crashtestdummy

Can't wait to see the finished article. I've just purchased a wahoo kickr turbo trainer and subscribing to trainerroad so hopefully be a lot fitter next summer :)

I'm currently in lanzarote and it's amazing how high in the sky saggitarius and Scorpio are.I could pick m6 and m7 up easily with bins and see the star clouds with naked eye.

Tbh I think half the cycle hatred is caused by other cyclists.the amount round my way who don't indicate when changing lanes or stop for red lights just makes other motorists hate us even more.where I work we have strict no cycling rules on our pontoons which all the cyclists seem to ignore and it just makes even the pedestrians hate them.Then when you stop them for cycling they become aggressive and say that it's a stupid rule.commuters are by far the worst form of cyclists.

Yeah I'm looking at getting a turbo trainer for the winter and doing some intervals and other training.this year is more a fact finding session and then next year will hopefully be where I find what I can do with a bit if training.I still don't want to do this as an only hobby so it will still have to fit in with climbing and work and hopefully next year my scope will be done.I had a look at one of your dartmore rides and may have a go at it sometime.I love hills I'm just not that good at them yet but I'm getting better all the time.unfortunately portsmouth isn't that good for hills but there's plenty about the area so I can always throw the bike in the car and do a round trip ride where there's more hills or do laps on local hills.10,000' of hills would kill me at the moment!!!

The edge 1000 is a great bit of kit-once you have it set up properly!I had loads of problem syncing it up, sometimes it would work and sometimes not.now I've sorted it out it syncs with my phone when I finish a ride and uploads straight to garmin connect then straight to strava.loads of info as I have the heart rate and cadence sensors.power meter not necessary at my level of fitness I don't think.I make routes up on strava and then download them onto my garmin which is good.I'm looking at getting strava premium then I can download other people routes too. Bit hilly where you are fella!! Don't really go on th3 cycle forums much as they seem to be a massive bunch of [removed word] takers if you are new.

I've mentioned a few times that I've recently bought a road bike and have started riding a lot more and I though since I've not got anything astronomical to discuss I would do this instead :) I bought a nice giant defy 0 bike on the cycle to work scheme and spent an extra £200 swapping the brakes, chainset and front mech so it now has a full ultegra groupset.it's perfectly geared for an unfit ex smoker like me with a 50/34 chainset and 11-32 casette and I can get up most hills despite my heart rate touching 190bpm on the long/steep ones.I added a garmin edge 1000 to my ride just over a month ago and have been logging my rides on strava.one particular hill I cycle I have dropped 3 minutes off it in 2 months so the fitness is coming. It's all building up to one event-a 73 mile sportive in october-the wiggle south downs ride.I was originally planning on riding the 42 mile version (there's 3-42/73/100) but my friend graham talked me into the 73.so I talked him into riding it too!!!I've analysed the route and there's one section that could cause problems-a closed road climb up butser hill.this is pretty steep with a 0.3 mile section of 10-18.5% and it's narrow and dirty most if the time.I was pretty sure I could do all the rest of it ok but wasn't sure about this as it was as steep but longer than another climb called crooked walk lane that I had failed on.training needed doing so I've worked my way through the steep roads of portsdown hill near where I live and last week I nailed the dreaded crooked walk lane so I was happy with training.anyway I went out Sunday with a route loaded into my garmin that took me from my house, through some gentle hills and quieter roads and out to another longish hill called old winchester hill.managed this pretty ok and down the other side in preperation to try the butser climb on my sportive route.before the ride I had put both these climbs on the route just to recce them and walk if needed but finding my way at the top of butser hill punching the air with lungs slapping my rib cage the mystic had gone a bit.I'm now looking forward to the event even more now I know I can do the hardest bit and can't wait to do the 100 mile version next year. In fact next year has big plans.I want to do at least 5 or 6 of the wiggle 100 milers and the Hampshire hilly hundred too and also cycle round the isle of wight.I was close to trying the Isle of wight recently but I'm not sure I'm ready yet so want to leave it a bit. I'm already dreaming of a trip to France to do some hills like alp d'huez or mont ventoux or le lacets de montvernier but think I'm a way off that yet. Still happy in my new hobby though. Anyone on strava let me know your name and I will add you :) Clear skies Rich

Yeah new house new grinding room ;)

I knew it was going to be a big undertaking but I was hoping to do it all myself but I would like to use it some day rather than look at it in my garage :)

Well after what seems like 6 Months, about 30 hours polishing and 3 regrinding back to 400 grit I still can't seem to get rid of the astigmatism I have in the centre of my mirror.it was time to face facts that due to my lack of experience I could spend another 100 hours and end up with a too thin blank so I've left my mirror with John for him to machine it back to 400 and then polish it and make sure the astigmatism has gone before I finish the polishing and start to figure it.really dissapointed in myself as I wanted to do it all myself but having to face facts that I eventually want this mirror in a telescope.I'm sure I will still find plenty of challenges during figuring to keep me occupied but I think it best that I give myself a chance by having th mirror right before I start figuring. Big thanks to damian too for making me a new mount for my testing setup to make it easier for me to take accurate photos. Hopefully have an update of some sort in a couple of months. On a plus side I'm getting plenty of cycling done and getting fitter.I've entered my first sportive, a 73 miler in October and training is going well as I'm hill climbing much better and doing 44 miles ok.next year I'm hoping to do 5 of the local 100 mile sportive so need a good winter of training :) Happy days but I do miss the stars :( Clear skies Rich

I've been to wrights rock in the churned manyons ago and had a few trips in to staffs to the roaches and hen cloud-lovely place.

