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For Mario Motta, bigger is better – at least when it comes to telescopes. Motta, a cardiologist by profession has built one of the largest telescopes in New England for his home observatory. It weighs 1,200 pounds, has a 32-inch primary mirror, and can detect objects in space one million times fainter than the naked eye could see. This new optical design, a relay telescope, had the biggest cost with its $8000 primary blank mirror. To purchase a similar model of telescope would have cost Motta $250,000. Motta's friend Scott Milligan, an optical designer by profession, helped to design the relay system that Motta's telescope uses. Light passes through a row of three convex lenses with a special coating, which gives a clear, crisp image. The telescope eyepiece is placed on the bottom of the telescope for ease of viewing. The relay telescope now sits in Motta's home observatory, at the top of his study in Gloucester, Massachusetts.
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