dave
> 

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