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Observatory Dirctor's Report
by Chuck Grant
A structural flaw in the mount of the club scope was discovered during trial assembly and mounting. Jim Gansemer, a metal working hobbyist, volunteered to fix this problem. He designed and machined a reinforcement part at the Lawrence Livermore Lab metal workers' hobby shop. Additionally, he made focuser reinforcing brackets. TVS thanks you very much, Jim.
Following site measurements on September 29, a pier was installed and concrete was poured on September 30. The following day, I rented a van to safely transport the scope to the observatory. After much Swing (swinging, sweating, and swearing), the pied head was permanently attached. In testing, tube movement fouled the mount, breaking a connector on the RA drive. A spacer will correct this problem. By midnight, I finished for the night and continued the installation the next morning.
October 2 also happened to be an open house, so I returned to town for the drive electronics and a new 12-v deep cycle battery. Two adults and three children attended the open house, while I installed the drive motor and discovered a broken small flex coupling. The scope, however, performed very well optically and thermally.
Mechanical problems continued. The friction clutches are suspect, and the mounting of the worms shows some flex. On October 17, I removed the equatorial head to work on these problems, and to devise adequate mechanical damping. I am also concerned that some thrust play is causing backlash in the worm mounting. Work continues on all of these technical issues.
The combination locks are now working well, but I had to treat both with silicon sealant in the rekeying holes to keep dust from accumulating. I'll monitor these locks, but the club should acquire a new key lock and keys for the hill gate within the next few months. This will necessitate a key exchange at that time. (Editor's note: watch your newsletter for information on the rekeying of Hidden Hill Observatory.)
One loaner scope is reserved for November.
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TVS Presents
(Continued from page 1)
books every published. The success of Ken's two previous offerings, The Alchemy of the Heavens, and Planet Quest allowed for the simultaneous publication of this new book in the United States, Canada, England, and Germany.
Ken describes his latest work as, "a lavish celebration of the cosmos." He selected images from the Hubble Space Telescope collection, an armada of interplanetary spacecraft, international observatories, and world-wide astrophotographers. In all, the terrestrial astrophotographs were shot from six continents.
Your guests are always welcome at TVS general meetings, so feel free to invite anyone who would enjoy seeing some outstanding astronomical objects.
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