Posted by David Arditti at 21:51 on 2010 Feb 15
I used an AE Dall-Kirkham-Dall Cassegrain for some time. It was featured in a paper I wrote for the Journal (Vol 117 no 3) and I still have a webpage on it here:http://www.davidarditti.co.uk/astro/DKD.htmHowever it is now sold to a new owner. The new owner has a collection of AE scopes which he has lovingly restored. This collection also includes the smaller of Martin’s two AE Newtonians. However, he has no website concerning his collection.AE ceased production around 1980 I think. Jim Hysom, who ran it, continued to make optics under a new company name of Hytel for some time after that. He is now retired, but a restoration job he did for me on the above telescope was one of the last jobs he did.There is not much on the web about AE telescopes. There are still quite a few in use and they sometimes come up on sale on websites such as UK Astronomy Buy&Sell. A feature of the Newtonians generally was the skeleton construction with a single-legged secondary support, which allowed the whole secondary and focuser assembly to be moved up and down the tube, so easily facilitating the different focus positions needed for visual and photographic use. AE scopes were solidly-built and optically excellent and good value for their time, but I expect (hope) Jim will not mind me saying they were necessarily rather crude compared to what is available to amateurs today, and there would be little purpose in acquiring one today except for the historic interest and as a "period-piece".