Parabolizing a 20" Mirror, Part 1: Preparations

[@alexeysimchenko7494]

I like your videos, saludos from Chile!

[@onesunghero]

If you want to make a cassegrain mirror would you wait until you're finished parabolizing to drill out the center?

[@Gez79]

Também estou a procura dessa resposta.

[@sergiobiju1]

Hello Gordon, I downloaded your videos and I'm learning from them. I would like to ask what RPM (rotation per minute) of a polishing machine. I'm planning to build a machine so I can polish mirrors too. Sorry for my English ... Honório

[@africanelectron751]

If I ever attempt that it will include some motors to automate the process.

[@GordonWaite]

A machine sure does help.

[@TechNed]

Hello Gordon, Great video. Do you know, "Beginner's Guide to Astronomical Telescope Making" by James Muirden (1975)? I bought that about 30 years ago but this is the first time I've seen the techniques in video form. Nice one.

[@GordonWaite]

Just bought a copy on Amazon! Thanks for the suggestion. I got hooked on those thin telescope-making and mirror-making pamphlets from Edmund Scientific back in the 60's. Love all those old books!

[@TechNed]

In all the rental places I've lived, I've never really had the right sort of space to set up a work area like yours or anything in the book. Only just discovered your work. Very awesome. Edmund Scientific sold some wonderful stuff though I would say I'm at the Anchor Optics end of the scale! I'm an electronics guy, btw.

[@GordonWaite]

Oh, very good! I do some "throw the parts together" electronics. Lots of Arduino stuff. Just got a Raspberry Pi to play with. I enjoy doing the programming. We've built several mirror grinding and polishing machines that have been controlled with various Arduino parts. Lots of fun! Just built a new PWM fan controller for our Renegade telescopes. Too simple these days, with every part imaginable available on a day's notice.

[@TechNed]

Oh, good show! It certainly is strange to see the wider world taking up embedded programming that used to be the preserve of nerdy, introverted types since the days of the 8080 and the SCAMP. As if the AVR family doesn't make things convenient enough, I have a few dozen avr-based boards (pro-minis, etc) genuinely unused since I chanced upon the ESP8266 some years back. The ESP01 board: A 32-bit processor running code from an upgradable flash chip at 80MHz with integrated Wifi subsystem (including antenna balun and switch!), UART, I2C, SPI, etc. all mounted on a 1" x 1/2" pcb and available on ebay for $2-$3 in lots of 1.. Hard to go past. For even simpler prototyping, there's the Node-MCU family of boards (and their low-cost clones) which are like the Arduino boards with integrated USB connections - really convenient. If you're prepared to pay a little over $10, there are the ESP32-based boards: Dual-core version of the above, clocking along at 160MHz! Some genius types managed to adapt the (free) supplied software toolset to the Arduino platform which opened them up to much wider 'audience'.

[@mostafasaadinasab6338]

#Awards schönen ist Arbeit zu Videos.

[@youubedivoli]

honorio, gordon disse no video que sao 20RPM (VINTE ROTACOES POR MINUTO)

[@Cam._S]

this made me dizzy

[@earthlingjohn]

Was about to comment same Watching and then reading made the words try to rotate

[@mostafasaadinasab6338]

##Soll Liebe und zu Videos