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Old 11-12-2011, 01:12 PM
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sopticals (Stephen)
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Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Oamaru, New Zealand.
Posts: 226
Hi all, just been googling up on Graham Loftus, (a well known New Zealand mirror/telescope maker),who was a great friend of John Dobson. Both of these men made mirrors up to 24" in diameter out of 19mm thick float glass.In fact the largest of the Loftus mirrors (please correct me if Im wrong), is 36" in diameter and only about 1" thick plate glass. Graham said that 19mm thick float is fine for up to 20" diameter mirrors. He said it was more difficult to finish larger diameter mirrors of this thickness.

Loftus made a comment: a large aperture with even a fairly mediocre figure will out perform a high quality telescope with small to medium aperture,(my paraphrase).

I would encourage anyone who has been teetering on the brink of "whether to,or whether not to" have a go at making their own "light bucket" mirror/telescope to "have a go".If your game then your in for an adventure.
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