Grinding your own mirror and making a telescope

Anyone here got any experience of grinding their own mirror and making a newtonian reflecting telescope?

I know.. that sounds horrifyingly daunting as a beginning way to start astronomy. I thought the same last night when I first read about it here. It turns out, however, that it is not all that daunting after all, especially if you like to make things (as I do). It is, surprisingly, easily within the realms of the keen DIY'er. No real technical tools are needed (Except for the aluminium plating which you will have to get done by a coating specialist at a reasonable cost.)

With a lot of time and patience, you can build a nice 8" f/6 mirror yourself and have some really good resolving power. OK the end product will be a bit bulky but my understanding is that this is the kind of aperture you need to get good resolving power. It can be done for much less money (but much more of your time, obviously) than buying anything equivalent in the shops. Sometimes even less than *lesser* telescopes in the shop. You also have control over the quality so you can make it better, whereas mass producers just get it to "good enough" unless you want to spend huge bucks.

It's something I have added to my list of to-do's for when I get meself a house and a workshop

Anyone else?

tom, there's a chap Stathis who holds workshops for mirror grinding at the Munich Sternwarthalle, tuesdays at 8pm. I'd love to go along one day myself but want to combine it with timne on the bigger telescopes.

I also want to build my own scope but need to get my cellar tiled and a workbench built before I can start. 8 inches is also what I want to build.

Intrigued about your Canon cable btw. I have just stolen the wife's Canon 200mm telephoto lens for astro stuff!

Talk to Sin about grinding optical mirrors mate.

Mirrors? What are they then?

forget it mate...unless you have a full optics lab you cant grind a mirror

Well I speak the word of a man with no experience in the matter, but I think... 'not true'

It all depends on the quality of the mirror you want and if its plano, vex, cave, cylindrical or toroidal. You can do it vex and cave by hand, but its not easy and you need to use the right materials, both substrate and slurry. But I wouldn't expect your telescope reflector to be of a very high qually. I've never done it. I don't really have time. The optics I develop are PHENOMENALLY effin' expensive... but then, they're made out of the latest materials technology for a specific porpoise.

I took the lazy route and just bought one.

Thing I would do is to buy a primary and secondary mirror from somewhere like Teleskop Service Ransburg and build a Dobson from that. I think you can buy them for about 300 Euros approx.

But I still think the best way initially is to buy a Meade ETX and go to Mike Weasner's ETX site and do the tours by Dr Clay Sherrod like I have done the last year. I've blogged my experience here

I love to make stuff. And the idea of making my own is just proving hard to resist

I bought a kit Newton reflecting telescope from AstroMedia (astromedia.de) for 20,-. Built it with my daughter this summer and we were able to see the disc of Jupiter, as well as it's major moons. Nice! Have to wait for next March for a good view of Saturn.

The kit consists of mirrors, lenses, and pre-cut cardboard, but putting it all together is still quite involved. Still, AstroMedia will also sell you just the mirror, if you want.

Our local Space & Science center has a "class" (more like a group that drinks beers on Friday nights) that meets weekly to do this. I think it would be cool... What do you guys think? Good Father's Day gift?? I'm thinking it would be right up my [German engineer] husband's alley. Plus, he needs some hobbies.

Are we talking here about telescope optics or beer goggles?

I'd imagine getting a halfway-decent ready-made telescope and gazing at the heavens would be more fun than having an amateur bash at making your own mirror which would probably turn out to be of poor quality and not much use for stargazing. But each to their own.

Yeah, I saw a telescope at a flohmarkt in Germany, but DH said "nein". He claims he wants to do the research to buy a good one... Meanwhile, Jr is interested in astronomy and it would be fun, regardless of quality. I just figured that since DH used to build his own computers and loves to buy camera lenses, he might like to build his own telescope "lens" (with the idea that he might make some new friends along the way and enjoy a few beers...).

So I should just buy one, eh? Any recommendations? I get into enough trouble buying gifts for him that are really for me...

Let him do his research to buy a good one. Good telescopes are one thing that really requires it. You don't want to run into any hobby store and just buy the telescope they've got set up. It sounds like he's someone who would want a serious amateur telescope, in which case a 6" or 8" or larger reflector would be best. Even the cheapest of them are a substantial chunk of cash. Astronomy is not a cheap hobby. A telescope making class might be a good idea, though, since even if they just make a small one it would give him a good idea of what he would need to see the things he wants to see.