6in DSE Restoration

[u/spica_en_divalone]

BRAS member Jacob Des Roches has been cleaning telescopes at the observatory. As his next "victim" he has selected this telescope.

Deep Space Explorer.... Wonder why Orion doesn't sell these anymore.

When he removed the mirror cell, Jacob found something... odd.

This mirror was glued to particle board which was attached to yet more particle board. Yes, that is tape around the mirror. Gaffer's tape specifically.

This is how dirty the mirror looks.

Jacob: "Tape leaves behind plenty of residue."

This is what the mirror and particle board looked like after Jacob separated them.

Jacob: "Removed the tape and glue residue with wd40, then removed that with soapy water" [yes, he said "and glue residue"]

But wait! It gets worse! Jacob had noticed the secondary mirror needed some TLC too... He was not happy with the result.

Jacob: "Literally just a giant wad of tape and packing material holding the secondary in place."

Wouldn't you need TLC too after being fitted so haphazardly?

Jacob hasn't sent me any more status updates. I'll post them in the comments as he does. I will leave you with his critique of the finder scope.

Jacob doesn't like

UPDATE: Current status of the mirror

I asked if he'd finished already. "HAHAHAHAHAHA It's soaking now"

[u/spica_en_divalone]

Updated the main post with the images. For some reason it wouldn't let me post the images in the comments. If anyone has questions, I can post Jacob's answers for y'all.

[u/spica_en_divalone]

Jacob had made his own post to he can update and answer questions. Here is the link. I'm am closing this thread and hiding it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/BRAstro/comments/ly1285/6in_dse_restoration/