The storm continues all day and night preventing any work on the Celestron GGXL mount in preparation of imaging Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and Venus in their favorable positions.
The weatherman predicts approximately one week to 12 days, every day with the same storms, with the usual dark and gloomy appearances, plus extremely hot rain and utterly dismal conditions. Extreme humidity prevails. Of course all projects are now shifted to indoors.
We learn new things everyday. Today, email brought in new telescope mirror bids for very large Dobsonian mirrors of varying glass material, F/ratio, thickness, diameter and completion times. One thing is certain, premium mirrors command a premium price. One optics company has mirrors in stock and one does not. It takes approximated 10 months to have a mirror made. Apparently for at least two premium optical companies, annealed plate glass has become a thing of the past. In its place we find lower thermal expansion glass - Pyrex, Borosilicate and Quartz.
