Shipping a primary mirror safely -

[gtvaldez]

I need to ask a question regarding shipping a primary. I am selling one for a friend (we were building our own - mine's done, her's fell to the wayside). 10". I have the original box from the company we bought them from. But she is missing 1/2 the packing insides. I have a flat piece of styrofoam that the mirror sits on and that's it. What can I do to protect the mirror's surface during shipping?

Thanks for your help!

Tracy

[NGC 1502]

Hi Tracy. I've done this a few times, and copied the method that recoating

companies use for shipping.

I use a square piece of hardboard or thin plywood, a bit larger than the mirror,

covered with acid free tissue paper. Then place the mirror with the reflective

surface to the tissue paper, and tape it securely to the board so it cannot

slide around. Then wrap with several layers of bubble wrap, and find a strong

box to fit. Make sure you don't leave any space for the mirror to shift around,

use more bubble wrap to fill any spaces. The secondary can be wrapped in the

same tissue paper and taped to the main mirror.

Nothing can absolutely guarantee safe shipping, but I've not had a problem using

this method.

HTH, Ed.