Posts Made By: Kurt King

Another photo.

Thanks for that image from Mansfield Dam. Its a great one for the degraded skies we have. Word around town is you guys are doing a lot of good things for astronomy over there. I'm over here at Bee Cave and 360 so I really would like to stop by and visit.

Bob, Instead of moving the corrector out over the lap and spinning, can you add just a small amount of eccentric movement to avoid the zoning, experimenting with that "small amount"? Or would it be workable to place the corrector convex side up and polish the outer area with a sub-diameter tool by hand? A few fringes doesn't figure to be a lot of work. You must have a concave test plate to know you are a few fringes too flat? One last comment if you plan on final testing with autocollimation. I once asked a well known Mak maker in the area how to polish and figure the convex side. His answer was to polish the convex side(after getting R as close as possible) and don't worry it. Let it go. It should be very close to a sphere(with proper technique) and any final touch up can be done on the concave side once the scope is assembled. This touch up on the concave side done via autocollimation eliminates the situation your going thru. I really dont know particulars about size of corrector, lap , and R so I hope this may be of some help.

There definately needs to be a wake-up call to assist NASA. I visited JSC outside Houston with my son last Friday. A tram tour around JSC left a ghost town impression. Vacant parking lots, a jogger or two, otherwise noone living moving around. The place looked abandoned. The visitor areas was a playground for kids with some interesting, educational areas. Overall, a surprising, somewhat discouraging experience.

Another shot.

When I was 13, my folks bought a zoom eyepiece Tasco refractor for Christmas. It was so fascinating, they let me set up a grinding barrel in the middle of my bedroom. Thus my 6" f/8 Newtonian was born.  Much later in the mid 80's , I found an optics company in Austin, TX. that made small and large optics for flight simulation and other applications. My optics education was encouraged by my late boss, Larry Forrest and John Gregory.  I spent nights and weekends with free use of equipment and supplies for honing my mirror making skills.  Advanced to being both Optical Production Manager and Optical Q.C. Manager making up to 3.5 meter mirrors.  Yes, quite a racket to make them and then pass them as certified.  In 2007-8, the company was bought by an International Aerospace/ simulation company and I stayed on. In 2018 we bought a 3.6 meter state of the art coating chamber so I moved from making optics to coating them, which is where I'm at currently.  My atm project is a 19" f/3.5 light bucket.  It has been a great ride and lots of people to thank for their help and encouragement!