Mirror is back from the doctor - artifacts

[PKay (Peter)]

Yes the mirror appeared spotless...until I looked at it closely.
There were dust particles, small smears and spots.

I mixed up distilled water, 5% alcohol and a touch of detergent.
Gave the mirror a good drowning, and finished with distilled water.
Done that many times, always with good results.

It looked perfect...until...

I waited for the sun to shine through the window onto the mirror.

At an angle of 45 degrees, all manner of 'problems' appeared.

I could see 'blemishes' a light purple in colour.
I could see small blurry spots, again purple in colour.
I could see countless small (very small) 'bubbles' in the glass.

When the sun went, the mirror looked faultless again.

Am I being 'picky'?
Do all 'perfect' mirrors still have flaws?

[Wavytone]

Be careful. Water will lift the coating, causing the pinholes. Gets worse every time you wash it.

[thebonz (John)]

I had my parks 10 inch recoated from LOCAL source and for me it was money well spent. After nearly 2 years it still is awesome and holds it's own
John

[leon]

Peter I expect that you may be a little picky, I say this in the nicest way text can say it.

When I had my reflector and the mirror was down the bottom of the tube, it was always suggested never to shine a torch down there unless you wanted a severe shock, all the flaws and nasty looking things would appear.

A bit like the Sun shining on your mirror, what you are seeing is quite normal and will have no effect on viewing anything.

Did you know that one can actually good detail of objects without even having the mirror coated.

Leon

[casstony]

Probably most mirrors look perfect in ordinary room light and imperfect in direct sunlight or under a flashlight.

[leon]

yep, they sure do, but the viewing is not affected unless the mirror is truly out of wack, so to speak.

Leon