Re: ATM Cost of building vs. buying

[akelly@ghgcorp.com]

>
>>How does the cost of building, say, a 6, 8, or 10" Dobs compare to buying
>>one?  It looks like I could get an 8" from Orion for under $500 - do the
>>dollars make it better to build, or is the advantage more in the intangibles?
>>And what about the cost of buying a finished primary vs. grinding a blank?
>>
>>Harry Boswell                 hboswell@netdoor.com  
>>Home Page:  http://www2.netdoor.com/~hboswell
>>

In our telescope-making group in the Johnson Space Center Astronomical
Society we have built about thirty 8" f6 Dobsonian-Newtonians in the last
3-4 years.  Most were built around commercial optics, but several (7 or 8)
used home-ground optics.  With the inclusion of one decent eyepiece AND an
inexpensive tracking platform, the scopes with commercial optics cost the
builders $275-$300.  They are consistently better performers than most
commercial Dobs costing much more
and the owners are quite proud of their achievement and their "babies."

The scopes with the home-made optics cost the builders $80-to-$100 less than
the other scopes and the owners have a sense of pride that can best be
described as irrepressible.  These scopes are all excellent performers. 

Rolling your own is quite cost-effective and rewarding whether you grind or
buy glass....8-)...
                                        AL Kelly