_Augustus_

I think I'm going to give up on separating them. I left them in the freezer all day today and still nothing. I will post updates on future projects on this thread. If you are making your own telescope(s) then feel free to post on here as well.

I left the mirror/lap in the freezer for nearly 20 hours. No progress in separating them.

Heating it would heal the cracks and make it stick more. Freezing it should shatter it but that hasn't happened.

Bit of an update: The pitch is fragmented but the mirror is holding it together. Leaving them in the freezer overnight. If they still won't separate in the morning, I'm doomed.

I'm making progress removing the pitch. Might be able to salvage this.

IDK if that's possible. The pitch is also now sticky and has perfectly conformed to the mirror. Also, you'd need a vacuum chamber with a way to pull on the mirror or lap (robotic arms?) which would undoubtedly cost more to use than several of these mirror kits - and that's assuming I'd know where to find one that I could use.

I just wasted $100 of my own money and my parents are not very understanding - here are some of their responses: "Let's go to a glass shop and see if they can separate it" - Ignores the fact that the mirror and lap are held together by a tight vacuum, the fact that if you somehow ripped these apart you'd probably leave pitch residue on the mirror, the fact that a glass shop wouldn't even have the tools to rip them apart, or the fact that a glass shop would refuse to help with this "Maybe a glass professional could file it down/fill in the chips" - Ignores the fact that the mirror and lap have to be separated first, as well as basic understanding of how the curve of the mirror works "Take the Stellafane class" - Ignores the fact that once the initial guilt/sympathy (of which they have little) goes away they'll never be willing to drive 5 hours each way every month for me to take that class It was also probably the higher temperatures in my garage yesterday.

So.... The mirror and lap got permanently stuck together. I tried everything (heating, freezing) to get them apart, only to find that my mirror now has several 1 cm chips in the edge, and that's just the part that isn't covered by the lap. I could probably just mask off/bevel out the edge, but I don't know if separating the mirror and lap is possible, at least not without further damaging the mirror. RIP this project

So do you plan on grinding your own mirror?

You mean aperture? I would go for a 10" as a complement to the 4SE. Only reason I did a 6" is because budget constraints. A 12" is too big for a first-timer to grind.

You have to use glass for the mirror. There are alternatives to pitch but I don't know how good they are. Red optical rouge is used for eyeglasses sometimes but I don't know where you'd get it. For aluminizing, there are probably people in Australia/NZ that can do it for you for a pretty decent price. Or you could try chemical silvering, but you'd have to resilver your mirror every couple of months.

Did a bit more polishing. The mirror is significantly more transparent.

Carborundum - probably available at at an auto shop or hardware store, if not, you can always try screening your own sand like John Dobson himself did Mirror blank and tool - portholes, etc. could be used. If you're short on glass, make a plaster/tile tool instead of using a glass one. Pitch - can be made from pine sap, IDK where you could buy it Rouge - Probably available at an eyeglasses shop? For aluminizing the primary mirror, you'd probably have to ship it somewhere (maybe Australia/NZ??). The secondary mirror and eyepieces would have to be ordered online. The focuser, mirror cells, OTA, and mount can be made with plywood, PVC, and a few other things. Here in the US you can just order kits and parts from various astronomy shops. I bought mine "used" (it had just been sitting in a box) on an astronomy forum for a slightly lower price than a new one.

You'll have to be able to convince a parent to camp there for a couple days - otherwise you won't get much observing time in.

StarShoot 2 shipped today I think. Highly unlikely I'll use it within the next few weeks as I go on a 1.5-week trip on Thursday.

I'm very close to 1k. Will probably hit it within the next few days hours. Also, my friend ProtoJeb21 isn't on there and he has over 1798 rep....

Spent another hour polishing today. Definitely made some progress.

Just did another hour of polishing. Shining a laser on it shows progress. Foucault tester arrives in the next few days.

In my video I forgot to press the mirror and tool together, which is why it was so hard to do each stroke. It's much easier now. Spent another hour polishing this morning.

Here's a video of me melting the pitch and polishing.

That X-37B craft is the only decent KSP replica of it I've seen.

I spent ~30 minutes polishing. It requires so much force that my grinding board moves when I push on the mirror, so I need to work on a better system.

Have started polishing. Will post videos shortly.

I have started warming up the pitch!