29 months after I first put grit to glass, I’ve put my mirror on the test stand for the first time. It’s not as good as I’d hoped. To recap: I last touched this project 10 months ago. Since then, the mirror and the polishing lap have been sealed into plastic containers, and left to rot in the loft while life overwhelmed me. But today, I got in my car and hauled everything down to Joburg and the ATM class. … Continue reading →
I figured out why I’m taking longer and longer gaps between work: My kids are getting old enough to climb into cupboards, and curious enough to dig through and dismantle everything they find. Therefore, if my mirror and supplies are to survive, they have to be packed and hidden away very thoroughly in hard-to-reach places. I’ll do a few hour’s polishing, stash it all together in the highest darkest recess of a cupboard, and then forget about it. It’s the … Continue reading →
To recap the past few work sessions: I tried to re-open the channels on my lap by warming the pitch and pressing a steel ruler into the existing channels. This caused the edges of the facets to mushroom up, so I tried a warm press to fix things. This was overdone (too hot, too much pressure, left for too long) so that I ended up with a perfectly smooth featureless lap. I then tried fixing it by cutting channels in … Continue reading →
This has nothing to do with my telescope, but it is absolutely ATM relevant: ScopeX this year will be held on Saturday, 21 July 2012. I’ll be there to see what’s new in the scene, get ideas for my 5th telescope (After I finish my 1st one, I’ve already decided what to build for numbers 2, 3 and 4!), shake the hands of other enthusiasts from around the country, and hopefully catch a few interesting lectures. Entrance is open to … Continue reading →
When last I wrote on this blog, I had decided to store the mirror on top of the lap for 24 hours, the idea being to give an extended cold press to try and fix the 2 facets which weren’t making contact with the mirror surface. Several days passed before I managed to get back to polishing, and I found that, while the contact issue had not been resolved, the gaps between the facets had narrowed noticeable. I put in … Continue reading →
