YCGL - Day 7 & 8- Saturday-Sunday, April 6-7, 2024 - Part 2 - Concan and Uvalde, TX

 Hi there,

I've been working on a project or three called Safe Solar Viewers.  It is basically a long box with an objective at the front, a negative barlow lens in the middle which projects an image onto a white screen at the end.  There were examples for three sizes of objective lenses, and I decided to make all three.  (Dang over-achiever!)  It was a good thing also.  

The article recommends using cardboard boxes of a certain make and models, which I didn't have time (or the money) to buy a case of 25 of each of the boxes.  At least I thought I didn't.  So I decided to make them out of 1/4" plywood.  (Have you priced plywood recently?  It's a good thing that Erik and Liz are old enough that I couldn't use them as ransom.)  And that allowed me to make the smallest and the largest boxes.  Then by chance, I saw a box of lighting fixtures at church that was exactly the right size for the middle viewer.  So, with wood, glue, the lenses, and a lot of drills and files, (to the price of $125), I've got the materials for making the boxes.  

The small box

The image is about 4.5" in diameter.  Its hard to tell, but the image is actually fairly sharp, I can see one pig sunspot and I think I can see a few others, but it is so cloudy and hazy that the image isn't distinct.  (Which may be a harbinger of things to come.)

And surprise! Not only is the plywood expensive, it is also warped. Badly.  Like over a distance of 53", and being glued against a straight base on the bottom, the top has warped out over an inch on each side.  Which has been a bit problematical.  (Oh, I just learned a new function that will make formatting the text easier, I think.)

And then for mounting, the articles recommend leaning them up against a stack of bricks. All you need is a simple alt-az mount.  I've made several telescopes and have used water pipe and fittings that worked reasonably well.  Except, those were set up to be mounted sidewise and they were nicely balanced.  And then the price of the pipe and fittings!  Have you priced 3/4" water pipe and fittings recently.  It's a good thing that Scruffy and Ladybug aren't around!  I'll just say the pipe and fittings cost more than the boxes.  

I did get the middle sized cardboard box model to work also and I'll have pictures of that tomorrow.  However, the large model was a bust.  For a number of reasons.  Which I won't go into now.  It was a disappointment, but, ahhh, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  Version 2 would mount them on a rail to make any and all adjustments easier.  

And it may be all for naught anyway!  The weather reports have shown Monday at mid-day to be partly or fully overcast.  But astronomers are optimists by nature.  They put emmense effort into projects that may be wiped out on a day with clouds.  

We'll know tomorrow.

But another story may make it worthwhile also.  Between 2005 and 2010, I had a pair of brothers who were very active in the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) student chapter, for which I was the faculty advisor.  Josh and Tim both ended up as presidents of the chapter.  They were both very good students and Josh ended up marrying another CE student, Emily, and they have done very well with jobs in Nebraska and Iowa, Josh in transportation and Emily in structures.  

Tim joined the ROTC program and on graduating, entered the Navy as a Public Utilities guy.  His last four assignments have been as Director of Public Works at the Navy station in Newport, Rhode Island and at Guantanamo in Cuba, an MS graduate at the Naval Post Graduate School, and PW director at a base in the central south of the US.  Tim married Sarah right after he got his commission.  She was a speech and communications major.  I kept up with both brothers with Christmas cards and  such.           When Tim and Sarah were transitioning from the Post Graduate School in Monterrey, CA, they drove through Laramie and Tim got in touch.  We had a great evening meeting their boys and talking away.  

And after that, Tim started sending texts on random Sundays saying "Happy Sunday, Thom!"  The last one was on Palm Sunday.  I'll attach the text thread.

So Tim...

Concan Baptist Mission

This sign says "Pray for Rain"                      The next sign said "Solar Eclipse April 8"

So if the weather is bad, I know whom I'm going to blame! :)

And then, I asked Siri to give me that Lat-Longs for Concan, and this is what she came up with.  Look closely at the photograph on top.

Finally, I needed some more supplies for the boxes yesterday, so I drove into the closest community, Uvalde, TX, the location of a mass shooting on May 24, 2022 at Robb Elementary School.  Tim's wife's mother used to work there but retired in 2019.  Nineteen children were killed and two teachers.   There are signs around town, "Uvalde Strong".  I pray they can continue to be.