My apologies for the delay. It's been one heckuva "holiday" season. My dear old friend of 40+ years passed away on Jan. 1 unexpectedly. That took a lot of wind out of my sails. I got married on Dec. 29th, a good thing, but it kept me out of the shop for a few days. My mom had some issues and needed my help during this same period, and then my daughter's car had to go to the shop for nearly a week, to the tun of some $1,400. Dad's Taxi Service was back in business, since she never could pick up the knack of driving a standard transmission (and I tried for a year to teach her- I think it was mostly a matter of lack of interest on her part) and thus couldn't borrow my Explorer (a 5-speed) while her little automatic was in the shop. The good news is that they are now coming off the final assembly line and will be in the hands of their owners next weekend, assuming they pass the final quality/optical inspection. I didn't test each objective individually when they arrived, so it's going to be a system test with everything assembled. I'll post a photo of the completed SunSpotter when I get home from work tonight. It really is a striking little scope. Thanks for your patience!
Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Hards!!! Such great folks deserve each other. Very best wishes, Joe ________________________________ From: Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com> To: Utah Astronomy <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Monday, January 9, 2012 7:31 AM Subject: [Utah-astronomy] SunSpotter update My apologies for the delay. It's been one heckuva "holiday" season. My dear old friend of 40+ years passed away on Jan. 1 unexpectedly. That took a lot of wind out of my sails. I got married on Dec. 29th, a good thing, but it kept me out of the shop for a few days. My mom had some issues and needed my help during this same period, and then my daughter's car had to go to the shop for nearly a week, to the tun of some $1,400. Dad's Taxi Service was back in business, since she never could pick up the knack of driving a standard transmission (and I tried for a year to teach her- I think it was mostly a matter of lack of interest on her part) and thus couldn't borrow my Explorer (a 5-speed) while her little automatic was in the shop. The good news is that they are now coming off the final assembly line and will be in the hands of their owners next weekend, assuming they pass the final quality/optical inspection. I didn't test each objective individually when they arrived, so it's going to be a system test with everything assembled. I'll post a photo of the completed SunSpotter when I get home from work tonight. It really is a striking little scope. Thanks for your patience! _______________________________________________ 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
As promised, photos of a completed SunSpotter. Supplied as pictured, with the EXCEPTION of an eyepiece. http://s260.photobucket.com/albums/ii24/JethroTull1958/ATM/SunSpotter/
Hi Chuck, Looks nice Chuck. Is that some sort of metal flake paint on the tube? As you might have seen SLAS moved this month's general meeting the Thursday of next week (the speaker that cancelled on SLAS 3 times before now says he can only make that evening). I seem to remember you said you could make Thursday night meetings. Could you make it to this one and bring one of your solar scopes along to show? patrick On 09 Jan 2012, at 19:29, Chuck Hards wrote:
As promised, photos of a completed SunSpotter. Supplied as pictured, with the EXCEPTION of an eyepiece.
http://s260.photobucket.com/albums/ii24/JethroTull1958/ATM/SunSpotter/
Looks great, Chuck! On Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 8:28 PM, Patrick Wiggins <paw@wirelessbeehive.com>wrote:
Hi Chuck,
Looks nice Chuck. Is that some sort of metal flake paint on the tube?
As you might have seen SLAS moved this month's general meeting the Thursday of next week (the speaker that cancelled on SLAS 3 times before now says he can only make that evening).
I seem to remember you said you could make Thursday night meetings. Could you make it to this one and bring one of your solar scopes along to show?
patrick
On 09 Jan 2012, at 19:29, Chuck Hards wrote:
As promised, photos of a completed SunSpotter. Supplied as pictured, with the EXCEPTION of an eyepiece.
http://s260.photobucket.com/albums/ii24/JethroTull1958/ATM/SunSpotter/
_______________________________________________ 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
-- Chrismo I fix things, all kinds of things... Club Allure Sandy, UT (801) 897-9075
On 1/9/12, Patrick Wiggins <paw@wirelessbeehive.com> wrote:
Hi Chuck,
Looks nice Chuck. Is that some sort of metal flake paint on the tube? Could you make it to this one and bring one of your solar scopes along to show?
Yep, it's called "satin nickel". This entire production run will be in the hands of the owners by the time the meeting rolls around; I didn't keep one for myself in order to fulfill everyone's order. So maybe we can prevail upon some of the new owners to bring theirs? I may have the all-metal version done by then, if so, I can bring that. I'm hoping to keep one for myself from the second production run, if my suppliers get re-stocked soon. I doubt I'll take orders for the second run, I'll just make a batch and when complete it will be first-come, first-served. Hopefully it will be a double-digit run, like this first round, but until I get a firm handle on parts, I can't make any promises. Thanks for the kind words, everyone!
