Here is a 27 point mesh I generated using Professor David Lewis'
"PLOP" program. This one is for a 10" mirror with a 1.3" Secondary mirror, a 54"
focal length, and a thickness of 2 inches.
The supporting points can be seen in the mesh. You can see
these points more clearly by merely placing your mouse pointer over
this link Put your mouse over
this link to see how varius
triangles are used to position the supports.
Touching
this link will leave you looking at the colour map
of the mirror's surface deformations when used with this support structure. Each colour represents a
different wavefront error. The Red zones are areas of extremely poor wavefront error. The
Blue areas coincide with the location of the supports.
Every second time you place your mouse over
this link you toggle the image between a 9 point
cell's triangular supports and a colour map of how the above mirror deforms using 9 points
instead of 27 points.