October 2003 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

Re: [Utah-astronomy] Ebony Star
by UTAHDEB＠aol.com 11 Oct '03

11 Oct '03

Chuck, What is PPE and where do I buy the acetone? My Ebony Star probably could use a cleaning and waxing. Thanks, Debbie

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Ebony Star
by Josephine Grahn 11 Oct '03

11 Oct '03

Debbie, Acetone can be fairly nasty. You don't want to get it on your skin, or inhale it. I use it for a variety of things, but cleaning your ebony star surface is not one that I would recommend. Really all that is needed is to clean the laminate with windex, or anything you would use to clean a countertop. Acetone softens the surface of the laminate, and easily removes the upper layer . I know, because I have used it on our lab benches to remove nasty chemical stains :). It removes the stain, but leaves a slightly matte finish area, where the surface is compromised. As far as wax, you may want to look into any of the car waxes that contain silicone. They make for a nice slippery finish. We keep a bottle in our trailer for that purpose. At 03:24 PM 10/11/2003 EDT, you wrote: >Chuck, > >What is PPE and where do I buy the acetone? My Ebony Star probably could use >a cleaning and waxing. Thanks, > >Debbie > >_______________________________________________ >Utah-Astronomy mailing list >Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com >http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy > >

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Columbia/NASA multi-media site
by Chris Valentine 11 Oct '03

11 Oct '03

Here is a website some of you may find of interest. If you check it out make sure you read "a question of perception" the link is at page bottom. http://www.angelfire.com/film/sts107/ -Chris Valentine (one of the Columbia reentry videographers)

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Ebony Star
by Chuck Hards 11 Oct '03

11 Oct '03

I didn't start using Ebony Star until the mid-nineties. My all-fiberglass 10" scope (10 built and sold) used plain Formica for the azimuth bearing and polished aluminim for the altitude bearings. Both work well, but need cleaning about twice a year. A wipe with a rag moistened with acetone (use PPE) removes all residue and dirt, then another wipe with carnuaba wax gives the bearings just the right "feel". Recently I got the idea to groove the Teflon instead of using a pebbled surface laminate. I "lap" the altitude bearings by wrapping a strip of 60-grit sandpaper to the trunion, gritty side out, and moving the scope up and down a few times until it's well-seated. This grooves the Teflon and improves smoothness noticeably, as well as making a perfectly-conforming bearing surface. Another method I've only toyed with so-far is using the router and a veining bit to make the Teflon surface resemble rows of little pyramids, rather like the face of a meat mallet. This shows great promise, I might use it on a planned 12.5" Newt. C. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search http://shopping.yahoo.com

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] Ebony Star
by David L Bennett 10 Oct '03

10 Oct '03

I'd have to agree with that recommendation whole heartedly. Each time I set up my dob I try to remember to take a pocket knife to the altitude's teflon pads and scrape off the built up grime down to a fresh layer of teflon. For azimuth, I do the same with the additional step of cleaning the (un-textured) formica with some windex and a paper towel. Obviously it's more difficult to get to azimuth pads (at least on my rocker) but done every few trips keeps it nice and smooth. Dave On Friday, October 10, 2003, at 05:05 PM, Jim Gibson wrote: > Just as a point of interest, in the October 2003 issue of Sky & > Telescope there is an article by Martin Lewis entitled Better > Dobsonian Bearings. Lewis makes this interesting observation: > > > > ìPrevious experience has shown that textured laminates, like Ebony > Star, perform better than plain onesÖ. > > I believe that the main reason that plain laminates have a reputation > for inferior performance is their susceptibility to fouling from dust > and other debris. With textured laminates dirt is pushed into the > troughs in the surface and out of the way, where with untextured > laminates it simply builds up. This difference between laminates > didnít show up in my tests because they were conducted with clean > bearings surfaces. If you keep your bearings clean, untextured > laminates are worth trying.î > > > > So, Three guys, Brent, Chuck and Martin all saying the same thing. The > neat part is that we have best experts right here on this list. > > > > Jim

