From: Dale Eason 
To: tkrajci{at}san.osd.mil, atm{at}shore.net
Reply-To: Dale Eason 


The reason I resist attaching my mirror to the Cell is that I want to be
able to remove the mirror from the scope for various reasons.

I can only store the scope in the garage.  I did that one winter here in
Minnesota and the mirror coating was damaged by all the moisture and car
exhaust.  Thus I now remove the mirror and store it in the house.

I use my mirror to test my version of Robo Foucault. I would be difficult
to do that with the cell attached and makes disassembling the scope more
difficult.

Lastly it is easier to transport the scope in 3 lighter pieces.

All of these could probably be done with the cell attached but I think it
is easier the other way. Thus my priorities are different than yours.

Dale Eason

-+- tkrajci{at}san.osd.mil wrote:
>
> >From: Chuck Dethloff 
>
> >One thing that I learned from my friends experience
> was that having three
> >mirror clips instead of only one (which I have
> traditionally done because
> >the other two seemed redundant) is what saved
> Howard's mirror from being
> >possibly broken. The OTA was laying flat on back
> upside down when I came
> >upon it. The mirror no longer supported in it's
> sling was rather now
> >supported by the upper bumper and tipped forward
> against the two mirror
> >retainer eye bolts attached to the lower two
> bumpers. Without that
> >redundancy his mirror would have undoubtedly fell
> forward in the box and
> >could have been scratched or possibly broken.
>
> Some folks are hard sold on the mirror clips and
> sling concept.  When will
> they let go of the idea?  When it's pried from their
> cold, dead
> fingers.  ;-)
>
> My sixteen inch mirror is RTV glued to a six point
> support.  No slings.
> No clips.
>
> In a manner of speaking it is held in place by six,
> adhesive, shock
> absorbing, high strength clips.  In my opinion that
> is far better than
> three mechanical edge clips that let the mirror
> rattle about, and perhaps
> present a chipping risk during rough transport and
> handling.
>
> I don't care what orientation my mirror box takes
> during shipment.  The
> mirror is bonded to the cell and won't fall out.
>
> When I first bonded the mirror to the cell, I tested
> it in stages.  At
> first I did some gentle tilting of the cell, then
> more tipping.  No
> problems.  Then I inverted the cell.  Again, no
> problems.  Then I put some
> weight on the back of the mirror while the cell was
> inverted.  Once again,
> no problems.  Then I grabbed the cell as if I were
> an olympic athlete
> preparing for the 'hammer throw'...and whirled the
> cell/mirror about.
> Still yet again, no problems.  (What other tests
> would folks like me to
> conduct?...short of damaging or destroying
> componenets)
>
> My telescope was shipped out to Tashkent...10,000
> kilometers and three
> months.  It survived intact, and when I assembled it
> for the first
> time...collimation was only a little bit off.  Not
> too shabby.
>
> Can we please put the mirror clips and sling idea to
> rest?
>
> Tom Krajci
> Tashkent, Uzbekistan
>
>
>
>


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