I truly admire you folks with the drive to make your own telescopes. That must be a grand feeling, to draw the heavens to your eyes through your own work, like Patrick with the refractor. If I were younger I'd consider it, except that when I was younger I had to work all the time. -- Joe --- On Sat, 10/23/10, Jay Eads <jayleads@gmail.com> wrote:
From: Jay Eads <jayleads@gmail.com> Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Making Your Own Mirror To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Saturday, October 23, 2010, 6:04 PM Today I took Nate over to a friend of mine named Mat who is teaching me to grind my own mirror and is going to help me make my own 12.5 truss telescope. Mat is willing to take a Saturday each month and help anyone who wants to grind and polish their own mirror and build a scope to do so, kinda of a ATM workshop day. Mat learned the trade from Jeff Baldwin who is a member of the Stockton California Astronomical Society and has made a 16" truss (his own) and many 8" mirrors.
Mat recommends if interested order a William Bell Publishing Kit located at
http://www.willbell.com/ATMSupplies/ATM_Supplies.htm
A 6" mirror kit will cost $76.95 A 8" mirror kit will cost $145.95 A 10" mirror kit will cost $312.95 A 12.5 mirror kit will cost $579.95
The kits each come with 2 Pyrex Blanks, the grinding and polishing materials (see the link for details). IF someone is interested, two people could split the cost of a kit, each getting a blank (they each make a tool for grinding) and then order a two of the grits.
So my question is, is anyone interested in joining us in grinding and polishing a mirror with the purpose of making a reflector/dobsonian telescope? If so please feel free to email me at JayLEads@g something.com or respond here. Should be a fun project over the next couple of months.
-- Jay Eads _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com