Life has conspired in the last year or so to keep me away from amateur astronomy, both my trusty SCT and the various groups online. So it's just today that I accidentally came upon the news that Thomas Back passed away in September.
This may be a bit off-topic, so I apologize and will keep it brief. I feel a little pang that I didn't hear of this sooner, and am so late in expressing my sympathy, not only to his family, but to the entire astro community. We've lost a giant. I'd read some of his papers on optics, and his helpful responses in the online forums. I learned from them.
I only ever had the opportunity once to look through one of his scopes for a minute or two. Seeing was not great, but the optics were clearly top class, and the overall quality was impressive.
Compared to most in this hobby, and probably everyone posting here, I am a piker. I can't star-hop worth a darn, can't name many stars, and need my GPS-enabled SCT to find the faint fuzzies. Compared to the likes of Mr. Back (and other creators of quality instruments such as Roland Christen), I am truly humbled.
Again, sorry for being so late to the party. I only hope that TMB Optical is not over, and continues producing great equipment. I'd always hoped to one day own a top notch short f-ratio APO, and TMB was certainly on the short list of companies I'd look to for it.
This may be a bit off-topic, so I apologize and will keep it brief. I feel a little pang that I didn't hear of this sooner, and am so late in expressing my sympathy, not only to his family, but to the entire astro community. We've lost a giant. I'd read some of his papers on optics, and his helpful responses in the online forums. I learned from them.
I only ever had the opportunity once to look through one of his scopes for a minute or two. Seeing was not great, but the optics were clearly top class, and the overall quality was impressive.
Compared to most in this hobby, and probably everyone posting here, I am a piker. I can't star-hop worth a darn, can't name many stars, and need my GPS-enabled SCT to find the faint fuzzies. Compared to the likes of Mr. Back (and other creators of quality instruments such as Roland Christen), I am truly humbled.
Again, sorry for being so late to the party. I only hope that TMB Optical is not over, and continues producing great equipment. I'd always hoped to one day own a top notch short f-ratio APO, and TMB was certainly on the short list of companies I'd look to for it.
"Don't drop the banana!"
"Why not?"
"Good source of potassium!"
