[CMAS] Success in Caribou Maine!

Wed Apr 2 18:06:09 EDT 2025

Do you have any Teflon pieces
Do we have who is real good with wood like a cabinet maker
Maybe you are all I could do is cut square pieces and screw them to an
aluminum frame.
I think hobby lobby may have something we could use for deck bearings and
lowes I've seen large wooden disc.
We'll get some ideas going soon.

On Wed, Apr 2, 2025, 5:28 PM Colin Caissie <cscmachinedesign at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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
>>>>>
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>>
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