_Augustus_

I just opened up a HUGE box of ATM supplies given to me by a really nice guy in Oklahoma who no longer has time for making mirrors. Here are some of the contents: Lots of pitch and cerium oxide Small amounts of #120 and #320 grit Hex tiles (I have extras now, I guess) Two 4" plate glass blanks, both of which are chipped on the back Two 5.75" plate glass blanks A 4.75" plate glass blank A 2" plate glass blank (can be used for the 6" Gregorian secondary) A green laser pointer Assorted cleaning supplies Synthetic grease Another Foucault tester Adjustable mirror test stand A single-element 6" lens (useless but cool) A really thin 9" glass disk (under 0.5" thick and thus too thin for a mirror blank) A weird slanted concave 1.75" mirror that has been polished Dozens of Ronchi gratings A 3" achromatic objective I also ordered some more grit as the amount contained in this box isn't enough. I don't know what I'm going to do with those blanks.....

Just ordered some more plaster and tiles from Firsthand Discovery. I'm not going to parabolize the f/8 today. Maybe tomorrow or something.

Ronchi shows that the 6" f/8 is a very nice sphere. I'm going to parabolize that thing tomorrow.

Thanks to my idiocy I poured the dental plaster disk on a non-level surface and it's slanted on the back and thus useless. I have to order more.....

I'm going to make the 6" f/5 mirror first. I just poured the plaster disk needed for the tool (glass tools are expensive and I only used one because I had it).

It's completely polished out. Going to put it on the tester tonight and assess the shape of the mirror and what I need to do to parabolize it.

Congrats! Thanks for the amazing mod. Recoloring of the capsules which would allow for EFT-1 black Orion and green Soyuz would be awesome!

0.25" to go after another hour or so of polishing.

Only about 0.5" to go until the entire mirror is polished.

DSG has already been around for a while. It, SLS, and Orion are all useless pork projects created by and for the benefit of congressmen and senators, but at least NASA will be going somewhere besides LEO with humans, albeit not landing or really doing much of anything worthwhile.

The scrapped MPLM Donatello is going to be used as a prototype for one of the DSG modules! https://www.space.com/37598-donatello-deep-space-habitat-prototype.html Makes me pretty sure that Rafaello is going to be used for the real one.

The f/8 mirror is completely polished except for the last 1" at the edge. I will finish it today or tomorrow.

One guy imaged it and said it was somewhere between mag 5-7, so the sail hasn't deployed. We don't know if it hasn't deployed yet on purpose or if it simply failed.

I'm using the fused silica blank for a Gregorian. I will post updates when that gets started. The scope should be around f/30 or so - no need for a Barlow for planetary imaging! EDIT: A Nasmyth is pretty much impossible due to baffling problems. Oh well.

Just got back from Stellafane with a couple items. There were no 10" blanks to be found but I did get TWO 6" blanks. One is fused silica and the other is a pregenerated f/5 Pyrex blank.

I don't have a drill press. I leave for Stellafane this afternoon! Can't wait to buy some blanks.

Unless it's superheated by being close to a star, in which case it can balloon to around 2-2.5 Jupiter radii.

But aren't the shuttles a much bigger target for MMOD than the capsules?

But one of the big certification issues with D2, Starliner, and flying Orion with the ICPS is micrometeoroid protection, despite the fact that micrometeoroids have never even come CLOSE to LOC or LOM.

Which are of course, insane. If NASA would loosen up on the safety ratings I think D2 and maybe Starliner would be flying by now.

*sniffle*

Didn't know the secondary had to be ellipsoidal. There's a nice log of the making of a 6" Greg made by this guy from the Netherlands here. My only concern is boring the hole in the primary - I don't have the equipment to do that myself. I suppose I could do a Nasmyth design with a flat after the secondary, but that would lead to a bit of light loss and I'm not sure how one would collimate that. EDIT: So the blanks he's sending are 4-5" plate glass blanks along with some smaller Cassegrain secondary blanks. I will pick up a 6-8" blank at Stellafane and save it for a Gregorian.

I forgot to mention that a friend who no longer has time for telescope making is sending me a whole bunch of free pitch, grit, polish, and I think some blanks. It will take a couple weeks though. Maybe I'll build some other stuff with that. Perhaps a Gregorian?

I thought it was 39" initially from measuring on the Sun, but I had a large margin of error there. I'm disappointed that I didn't grind it down further.

I have no idea. Try re-installing EVE, Scatterer, Kopernicus, and Sigma Dimensions? EVE/Scatterer work fine for me.