Click to Enlarge Jig to make mirror handling safer

Referring to Mike Salway's article: Cleaning the Mirrors of a Newtonian Telescope, I felt there had to be a simple method of raising the heavy mirror out of the aluminium frame to permit easy safe handling.

The  first picture below shows this simple jig on the kitchen sink ready for the mirror wash. The picture above shows the mirror supported on the three wooden dowels and the aluminium frame lowered down onto the three small square blocks  which hold the assembly clear of the collimation screws.

Note the sides of the circular base board are cut away to permit one's fingers to grip the frame.The mirror is fully exposed and can be lifted safely into the sink for the washing process. When dry, return the mirror to the jig and the aluminium mirror frame is raised and lifted clear of the jig for the final assembly - I apologize for the confusing reflections. The second picture below is the mirror frame with the mirror removed. The cork pads I assume are common for all these GSO scopes.

I note that there's no article on IIS for washing the secondary mirror and take this opportunity to thank Starkler, May 2005, for his informative article, Checking the Optics on your GSO Dob.

Click to Enlarge The Jig ready for the mirror		Click to Enlarge With the mirror removed for cleaning

Article by Dennis Greeve (Dennis G). Discuss this article on the IceInSpace Forum.