2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class
Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09

A Snowy January Class

It snowed on Saturday, and that combined with the Sunday schedule reduced turnout as usually happens in these circumstances. For those who came, there was plenty of room, short lines at the tester and in general good progress made in moving towards completion.

2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 A Snowy January Class Icicles hang from the holiday decorations on the Fletcher house entrance.

2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 A Snowy January Class Activity in the main room at the beginning of the day - a few more showed up as the day wore on.

2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 A Snowy January Class Julie motions to photographer Jay that the lunch platter is not ready for takers yet!

Students at Work

Photos of our hard working students and engaged instructors throughout the day.

2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 Students at Work Peter fine grinds and 8" mirror. Unfortunately, a short time later he dropped his mirror, it hit the edge of the bench, and it took a big chunk out of the face and edge.	2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 Students at Work Samantha use her music player while the 10" presses; Tatiana polishes.	2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 Students at Work Orla & Erin polishing away.
2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 Students at Work Carl figures a 4½ inch mirror.	2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 Students at Work Ryan works on his 12" mirror while Dan looks on.	2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 Students at Work Ryan listens as both Instructor Dave and Instructor Paul provide advice and guidance.
2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 Students at Work Michael (with paper) asks for help with a central depression and Dan, Ken & Carl all tell him slightly different things to try!	2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 Students at Work Instructor Jay demonstrates a stroke to Michael on his mirror.	2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 Students at Work Katie waits patiently as her lap gets pressed.

Testing for Perfection

With many in the class figuring, a lot of testing gets done. We had three testers running this session, two of which are shown here.

2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 Testing for Perfection Rick waits for the next 'customer' by Jay's tester.	2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 Testing for Perfection Katie is looking through the tester, and sees that her mirror has been figured to a perfect sphere!	2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 Testing for Perfection Samantha adjusts the mirror stand on the tester to hold her 10" mirror.
2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 Testing for Perfection Dave & Carl prepare to test Carl's mirror.		2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 Testing for Perfection Rick & Jay chat near the tester while waiting for results.

Autocollimation Lecture

Dick brought a videotape of his autocollimation talk to show the students - it was very well received, and both students and instructors found it very worthwhile.

2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 Autocollimation Lecture Dick introduces the lecture video with some preliminary remarks.

2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 Autocollimation Lecture The couch in the living room of the Fletcher house is filled with attentive mirror makers.

2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 Autocollimation Lecture Cecelia ended up on the floor due to lack of seats.

Pitch Dungeon

In order to keep odors out of the main house, making pitch laps is done in the basement, fondly referred to as the Pitch Dungeon :-) The dungeon is presided over by our supreme leader, Jay.

2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 Pitch Dungeon The pitch lap factory is neatly laid out and ready to get to work.	2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 Pitch Dungeon Jay applies CeO to the lap mat to foster easy release of the pitch after cooling.	2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 Pitch Dungeon Jay poured a bit too much pitch onto the lap mat and some overflow occurred. The mirror is under the mat to properly curve the pitch, with the tool on top.
2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 Pitch Dungeon Jay uses specialized, high tech tools (a razor blade and channel-lock pliers) to trim the newly poured lap.		2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 Pitch Dungeon Strange thing go on in the Pitch Dungeon while waiting for the pitch to harden!

Refractor Interest Group

Several of the instructors are working on making achromatic lenses this year. A bit of this work was fit into mirror class.

2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 Refractor Interest Group Ray is beveling the edge of his SF1 flint element.

2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 Refractor Interest Group Paul explains to Dave how to use a lathe to edge his blank.

2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 Refractor Interest Group Ray takes a lunch break, with his refractor elements nearby (in the plastic food bins).

Show & Tell

All sorts of cool stuff shows up and mirror class for others to examine, ogle and enjoy. Here is what showed up this session.

2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 Show & Tell Ken examines Jay's little Bausch & Lomb Criterion 4000 SCT, with Carl eyeing it from behind too.	2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 Show & Tell Paul shows off his Bath Interferometer, version 2, made in the last month.	2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 Show & Tell Ryan shows off his nickel grinding tool (yes, one fell off).
2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 Show & Tell Dick brought along a small scope that has his "from the eyepiece" collimation controls installed.	2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 Show & Tell In this shot, you can see how the knob by the eyepiece move a threaded rod that adjusts the mirror cell.	2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 Show & Tell Michael brought in his very tidy and well illustrated figuring log (you might have guessed he is a graphics designer).
2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 Show & Tell Paul looks at the U.S. First robotics competition manual and talks about it with Cecelia and Katie, who will be participating in the program.	2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 Show & Tell Ryan's Red Rouge polishing agent stand out against the black Gugolz pitch.	2010-11 Stellafane Mirror Class Session 4 held on 2011-Jan-09 Show & Tell Done for another month, several instructors clean up and put back the conference room the way we found it.