Well what can I say, not much further forward than I was at the last update.The new lap I made worked out great and polished much better than the last one but the outcome seemed the same with a centre problem so I took my mirror on the 350 mile journey north to see John again.We tested my mirror for warping and that turned out ok, no warping or mirror damage but we decided I needed to go back to 400 with the tile tool.I did this over about 5 hours with good contact and pencil test then a good 2 hours with 600 alu oxide and back to testing.still a central problem and the laser test shows a much more polished centre section.I'm currently doing long strokes through centre and will test again soon but I don't have much time at the moment as my life has changed a lot recently. Health-I decided 3 months ago that I wanted to get better at my hobby rock climbing so I gave up chocolate for lent and have started eating healthier.I only eat wholegrain rice and pasta now (mainly cous cous) only semi skimmed milk,wholemeal bread and I eat about 1800 calories a day now instead of about 3000 before!!!!I've dropped from 69kg to 64kg and have starting running 3 miles twice a week and doing some deadlifting and squats.just or3ldered a new road bike to get fitter too and my climbing is getting better!!! With all this and work I've not had any time for grinding so it's kinda on the back burner. Will update when I can

Yeah it is shocking but I can understand people selling up with the weather we seem to have although it's not been bad lately.ive not observed through a scope in well over a year now but hoping that this will be the last year I'm scope less!

Yes I will update my blog in the next week.i still have a slight middle problem but not as bad as before but I'm back to the tile tool again doing short w strokes as I have my edge turned down.was good to see you again fella and glad of the new flag to grind on.hopefully retest my mirror end of next week to see if the edge has improved

Yeah new lap poured and channels cut hoping to get an hour done before I'm on holiday the end of the week to see if it's polishing well.nice and thick this time :)

Have the pitch but just haven't had the time to do anything with it!!will hopefully cast the lap tomorrow afternoon then cut the channels before the weekend then be back to polishing.i can now se how people take years to make a mirror!

Pitch on the way so hopefully get a new lap made this weekend :)

It would eventually but I've only gone back to 600 and it would take about 100 hours to grind a mm off the sagitta with 600.the problem I have looked massive when testing but it's 100ths of a mm and undetectable by the human eye.

Yeah hoping the new lap will do the trick.as I had a raised centre before I'm thinking that after the regrinding that the lap is missing the new lower centre and there isn't enough material to fill the gap even after a hot press.time will tell :)

I finally managed to test my mirror after going back to 600 to get rid of a centre problem and as soon as I got the mirror on the test rig in the dark I could see immediately that the centre wasn't polishing properly so I've decided that I'm going to start afresh with a new lap.I can't be certain yet that I've cured the centre problems but I'm hopeful and as Mapster had also had this problem after going back to 600 and then great success with the new lap I'm certain that it's the way to go.So hopefully have some more pitch the end of this week/beginning of next week then I can do my favourite thing, get pitch all over me, the garage, the sink and the kitchen floor haha Hopefully the lessons I learned last time will make this lap a much easier prospect :) Wish me luck Clear skies Rich

Following on from my last entry I've done 4 hours of 600 alu oxide with the tile tool and 1 1/2 hours of polishing.Im going to do another 30 min polishing then test to see if I have got rid of my centre problem then go from there.Not done much over the last few weeks as a result of first being ill and working a lot and secondly the return of some old tendinitis in my right hand which has put a climbing holiday in march in doubt.Bit too cold for the pitch lap at the moment too so may leave polishing until spring as going indoors isn't an option. Not had a scope for 12 months now so I'm pretty rusty when it comes to constellations etc :( Unrelated news-finally got rid of money pit Peugeot 307 and bought a nice E91 BMW 330d touring auto which I'm going to kit out with a roof box for the camping and climbing season.Also managed to get a new phone sorted after my 5th HTC one turned up locked from all networks and a week trying to sort it with Vodafone didn't get me anywhere so got a note 4 on EE instead and in the process of reporting Vodafone for being rubbish. Other than that life is pretty much work and sleep at the moment.Roll on spring,holidays and more grinding. Clear skies Rich

Not an option fella,I have to do it myself.it was John who said i should polish for a bit then go back to 600 if the astigmatism didn't polish out

Well I have now done about 15 hours polishing with nearly 10 hours through centre and I still have the same problems as before when the ronchi image flips through.when looking at the ronchi I don't get the same obvious centre circle as before but still showing the centre astigmatism.I'm pretty much doomed to going back to the tile tool and doing a few hours with 600 alu oxide to get it back on track then start polishing again.I could keep polishing but if it's not changed after nearly 10 hours I think it will be quicker to go back to 600.the only other option is to polish out which Wil probably be another 6-8 hours then try and sort it when figuring with the smaller tool. I'm erring towards gojnng back to 600 at the moment. Pics to follow

Jrm-yeah reading back I agree that it's just the centre not polish d out that caused it hence why I'm going to polish through centre