Did he make the mirror? Thought he bought it from a government contractor.
Mike's 70 inch scope is a record-breaker, obliterating the previous
amateur-built telescope record of 48" (to the best of my knowledge).
The record for the largest telescope optic ever made by an amateur has stood for over a hundred years, and is a 62 inch mirror made near the end of the 19th century by John Peate of Pennsylvania. It currently resides in the Smithsonian, was never mounted in a telescope due to advances in glass technology and optics at the time. Peate was in his 70s when he began the project!
Read about Peate and the big mirror here:
http://home.europa.com/~telscope/peate.txt _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy
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