[CMAS] Success in Caribou Maine!

Wed Apr 2 17:28:16 EDT 2025

I'm thinking that we could make it a truss tube thing with all the titanium
tubing we still have.
It's f/4.8 or 70.8" focal length...about an inch shorter than the Brower
mirror.  1.5" thick good Pyrex, 4" secondary is a bit oversized, but
standard.

I also think building a Poncet Equatorial platform would be great.  We
have some DC motors...like 1 RPM that would be perfect.

I have some fancy Mahogany plywood from the Hodgdon shipyard....scrap from
the $50 million yacht
The mirror box could be welded up aluminum, and the base too.  I've got a
half ton of aluminum....
We've got it all.  It would make it to star parties if we make it smart and
light....which we will....better than the old tub we used to lug around.

Got any good designs?

On Wed, Apr 2, 2025 at 11:04 AM Linwood Arsenault <satillite1965 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Colin whenever I get straightened oround over here with everything brass
> scope, chicken coop, spring clean up, surgery if I get one. I would like to
> help with the new 16" portable dob that mirror looks awesome I think like
> the Brower 16" great job
>
> On Sun, Mar 30, 2025, 8:26 AM Colin Caissie <cscmachinedesign at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> It'a big clockwork.  Solar-lunar eclipse pairs are the law.  14 days
>> after/prior.
>> My mind is back in Mexico 2024...climbing volcanoes, lying in a Durango
>> orchard during totality.
>>
>> c
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Mar 29, 2025 at 11:51 PM Joshua Zukerman <hawk82 at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Well done. I wondered if anyone from the club or associated clubs drove
>>> up to Caribou to check it out. How fun to think almost a year after the
>>> total eclipse that the partial came. And the Lunar eclipse (which we were
>>> clouded out for) a couple weeks ago.
>>>
>>> On Sat, Mar 29, 2025, 11:29 PM Dwight M. Lanpher CMAS <
>>> groupcmas at lanpherassociates.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hello All,
>>>>
>>>> Northern Maine came through again with this year’s partial solar
>>>> eclipse. A special feature of this year’s partial was the “Devils Horns”.
>>>> At the eastern U.S. border, the coincidental timing of sunrise, results
>>>> with moon midway crossing the sun forming a crescent at the bottom of the
>>>> sun. At the moment that the sun rises above the horizon, the two points of
>>>> the crescent peak above the horizon forming the “Devil’s Horns”. That was
>>>> something that I wanted to see.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I was planning to observe the eclipse from the eastern shore of Mt.
>>>> Desert Island on a section of the Park Loop Road called Ocean Drive. That
>>>> should have provided a perfect eastern horizon. Unfortunately, like almost
>>>> all other areas in New England, clouds were going to obscure the eclipse.
>>>> However, Caribou in far Northern Maine was predicted to have clear skies
>>>> (see attached) and 85% obscuration of the sun. After a little research
>>>> online with Google Maps and Street View, I found a location on a farm in
>>>> Limestone with an open horizon to the east. So Terri-Ann Anderson and I
>>>> made a last minute decision and drove the 200+ miles to Caribou last night.
>>>>
>>>> We got up at 5 AM and proceeded out to 12 Sawyer Road
>>>> <https://www.google.com/maps/search/12+Sawyer+Road?entry=gmail&source=g>
>>>> in Limestone, ME. We arrived at 5:45 and it was 15°F with a light breeze of
>>>> 5 to 10 MPH.  Shortly after our arrival, a farmer drove in and Terri-Ann
>>>> explained that we were there to observe the eclipse, to which he gave
>>>> permission to continue our strange mission in the dark and cold.
>>>>
>>>> Based solely on a predicted corrected compass bearing and a correlation
>>>> with general lightening of the horizon we picked two spots separated by a
>>>> couple hundred feet. While there was a grove of trees slightly to the
>>>> northeast, I was thinking that at least one of us should get a good view.
>>>>
>>>> Terri-Ann was operating her Vaonis Hestia which adds 25X magnification
>>>> to an iPhone 12. She had successfully used it to get a number of excellent
>>>> photos at last year’s Total Solar Eclipse 50 miles further south in
>>>> Houlton, ME (see attached.)  Evening on April 6, 2024, that day was a
>>>>  balmy 55°. During her initial setup in Limestone, her phone malfunctioned
>>>> due to the cold and she had to return to the car to thaw it out… the iPhone
