My Experience With Nova Coatings

In contrast with my unpleasant experience with Fedex ground delivery services, I am delighted thus far with the recoating of my 16" mirror and 3.1" secondary with enhanced coatings from Nova Optical Systems.
Here's what you get when you open the box:
1. An invoice noting the fees for services and shipping, marked "paid".
2. A graph noting the reflectance of the coating, averaging around 97-96%.
3. The composition of the layers with the thicknesses applied to the substrate.
3. A one year warranty against failure of the coatings with free stripping and recoating if the coating does fail, personally signed by the optician Steve Dodds.
4. A center-spotted primary.
5. Cleaning instructions including a description of the use of isopropyl alcohol if the mirror becomes very dirty.
6. A quick turn around time of one week.
7. The best price I've seen for this service.
8. I am a happy camper!
I am hoping to center spot the secondary in a day or so and re-install my optics in my scope and test it at Mt Pinos on Friday or Saturday, dependant on road and weather conditions.

Why would you center spot the secondary? This is not required or a good idea due to the amount of light hitting the center of the secondary.Unlike the primary, the center is very much used. Plus, you must have the spot at the optical center to do any good with alignment.
Good to hear that Nova is handling things so well. You hear so many people complaining these days of slow service.
Let us know how they work.

Dear Rod, and the rest of the group,

I was sorry to hear about the problems you have been having with FedEx. You are the 3rd person in as many weeks to complain of the same thing. FedEx's home delivery only has the option of being signed by a person. They won't leave it in an obviously safe place, or with a neighbor, they won't even let you sign a release. USP allows their driver to use some common sense, so starting Monday, I will be using UPS for all of my non commercial customers.

Steve

Nova Optical

Mine's perfect and give great views. Great coating job.

I wouldn't center-spot the secondary either. Absolutely not needed.

What kind of primary do you have? I have a 16" Zambuto that I am thinking about getting it recoated. Apparently the CZ mirrors don't use the enhanced coatings. Not sure if I would want to go the enhanced route. Do you have any thoughts on that? A one week turn around sounds great.