Reading material

I discovered our club has a nice selection of books buried in the back of our storage closet. I grabbed a large stack and am enjoying reading them. Here's the list (below). Any other books I shoudl get my hands on before tackling a large thin mirror eventually? I'm starting with an 8" this Summer/Fall under the supervision of someone with experience.

1. Standard Handbook for Telescope Making, N.E. Howard, 1959 (I'm about 1/3 of the way thru)
2. The Best of Amateur Telescope Making Journal Vol 1
3. The Best of Amateur Telescope Making Journal Vol 2
4. A Manual for Amateur Telescope Makers, K. and J.M Lecleire
5. Understanding Foucault 2nd Edition

There's a great article in the ATM vol 2 by Mel Bartels on making large thin mirrors that fits well with the other information I'm reading on general mirror grinding, polishing, and figuring.

Still waiting to get my kiln hooked up. Also read the article on Mirror-O-Matic and might start cobbling together various Foucault testers and apparatus described in the books...

Thanks in advance for any guidance! :-)

Yes, starting with the 8-inch is sensible and will get you to your ultimate goal faster. I assume you will do that mirror by hand - good to see what proper grinding and especially polishing and figuring "feel" like. I would also recommend making it into a telescope - a old-fashioned Dobsonian would be just fine, easy, fast and economical - and work wonderfully! My own personal history went from 3 to 4.25 to 8 (dropped and broke it before done) to 6 to 6 to 8 to 12 to 13 to 18 to 16 to 16 to 29 to 36. The last four I didn't make...bought them, but did build the mounts. The 36 I still need to build the mount! I plan to use that and then...die. Tom Dey

Another book came in the mail today. Making Your Own Telescope by Allyn J. Thompson (sixth printing)