Hi All,
I'm interested in procuring a large (22") fast (f3.7) mirror for an ATM project. I don't want to make the mirror myself, so I'm going commercial for it. I've looked at most everyone, and I'm noticing a price "pecking" order of (lowest to highest) Swayze, Nova, Pegasus, Galaxy, Intermountain Optics, and Torus. The order isn't necessarily important, but quality is to me. Is anyone aware of actual independent testing done on these vendors' products? I'm weary of all the bickering over wavefront quality claims...especially since they are so hard to verify (outside of a star test which is often seeing limited and incorporates total system error). The price difference between Nova (Ronchi) and Torus (interferometry) is $2K (which is 56% markup). I don't mind paying for quality, but I don't know how to verify it and level the playing field. I'd like to get a fine optic and expect to pay a fair price. Ideas, opinions, and/or comments?
Thanks!
I'm interested in procuring a large (22") fast (f3.7) mirror for an ATM project. I don't want to make the mirror myself, so I'm going commercial for it. I've looked at most everyone, and I'm noticing a price "pecking" order of (lowest to highest) Swayze, Nova, Pegasus, Galaxy, Intermountain Optics, and Torus. The order isn't necessarily important, but quality is to me. Is anyone aware of actual independent testing done on these vendors' products? I'm weary of all the bickering over wavefront quality claims...especially since they are so hard to verify (outside of a star test which is often seeing limited and incorporates total system error). The price difference between Nova (Ronchi) and Torus (interferometry) is $2K (which is 56% markup). I don't mind paying for quality, but I don't know how to verify it and level the playing field. I'd like to get a fine optic and expect to pay a fair price. Ideas, opinions, and/or comments?
Thanks!