Telescope Optics and Advertising

There seems to be a disconnect between the folks who design optics and the folks who sell telescope. The optical designer has tools that very neatly show characteristics of the design. Some of these tools produce very nice graphics that are not hard to understand, and that can convey important information to the informed consumer. However, these are rarely shared with the potential buyer, and we are often left to puzzle over terminology that implies great things but says little. Maybe there is a fear that real data will be misunderstood, or will not fare well against the other company's hype.

It would be nice if telescopes could be sold on their merits, and if enough infomed consumers keep asking the right questions, perhaps things will move in that direction.

Clear skies, Alan

Alan:

How about this? I found this page when I before I replaced my 8 inch Astro-Physics with the William Optic 66SD...

http://www.williamoptics.com/prod_tel/zssd66/sp_spotdiag.htm

Jon

Hi Alan,

The problem is that the data you're wanting is data that the optical engineer would generate for an ideal system. This wouldn't be realistic. Manufacturing and mechanical tolerances means a real telescope will perform ever-so-slightly less than his ideal design data would show (not by a lot, but enough to upset the nit-pickers who would be expecting the performance to be *exactly* the same as the data shows). The designer would be setting himself up for a lot of grief if he shared that kind of data. I'd bet this type of thing is what changed Zambuto's mind about releasing analysis data with his mirrors. Oh, and there's also the chance of other designers figuring out his prescription (which wouldn't be good for business).

As an optical engineer, I share the ideal design performance with maybe the optician in the shop, the other engineers working with the optics who understand it's ideal, and my team lead. Anybody outside that circle and even within after I've done tolerance analysis, I stress the design tolerances and the performance to be expected with a real system. While by no means am I trying to hide anything, I know there is such a thing as sharing too much information...I don't want the important aspects (both good and bad) of the designs to be lost in a myriad of details that really only matter to myself, the optician who will be making the optics, and the mechanical engineer who will be designing the lens mounts. I definitely don't want to give them ideal performance data and have them expect ideal performance out of a real system. It's not good for your career to promise more than you can deliver.

Cheers,
Jason