The making of 30 in telescope - 48, Polishing Machine

夸克星 註冊時間: 2003-10-09 文章: 2207

Dear ATMs,

I would like to take this opportunity the express my gratitude towards WongSir who had kindly offered his machine shop to complete the components for our mirror polishing machine. The machine was completed in the following day.

In order to secure a high precision flat optical surfaces the mirrors must not be polished by hands, as in conventional parabolic mirror. It is highly unpredictable what will come out from the hands of our student and consequently we better rely on machines rather than human. So the machine is no longer human fresh type but instead it is a truly mechanical fabricated, although still powered by human energy.

Although designed for polishing the flat mirrors this machine is also capable of grinding and polishing conventional Newtonian primaries, with aperture up to 10 inches.

This polishing machine belongs to the version 2.0 construction phase of the 30 inch telescope. The version1.0 was completed in April and we are waiting for clear sky to test this great telescope in field. The construction of the big optical flat mirror is used to fold up the light path of the OTA to reduce zenith eyepiece height. We don’t want to climb up a ladder to view into the eyepiece, for the sake of safety and for more convenient transportation. ( it is not at all easy to bring a ladder to field. )

Meanwhile, during this rainy season, let us take a break and pray for early arrival of clear sky.

Best regards
Chan Yuk Lun
9th June, 2006