Re-Silvering Mirrors for Scientific Instruments
In August 2019 Peter Pekurar demonstrated the process of silvering a 12.5" mirror at the Stellafane Convention of amateur telescope makers in Vermont using our chemicals.
We have helped customers silver mirrors for single lens reflex cameras, lasers, curved glass and thin plastic film for solar reflectors and glass slides for medical research.
Please let us know if we can help you create or recreate your scientific instrument.
Oregon Scope Werks Technical Research
The January 2020 issue of Sky and Telescope magazine includes articles by Peter Pekurar, Howard Banich and Rob Brown, members of the informal Oregon Scope Werks group of amateur telescope makers.
The topics covered are:
Notes
- The silver coating created by our chemicals is 50 to 100 nanometers thick.
- The reflectivity is over 90%.
- Use your the instrument's housing to protect the mirror from fingerprints, dust and abrasion.
- Angel Guard, an anti-tarnishing compound developed for the semi-conductor industry, protects the silver from sulfur in the air without changing its reflectivity.
- Silver Remover quickly and safely removes the old coating when it is time to re-silver your mirror.
The best known telescope silvered with our chemicals is the 70" diameter mirror that Mike Clements first silvered in 2013 and later donated to the Stansbury Park Observatory Complex run by the Salt Lake Astronomical Society. A Google search for "Mike Clements worlds largest amateur telescope Utah" provides a wealth of information on this achievement. Mike silvered this piece using our Pump Spray Silver Kit.
Your scientific mirror does not have to be large. Ron DiGiovanni used pouring silver and our 3-D Mirror Kit to re-silver 6 prisms for his bubble sextants.
