New refractor - figure vs flourite?

[ollypenrice]

On 07/03/2019 at 21:08, Astro Imp said:

I often wonder how much reliance can be put on reviews in the astro press considering the magazines rely on the suppliers for their advertising revenue. I feel it better to read the views of experienced observers on asro fora who are completely independent. Perhaps I'm just an old cynic.

I think you are right to bring a culture of doubt to reviews but this has been discussed before and both Steve Richards and I have stated that we have never been put under pressure to alter reviews by the different magazines for which we were writing. However, I no longer write telescope reviews because, however hard I tried to be honest, my efforts could still get me into trouble. I gave one refractor a very favourable but not perfect review, posted an image taken with it, showed it to a very well known optical engineer for his opinion of the star test (which was very favourable) but still found myself, some time later, accused of having endorsed what my critic described as a 'lemon.' Sadly telescope QC is very variable and the reviewer has no means of knowing how the test example will represent the majority. This, and not editorial pressure, is the reviewer's problem. I disliked finding myself in this position for both personal and professional reasons so now confine myself to contributing the odd article on astrophotographic experiments and techniques.

Thanks to John for his supportive comments earlier on in the thread.

Olly