The Mirror Cell
The part of the telescope that holds a mirror in place is called the “mirror cell”. The simplest way to hold a mirror in place is with three dabs of silicone glue. If glue is too hard, it can pull on the mirror and the stress will distort its shape on a scale of hundreds of nanometers, which is bad.
Small mirrors can usually get away with just three dabs of glue. Because my mirror was so accurate, I was advised to make a “flotation cell”, which holds the mirror in place without glue. I designed this modification of the stock Leavitt mirror cell in Onshape. The gray edge supports are also what stop the mirror from falling out if the telescope is turned upside down. These parts are printed separately and held tight (but not too tight that they press on the mirror and distort it) with a screw that screws into the base. Making the edge supports separate removable parts is important so that I can get the mirror in and out.
This mirror cell works… okay. I don’t see much distortion after the mirror has cooled down. The height of the edge supports means it sometimes scrapes against the inside of the telescope tube if pulled too much in one direction.