Suggestions for a Home-Built Telescope

hodet asks: "I would like to know if anyone here has built or are planning to build their own telescope. My plan right now is to build an 8" F/6 Dobsonion Reflector based on these plans. The same design can also be found here. The base has been cut and the primary and secondary mirrors are to be ordered shortly. Since I plan on making a few modifications to this design I'd like to know if anyone here has done anything similar or totally original and what thoughts and suggestions you may have. I know it may be cheaper and easier to buy one from Meade, but that's not what I'm looking for."

Comments

Spinning Mercury Mirror

[justanyone]

If you want a large but immobile telescope, there's a way to do it with a large spinning pool of Mercury. Some canadian university built a nice observatory doing this.

The limitations are that they have to wear breathing protection around it due to Mercury outgassing vapor and them (understandably) wanting to avoid heavy metal poisoning.

However, it apparently makes a wonderful mirror, albeit a parabolic one. It would be interesting if someone could set up a manufacturing process whereby we would spin up Aluminum as a mirror base then spray a thin layer of Silver or chromium onto it to give a polished surface.

Of course I don't know jack about mirrors except that grinding glass ones is a pain in the butt and therefore costly.

Anyone know more?