As I have written in other areas of this web page and on Cloudy Nights, the decision to “build” versus “buy” was the correct decision for me and was completely reinforced by visiting Randy and Astrosystems.  For me, building  vs buying was the right thing to do.  However, for the record, if you want Randy to build one for you, he will do it in style.  He has got the knowledge, tools, experience and above all else, the professionalism to do it right.  You will not be disappointed!

In mid December of 2008 I had a business trip to Denver Colorado which is around 50 miles South of LaSalle Colorado which is where Astrosystems is located.  I took the opportunity to visit Randy and inspect his shop.  First and foremost, he runs a super clean operation.  He is extremely organized.  EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERYTHING has a proper place and function.  There was no clutter whatsoever.  His shop is organized into a a cutting area, staging area, parts area, mirror area, general office area, and of course the shop kitty Io roams the premises at will.  What I really found amazing was the total absence of dust.  After three months of sanding wood in my garage, there is now a fine layer of wood dust on everything.  Not the case in his building.  As a side note, his shop which I would estimate to be around 3,000 square feet has gone through numerous incarnations.  Before being a telescope shop, it was a fire house, farm supply dealer and also a used car lot.