No problem at all Jay. I sincerely hope your father-in-law is okay. Interesting about the dew heaters. I've never needed one, but after some dewy sessions at Pit-N-Pole (including the -6 degree night in February!), I may join in on the dew heater bandwagon. That can be something we tackle in the next sessions. The first session of ATMing at the Hutchings optical shop was lightly attended but it did happen and it will happen again next month. Below is a report of that workshop: * Mat rebalanced his 8" dob since it was having difficulty with the 14mm Explore Scientific eyepiece recently purchased. The balance is now good with that very large eyepiece and since the scope has the large Kriege-style side bearings, it moves well with the smaller eyepieces also. * Next was to adjust the counter weights of Mat's 16" dob for the same reason, it also now works great with all eyepieces. * Mike checked the flatness of the backs of his 8" mirror blank and tool. He also checked for 60 grit pits since he had just moved on to 80 grit. There are still pits but the backs are very flat. Normally pits are not that big of a deal when grinding the backs flat, but he wants to practice and get his technique down before he starts working the front surface. Good plan. Hope to have more participants next time. I will post again regarding the date of the next session. Mat -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Jay Eads Sent: Saturday, June 18, 2011 4:22 PM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: [Utah-astronomy] ATM I couldn't make it to the ATM at Mat's house today. Mat, I apologize. My father in law has Alzheimer and has a roommate and the roommate has been aggressive and this morning the roommate attacked my father-in-law. We are moving my father-in-law to a new room so this won't happen again but it is taking some time. One thing I want to do and I am going to stop by Radio Shack on the way home is to build some dew heaters for my Telrad, Finder, eyepiece holder and perhaps my secondary. This site is the one a couple of friends recommended I use: http://www.dewbuster.com/heaters/heaters.html Anyone else have suggestions? -- Jay Eads _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php