Stellafane 2009-10 Mirror Class

Quick jump on this page: Announcements | Schedule | Class Pictures | Mirror Status | Instructors | Final Report

Announcements

This class is over. To sign up for a future Mirror Class, see the pink box on the Mirror Class Main Page. We expect the next class to start in October 2010. Please email any questions or corrections to mirrorclass@stellafane.org.

Schedule & Class Pictures

A photo album of a session is typically added to the table below within a week of when the session was held.

Schedule Including brief notes about the session	Class Pictures Click Image for Photo Album
0: Saturday, October 3, 2009: 10:00 - 4:00: Workshop Pre-Class for returning students only
1: Saturday, October 17, 2009: 10:00 - 4:00: Workshop 10:30 - 11:30: Class #1: Overview & Rough Grinding
2: Saturday, November 14, 2009: 10:00 - 4:00: Workshop 11:00 - Noon: Class #2: Fine Grinding
X1: Saturday, November 21, 2009: 10:00 - 4:00: Bonus Session
X2: Saturday, December 05, 2009: 10:00 - 4:00: Bonus Session
3: Saturday, December 12, 2009: 10:00 - 4:00: Workshop 11:00 - Noon: Class #3: Polishing
4: Sunday, January 17, 2010: 10:00 - 4:00: Workshop
5: Saturday, February 13, 2010 10:00 - 4:00: Workshop 11:00 - Noon: Class #5: Testing
6: Saturday, March 13, 2010: 10:00 - 4:00: Workshop 11:00 - 1:00: Class #6: Constructing a Telescope
7: Saturday, April 10, 2010: 10:00 - 4:00: Workshop

Mirror Status

Here is a report on our participants' progress:

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!	Tom Gorka Full Member Making Mirror Kits
Wayne Hilliard Full Member & Treasurer Uncrating a 16" Blank in the Bunkhouse	Rick Hunter Full Member Using the Foucault Tester
Dave Kelly Full Member Demonstrates Polishing Techniques	Jeff Lowe President Mechanical Judging at Convention
Carl Malikowski Associate Member With a Mirror he completed in 2009	Ray Morits Associate Member Showing a student how to Measure Saggitta
Jeff Parenteau Associate Member Jeff with a Mirror he just finished in 2008	Dick Parker Associate Member At the 2007 Stellafane Convention
Dave Prowten Full Member & Trustee Assembling the Domed Observatory	Phil Rounseville Full Member Making Pitch Laps at the 2001 Convention
Joyce Sinnot Full Member At the Foucault Tester	Ken Slater Trustee & Webmaster Explaining Foucault Testing
Dave Tabor Full Member & Secretary Making a Pitch Lap in the 2006-07 Class	Samantha Tabor Full  Member At the 2007 Convention
Paul Valleli Full Member At the 2006 Stellafane Convention

Final Report

Another year of the Stellafane Mirror Class comes to completion in April 2010 and is archived to the history books. And what a wonderful class it was this year. Interest in amateur telescope making remains very strong and we (unfortunately) had to refer some prospective students to alternate mirror making venues due to our limitations in facilities. Even so, this was the largest, and most enthusiastic, group of mirror makers we have enrolled. Luckily we also had some dedicated new volunteer instructors to help keep things moving and fun. Since we had a large influx of beginning  grinders in October we moved rough grinding down to the Flanders Pavilion. Dave Tabor and Ray Morits set up a great workshop there and the new students started slinging 80-grit. Through the autumn the rough grinding continued in the Pavilion with fine grinding in the Bunkhouse and polishing/figuring in the McGregor Library. For the first time in years we provided plate glass tools to some students, and these worked out quite well. Still, STM Trustee Ken Slater has already built up a stock of tile tools for next year's class, and we will return to this Stellafane tradition in the fall of 2010.

Our student body was quite diverse, with men, women, and children of all ages. We had some long distance commuters with several folks from New York and even a wonderful student flying in from Florida every month! Many of our mirror makers were happily working at home between class sessions, and several finished up using the zonal Foucault test on their own. As the cold weather set in, we moved operations to our winter home at the Fletcher House in Chester, Vermont. Many thanks to the Newsbank Corporation for providing this facility, and to Julie Tabor for her endless hard work in keeping the place clean and productive. Preceptor of Parabolas Dave Kelly continued to mentor students on the crucial final figures of their mirrors, and has outfitted his autocollimator with video to help groups analyze surfaces. Jeff Parenteau gave a detailed class in Foucault testing and Dick Parker brought his autocollimator to help with final figuring and also continued to encourage our Refractor Interest Group in their lens making. We had a rather large donation of professional grade polishing slurries from a local manufacturer and students began using appropriately pink colored cerium. All in all this was a terrific Mirror Class season. We will fold up operations for the summer while we work on getting Breezy Hill ready for the Stellafane Convention and will resume classes this fall.

As one experienced ATM  instructor said, "Congrats on an awesome 2009 - 2010 Mirror Class! Most fun I have had with any mirror class group."  

Attendance	Oct 3	Oct 17	Nov 14	Nov 21	Dec 5	Dec 12	Jan 17	Feb 13	Mar 13	April 10
Students	12	18	21	10	7	8	16	14	17	15
Instructors	9	9	10	7	8	7	12	13	12	11