[ATM] First mail to atm list

[Mahmood Hassan <emhl95@yahoo.com>]

Hello

 

I am from Pakistan, and a sky-watcher for some time with my small 20X50 refractor scope. While searching for astronomical telescopes on Internet I came to know about ATM sites on the net. These websites inspired me to build my own. As I visited more and more sites my intentions became passion. But at that time I did not realized that I am already handicapped for being in a country where you cannot get the basic materials for starting such a project.

I passed by an astronomical web site in Pakistan (by the name of LAHORE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY) and sent them e-mail for their member ship but received no reply.

The first thing was to get a mirror blank. First I looked on the net for suppliers of mirror blanks and grits. I found so many. When I converted the price of these kits (in US $ or Euro) in to local currency i.e. Pakistani rupees, it was just of reach for me (I earn about 250$ a month with a family to support in these times of high inflation). Never the less the passion to become an ATM was the driving force for the coming months.

Here in Pakistan I went to optic shops for some help but no one was interested.

After a hell lot of market research I was able to get a 6-inch mirror blank with 0.75-inch thickness, which is usually used in sugar industry as sight hole glass for evaporators. How I acquired grits is another long story. These grits were contaminated with uneven grains, but luckily I had access to vibrator sieve equipment in the facility where I work. So this solved the problem to some extent.

PROBLEM; The problem with this blank is this that when I moved on to fine grinding some of the larger pits are not going to disappear (I even went back to larger grits to remove these pits but with no positive results). The strangest thing is that as I applied more pressure during grinding some of the pits became even bigger. After so many hours of useless work and going back to larger grit numbers again and again, I think that it is the quality of glass, which is causing this problem. Any suggestions please!

 

For rest of the project:

   I have some eyepieces (although they are not good quality).
   For diagonal mirror I still have no idea where would I get one. I think I will use mirror out of some photocopier machine (these mirrors have their front surface reflective)
   Someone promised me to get a porthole glass for mirror blank, lets hope for the good

Presently I am still working on the mirror I already have, trying to get something good out of it.

 

Please do send some advice for a lonely ATM in Pakistan.

Thanks,

 

Mahmood Hassan

 


		
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