Can you polish a telescope mirror?
Polishing Pads are not good enough to put a final polish on a telescope mirror. You can certainly use them to do initial polishing of your mirror, but you can’t avoid making a pitch lap for final polishing and figuring, so there seems to be little advantage to using them.
How do you clean a mirror reflector telescope?
Put the mirror face-up onthe towel, and with the drain open, blast the mirror’s surface with room-temperature water for a few minutes. This will remove most dust and grit safely. From left to right: The safest way to remove grit from a telescope mirror is to blast the surface with tap water.
Can you grind a mirror?
Just put the tool on the bottom and the mirror on top, then grind until the sagitta decreases. But you can take your mirror after it’s ground at this stage, spray some water on it, and get it to reflect an image.
How long does it take to grind a telescope mirror?
Just grinding the telescope mirror probably took 80-100 hours for me, but I was learning a lot and taking my time.
Can you sand down the edges of a mirror?
For a truly safe handling you can grind the edge with a handheld belt sander (1″ to 4″). In our shop, to achieve a “consumer handling edge”, we grind a small 45 degree bevel at the edge of each face (1/16″) using use two belts, a 180 grit and a 120 grit. Lay the glass flat on a table with the edge just overhanging.
Can the edge of a mirror be sanded?
Fortunately, you can easily use either sandpaper, Dremel, drill, or even silicon carbide powder to sand glass edges easily. Sand down the edges with 150-grit, 220-grit, 320-grit, then finally 400-grit sandpaper to make your glass even smoother. …
How do you grind a telescope mirror?
Grind with the tool on top in a to and fro pattern, overhanging each end by about 1/6 the mirror diameter. After a half dozen strokes, take a step to one side and repeat. Then spin the tool on top in the opposite direction. Repeat ad naseum.
How does a reflecting telescope work?
A reflecting telescope (also called a reflector) is a telescope that uses a single or a combination of curved mirrors that reflect light and form an image. The reflecting telescope was invented in the 17th century, by Isaac Newton, as an alternative to the refracting telescope which, at that time, was a design that suffered from severe chromatic aberration.
What is a telescope mirror?
The primary mirror in most modern telescopes is composed of a solid glass cylinder whose front surface has been ground to a spherical or parabolic shape. A thin layer of aluminum is vacuum deposited onto the mirror, forming a highly reflective first surface mirror .
