[ATM] Schmidt Corrector Thickness

[Aplanatic at aol.com (Aplanatic@aol.com)]

Hi Alfredo,

> I am trying to build a small  6" schmidt newtonian, and I am wondering
>  what plate thickness to use. Most designs call for about 4mm thickness,
>  but since I want to support the diagonal with the corrector, I worried
>  that such a thin corrector would be distorted by the weight of the
>  diagnonal. Would 8mm be too thick ? Any suggestions?

How are you planning on figuring the plate?  

If you are going to use the vacuum pan deformation method then the plate 
thickness should selected so that the pressure is between 3 PSI and 10 PSI.  Less 
than 3 PSI and the corrector will slide on the vac pan during polishing. 

With the vac pan method, the plate thickness with depend on the optical 
prescription of the plate and the pressure needed to deflect the plate.  If you 
need more information on how all this works, please ask.

Dave Rowe