I think we're watching Flyboys at home tonight (hee-hee!), but if so, Conquest of Space will be tomorrow night. I'll let you know how it holds-up in 2007, in a few days. Of course, when you watch stuff like this, you have to pretend you're six years old again. Michael, I'll certainly write up the scope article, but S&T doesn't seem interested in craftsmanship these days, for the most part. They want either projects made by clever adaptation of home-improvement center materials, with minimal rework, or digitally-related hardware. Best of all would be something made from off-the-shelf Home Depot parts, with a computer interface of some kind. Put encoders on that "Schidt-Cassegrain" and it's front-page material. But Gary Seronik's education is in art history so if I still have any influence there, it would be through his eyes. We'll see. Remember it's no longer partly-owned by the senior editorial staff, who sold-out last year. Rich, the clamp-ring master pattern is made from MDF, with a poyester primer-sealer overall, sanded smooth to 320 grit and spray-painted with a urethane enamal sealer over the top of that. Then a mold release is applied, up to six coats- similar to automotive paste wax. After an application of vinylester tooling gelcoat, the mold is laid-up over that in a conventional manner. Once that female mold is made, I can produce the actual ring pieces- and replacements or duplicates can easily be made, once I have a mold. There is no draft on the side that will get the felt liner, one-degree on the top side, to allow for release from the mold. Had I decided to cast these in aluminum, I would have had to at least triple the draft angle, and build it oversize to allow for shrinkage as the metal cools. We patternmakers have measuring devices called "shrink-rules". They are oversized ruler sets, with shrink factors built-in. Each metal has a different shrink-factor. For example, cast aluminum will shrink by about 3/16" per foot, so that ruler actually measures 24-3/8" long, with all graduations engraved on it appropriately lengthened. The patternmaker builds his pattern using the shrink-rule. It makes fabrication so much easier. By opting for a composite ring in this application, I could build the pattern with no shrink factor built-in, since the actual shrinkage for fiberglass is measured in the thousandths, and easily accomodated by the felt liner. Before Patrick gives me grief about using the English system, I have to say that the industry itself still uses it, so while I am fluent in both metric and English systems, I have to use what the industry uses or we have a Mars Polar Lander scenario. --- Michael Carnes wrote:

I'm hoping there's an S&T article coming out of this.

---Rich Tenney wrote:

...

Care to elaborate for those of us who are tool-challenged?

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Aw, shucks, Michael, you're making me blush. Thanks. I think writing the obituary on "bottom-feeder" atming is a bit premature just yet. Bruce is living proof that the pipe-fitting brotherhood is still thriving in reduced numbers, and I am in email contact with some of the sonotube-and-plywood lobby. I've even been known to build in the strictly "utilitarian" style for folks with no funding but high enthusiasm, once in a while- there's nothing wrong with building a telescope that only it's mother (and owner) could love, after all, it's the image that counts and good exterior looks contribute absolutely nothing to the image. It does increase the chances that one's spouse will let one keep it indoors, however... ;o) --- Michael Carnes <MichaelCarnes@earthlink.net> wrote:

ATM'ing for inexpensive scopes is pretty dead since you can buy a perfectly good little Chinese scope for short $$$. But I think people still enjoy seeing elegant design and craftsmanship. Your stuff more than merits that description.

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I let it lapse for all of 2005, and starting "jonesing" badly in Dec. of that year, had to re-up. The shakes have stopped for now... --- Richard Tenney <retenney@yahoo.com> wrote:

I also let my S&T subscription lapse (though I may change my mind any day now -- having some withdrawal...)

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Thanks for the offer- I've been slowly filling-in my own collection over the years. I do have the first issue- in fact I have all issues from the '40's. I'm only missing a few years' worth at this point. It was sobering when I first saw an issue that I had acquired by subscription in the "25 & 50 years ago" section- and that was 10 years ago now! --- Patrick Wiggins <paw@wirelessbeehive.com> wrote:

On 03 Feb 2007, at 16:07, Chuck Hards wrote:

...

I let it lapse for all of 2005, and starting "jonesing" badly in Dec. of that year, had to re-up. The shakes have stopped for now...

If you ever need a huge fix to stop those shakes, Chuck, I've got every issue of S&T going all the way back to Volume 1 Issue 1. Heck, I've even got The Sky from '36 to '41 and The Telescope from '39 to '41 (for those who may not know, The Sky and The Telescope merged in November 1941 to become Sky & Telescope.

BTW, a while back someone asked the name of the organization that broke off from SLAS after the coup. I could not remember it at the time but while checking my library for the info above I came across copies of their newsletter (Utahs Astronomical Journal <no apostrophe>). They were called the Utahs Celestial Observers Association (again, no apostrophe).

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