Quote:
Originally Posted by JJDOBBER79
Hi diy enthusiasts.
Please indulge me in a radical idea I have had. The high cost of a telescope mirror is due to the large chunk of glass. Why do we use glass for this? Is it because it can be highly polished. I am uneducated in this field so bear with me. Has anyone ever tried aluminizing a different material. Steel can be highly polished as can aluminium. And lightweight. And durable. What about a smooth plastic. Perhaps from a 3d printer? Shaping a steel or aluminium blank could be done on a lathe in no time. Polishing can also be done on a lathe.
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Glass especially telescope glass like Pyrex has low expansion properties, metal expand and deform significantly over temperature variations.