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5/19/2007 - THE MIRROR HAS BEEN SHIPPED!!!!!

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Hello all, my birthday is tomorrow and I also found out that my 20 inch primary mirror from Galaxy Optics has shipped, it is due to arrive on Friday, May 25th. Once the secondary cage was finished there wasn't much to do other then continue to collect parts and begin the process of mathematically determining mirror box dimensions to perfectly balance the telescop. This entry and the next contain some "odds and ends" work I've done over the past month or so.

ENTRY PICTURES

Here is the test data. John told me that this is one of the best optics he's produced in the last 10 years! Either way, take a look....a Strehl Ratio of 0.98, AWESOME!! PV and RMS values are in the upper left in blue. More on the optic when it arrives. I have finally completed the focuser shim and the focuser is ready for install. This shim will protect the nice curved Maple focuser board from the adjustment feet of the focuser. Focuser installed with a 14mm UWA Meade 4000 EP. Isn't that Maple just beautiful!?! OK, on to balancing. Here is the preliminary balancing spreadsheet that I've created as I have enough data to see where everything stands. The whole purpose of this sheet is to determine mirror box depth. As you can see on this sheet I will need a mirror box around 22 inches deep to get the torque between the upper and lower ends of the scope to within 50 or so inch pounds of each other.

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