RE: ATM RE:Stainless Steel

[BOB PRABOWO <BOB@bahana.co.id>]

Hi Mark,

You wrote:
>Bob P: If I remember correctly, you're presently making a 5.5"-6"inch
>mirror.

You're absolutely right. And it's almost finish. I've finished the tube,
it's now sitting there in my living room. I look at it all the time I
forgot to look at the stars :-)
 But I still have to finish the mirror, which is also almost finish. I'm
trying to remove the TDE now. I'm using Ronchi test to test the mirror
and will also use star test. After that, I'll silver the mirror.

Here's what I have in mind:
After this 5.6" I will either make an 8" or a 12.5" scope (depends on
the financial condition :-))  because I want to make a better scope and
besides I'll have enough silvering material to silver one more mirror.

BUT, learning from my mistakes when I made the 5.6", I will make the
optical tube first before I grind the mirror. 
When I started my project I thought that I should grind the mirror first
and then after the mirror is ready I can make the tube. But turned out I
was wrong. I can not star test the mirror because the tube is not ready.
The tube is ready now, but I still can not star test the mirror because
the diagonal is not ready yet.

So, for the next scope I decided to build the optical tube first, attach
the diagonal mirror and everything, so that when the mirror is ready I
can star test the mirror.
And also, unlike my first project, this time in constructing the tube
I'm going to do it by the book (Berry and Kriege's book) so that I can
keep it simple :-) 

I'm not going to do it the way I made the tube for the 5.6", i.e., made
a rough sketch of Alice like scope, measured the dimensions, cut the
woods and then found out that dimensions are wrong. . 
This time I'll do it carefully and plan everything ahead.
Wish me luck guys.
 
Bob P. Sumitro
Jakarta, Indonesia

Seeing me before him 
the enemy raises his sword
to strike,
but by that time 
I already stand behind him

-Morihei Ueshiba-
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