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its grinding time

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Moving along as planned

Well everything seems to be moving along quickly now as im around 5mm sagittal on the mirror grind and ive just sold my 16" Lightbridge and my paracorr and my 30mm es 82 is provisionally sold.I have also just placed an order for a starlight feathertouch focuser with the SIPS coma corrector system and an altair 80mm finderscope package.at this moment im technically scopeless,I only have a pair of 15x70 binos to keep me company until my mirror grind and scope build is finished so looks like that i
crashtestdummy

crashtestdummy

0

cracking on and change on the way

First things first,2000 views!!wow!!so glad people like looking at this and keep coming back.i hope it also gets people into some mirror grinding too as its a great way of getting fit!!!!!!! :D well the first bit of news and a big shock to some is this http://stargazerslounge.com/classifieds/item/3114-modified-16-lightbridge-for-sale/ yes,the 16" needs to go to make way for parts and build cost for the 22".i was going to wait a while,keep until after spring but with nearly £1500 of car repairs
crashtestdummy

crashtestdummy

1

making plans for the 22" scope

So,im getting on with the mirror,currently at 25 hours from start to where I am now,between 2 and 3mm sagittal on the front so I thought I would go through some plans. my friend damian is building the shell for the scope with his woodworking and engineering skills and im helping where I can and having him show me how to do some woodworking so when I come to build my next scope(26" f3.5ish) I can build a bit more of it myself.im hoping to add a few personal touches to the design as everyone likes
crashtestdummy

crashtestdummy

9

the mirror is coming along

Well ive not posted for a few weeks as ive had lots to do work and personal life wise so not had that much time with the mirror but I finally finished getting the back flat which was my main aim so I could finally move onto the front.As I said in an early blog post,my mirror was nowhere near uniform when I got it so I had to take lots of glass out of the middle to get it flat as it was convex.i wasn't 100% sure I had got it right so I travelled up to see mirror maker supremo John Nichol for a se
crashtestdummy

crashtestdummy

17

a few bits and bobs on mirrors and scopes in cars

So first up I bought a new car a month back and I had decided on something a little bigger than my 206 estate so I bought a 307 estate. here is how to fit a meade 16" Lightbridge,an eyepiece case,2 chairs,battery,clothing and boots a tip for people who have bigger mirrors and like to clean them.my 16" mirror wont comfortably fit in the sink like my 12" and 8" did so I originally bought a small kids paddling pool.this proved ok but was too flexible so ive now used the gorilla tub that I use t
crashtestdummy

crashtestdummy

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managed to do some observing!!!

Well last night I managed to do some observing for the first time since 4th December!!Really started to worry that I wasn't going to get any done before the next moonrising but was lucky.It cleared about 10pm and I managed to stay out until 1am when the clouds rolled in.They were due to clear again in half an hour but I like my sleep so went in.managed to tick off some more ngc's,herschels and caldwells and add a few galaxies as detailed below: ngc 1973 ngc1975 ngc1977 these are listed toget
crashtestdummy

crashtestdummy

1

just a quick one

Well my sky time has been pathetically poor recently and it doesn't show much sign of getting better in the next couple of weeks.My last observing session was the 4th of December,a quick hour in the garden and one new ngc object and as usual Rubbish seeing conditions.i keep telling myself I wont bother with the garden again but you have to get time when you can :( well the weather has been very bad recently with high winds and rain.i doubt most people have had much luck the last month.there were
crashtestdummy

crashtestdummy

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a little more grinding and bits and bats

So,ive not actually had as much time to give to my mirror grind as I had hoped,mainly due to my cataclysmic luck with cars.I'd had a Peugeot 206sw hdi for about 3 years and it had been pretty reliable save for the last few months where it had been plagued with a few vacuum leaks and then a niggling fault that I couldn't track down.Anyway I decided enough was enough and money was drawn out of the bank and I went out and bought a 307sw 2.0 hdi as I had wanted something a bit bigger and comfier and
crashtestdummy

crashtestdummy

4

the mirror grind begins

aperture fever hits us all at sometime.it has now hit me 3 times.8" was big enough for 6 months.12" was big enough for 6 months and now 16" was big enough for 6 months.where next?there's no commercially available scopes bigger than 16" in the uk and to buy one from the usa or a custom uk builder would have cost £7000-10000 for the size I was after so a plan was hatched to build something. myself and damian(master) attended a mirror making seminar with john Nichol who took away some of the myths
crashtestdummy

crashtestdummy

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