SDM is 010!

It seems like yesterday when aperture fever took hold of Peter Robbins and he came to SDM to build his dream telescope. Ten years later on, our inaugural customer and owner of the magnificent 30″ f/5 monster that is SDM#001 SDM1_030is still passionate about his scope and is often seen at star parties and community events generously sharing his eyepiece with all around. Peter is a very popular man in Queensland!

Whilst there have been many incremental improvements to the basic design over the years, it is testimony to the durability and longevity of these wonderful instruments that after a decade of use, SDM#001 still looks like new.

And looking back over ten years we know that the largest SDM scope to see the stars is currently 32″, the smallest is 16 times smaller at 8″ and that the average SDM Telescope is a little over 19″.

IMG_4619 [1280x768]We have also calculated that if we took all the mirrors and made them into one humungous optic, it would have almost exactly the same surface area as the Anglo Australian Telescope at Siding Spring!

 

Now that’s a lot of aperture…