Re: APO hype

I don't have any doubts that a high quality APO can provide great views of the night sky. Heck, I've experienced this myself, and it is amazing what can be seen with 4" of quality aperature.

On the other hand, I own a couple of Newtonian telescopes (8" f6 and 12.5" f5) with Zambuto mirrors. I would consider these telescopes to have high optical quality as well. I've seen amazing things through these telescopes, and the resolution exceeds what I've seen through APOs.

I think that in all cases, if you put optical quality first, you'll be able to see pleasing images that will astonish and delight you.

AS long as this is a thread about hype, we might want to consider Zambuto hype. Let's assume as a start that Carl Zambuto is the best mirror maker in the world. Still, there are several others very close behind (and remember that our assumption is just that). One can measure the differences between those mirrors with instruments in a laboratory, possibly. But, you're not going to see them at the eyepiece, not when we're talking about strehl ratios consistently above 96%. Resale and bragging rights are separate matters, and are actually based on hype.