Making Telescope Mirrors

Mirror making is a hobby that has been around for many years and many people have put their hands to the task but it is time consuming requiring a great deal of skill patience and perseverence.

Making telescope mirrors. For 30 years he has been using a method called spin casting to make the largest solid telescope mirrors in the world. Well telescope mirrors are made from thick glass. Angel is the master of making big mirrors for telescopes. Telescope making is at the core of stellafane after all we are the springfield telescope makers and stellafane is the birthplace of amateur telescope making.

Cutting it into smaller sections can be difficult but scoring it with a glass cutter and tapping t. It was 40 x40 and 0 75 thick. Want to build your own telescope. And the most critical.

Each kit comes with a telescope mirror blank and all the abrasives silicon carbide grits and white aluminum oxide powders cerium oxide polish and pitch to grind and polish it to your. Telescope making is at the heart of the springfield telescope makers after all it is two thirds of our club s name and on these pages we hope to show you that you too can make your own telescope and it can be an excellent performer. From our founding in 1923 our bylaws have specified that full members of our club must have made a telescope objective. We care deeply about preserving this legacy promoting this aspect of the hobby and assisting those that undertake to make their own telescopes.

Most people don t realize how heavy thick glass actually is because they usually only deal with small pieces of thin plate glass. Fig 1 this is a large piece of glass a woman off craigslist gave me. Amateur telescope making telescope mirror kits. Grinding and polishing the mirror is the most difficult part of making a telescope.

Especially when the mirror gets big. Starting from a rough glass blank you can obtain an almost perfect parabola with surface errors in the range of 20 to 60 nm. Thick glass is heavy no really heavy. Even though some builders prefer to buy commercial mirrors and fit them in a diy structure i believe that making a telescope mirror is probably the most rewarding part of the whole built.

Making a ceramic tile and dental plaster grinding tool for the 20 f 4 5 telescope mirror duration.