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Ebony Star
by Jim Gibson 10 Oct '03

10 Oct '03

I have been looking around through Lowe's and Home Depot for Ebony Star laminate. They never seem to carry any, and it seems to cost just under $50.00 per 4'/8' sheet. Someone out there must have some smaller quantities for sale. Any one know a good source? Jim --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search

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RE: [Utah-astronomy] Apollo XVII astronaut - Dr. Harrison Schmitt to speak at USU - Oct14th
by Dale Hooper 10 Oct '03

10 Oct '03

This will be in room 103 of the new engineering bldg. Our PR person here at the Space Dynamics Lab said that it was discussed in the Deseret News. Probably by Joe? I've got a map to the location but I need to rescan it and get it compressed a bit more. I'll get it sent out late tonight or tomorrow morning. I hope to see some of you there. Clear skies, Dale. P.S. For me this is kind of like the excitement I felt when I went to see the Apollo 11 command module at the Utah capitol building - many, many years ago. > -----Original Message----- > From: Dale Hooper > Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2003 2:27 PM > To: Utah-astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com > Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Apollo XVII astronaut - Dr. Harrison Schmitt > to speak at USU - Oct14th > > > Hi All, > > I hope you don't mind me sending this out with only partial > info. And apologies to OASers who are - of course - getting > this twice. > > Dr. Harrison Schmitt - Apollo XVII astronaut and the only > scientist to step on the Moon, will be speaking to the public > at Utah State University on October 14th at 2:30pm. I don't > have the location of where on campus yet, but I wanted to let > you know about this as quickly as possible so that you could > set up your plans. > > I'll send the rest of the details as soon as I have them. > > Clear skies, > Dale Hooper. > > > _______________________________________________ > Utah-Astronomy mailing list > Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com > http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy > >

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Fwd: RE: [dynascope] Re: Transporting the RV-6
by Richard Tenney 09 Oct '03

09 Oct '03

Hi guys, Had to pass this one along; the thread was started by a guy asking what worked best for transporting an RV-6 (for those of you too young to know what that is, it was a very popular (and very good!) 6-inch newtonian reflector sold back between about 1959 and 1982 or thereabouts). Someone recommended an empty surplus TOW missle case... Note: forwarded message attached. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search http://shopping.yahoo.com

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Re: Fwd: Re: [Utah-astronomy] About as alien as it gets
by Chuck Hards 09 Oct '03

09 Oct '03

Thanks for that explanation, Mark. Good to hear from you! I seem to recall a similar canyon in northern Arizona or southern Utah; unreal swirls unlike anything else I've ever seen. I have heard that the canyon is kept secret and only a few people are permitted to hike into it every year. Called "The Wave" or something similar. Ring a bell? I doubt that the Martian features are sandstone, but the morphology is certainly similar. Do you think there are parallels here? C. --- Mark Dakins <mdakins(a)earthlink.net> wrote: > Oh, he's still lurking around somewhere. Still > available for an > opinion, for a suitable price of course ;-) > > There actually are quite a few pictures similar to > this that have come > back from several different areas on Mars. > > I attended the annual Mars Society conference last > August and there was > quite a bit of discussion of places like this. > There are quite a few > different suggestions. > > I think that the most common one is that this is > differential weathering > (probably mostly from wind erosion but maybe also at > least some frost > and maybe even water caused) due to differing > hardness in the underlying > layer(s). That of course begs the question of what > this/these layer(s) > are and how they came to look like a swirl cake. > Here correspondent > sayth not. This could be tough ground to get a > rover onto/across. > Really detailed hyperspectral imaging and/or other > sophisticated remote > sensing technologies might tell us what this stuff > is and how it got > this way or it might not. We may not know until a > good field geologist > with a rock hammer in his hand can walk across it > and sample and analyze it. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search http://shopping.yahoo.com

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Reeeeeeeeeeeeeemote Backup
by Dale Hooper 09 Oct '03

09 Oct '03

This is very remote backup http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1200789,00.asp

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