ATM Re: Advice needed polishing, coating mirror

["Bob May" <bobmay@nethere.com>]

It sounds like you have a partially polished and nicely figured mirror.  I'd
have to look at it before I asked for a reworking.  You can have a fair bit
of pitting before it really gets serious and if you have a 1/20th wave
surface, it may be that you would probably be better off keeping it as it is
as a reminder of what people are talking about when they say to polish the
glass fullly!
The thing here is that the resolution won't suffer from pits but you will
lose contrast in the image from diffracted light bringing up the "blackness"
of the image.
I guess mostly that I'm probably talking you into doing another mirror for
another scope and doing a better job this time.  You've already been through
one so you already are familiar with the process so those things which you
agonized over have already had their day and won't bother you again.  You'll
do your next mirror a lot faster than the first one.
Bob May
http://nav.to/bobmay
bobmay@nethere.com
NEW! http://bobmay.astronomy.net