>>>> had balked at the 15°F temperature.  I had brought my Stellina that had
>>>> served me well at last year’s Total Solar Eclipse in Houlton.  I had also
>>>> brought a couple of chemical Hand Warmer packs that I used to keep my
>>>> iPhone from freezing.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> The problem was this: we only had a compass reading to determine the
>>>> location where the sun would rise. I aimed my Stellina at that location as
>>>> best I could and waited for the sun to start to clear the horizon.
>>>> Predicted Sunrise was between 6:15 and 6:17 from a couple different
>>>> sources. The first rays of the sun appeared at 6:21. It appeared that the
>>>> open potato field (see attached) that we were looking across had a slight
>>>> upward slope that raised the horizon and had delayed the arrival of
>>>> sunrise. Clearly, this was late in the eclipse and the moon had mostly
>>>> crossed the sun at that time, effectively tilting the crescent so that only
>>>> one horn was above the horizon. With the intensity of the sun being limited
>>>> to only a few arc minutes squared of area, this seemingly increased
>>>> the glare of the sun. I was impressed with the apparent brilliance of the
>>>> tiny exposed beam.
>>>>
>>>> Of course, my pre-aiming of Stellina was off  and I quickly tried to
>>>> realign the scope’s azimuth and then used *Singularity’s* solar
>>>> initialization routine to attempt tracking of the sun. Stellina failed to
>>>> acquire the sun. It was likely my fault, either by not accurately leveling
>>>> the scope; but most likely incorrectly adjusting the azimuth alignment. The
>>>> normal method is to align the scope with the sun by letting the two slits
>>>> in the main body of the instrument between the yoke and OTA cast a shadow
>>>> on the ground with the two slits of light showing. Since this was dawn, the
>>>> shadow was directed horizontally and not on the ground.  I should have
>>>> brough a piece of white cardboard to hold up behind Stellina. Just trying
>>>> to position the scope visually was not close enough. To be honest, with
>>>> everything happening exactly at dawn, I didn’t really give this much chance
>>>> of being a success; but, I figured there was a 0% chance of success if I
>>>> didn’t at least try.
>>>>
>>>> Meanwhile, Terri-Ann got her iPhone thawed out and was giving Hestia
>>>> another go. Since Hestia is designed to be manually tracked, it was a much
>>>> better choice for this eclipse. She was able to save the day with some
>>>> pictures after her phone was thawed, a little after sunrise (see attached).
>>>> You’ll please excuse the focus, under the best of conditions, getting
>>>> Hestia focused is a challenge. At 15°F and with a slight wind of 5 to 10
>>>> MPH I’m amazed that she able to adjust it at all.
>>>>
>>>> The skies were perfectly clear this morning. So we did get to view the
>>>> eclipse visually with eclipse glasses and got a few pictures, so I’m going
>>>> to call the trip a success.
>>>>
>>>> ---Dwight
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -- Celebrating the starlit skies of Maine & New England --
>>>>
>>>> Dwight M. Lanpher, *Club Liaison*
>>>> P.O. Box 472, 1 Summit Road
>>>> <https://www.google.com/maps/search/1+Summit+Road+Northeast+Harbor,+ME+04662?entry=gmail&source=g>
>>>> Northeast Harbor, ME 04662
>>>> <https://www.google.com/maps/search/1+Summit+Road+Northeast+Harbor,+ME+04662?entry=gmail&source=g>
>>>>
>>>> Member:  Dark Sky Maine
>>>> DarkSky International (formerly: International Dark Sky Association)
>>>> Illuminating Engineering Society, Member Emeritus
>>>> Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Life Member
>>>> Member:  AAS, ASNNE, ATMoB, BSIA, CMAS, DEAA, GAAC, NHAS, NSAAC, PVSG,
>>>> SMA, TVS
>>>>
>>>> "Good friends are like stars. Although you may not see them you know
>>>> they're always there." -Christy Evans
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> CMAS mailing list
>>>> CMAS at maineastro.com
>>>> http://maineastro.com/mailman/listinfo/cmas_maineastro.com
>>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> CMAS mailing list
>>> CMAS at maineastro.com
>>> http://maineastro.com/mailman/listinfo/cmas_maineastro.com
>>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> CMAS mailing list
>> CMAS at maineastro.com
>> http://maineastro.com/mailman/listinfo/cmas_maineastro.com
>>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://maineastro.com/pipermail/cmas_maineastro.com/attachments/20250402/b43ac63e/attachment.html>