I recall reading that Newton envented his own telescope, using a mirror which he made out of speculum metal. I would guess that he didn't have much available to him in the way of metal working equipment, so one thing I'd like to know is how he did it and how one can imitate his method. The other is how one might do it more easily in a modern home shop.
For example, can you do it with an ordinary metal lathe or would you really want to use a numerically controlled lathe? When the machining is done, would you have to do some kind of scraping or polishing of the mirror or would it be possible to use it as is?
Ignorantly, Allan Adler snipped-for-privacy@zurich.ai.mit.edu
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