1087 replies to this topic

[The_Vagabond]

Hello all!

In search of a 3" (76.2mm) spherical f/10 mirror. As long as it's usable should suffice. Barring that, guesses as to how much resilvering the same also accepted.

Thanks!

[deSitter]

Hello all!

In search of a 3" (76.2mm) spherical f/10 mirror. As long as it's usable should suffice. Barring that, guesses as to how much resilvering the same also accepted.

Thanks!

If you already have the mirror and are handy, you can try home silvering. You remove the old aluminum coating with ferric chorlde (or is it ferrous? ) and then deposit a layer of real silver with more fun chemistry. You don't have to be Linus Pauling to do it.

 

-drl

[deSitter]

Here's a thread

 

https://www.cloudyni...ipping-mirrors/

 

-drl

[The_Vagabond]

Here's a thread

 

https://www.cloudyni...ipping-mirrors/

 

-drl

I'd happily consider this, though I can't do it where I live at the moment (apartment building). Also kind of worried about my chemical sensitivities. However, if it comes down to this, I might go this way. Thanks!

[Jay_Reynolds_Freeman]

I'd happily consider this, though I can't do it where I live at the moment (apartment building). Also kind of worried about my chemical sensitivities. However, if it comes down to this, I might go this way. Thanks!

Botched silvering can result in solutions of silver salts splashing across your skin -- some processes are prone to go sploosh and cover your face with liquid if you are standing too close. Stains from some silver salts do not wash off, you have to wait for the skin to wear away.

 

So if you do undertake hand-silvering, at least wear goggles and gloves, and be prepared to look like a raccoon if things go wrong ...

[cavecollector]

Back in the day, high school chemistry teachers would have an experiment using something like silver nitrate to precipitate out the silver. The kids would get a huge kick out of it and afterwards, one could always tell who had been careful and who had been sloppy in performing the experiment just by looking for the telltale black spots on the hands. This worked great most of the time, but there was always some smart kid who would sand off the top layer of dermis in that spot to get the bonus points for being careful. 

 

The silver nitrate reacts with the skin to form silver chloride which makes the skin dark gray or black.

 

Botched silvering can result in solutions of silver salts splashing across your skin -- some processes are prone to go sploosh and cover your face with liquid if you are standing too close. Stains from some silver salts do not wash off, you have to wait for the skin to wear away.

 

So if you do undertake hand-silvering, at least wear goggles and gloves, and be prepared to look like a raccoon if things go wrong ...

[The_Vagabond]

Botched silvering can result in solutions of silver salts splashing across your skin -- some processes are prone to go sploosh and cover your face with liquid if you are standing too close. Stains from some silver salts do not wash off, you have to wait for the skin to wear away.

 

So if you do undertake hand-silvering, at least wear goggles and gloves, and be prepared to look like a raccoon if things go wrong ...

Are there other scavengers I can choose to look like? Opossum? Large Norway rat? Probably a coatimundi. I like them.
Seriously, this would be my very last choice. I've gotten wobbly and shaky and even simple chores like cutting sheet metal (heck, cutting cardboard) take an amazing amount of concentration and time. I suspect that asking one of the aluminizing companies if they would be interested in resurfacing a 3" 70 year old mirror would raise a howl or two, followed by the inevitable "no, seriously, what do you want?"

The other alternative is to go with a commercially available 76.2mm mirror, though that would entail trimming 62.5mm off the tube as f/10 just isn't common.

*Crosses arms, sniffs*

Nope. Gonna hold out and do this right.

All this for what is normally classified as a "junk telescope".

We'll see how it goes!

Many thanks as always!

[Henryscope]

Does/did a speed control for the clock drive motors for a Celestron 70's C8 orange telescope exist? This is to adjust the frequency slightly and thereby adjust the speed. If anyone has one they are not needing that woul;d be great. If not, does anybody know a circuit I could build to make one myself. I am an electronics person by trade so I thought I'd ask the questions here. Let me know if this is the wrong thread. This is my first post to CN/s.

Thank you and God bless.

Henryscope

[ccwemyss]

Here's one thread on them: https://www.cloudyni...ive-correctors/

 

Chip W. 

[deSitter]

Need a screw-in eyepiece from a 90s vintage Vixen 6x30 finder. Happy to pay well. TIA.

 

-drl

[ccwemyss]

Does/did a speed control for the clock drive motors for a Celestron 70's C8 orange telescope exist? This is to adjust the frequency slightly and thereby adjust the speed. If anyone has one they are not needing that woul;d be great. If not, does anybody know a circuit I could build to make one myself. I am an electronics person by trade so I thought I'd ask the questions here. Let me know if this is the wrong thread. This is my first post to CN/s.

Thank you and God bless.

Henryscope

There’s one for sale in the classifieds right now. 
 

https://www.cloudyni...rack-minidrive/
 

Chip W.

[RoAnders]

Wanted: Vixen accessory tray

[DAVIDG]

 I have restored two vintage C8's and I'm looking for the setting circle pointer for the Dec circle and the RA vernier marker. I thought that sometime in the past someone made a PDF of them  but  I can't find the thread.

 

                   - Dave