Home    OTA     mirror cell-movable mirror      dimensions and specifications    equatorial mount   motorize                                               

I had the mirror made by one vendor and tested with an interferometer by another  This independent testing led to the return of the first mirror for a refund.  I then had the mirror fabricated by a different mirror maker (Steve Swayze) with these results.

The process of having a mirror fabricated and then rejecting it took quite a lot longer than I had planned, but the wait was well worth it.  The mirror from Swayze Optical is excellent.  Maybe better than that. Below are the interferometer test results.   

          swayze_mirror1-72.jpg (119598 bytes)                                                                            

Residual Wavefront Variations Over Uniform Grid (in waves)

Number of points   2970

Peak                      0.108

Valley                    -0.091

P-V                        .199           (1/5 wave)

RMS P-V               .029           (1/34 wave)

Strehl Ratio             0.968          

 

CHOOSING  THE  f  RATIO

Keep in mind:

1.  The smaller the f-ratio, the larger the diagonal will need to be to maintain a given 100% image plane.

2.  The smaller the f-ratio, the shorter the OTA and the closer the eyepiece is to the ground.

3.  The smaller the f-ratio, the shorter the exposure time for imaging.

4.  The smaller the f-ratio, the smaller the coma-free image plane and the harder the telescope is to collimate..

5.  For a given mirror maker, the larger the f-ratio the better the mirror.

6.  For a given mirror maker, the larger the f-ratio the better the mirror.  (this probably should be #7 as well)