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Zerochromat


John

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Had a look on Cloudynight, Astromart and Pop Astronomy and poor old Peter Wise and John Wall take quite a beating. Not entirely sure anyone is taking this seriously.

One person hit them with:

"why would i pay £7000 for a scope that can only be collimated at the factory of a company who may not exist in a couple of months"

Oh dear!

Russ

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Don't see the point of it myself, it certainly isn't a refractor.

Isn't this the same guy behind the Cape Newise catadioptic (rhetorical question, I know it is). He seems to be making these at a different premises down the road in N Wales. I'm beginning to think this chap is all bluster, I wouldn't buy from him (and believe me I did consider it). Also,although the Newise web site is still up and Green Witch optical appears to stock them, I thought from a post from Adrian Ashford I saw a while ago that Cape Instruments were in some kind of financial difficulty? Is that why the "Zerochromat" is being made down the road under the name of another company? If you were stupid enough to buy one can you guarantee the manufacturer will still be in business to honour the warranty or conduct repairs a year or two down the road? Too many questions and not enough certainties.

Now, I have a radical idea that you may wish to consider financing (I'll just take the royalties which are 99% of profit). Why not use the same radio network that connects the cells used to transmit and receive calls to your mobile to enable you to navigate from place to place? After all the network knows which cell you are in at any given moment: it could direct you to the next one or the one nearest to your proposed destination. You could also access the internet, your bank account, take pics and video, listen to music... What, someone has already thought of that? Ah, but with my idea you don't call it a phone (you don't need that any way), its a Personal Information Security Service.

I'll let you work out the acronym for that one. And I think someone in N Wales just might be taking it!

Brinders

(Venture capitalists apply here)

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Brinders, no offence but I think you're being a bit harsh. I'm sure Peter Wise and John Wall have the best intentions with Zerochromat as I'm also sure Peter did with Cape Newise. I know that a member on here has an 8" Cape (I think it's Beamish) and he's happy with it and IIRC he took it to the Cape factory for collimation and had great customer service.

Fact is that if you want something different, you're not going to find it in the Celestron catalogue.

Tony..

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My concerns are that it's still an 8" lens - not exactly going to be very stable and is bound to go out of shape at some point, rendering the entire lot useless.

It's inevitably going to go out of collimation and that is going to be one hard beast to collimate, with 5 optical elements to tune. I struggle with three... Obviously this will need to be factory collimated, and that's a lot of unwanted hassle for an owner.

It's not fast, so is not going to be an imager's choice of scope unless he's after the very best for planetary imaging. Even then he'd probably be better with a C14 or similar...

It's big and heavy.

I wouldn't say no, but I could personally find some better things to spend £7k on..

Andrew

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I'm not saying its the case with the Zeros or Newise Newts but sometimes these 'new' designs have been considered before by the great opticians over the last couple of hundred years or so and found to be impractical for one reason or another.

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I don't know why its being sold as a refractor, its got more in common with a Mak or SCT.

Thats interesting - I thought it was a type of refractor because it uses a lens to collect and focus light - I suspect this is dangerous terratory though :shock: as SCT's and Maks use correctors, which are types of lenses I guess.

John

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I don't know why its being sold as a refractor, its got more in common with a Mak or SCT.

Thats interesting - I thought it was a type of refractor because it uses a lens to collect and focus light - I suspect this is dangerous terratory though :shock: as SCT's and Maks use correctors, which are types of lenses I guess.

John

How about folded compound refractor... :D

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It is an interesting design

Gaz I like your description :lol: get trade marked quick :D

When I looked at the design it reminded me of the off-axis newt design. This design gave all the advantages of a Newt without the central obstruction.

My view is that this design could if built correctly and in the £3k bracket be an possible alternative to the SCT. It biggest advantage being a design with no central obstruction.

I hope the comapny is funded properly and can prove the value of the design.

Cheers

Ian

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Brinders, no offence but I think you're being a bit harsh. I'm sure Peter Wise and John Wall have the best intentions with Zerochromat as I'm also sure Peter did with Cape Newise. I know that a member on here has an 8" Cape (I think it's Beamish) and he's happy with it and IIRC he took it to the Cape factory for collimation and had great customer service.

Fact is that if you want something different, you're not going to find it in the Celestron catalogue.

Tony..

Yep that was me, and as time passes I'm really beginning to enjoy this scope. Great design perhaps business skills as opposed to optical engineering is what has been lacking ? It was effectively a one-man band and each scope was built to order ( just about) by hand . I think Peter is a bit of a romantic idealist, I feel pretty certain that the end was seen to be coming for a good while, since no sooner was Cape Instruments wound up then Zerochromat popped up. Bearing in mind R&D time this was planned. I do feel 7K a shed load of money and can't for the life of me think it's a mass market item, I can see certain individuals/ groups and institutions who will take faith in Peter's optical genius but will it sustain a business???????

Karlo

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