Re: [ATM] Polishing and a red laser

["Francis J. O'Reilly" <foreilly@verizon.net>]

I thank all of you for your insight. Dick Parker said that a red laser is 
too sensitive for testing the surface. I tend to agree. I'm pretty sure that 
I'm not seeing cerium oxide. The surface is pretty clean. The irregularities 
or what appears to be very small pits are fairly consistent from the center 
to the edge. I am probably fully polished out or very nearly so at this 
point, but I'm going to put in another four hours or so to be certain.

I'm at six hours polishing now. I don't use the heavy slow stroke approach, 
this is becuse I really don't want the figure of the mirror to go too far 
astray. I did notice that I have been getting progressively more drag from 
the lap over the last ninety minutes of polishing in spite of my keeping the 
lap fairly, I won't say wet, but certainly not dry. I did get a good squeak 
or two tonight.

Guy, I'm going to try to get to D.C. next Friday to attend your workshop, if 
you are meeting. I hope to also get to the Library of Congress Friday or 
Saturday to try to get copies of some early articles on basic optical 
subjects from various sources such as the Smithsonian's Contributions to 
Knowledge and the Transactions of the Optical Society. I'll bring the 12.5 
inch mirror for show and tell along with the eight inch that we are hoping 
to aluminize.

Best regards to all.

Francis J. O'Reilly 


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