I have bought the telescope in Jan 2003 from Jacques Suurmond  in Zeeland, The Netherlands. He advertised it for sale in 'Sterne und Weltraum' in the Jan 2002 issue, which I bought during a business trip to Berlin on 6 Jan 2003. It is a 16" Cassegrain with 4 m effective focal length. The primary mirror is an f/4 system, together with the secondary it yields f/10. A field flattener produces a good image over about 40 mm x 40 mm in the focal plane. Both optics and mechanics were custom-built to the specifications of the previous owner. Apparently, there also was a report about his observatory in the Jan 2000 issue of 'Sterne und Weltraum', p. 66 ff. (which I haven't seen yet...). But those of you who have - the telescope now is here! The following images show the telecope. Jacques did a lot of long-exposure astrophotography with the telescope, here are some of his images. The 16" with its previous owner. To allow long exposures, the telescope and the concrete pier are wrapped in insulating foam.

The yellow van helped in transporting the telescope to Noordwijkerhout. With a smaller car it would have been difficult. Also, thanks a lot to Joe Zender - he came along with me to load and unload the telescope. Thanks a lot!

Currently (summer 2003 to 2004), the telescope is residing in my appartement's staircase. This is how it looks like.
 

Optical tube assembly of th 16" Cassegrain with 4" Vixen Refractor

The polar gear assembly, ready for a 10 cm conical bearing.

Right ascension axis with a 11" Byers worm gear.

Declination axis with clamp. This is NOT a GoTo mount, the travel in declination with fixed axis is ca. +/- 3 degrees..