2016-17 Telescope Making Class
Session 1 held on October 1, 2016

New Telescope Makers Arrive

Fall is in the air and our new class members make the pilgrimage to Breezy Hill for the beginning of TM Class.

2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 New Telescope Makers Arrive Class Leader Francis brings a welcoming smile to students.	2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 New Telescope Makers Arrive Pat rough grinding his 8" mirror with #80 carbo.	2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 New Telescope Makers Arrive Pat taking a close look at his hogged out curve.
2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 New Telescope Makers Arrive When hogging out the curve with Mirror on Top, the center of the mirror is offset to overhang the edge of the tile tool. You can see the results of this here: the outer tiles, which see more grinding action, are worn down significantly while the central tiles still show some of their original glaze color.	2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 New Telescope Makers Arrive Fred is also hogging his curve: notice he is using a glass tool instead of the tile version Pat has.	2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 New Telescope Makers Arrive Francis & Cale discuss proper strokes while Michael listens in.
2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 New Telescope Makers Arrive Bill is grinding while seated on a bench.	2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 New Telescope Makers Arrive Bill is going for an extremely fast mirror. At f/3 he has a lot of hogging to do, so he is using a pipe fitting to grind the glass. Once to the proper depth, he will pour a dental stone tool to match and grind the old fashioned way.	2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 New Telescope Makers Arrive Francis and Michael talk shop.
2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 New Telescope Makers Arrive A picture of the Pavilion Grinding Lab in action.	2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 New Telescope Makers Arrive College Physics major Francesca working on her mirror.	2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 New Telescope Makers Arrive Isabella is helping her sister Francesca with the heavy labor.
2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 New Telescope Makers Arrive Ella and Tom talking technique.

Fine Grinding

In the Bunkhouse, previous class members take up their unfinished business from last year.

2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 Fine Grinding Ray is polishing his 14.5" mirror.	2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 Fine Grinding Ray is using a "spare" 10 inch piece of Zeodur for his tool. This glass is probably worth more than the Bunkhouse he's working in, kind of like running out in an aircraft carrier for a gallon of milk.	2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 Fine Grinding Jeff letting the machine do the work while fine grinding his 17 inch mirror.
2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 Fine Grinding Jeff uses a slurry of fine aluminum oxide grinding powder.	2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 Fine Grinding Remember Fred in the first section? He finished rough grinding and graduated to the Bunkhouse to work on #220 grit. Go Fred Go.	2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 Fine Grinding It's important to clean up well between grit sizes, and here Fred is washing away old carbo before starting aluminum oxide.
2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 Fine Grinding Fred is a professional machinist, so his depth gauge is a step above what we use in class. He has lapped both surfaces, the gauge and the zero plate, to be flat within 1/1000th of an inch.	2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 Fine Grinding Chris drives down from Montreal to join the class. Here he is grinding at 25 micron. Happy Thanksgiving next week, Chris!	2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 Fine Grinding Ray and Antoine hard at work.
2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 Fine Grinding Taking a break enjoying the autumn air.	2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 Fine Grinding It's a long break...

Polishing and Pitch

The odor of pitch wafts through the Bunkhouse, smelling like fine incense.

2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 Polishing and Pitch Dave K pours lumpy pitch while Dave M heats it with a blow torch. Jeff and Francis brace for explosion. Kids: we do not recommend trying this at home.	2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 Polishing and Pitch Dave working out Foucault readings for the tester.	2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 Polishing and Pitch Dave cutting channels in his new pitch lap. We work outside to keep the gazillions of sticky pitch shards off the floor.
2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 Polishing and Pitch Cutting pitch in the great outdoors.	2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 Polishing and Pitch Also channeling his pitch lap. Seems to be a theme today.	2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 Polishing and Pitch Continuing a theme, this time with the Master.
2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 Polishing and Pitch Dave K is known for, among other things, his parquet floor design pitch laps. He feels this pattern promotes a smooth surface, and the symmetry of his channels suggests a hint of precision as well.

Class Prep

Scenes from around the site.

2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 Class Prep This year's pile of raw dental stone tools dry in the late summer sun in Jay's backyard. 75 pounds of gypsum powder went into this production line.	2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 Class Prep The epoxy dries on a batch of tools for the Telescope Making Class. We use West System marine epoxy, expensive but good to work with. Jay attempted to die the tools a Stellafane Pink color, but he moved so fast that they "shifted" more red than pink.	2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 Class Prep Fran and crew spent a busy sawdust filled day making up a batch of a dozen new Parker grinding barrels. These neat inventions by club member Dick Parker are a terrific way to have a light portable yet strong work surface.
2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 Class Prep The Mirror Grinding Lab is cleaned out and set up for our new students.	2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 Class Prep Fran has completed a conical shaped mirror and brought his new mirror cell to display. It will use a central post to hold the mirror instead of the usual edge support.	2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 Class Prep Fran is well known for beautiful craftsmanship. He also runs a mirror making class in his home workshop for the Aldrich Astro Society in Massachusetts.
2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 Class Prep Club VP Ken working with our machine shop tools. This is a batch of hold downs for our Bridgeport.	2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 Class Prep Club Site Manager John Martin clattering by on his second vehicle, a Kubota tractor. John is working with club President Dave T and his wife Julie to build an awning over the new Tee Shirt shop at Tuthill Towers.	2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 Class Prep Winter is Coming.
2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 Class Prep We're seeing some subdued fall color this year due to the near-drought conditions VT (and all of New England) experienced over the summer.

Spectrohelioscope Construction Continues

Club members worked on the historic solar instrument today.

2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 Spectrohelioscope Construction Continues The Spectrohelioscope continues to come together. Here is a shot of one of the two rotating prisms of the Image Synthesizer. These scan the incoming raw solar image over the entrance slit and also scan the monochromatic image back over your eye on the exit slit. Turn off the rotation and we basically have a Spectroscope. Alignment of the prisms is critical and we are working on this now.	2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 Spectrohelioscope Construction Continues Club member and well known ATM Dave G has been "instrumental" in getting the Spectrohelioscope running. Not pictured but working with Dave today are Matt C and Michael P.	2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 Spectrohelioscope Construction Continues Here is a shot of the coleostat's clock drive, which when stationed outside the Spectrohelioscope building, directs sunlight onto the instrument. We are working on upgrading the motor on this unit.
2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 Spectrohelioscope Construction Continues The Mount Assembly, which houses the Clock Drive, the Coleostat itself, and the singlet lens which focuses the solar image on the entrance slit.	2016-17 Telescope Making Class Session 1 held on October 1, 2016 Spectrohelioscope Construction Continues This is the auxillary assembly of the Monochromator: these two spherical mirrors pass only one color of light through the exit slit, which the Image Synthesizer will use to...well...synthesize an image. Today the crew actually achieved this, although it was too cloudy for solar observation so they imaged the Convention food tent menu. See you next month!