first light with diy mirror

[ponytale]

well today when i got home i decided to fit my unfinished mirror into my scope for test , with some rough collimation and a cheap h20 mm eyepiece i took my first look a distant hill top about 1/2 mile away and blow me down i can see leaves on the trees at that distance with an uncoated mirror ,every thing looked nice and sharp right out to the edges, and i caught some power lines in view and they were pretty straight across the mirror and i got good focus after some adjustment of the focal length of the scope to around 1280mm which makes approx f5.9. many thanks to people like glasspusher for their help and encouragement,

i am really chuffed so far and champing at the bit now to collimate, then star test , too cloudy tonight, must be my fault building scopes and mirrors ,update after star test weather permitting the next few days .

[Bizibilder]

Just wait till you get it working!! (I made my own mirror back in the 70's)

[paul mc c]

Brilliant and good luck with the rest of your build,its very rewarding knowing that you made a piece of scientific hardware capable of showing galaxys and nebula of which the light has been travelling before earth even existed!

Well done

[barkis]

Nice one PT, it's a great accomplishment, and respect for seeing the job done. I'm sure the star test will be fine, and you can go on and complete a very rewarding project.

Looking forward to the first light report from your creation.

Well done .

Ron.

[Gina]

Brilliant!!

[earth titan]

Well done. Way ahead of me on this one.

Looking forward to further reports.

[earth titan]

Brilliant. What a fantastic feeling it must be. Long way for me to go before I get to that stage.

Any piccies?

[Glasspusher]

Well done PT, I think you have discovered the thrill of making and using your own optics!!! What is the next project then?

John

[Macavity]

Ever amazed / impressed (in a technological world) such precision is (still) HUMANLY possible!

[Gina]

I think it's wonderful I really admire people who can do things like that I'm a DIY person myself but that is a big step further!

[ponytale]

thanks everyone for your kind words and encouragement keeping fingers crossed for stars tonight (update 9.45pmforecast= rain and clouds) maybe sat/sunday will be ok ?

[Domis]

I have nothing but respect for you guys who start out and see such an endeavour through to completion.The waiting for clear skies must be killing you.Good luck with it.

[Tom How]

A big well done with the mirror. Following the DIY path is so much more satisfying than going out and buying a copy of same telescope that everybody else owns.

[WayBig]

Well done, it must be thrilling to look through it thinking "I made that"

[ponytale]

star tested my mirror tonight i am pleased that inside and outside focus the patterns are the same ,the eyepiece i used is (el cheapo) 10mm which is not good enought to get airy disk ring patterns i think, all i got was fuzzy circle with secondary shadow and spider vane lines which helped me collimate , there was a lot of thin cloud patches making stars a bit dull i need a decent eyepiece and or barlow to be sure , i will be watching for sale closely for a while i will try a look at the moon also before i send glass for coating.