Re: [ATM] Mirror clips

["Richard Schwartz" <richas@earthlink.net>]

Mirror clips are the most important part of your telescope.  You must make
them carefully out of heavy gage steel, as they will be under a lot of
pressure when the mirror is mounted in the cell.  I suggest that they extend
at least 1/2 inch in from the edge of the mirror so that the heavy stress is
spread over a larger area and there is less chance of fracturing the glass
from the heavy load.

Remember to clamp down your edge supports real tight before you tighten the
mirror clips.

There are lots of good books with mirror cell designs; the best is the
Ingalls ATM three volume set originally published by Scientific American.
There you will find a great article by John Hindle that scientifically
proves where the support points need to be and gives important details for
the anti-rotation pins and other essential features.  There is a program
that will compute the support points for you for the 3, 9, 18, or 27 point
flotations.  (6 point flotation is not allowed.)  Google CELL.EXE by David
Chandler to find it.



-----Original Message-----
From: atm-bounces@atmlist.net [mailto:atm-bounces@atmlist.net] On Behalf Of
Jason Hissong
Sent: Saturday, September 24, 2005 6:47 PM
To: atm@atmlist.net
Subject: [ATM] Mirror clips

Hi guys,

Drawing out the plans for my 8" sphere-o-scope and I went to Home Depot 
today to scope out materials.  I am pretty much finding what I need... 
except something for mirror clips.  I found angle brackets, but none of 
them have an elongated slot like I see in so many mirror clips around.  
Is that just something you make with a drill and a file?

Thanks!
Jason
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