Optically, it's still basically a Newtonian. Some people call them "low-riders" and there are a couple of other names being tossed-around. The nice thing about it, besides ergonomics, is that the secondary doesn't need to be quite as good as in a standard Newtonian. A mirror at a 45-degree angle should be much better optically than the primary. A mirror reflecting at a much reduced angle can be figured to about the same tolerance as the primary, and still produce a "diffraction-limited" image. I think Patrick organized the last outing as a SLAS function. I've taken a lot of Mike's time lately so I want to back-off for a bit and get this article done before I personally start pestering him for another viewing session. Others should get a chance before I get back in line, anyway. We are lucky that Mike is such a nice guy and his main point of building this telescope is so as many people as possible can look through it. On Tue, Oct 29, 2013 at 12:06 PM, M Wilson <astro_outwest@yahoo.com> wrote:
So, is there a name for this type of configuration? I'm betting it isn't Newtonian.
When is there going to be another SLAS field trip to Mike's scope? I didn't see the last anouncement until after the outing was filled.