[alpal]

Originally Posted by John K

Hi Mark,

I am surprised by this comment, as I thought that you figured Anthony Wesley's fused 16" blank which seems to be producing some really fine images.

I had the pleasure of looking through a 16" mirror made by Hubble Optics a few weeks ago and must admit that the views were excellent and it looked like a very fine mirror - all depends I guess on the optician.

My dream telescope is a 20" Newtonian with a fused/composite mirror for rapid cool down assisted by a peltier cold plate to be used for planetary and deep sky imaging.

These one piece cellular blanks look interesting:

http://www.dreamcellularllc.com/40cm.htm

Good post John,
About 5 years ago when I bought my 8” f/6 Newt. - carbon fibre tubes were almost unheard of -
now everyone wants them & they are almost standard for anyone doing proper imaging.
Now sandwich mirrors are not in any telescope that I can buy but perhaps in a few years
they will become standard features as no other mirror can meet their air boundary layer thermal capability.

Progress is tried - & if the results are good - it catches on.


cheers
Allan