Stellafane 2006-07 Mirror Class

Announcements

This class is now complete.

To sign up for a Mirror Class, see the pink box on the Mirror Class Main Page.

Schedule & Class Pictures

Class

Schedule Including brief notes about the session	Class Pictures Click Image for Photo Album
1: Saturday, October 21, 2006: 10:00 - 4:00: Workshop 10:30 - 11:30: Class #1: Selecting Aperture & Focal Length Overview & Rough Grinding A cool fall day, with rough grinding outside!
2: Saturday, November 11, 2006: 10:00 - 4:00: Workshop 11:00 - Noon: Class #2: Fine Grinding Scott finished his mirror, the first one this year! (See photo at right) A warm day, outside grinding, good turnout.
3: Saturday, December 16, 2006: 10:00 - 4:00: Workshop 11:00 - Noon: Class #3: Polishing Snow free in mid-December - Amazing!
4: Sunday, January 21, 2007: 10:00 - 4:00: Workshop 11:00 - Noon: Class #4: Figuring Eileen finished her mirror! Two more are close. The cold of winter arrived, but still no snow.
5: Saturday, February 17, 2007 @ Stellafane 10:00 - 4:00: Workshop 11:00 - Noon: Class #5: Testing Canceled due to deep snow and probable drifting.	Canceled
6: Saturday, March 17, 2007: 10:00 - 4:00: Workshop 11:00 - 1:00: Class #6: Constructing a Telescope Canceled due to snow & ice storm.	Canceled
7: Saturday, April 14, 2007: 10:00 - 4:00: Workshop 11:00 - 1:00: Class #5: Testing Nice turnout at the Fletch house in Chester, VT; we finally held a mirror class after 2 cancelations in a row.
8: Saturday, May 19, 2007: 10:00 - 4:00: Workshop A great finish with 4 mirrors being completed!

Mirror Status

Here is a report on what our participants are making, and at what stage they are at:

Mirror Maker
*Club Member Mirror
Size/Type Focal
Ratio Mirror
Status Status
Date

Andy 12.5 5.4 Done 5/19

Anne D. 8 5/19

Chris 8 5.0 #220 5/19

Cody* 6 8.0 Polish 5/19

Don 6 Rough 5/19

Eileen 8 6 Done 1/07

Elisabeth 6 8 #220 5/19

Fran 12.5 Cass 3.94 Figure 5/19

George 8 6 Done 5/19

Glenn* 6 5 Polish 5/19

Isaac 6 10.9 Polish 5/19

Janet 8 #80 5/19

Jeremy 6 4.2 Polish 5/19

Jim* 8 6.0 Polish 5/19

Joe 6 4 Rough 5/19

Joyce* 6 4.0 Done 5/19

Randall 6 7 Polish 5/19

Rick 8 7 #220 5/19

Samantha 4¼ 4.5 Done 5/19

Scott 8 8 Done 11/11

Sean 6 8.0 #220 11/11

Steve 8 4.5 #220 5/19

22 Mirror Makers 22 Mirrors 6 Done

Instructors

Thanks to our large group of volunteer instructors, we can hold these mirror class and give everyone the individualized attention they require. Several of our instructors work professionally in the optics industry, and many have competed dozens or mirrors and more complicated optics as amateurs.

Officers, Trustees and Full Members of the club have had to successfully made a mirror or other quality optical surface.

Jay Drew Mirror Class Leader, Full Member Eats #80 Grit for a Snack!	Junie Esslinger Full Member Explaining a Polishing Stroke
Tom Gorka Full Member Making Mirror Kits	Wayne Hilliard Full Member Uncrating a 16" Blank in the Bunkhouse
Rick Hunter Full Member Using the Foucault Tester	Dave Kelley Full Member Demonstrates Polishing Techniques
Jeff Lowe Vice President Mechanical Judging at Convention	Dave Prowten Truestee Assembling the Domed Observatory
Phil Rounseville Full Member Making Pitch Laps at the 2001 Convention	Ken Slater Trustee and Webmaster Explaining Foucault Testing
Paul Valleli Full Member At the 2006 Stellafane Convention	Brad Vietje Immediate Past President Explaining Telescope Construction
Wayne Zuhl Club Secretary Assembling his telescope, 2006 Convention

Final Report

This year's mirror class was defined by weather. Bad weather. Although it wasn't the worst winter ever, the snows in Vermont seemed determined to fall heaviest on New Moon weekends when class was scheduled. We were forced to cancel both the February and March classes due to poor conditions on Breezy Hill, more than we've ever canceled before. Luckily, we had a motivated group of mirror makers and despite the weather, six mirrors were completed.

This was Jay Drew's first year as Mirror Class Leader, and he enjoyed the experience. He says that he didn't make any real changes to the class set up as Ken Slater, our previous Class Leader, had a smooth running system that purred along without problem.

Several bonus sessions were held, which helped keep things moving along despite the weather problems. Tom Gorka held an extra grinding session on a Saturday early in the fall which got our motivated students off to a good head start. Jay & Tom held an extra polishing/figuring session in January as well.

Three new club members came from mirror class this year. We hope to recruit two of them, Joyce and Dave, as instructors next year.

Several very useful capital improvements were made to our facilities by the irascible Tom Gorka. First, he renovated the back T-shirt room to handle the overflow of our large group of new grinders. Then he closed in the Bunkhouse front porch with custom windows, creating a wonderful sun room that was very popular with students and club members alike. Tom also built several new heavy duty grinding stands.

This year's class was well represented by women, with mirrors completed by Joyce, Eileen, and Samantha. The Springfield Telescope Makers are very interested in reaching out to female astronomers and are pleased to have these three amateurs involved.

There is already a good waiting list for next year's sessions, and many of our current students plan on returning to finish their mirrors.

Plans for the future? We hope to finalize arrangements for an alternate work site just in case of bad weather next year. John Martin has said that we may be able to reserve the Fletcher House in Chester for the February and March Mirror Class sessions. We'll work on that early next fall.

We have some ideas to help prevent the polishers from getting scratches at the McGregor station. This year we experimented with covering the workstations with builder's paper, and tried wet-mopping before the students arrived. Hopefully we will avoid disastrous scratches in the future.

Ken & Jay are hoping to put together a Foucault Tester Workshop later this year. They will provide kits and a full day of assistance to students who wish to build a Stellafane Tester.

Thanks to all the hard working club members who make this class such a success!

Attendance Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar April May

Students 16 12 15 9 Canceled 9 11

Instructors 12 10 8 7 9 8