Re: ATM Best book for grinding/polishing, figuring and test

["Daniel Bakken" <dbakken@cet.com>]

> Hi Dan,
> 
> Gee, I never knew up to this msg that you were one of the guys in that
> article! I've read it many times , ha ha. What a great, inspiring article.
> You'd think they'd do more of that kind of thing.  The last I remember was
> seeing an ad in Starry Msgr with you or Mike  selling "The Beast" and looking
> for a smaller 22" er...what happened to make you go back again to the Beast
> II ? I seem to remember  you saying that before the 33" you went to a
> refractor and couldn't take the dark images anymore....I do understand. 
> Unfortunately, I tossed out my old Sky and Tels thinking I'd get them on CD
> ROM some day...what a mistake!  Were you the guy holding the mirror in his
> arms or the other guy?

Mike owned the Beast, and sold it when he moved to St. Louis. I 
didn't have the resources at that particular time to buy it. I was 
the one holding the 20" pitch lap on the ceramic tool we made. I am 
getting an article ready for Sky and Tel on the Hercules. 
> 
> Anyway, I talked to Perry today at Wilman-Bell who said that there are some
> VERY interesting publishing developments for Big glass pushers on the
> horizon...I think he said for October.
> 
> He said that just today he was finishing up the work on a book by Dave Kriege
> (Obsession Tel) about building big scopes, and the articles by Bob Kesner
> were to be included in an updated form. 

I knew about the Kriege book and that Richard Berry was editing, but 
did not know about the Kestner involvement. My friend Jeff Baldwin 
talked to Kestner not long ago, and it seemed like Kestner has gotten 
out of amateur optics. I am a little surprised at this development. 

> 
> Also Perry has the publishing rights for the old ATM articles..1800 pages to
> be out on the market again.

Ordered them today.
> 
> Thanks for the last e-mail about the hand grinding. I wonder if Glass
> Mountain has blanks and is worth giving a call? I need their number if you
> have it.

 Here is a couple of phone numbers. I know they were kind of
 regretful that they did my blank, so they might not want to do
 another. You might try Glass Fab in Rochester NY. I don't have their
 number handy, but if you have trouble getting it, I can dig around
 for it here. 
 
   Glass Mountain:
  
  512 339-7442
  
  fax
  512 339-0589
 
  I talk to Kurt King.
 
> Yeah, I ordered four books today to try to chase away a little ignorance. I
> got the Cookbook book, a mirror grinding one, the star testing one, and
> something else, don't remember.
> 
> By the way, what is a "GM" ...and what does "R of C" mean from your last msg
> before?

Glass Mountain, and Radius of Curvature.
> 
> I get the impression that you used a friend on the other end to push and pull
> the polishing routine.  I would never ask my local friends (non-astronomy
> guys) to stand in my cellar for 200+ hours  huffing and puffing with me. So
> does this mean I will have a hell of a time moving it around...and might be
> better off doing the machine thing???

Hmmm. This could test who your real friends are. If you don't have 
some guys willing to help you, even a machine might not be enough 
help.

Clear skies...