If you aren't using the magnifiier, and are viewing the surface from a distance of say arms length, you will see a bright reflection from the well polished surface, and a dim, somewhat brown tinted reflection from the incompletley polished area. The perfectly polished glas does reflect about 4% of the incident light. Just trying to clarify the distinction between specular reflection and scatter. The toughest test I know is to use a small magnifier and image the sun onto the mirror surface. The slightest pitting will show up quite brightly. This is a tough test to pass at the edge. (But it can be done!) .....RICH
Actually, you will see no reflection at all when full optical polish is achieved. The bright light will pass through the surface of the mirror with no scattering. Your viewing angles should be about 45 degrees and you should use the loupe. The brighter and sharper the reflection is, the more that area needs polishing. This means that your center , which is indistinct, is polishing out first, just as it should be. Sounds like you are doing just fine. It takes me many, many hours to achieve a full optical polish. I am very skeptical of claims of polishing in just a few hours. There's a huge difference in getting a "shine" and a polish. I'll normally take 20 - 30 hours getting a very high quality polish on an 8" mirror.
Steve Strickland
-- Steve Strickland Lensnut@tpoint.net
------------------ RFC822 Header Follows ------------------ Received: by quickmail.llnl.gov with SMTP;21 Apr 1995 01:59:47 -0800 Received: (majordom@localhost) by shell1.best.com (8.6.12/8.6.5) id AAA11969 for atm-outgoing; Fri, 21 Apr 1995 00:43:57 -0701 Date: Fri, 21 Apr 1995 02:44:02 -0500 Message-Id: <199504210744.CAA12352@tpoint.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" To: atm@best.com From: lensnut@tpoint.net (Steve Strickland) Subject: Re: Made pitch lap, now polishing Sender: owner-atm@best.com Precedence: bulk Reply-To: atm@best.com