Re: ATM - Where to buy mirror blanks, grit etc.

[Stephen Tonkin <astro@aegis1.demon.co.uk>]

Jay Shroff <shroffja@frc.com> wrote:
>Would an 8" mirror be okay as a first project 

I made an 8" f/7.3 as a first mirror -- I was entirely book-taught.  I
received discouragement from the two ATMs I met, who insisted that it
was impossible for a "basement worker" to make a mirror as good as a
commercial one -- they both made telescopes from bought mirrors.

I'm glad I was a stubborn sod!

The whole mirror-making process took about 80 hrs of actual glass-
pushing, in addition to the pre-reading, the waiting, the pressing, the
testing, the making of ancilliary kit like the tester, etc.

A wonderful resource like this list could have saved a lot of time and
forestalled a lot of mistakes, but I reckon I learned more on that
mirror than on anything else in this hobby since then -- mistakes are
wonderful teachers.  Then again, there's something to be said for not
having to re-invent the wheel...

-- 
Stephen Tonkin                 :    UK Amateur Telescope Making Pages
<sft@aegis1.demon.co.uk>       : <http://www.aegis1.demon.co.uk/atm.htm>
<stephen.tonkin@starbase.org>  :         (50.9105N 1.829W)