From: "Jerald F. Wright" 
To: Mike and Sara 
CC: atm{at}shore.net
Reply-To: "Jerald F. Wright" 




Mike and Sara wrote:

> Hello!
>
>     I met Jane Houston Jones, president of the Astronomial Association of
> Northern California, last year, here in Alice Springs for the Leonids
> observation.  I was in the midst of grinding my fist 4.25 inch mirror for my
> children.  I described my frustrations with the grinding and polishing
> errors I encountered, since no one else in my club makes their own mirrors.
>
>     Anyway, she described her long career of making mirrors with the Jon
> Dobson method.  She described herself as a tele-evangelist, an evangelist to
> get people to use their telescopes.
>
>     She described how she made 10 inch mirrors in a day, 4 hours to rough, 4
> hours to fine grind, and 4 hours to polish.
>
>      When I asked her about testing, etc. to make sure of the figure, she
> said she regularly obtains 1/4 wave optics by slightly deepening the center
> during the final stage of fine grinding, then polishing and star testing!
>
>     To me, as a Newbie, such skill is far down the road, but I can
> understand the letters to date about the philosophy of John Dobson about
> getting making telescopes to be used.  Jane's comments underscored to me
> what a skilled worker can do, though at my newbie level, I want as many aids
> as I can, both to ensure quality optics, but also to learn, and perhaps,
> just to have fun with the hobby or mirror making.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Mike



    I suggest you forget everything she said if you want to make telescope
mirrors. Her method is ridiculous.  Was it the first of April that you talked to
her?

Jerry

--- BBBS/NT v4.00 MP