Today we had a small bonus session with a few club members and friends. The plan was to clean up the Bunkhouse, make mirror kits for our new students, and to do a little figuring. The big news this year is that STM Francis O'Reilly has taken over leadership of Mirror Class. He has plans to improve our completion rate and to add telescope mount building to the curriculum. It was a beautiful day to putter around Stellafane.
2015-16 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 00 (Early Bird Special) held on 2015-Sept-12 Return To Mirror Class
Fran took the day to continue figuring his 12.5" f/4 Cassegrain primary mirror using a Heinz Ketchup bottle full of his favorite Cerium oxide. Notice the subdiameter pitch lap pressing underneath the big mirror.
Fran's Secret Sauce
2015-16 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 00 (Early Bird Special) held on 2015-Sept-12 Return To Mirror Class
We packaged up a dozen grit kits for new students. Each pack has all the grits needed for a mirror, ranging from #80 Silicon carbide to 5 micron Aluminum oxide. The key to avoiding contamination between grits in this process is to work from the finest grit first to the coarsest grit last. These grit kits then go into the boxed mirror/tool sets with some bumper stickers and our grinding instructions, ready for class.
Grit Kits
2015-16 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 00 (Early Bird Special) held on 2015-Sept-12 Return To Mirror Class
Ron's lap is looking pretty good after a rebuild along the edges. You can see where he added pitch so that he has a slightly oversized lap ready for final figuring. The apples in the background are from our tree by the Amphitheater, where the Convention Shadowgram presentation is given. Very sweet and crisp this year!
