Finishing Steve's 24" (2022 - Current)

When Steve Swayze passed away, he left behind a 24” telescope that he had been working on and off for over a decade, the structure was mostly complete, but not yet finished. It took me the better part of 3 years to finish it. I remember he first showed me the skeleton of the cage in his shed all the way back in 2010. He showed me out to his shed in his backyard, opened the shed, and pointed to a big blue drum, and said, that's the cage for the 24" I'm building. At the time, I had absolutely no idea that it would turn out as beautiful as it did, no small thanks to Steve's exquisite skill in veneering. I also had no idea that it would be me that would end up finishing the scope, something that is bittersweet to me. I wish it was Steve that finished this scope, and enjoyed the views through it. 

Finishing Steve's 24" is detailed in the various sub-pages under the "24 f/3.17 Steve Swayze" link at the top of this page, but what is not documented is the completion of the cell as that was the first thing I did, and early in the process- I did not take pictures and it did not occur to me to document it. The cell was incomplete, so I finished it by installing the A frame on top of the tailgate, secured with belleville washers in place of locking nuts. I studied pictures of Steve's 40", and copied the manner in which Steve installed the cell in his 40". I did this by making a jig to precisely drill recessed holes around the mirror box for the cell bolts, and drilled those with a forester bit. 

Steve had been working on the primary, a 24” blank of Pyrex at 2” thick for several years before his passing, but was not able to finish it due to becoming seriously ill in the last few months of his life although he was close to finishing it. A 24” f/3.17 mirror was not a mirror I was able to finish on my own, so I chose Mike Lockwood to finish the mirror because of his reputation for excellent work on large mirrors at faster focal ratios. Mike Lockwood, when receiving it, had to polish it out a bit more to remove a trace amount of astigmatism. He went back to a sphere, and re-figured from there. Mike Lockwood’s work here, is simply exquisite, as I’ll explain further down in this post.

Mike Lockwood had the primary back to me within 4 months, and that summer, I went up to Carl Zambuto’s shop to have it coated. Even though Carl and Steve were competitors, they always had a mutual respect for one another, as well as a friendship. The 24” being Steve’s last mirror, Carl made an exception in his coating policy and coated this mirror for me, and for that, I’m very thankful to Carl. Carl showed me around his shop (with my son as my ASL interpreter), and I visited him again after that, for dinner with him and his wife. I can’t say enough nice things about Carl, I really can’t, and I appreciate his friendship. Carl is very understanding of my communication accommodations and he was willing to take the extra time to communicate with me through my son who interpreted everything in ASL for me. Not everyone has Carl’s or Steve’s patience. These two are birds of a feather. The coating, by the way, is excellent and flawless. Carl wouldn’t have let it leave his shop otherwise.

The performance of the Swayze-Lockwood primary is excellent. When acclimated and the 3 C’s line up, the primary allows me to go high power on the planets and DSOs, and stars are nice tight pinpoints. Light collects evenly on both sides of focus, and there is no trace of astigmatism or other optical aberrations at this fast focal ratio. What makes the Swayze-Lockwood primary stand out though, is not just the pinpoint stars, but the incredible contrast observed at high powers, owing to the large exit pupils at high powers.

The views of open star clusters are incredible because the 24” reaches deep. Fainter stars that I don’t see in my smaller scopes show up in the 24” in open clusters, and it makes for mesmerizing views. Asterisms are aplenty in the eyepiece views.

I’ve long considered my 10” f/5.6 to be the gold standard for planetary and lunar observing, but the 24” f/3.17 with the Swayze-Lockwood primary easily outmatches the 10” f/5.6 and it’s not close. At all. 

The figure on the mirror is excellent, and the smoothness of the optical surface allows for contrast at high powers. Here is another reason why the views are outstanding:

The large exit pupils at higher powers makes for outstanding views, especially given the quality of the mirror figure! It’s so nice, to go very high power, and not be in floater city.

I do not care about strehl ratio, Interferometry #s, etc etc. I come from the school of Swayze mirror making. I only care about what my eyes can see at the eyepiece, and my eyes see that the views are fantastic and contrasty at high powers, owing to the mirror figure being of excellent quality. I’ve also looked at it in my ronchi tester in my shop and Carl’s ronchi tester in his shop and we both agree: this mirror has an excellent figure. Thanks Mike Lockwood!

Not only does the mirror have an excellent figure, it also has a neat call-out to Steve that Mike Lockwood engraved into the mirror, along with Mike Lockwood’s signature engraving as seen in the pictures below.

I’m extremely proud to say the primary in the 24” stands on the shoulders three optical giants: Steve Swayze; Mike Lockwood; and Carl Zambuto. How many mirrors like this one out there? Exactly zero.

Pictures below: