Regrinding/Resurfacing Skywatcher 130p mirror

[cuivenion]

is there a company in the UK that would regrind/resurface a Skywatcher 130p primary mirror? I have tried Orion optics but they have said it is too small.

[michael8554]

There are two 130P mirrors on Astroboot, one £25, one £35 including tube.

Far cheaper than regrinding and resilvering I would think.

A new mirror would probably be cheaper too.

Michael

[Moonshane]

agreed. what Michael said. ensure they are the same focal ratio though.

[cuivenion]

It's a sentimental thing. My wife bought me the scope for my birthday a few years ago and it was my first scope. Unfortunately the secondary fell on the primary in a collimation accident. The secondary was chipped and the primary probably got a scratch or two. I've also cleaned it in the past and I probably did that wrong too.

Basically the poor scope was a victim of my learning curve.

It would be nice to at least repair the primary if possible, and if reground and silvered it may be possible to make it higher quality than the original.

[Moonshane]

John Nichol  www.nicholoptical.co.uk/ might be worth a try. He's a really superb guy. If there's just a small chip on the mirrors then just add a dab of black paint to the area concerned. It won't make a jot of visible difference. Tiny scracthes also make little difference if truth be known. They matter more emotionally than visually.

[Peter Drew]

I would retain it as it is apart from blackening the chips as Moonshane advises. If the mirror is reworked it will be a new one and all sentimentality will have been lost. 

[cuivenion]

Thanks for the replies. Peter reworking the mirror wouldn't bother me, I look at it like replacing the sole on a shoe, it's still the same shoe. I guess it's horses for courses.

[Peter Drew]

Fair enough!