mapstar

Shakes head in disbelief

Rush and you quiet! Snores like a wildebeast!!!!

Morning Mike. Thought you might've got to the bottom of this by now? I was keeping my fingers crossed for you that the problem was in the secondary which should be an easy fix. Hopefully those guy's at Orion will finally get the reflective bit's sorted especially as the season for using it is upon us Keep us updated as we're all waiting to see the outcome

Does it need a Vauxhall V6 to drive it on the Wheel barrow handles Mike? Must weigh some?

Looking good Mike. Cloudy here again typical new moon weather

It's dark out Mike have you got the mirrors in? Good luck on the star testing as we've got clouds up this way

Takes minutes to set up. Having done a bit of mirror testing you need to know what you're looking at, but even a novice can tell when some thing is symetrical and a figure of revolution. The star test is the ultimate arbiter of a good (or bad) mirror and can be performed by anyone. Learning how to read the results and work out whats happening is what takes time.

Good luck buddy. Make sure they're not attaching any clouds to it!

Think they might say yeah we've got this 20" 1/10 wavelength mirror that needs doing

Don't worry yet mine took 2 years so Orion are going really quick

Fingers crossed for Tuesday now then

Glad to hear it Mike

Cheers guys we try our best. Now back to Mikes build as we don't want to hijack it further with mirror making talk except when OO have completed their end of the build. Watching with interest.

Cheers Lee. I'm sure Mike's mirror will be here soon so he can update us all and complete what has been a very enjoyable and impressive build journey. These big dobs are things that take time, patience, skill and passion to build and when it's as good as this one it deserves a mirror to do it justice. These things take some creating .

Yes it is Lee

Have a read here if you want to know why Mike didn't grind his own https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/237343-the-22-mapstar-mirror/?page=1

I might even see it tomorrow when I'm dropping a mirror off for coating

It's testament to the amount of hours Mike has put into it Alan. Wonder if the mirror has arrived? Come on Mike give us a good update fella we're all waiting

Thanks Jetstream. It must be the moody black Ps next one is going to be plain wood just for the more traditional appearance.

It is truly satisfying as you know Rick. My thoughts are that it won't be the only one as I'm going to try again but not for some time. I want to enjoy this one which is difficult enough in this cloud blanketed country. Hope your 20" is progressing.

If you go throught the thread above I think you'll get the idea on the level of difficulty in doing a mirror of this spec. Hours wise it's probably around 400+ but to be honest I lost count. I'm not 100% sure on the cost of materials as it wasn't the driving factor for me, more the achievement of doing one as otherwise it didn't make sense. I would guess at £1K in materials then the coating at a smidge over £300.

Many thanks for the compliment and reading through it. Love the scope and the views are truly wonderful. Glad it's still inspiring others to take up the challenge and I'm sure you have the skills, you've just not found them yet

Thanks for reading it. I think its in there somewhere? If you want to read about the mirror it's here and took quite a lot of time and patience https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/237343-the-22-mapstar-mirror/ At F3.4 its a fast scope

Looks a proper beast Mike and one of the nicest I've seen. Balance sounds just about right once you start hanging big bits of glass in that finely crafted focuser Hats off to you fella top notch work just need Orion to get their finger out with the primary.

Top Stuff Mike