Whoa!

I read a rather disconcernting essay today on Yahoo! Refractors, by a noted authority on eyepieces, that rather explicitly wishes owners of SCTs to be, well, dead. I find this to be perhaps the most regrettable turn in the ongoing dialogues over equipment types. I thought it fitting to put the quote on to an overlay of an outstanding image taken by an SCT. This is strictly clip and paste stuff.

regards
Greg N

Attached Image:

Gregg: The rant quoted in your entertaining posting tells us more about its author than about any kind of telescopes. I wonder if that author is the same person as the Astromart user of the same name who lives in Cambridge, England, where Isaac Newton, among other achievements, designed the fore-runner of most modern reflector telescopes.

Greg,
Too bad he does not dig that hole, jump in it and have someone cover himself up.

Not a nice thing to say, but I dont worry much about message-board rants.

1. Maybe he is joking and as usual the humor is lost in translation

2. Maybe he just has a bad day. He might have lost his dog, job, girlfriend or whatever

3. Maybe he had a bad experience with an SCT and recieved poor customer service back in the post-Halley years. I still hear horror stories about poor SCT quality and service

4. Maybe he needs to spend a week with Barlow Bob for a dose of positivity and astronomical enthusiasm

5. I joined, and dropped the Yahoo refractor group due to the majority of posts nit-picking glass and manufacturing or vendors. Few posts were "I have XYZ refractor and really enjoy it" Got stale quickly.

Regards,
John

Greg Nowell said:

I read a rather disconcernting essay today on Yahoo! Refractors, by a noted authority on eyepieces, that rather explicitly wishes owners of SCTs to be, well, dead. I find this to be perhaps the most regrettable turn in the ongoing dialogues over equipment types. I thought it fitting to put the quote on to an overlay of an outstanding image taken by an SCT. This is strictly clip and paste stuff.

regards
Greg N

Life is way too short to pay attention to stuff like this... 8)

All,

My concern is that beginners will read such things as gospel and think that they have to spend 10K in order to do good planetary observation. In my experience, all quality instruments have their place. My first 60mm refractor provided me with many pleasant hours of "ignorant bliss".

A rant like this reminds me of Lowell's extreme view that reflectors were useless for planetary work. Pickering's remark that apertures smaller than 5" are useful for nothing other than the study of variable stars shows that even the knowledgeable can be ignorant.

Anyone that has ever used a JSO SCT or a nulled Celestron knows that this guy is full of poop. I have found that optical designs, when well made, are always good performers if you keep them cooled and collimated 8)

Keith

Greg Nowell said:

I read a rather disconcernting essay today on Yahoo! Refractors, by a noted authority on eyepieces, that rather explicitly wishes owners of SCTs to be, well, dead. I find this to be perhaps the most regrettable turn in the ongoing dialogues over equipment types. I thought it fitting to put the quote on to an overlay of an outstanding image taken by an SCT. This is strictly clip and paste stuff.

regards
Greg N

As I've said elsewhere, this dude MAY (or may not) be an expert on eyepieces. He don't know SQUAT about SCTs.

8)