Go Home

Polishing the Mirror


When my center of focus was at 108 1/2", I began to polish my mirror. This polishing reduced the center of curvature down to the desired radius of curvature of 108" + 2.59 mm or 2745.78 mm. The extra 2.59 mm would be removed when I figured the mirror in the next and last step.

Here, an even coating of pitch was applied to the tool, and scored in a cross-hatch pattern with a "v" shaped chisel.  Instead of using a finer grade of "carborundum", a series of ever finer optical grades of "Rouge" were used. Frequent mapping of the mirror's surface drew attention to uneven polishing, and helped prevent overshooting the desired radius of curvature.