[pasmembers] Fwd: [AZ-Observing] Lowell Clark refurbishment and re-installation
- From: Howard Moneta <hmoneta@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "pasmembers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <pasmembers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2015 11:04:41 -0700
I think some folks would be interested in this status report.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: *Brian Skiff* <bas@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Subject: [AZ-Observing] Lowell Clark refurbishment and re-installation
To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Folks have asked me about progess on the refurbishment
of the Lowell Clark refractor. Thanks to the dry
winter, and the fact that the telescope mechanical
parts presented fewer problems than might have
been found, things are progressing very well.
Briefly, every metal part from very big to
very small, has been gone over or re-made.
To give you an idea of the scale, the RA and Dec
axles are 1100 pounds each, and the housing on
each are another 1100 pounds. Those counterweights
at the end of the Dec axle are 400 pounds each
(six of 'em).
Many of the parts at the business end of the
telescope have been made new to look like copies
of the originals, but better. (This mainly done by
Peter Rosenthal.) Big engineering parts have been
refinished and reassembled with current-technology
and modern lubrication (for instance) so that things
will not oxidize etc. There are now CAD drawings of
everything, so that when we do this again a hundred
years from now, there'll be something to work from.
(The Clarks supplied no drawings or instruction manual!)
The dome has also been completely gone over to make
it structurally sound, back into code as far as
electrical etc, decent lighting installed (at last!),
and much else. The whole thing is going to look
_beautiful_ when it's put back together.
Ralph Nye, who is in charge of all this,
has scheduled a crane for March 16 to start moving
the mount back into the dome, and by March 19
the idea is to reassemble the telescope.
They're talking sometime in May to have the telescope
back on-line and fully functional.
\Brian
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