ATM AstroFest Mirror Making

["M.E. Germann" <CCMEG@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu>]

AstroFest Mirror Making --

Val Germann
Central Missouri Astronomical Association

A group of us from CMAA (myself, Mark Russell, Andy
Steere, Alan Thompson, Paul Rothove and Steve Hill)
will be heading up to the Chicago area for AquaFest
next month.  We will have two barrels with us, one
of them will have a 12.5-inch blank and tool for the
public to push around at 320 grit, while the other
will have our "mirror-in-a-day" project on it.

We're from Missouri, have read Tom Sawyer, and know
what a kid can do with a fence, a bucket of paint and
some imagination.  We hope to sign up a couple of
dozen people to help us smooth, fine-grind and then
polish out a long-focus, 6-inch sphere that we will
start out with on Saturday morning and look at Jupiter
with Saturday night!  At least, we think we will.
We will make no tests on this piece of glass before
putting it into the tube assembly.  Shudder.

We will have handouts, signs and mirror-making tips
to give away to AstroFest attendees, many of whom
we hope to introduce to glass pushing.  This could be
REAL embarrassing, folks, but we're going to do it
anyway.  Wish us luck!

***