January 2013

We have received our Zambuto Optical Company replacement mirror. Very Exciting.
Carl tells us we got into the program just before he discontinued it. Basically
we ordered it last May and he has just sent us a ZOC 300mm work of art
at a nice discount plus we send him back our stock mirror.

The new mirror is approximately 20mm thinner and 5mm less in diameter. This
equates to about 9 less pounds of glass! We were worried about not getting our
eyepieces to come to focus since the new mirror would be sitting lower in the cell.
Interestingly, our entire eyepiece set came to focus within 1-2mm of focus
travel with the new mirror as compared to the old. This tells us the Orion
mirror was not quite 1500mm advertised focal length (the ZOC mirros is 1501mm).

Carl Zambuto has been fabulous to work with throughout this entire process,
answering every one of our endless questions without hesitation.

Here are a few pictures of the packaging and such.

Serial Number 007 Box	Documentation
Carl's Personal Certificate of Performance Guarantee and Authentication	Mirror Packaging Cover (soft tissue underneath cardboard, taped to the side such that it did not touch the mirror - all surrounded in lots of thick foam)
Cell Modifications to Mirror Clips to Accomodate Thinner Mirror

Last January (2010) we decided to get back into astronomy with the
puchase of an Orion Telescopes xx12i 12" f/4.9 Truss Newtonian Reflector.
Have been enjoying this telescope very much so far.