Very Nice Job Chuck. That is a lot of work you have done. Mark Mark Shelton Indian Hill Middle School Tech Ed. Teacher Salt Lake Astronomical Society Board Member (School and Special Star Parties Coordinator) ________________________________ From: Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com> To: Utah Astronomy <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Monday, January 9, 2012 7:29 PM Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] SunSpotter update As promised, photos of a completed SunSpotter. Supplied as pictured, with the EXCEPTION of an eyepiece. http://s260.photobucket.com/albums/ii24/JethroTull1958/ATM/SunSpotter/ _______________________________________________ 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
It's a good news/bad news situation. The good news is that all the SunSpotters are complete! The bad news is that the Baader filter material I used is FULL of pinholes and I must replace it in all of them. I used a piece I bought from Astro-Physics some ten years ago. After performing the system checks and seeing all the pinholes, I checked the sheet that I cut them from, and, sure enough, it is loaded with defects. Be careful when using this material! I have a new sheet that I purchased just last year and will cut the replacements from it tomorrow. I haven't checked it yet but I'm hopeful that it's defect-free. It's still rolled in the shipping box that it arrived in. The only other alternative is to black-out the pinholes with a sharpie. They are not actually "holes" through the mylar, but tiny specks where the aluminum coating has either detached from the substrate, or it could be that the substrate was dusty at the time of deposition. Manufacturing flaws. Tiny "thin spots" where some filtering is taking place are not a problem, especially on a small aperture scope like these, but areas with no filtration at all are not acceptable. Stay tuned, and my apologies on behalf of Baader. If all goes well I'll be distributing the scopes next week.
"Be careful when using this material!"
I agree, solar films should be inspected for pin holes regularly. Glass filters can be touched up with paint or a magic marker. It's a good news/bad news situation.
The good news is that all the SunSpotters are complete!
The bad news is that the Baader filter material I used is FULL of pinholes and I must replace it in all of them.
I used a piece I bought from Astro-Physics some ten years ago. After performing the system checks and seeing all the pinholes, I checked the sheet that I cut them from, and, sure enough, it is loaded with defects.
Be careful when using this material!
I have a new sheet that I purchased just last year and will cut the replacements from it tomorrow. I haven't checked it yet but I'm hopeful that it's defect-free. It's still rolled in the shipping box that it arrived in.
The only other alternative is to black-out the pinholes with a sharpie. They are not actually "holes" through the mylar, but tiny specks where the aluminum coating has either detached from the substrate, or it could be that the substrate was dusty at the time of deposition. Manufacturing flaws.
Tiny "thin spots" where some filtering is taking place are not a problem, especially on a small aperture scope like these, but areas with no filtration at all are not acceptable.
Stay tuned, and my apologies on behalf of Baader. If all goes well I'll be distributing the scopes next week.
_______________________________________________ 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
So can Mylar filters. Glass filters are not superior to properly made Mylar filters. On Jan 14, 2012 12:04 PM, <erikhansen@thebluezone.net> wrote:
"Be careful when using this material!"
I agree, solar films should be inspected for pin holes regularly. Glass filters can be touched up with paint or a magic marker.
It's a good news/bad news situation.
The good news is that all the SunSpotters are complete!
The bad news is that the Baader filter material I used is FULL of pinholes and I must replace it in all of them.
I used a piece I bought from Astro-Physics some ten years ago. After performing the system checks and seeing all the pinholes, I checked the sheet that I cut them from, and, sure enough, it is loaded with defects.
Be careful when using this material!
I have a new sheet that I purchased just last year and will cut the replacements from it tomorrow. I haven't checked it yet but I'm hopeful that it's defect-free. It's still rolled in the shipping box that it arrived in.
The only other alternative is to black-out the pinholes with a sharpie. They are not actually "holes" through the mylar, but tiny specks where the aluminum coating has either detached from the substrate, or it could be that the substrate was dusty at the time of deposition. Manufacturing flaws.
Tiny "thin spots" where some filtering is taking place are not a problem, especially on a small aperture scope like these, but areas with no filtration at all are not acceptable.
Stay tuned, and my apologies on behalf of Baader. If all goes well I'll be distributing the scopes next week.
_______________________________________________ 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
_______________________________________________ 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
Great news, the SunSpotters are all complete! I will be bringing them to the SLAS meeting tomorrow night (Thursday Jan. 19th) so they can be picked-up there if you like. $25 each, cash is preferred. If you can't make it to the meeting, let me know and we'll make other arrangements. Thanks to everyone for your patience. Just when I thought my work schedule would get back to "normal", I got handed an assignment this week that another department choked on, so my crew and I have to save the day. It has meant long days, and I do have to work Friday morning but will make the meeting to get these scopes into their new owners hands. BTW, objectives for a second run are still not available in surplus, so as of now I can't speculate on when any more of these will be made. I'm looking into roughly equivalent alternatives but haven't found anything promising yet. Stay tuned.
Since I have to get up early on Friday, I probably won't be staying for the entire meeting, so if you want to pick up your SunSpotter tonight, you'll have to catch me early. Thanks!
participants (6)
-
Chrismo -
Chuck Hards -
erikhansen＠thebluezone.net -
Joe Bauman -
Mark Shelton -
Patrick Wiggins