[ATM] first light of my 20"

["David Williams" <dwilliams1128@earthlink.net>]

Hello All

I'm David Williams and I have been working on my 20" newtonian reflector project for about 4.5 years now.  Several times my parents told me to give it up, but I stuck to it, and now I've got the rewards to show them and everybody else!!  First light is such a rewarding experience.

I got the mirror, tool, and abrasives from Mel Tolbert in Smerna, Georgia.  He's a nice man who's got excellent materials.  I hear he's got up to 40" glass.  

But about my project:  right now the mirror isn't all the way done, it isn't parabolized and it isn't aluminized yet ether.  But that isn't stopping me.  I heard that an unaluminized mirror can still reflect light and that is what I'm doing.  My 20" unaluminized will have the light gathering power of an aluminized 6" mirror.

I turned out that my sonotube has room to spare.  So it's better to have more than enough than not enough.  

Just today all the pieces came together.  

My secondary came from Newport Glass.  And my spider and diagonal hub holder came from Gary Wolanski.  Gary's equipment is very good.  His spider hub's are excellently machined.  

I'll send pictures soon.
Thank you everybody.
David Williams
dwilliams1128@earthlink.net

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