62 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2019
Additionally, triplet APO 4.8-inch and
7.2-inch refractors are in the works for
release later this year.
Maris has experimented with importing
mass-produced optics, and the conclusion
has always been the same: They don’t meet
his standards for Stellarvue instruments.
Motivated by this realization, he recently
made a massive investment to secure in-
house production of all telescope compo-
nents — especially the optics.
Two enormous Haas CNC machines,
one for metalwork and one for glass,
form the backbone of Stellarvue’s high-
precision manufacturing. Maris also has
set up a “clean room” optical shop with
grinding and polishing spindles to create
the glass elements.
All work is checked with a state-of-the-
art Zygo phase-shifting laser interferom-
eter that is so sensitive, it has to sit on an
air table (think air hockey) to prevent
vibrations from interfering with it. The
machine can detect the most microscopic
variations in optical figure, enabling pro-
prietary techniques to achieve consistent,ABOVE: Stellarvue does the final milling
on all its lenses.RIGHT: Machines that polish lenses have
little downtime.