When does a telescope stop becoming what it originally was ?

[AlistairW]

There is a famous sketch in Only Fools and Horses where Trigger has replaced the broom handle and head of road sweepers brush many many times, so how can it possibly be the "same" brush as the original. This got me thinking, I have replaced\upgraded so many bits on my WOGT81 that the only bit that is the original is the Objective lens and the tube holding it in place. Is it really still a WOGT81 or really a new hybrid ?

[PeterCPC]

Answers on a postcard.....

Peter

[Star101]

This question dates back to the times of Plato and probably before.

A broom and its handle, a Axe handle and its head. Even a rowing ship and the replacement of its oars.

Its fundamentally what it was but with additions or modifications 

[Macavity]

I have messed around a LOT with most of my scopes! lol
I suppose the least original is my first scope (an ST102).
To be frank, it might not quite have merited some of the
upgrades - The focusser notably! But one "learns stuff"?

As a better example, I once upgraded the motherboard
of my PC "underneath" (also much changed) peripherals!
Eventually, I couldn't reinstall Windows on the system...
Microsoft saw it as a new computer.  (Maybe it was?)

In fairness to them, a phone call cleared this up and they
proved very accommodating - Granted me a "new" serial
number to enter? Not easy over long distance phone... 

[xtreemchaos]

it stops being a telescope "at the end of time"  me thinks its evolution . charl. "telescope hoarder"

[smudgeball]

I'm sure some of the refractor "chops" you see on here with added LUNT / COLORADO or similar etalons fillted, would fall into that category?

[DaveS]

I think what a telescope is depends on its objective, so your WO81 is still a WO81 despite the modifications.

Taking the "axe and its handle" to the extreme, there's not an atom in your body that was there last year, so are "you" still "you"?

[Dave In Vermont]

As with bicycles I work on, a telescope rapidly becomes a "Custom" model after I install something new & better.

I'll leave it there. Besides - it's really a time-machine!

Dave

[RWB]

If I bring my humble celestron 130  into the kitchen and leave it there (on the very remote chance of a consecutive nights viewing) 

it usually turn into a clothes horse !!  

Clear skies (they are getting darker{slowly} ) and Regards

                                         Robin

[Peter Drew]

Around these parts, any two telescopes of the same spec become a binocular.  

[Paz]

The same thing applies to people... Most of the matter that made you when you were born is no longer part of you, and the vast majority everything you have ever experienced is lost from your memory (unless you've got it all on Facebook). So are you still you?

[Scooot]

If you bought a WOGT81 objective & then made a telescope, would you call it a WOGT81?  

[davehawkins]

The old saying is " it occupies the same space ". HMS Victory on display in drydock has had just about everything replaced over the years.