Manufacturing status of Tinsley visible quality bare aluminum and an example of snap together assembly

At the DSS conference in 2011, Tinsley introduced to the optics industry a unique bare Aluminum polishing capability that produced truly visible quality optical surfaces. This process, which can produce an optical surface with roughness as low as 15Å, achieves these results without the need for claddings or coatings. This makes Tinsley's bare Aluminum mirrors ideal for telescopes which must function over a wide range of temperatures and cannot tolerate the bi-metallic effects associated with conventional Aluminum mirror approaches. The single point diamond turning (SPDT) manufacturing process has inherent advantages in regards to both the mechanical position of the asphere surface relative to mounting datums, and manufacturing leadtime. This manufacturing process, when followed by Tinsley's bare Aluminum polishing process, can very quickly yield high-precision aspheric mirrors. The technologies outlined above can now be leveraged to quickly produce a high-precision telescope assembly which is athermal, and can be "snapped" together.