Best place to buy a mirror in Aus

[eyeye]

I am keen to build my own 8" short f/ratio reflector - having never done this before, does anyone have any ideas on the best mirror and mirror cell suppliers/retailers in Australia? This will be my first atm project.
Thanks

[DavidU]

Bintel seems to carry quite a bit of ATM bit's
It's a lot of fun building your own scope.

[nightstalker]

I found Matt at
http://www.telescopes-astronomy.com.au/
great to deal with.

trying to navigate his site seriously does my head in though
best attempted after a couple o drinks imo..:thumbsup:

[eyeye]

Thanks for that - I might start on those drinks now and then have a look...

[anj026]

AEC has some Parks mirrors available and other ATM stuff.
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~aecclaudio/current_stock.htm

[hickny]

Have a look at these ...
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=61818
and post 82 in the next one...
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=28783

Mental4Astro and I made a couple of these and I'm making my own with his help...
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=60865

I'm hoping to finish this week. It has taken me about 11 weeks working after work and at weekends etc. It has been a lot of fun and a real challenge. Hopefully it'll be worth the effort once its done.

Good luck.

[Ian Robinson]

Easier and more options if you order your optics and hardware for your newtonian from overseas. Do what those in the know do and cut the local middle men out by buying direct from the manufacturers. You'll save money and probably get it quicker too. Especially now the Aussie $ is getting back up around 90 USc. Shipping the bits and pieces in by post will also avoid GST.

The only part that is not practical to ship in is the tube, choices here are some Formatube, Poly-pipe (it works fine), or to get some aluminium sheet rolled to form a tube, or if you are adventurous make it from fibre glass or carbon fibre.

http://www.amateurtelescopemaker.com/mm.htm

[eyeye]

Thanks Ian - I'll have a look online. My only concern would be something happening to the mirror during shipping. But I'm keen to begin building something larger, as I'm realizing that my 80mm refractor isn't up to it anymore. I think this 'condition/fever' is pretty common, and there is only one cure as far as I'm aware...

[Ian Robinson]

I was a bit worried too when I ordered my 10" mirror from Nova Optical but they packed it very well in a styrofoam lined double box and it arrived in pristine condition c/- USPS and AusPost.

All the reputable mirror makers and sellers will protect the mirror extremely well in a double box of some kind depending on the size of the "glass".

I've bought heaps of stuff from overseas and it's all been shipped by parcel post with no dramas and never once been asked to pay GST even on stuff over $1000.

[skies2clear]

You could try Deep Sky Optics in NSW (Mark Suchting), who makes superb primary mirrors, though I'm not sure if he will do an 8". But he can't help supply anything much else for your scope, only the primary, only.....well, that's enough. After all, the best opticians for primary mirrors specialise only doing this. You can find contact info on his website to ask. http://users.tpg.com.au/masuch/dso/

If you wanted to do it on a lower budget and quality, then look at chinese primary mirrors instead, maybe Bintel or Andrews Communications, etc.