The K-20 Project

The K-20 Project

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5/25/2007 - 20 inch f/5 PREMIUM SELECT PRIMARY MIRROR ARRIVES!!!!

After eagerly tracking its progress from Galaxy Optics in Colorado, the 51 pound primary mirror has arrived!  The optic is one of John Hudek's "Premium Select" optics, meaning it is the best of the run.  ALL of Galaxy's optics are of world class precision and this one is even more with beautiful interfogram plot and Strehl Ratio of 0.98!!!!  John told me that it is one of the best optics he has produced in the last 10 years....and he is NOT a person to play salesman either, he was very sincere.  He is also very thorough in his testing as well.  I found an arrow etched into the back of the mirror.  John tests all his optics on a vertical test bench and rotates the optic until he finds the position where vertical flexure (under its own weight with one side being "dug out" for the figure) produces the best testing results.  He uses an arrow in a "this side up" fashion to tell the user how to mount the optic in a scope.  This is only important as the telescope drops below 45 degrees and the sling begins to take most of the mirror's weight.

ENTRY PICTURES


My good friend and co-worker Ryan has been hearing about this mirror for the last two weeks! He knew what day it was!	So here's what the box looked like after UPS had its way with it! Not too bad but that divit in the cover was a little concerning. After opening the outer box, I was instantly relieved to find that none of the 1 inch thick layer of cardboard beneath was harmed. Then I realized I shouldn't have been concerned at all, John has been shipping mirrors for 20 years!

Underneath the second cover was the 1 inch thick layered barrier. On top of that was an envelope containing my invoice and more importantly, the overall test data...as seen in the next Journal Entry. The evelope reads "Galaxy Optics 20.0" F5.0 SN02114-PS#1" The "PS" stands for Premium Select, best of the run.	And there it is!!!...with my coffee table for scale.