What is the biggest telescope mirror that can be made at home?
Wednesday, April 14th, 2010 at
7:19 am
I would also like to know how the mirrors are coated can this be done at home?
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US $33.29
I know a guy who made a 30″ but he sent it out for coating.
As the mirror gets larger, the amount of glass that must be ground away gets larger. This requires energy. If you grind it at home, then presumably you’re putting that energy in using your own muscles, and you’ll find that a 12 inch ( 300 mm) mirror is an enormous physical effort, and takes quite a long time and tremendous patience.
Presumably, you could build a grinding machine, but it would be cheaper to buy a mirror from a firm that already has a machine.
Coating the mirror must be done in a vacuum, and quite a good vacuum at that. So again, you’re going to have to make an investment in machinery (a vacuum vessel, a vacuum pump, an evaporator). It’s far cheaper to have this done by a firm that has all the equipment already.
This can all be done by a technically knowledgeable person, but doing it yourself is not going to save any money.
If you’re really going to do this yourself, don’t start with the largest possible size—the effort involved in making a small mirror is so much less than making a big one, that it only makes sense to do a small one first.
Probably in the 35 to 40 inch range.
Mirror coating is best done by specialists.
You have to buy the blank mirror and grind it to the required curve.Polishing or aluminising is to be done in a vacuum chamber you can not do it tat home.
People have done a 41.2 inch diameter mirror at home (seach for Hercules telescope on Google). I think they built a grinding machine, but they are large guys, and may have done it with sweat, beer, and a sub-diameter tool for quicker effect. I have heard of a 72 inch telescope project, but I doubt it has been finished. William Herschel made a 48 incher. Lord Rosse made a 72 inch one at Birr Castle. I doubt he made much himself
While better aluminum coating is done in a vacuum chamber, most don”t have one at home. Dewey Burkes of Pasadena TX made his own 45 years ago, but only 17 inch diameter. There is a way to chemically coat any size mirror with silver metal, but it is messy, dangerous, and will not last as long as aluminum.