Washing the Mirror - I
Over time the mirror has gotten, well, dirty!. Here's
a shot, showing globs of pollen (mostly), with some assorted
other schmutz.
Washing the Mirror - II
So we got a sprayer thingy, loaded it up with distilled water
and a dab of non-ionic surfactant (Triton X-100), and sprayed
the mirror. Here's a shot of Curtis and Jason doing their thing.
Washing the Mirror - III
Here's the view from the business end of the 'scope. The steerable
test flashed ("Gelfand Flasher II'') has been bagged to keep it
clear of the spray.
Washing the Mirror - IV
Voila! Pretty decent, now. In this artistic (?) photo you can
see the secondary, and the array of detectors in the detector
itself. The shadowy black thing at the top is the Gelfand Flasher II.
New Computer! - I
Our database has grown to the point that we were bogged down
without enough processing power to keep up with the flow. So
we assembled a new computer, with some goodstuff: Core 2 Quad
running at 2.4GHz, 4GB of fast RAM, raid disks, the works...
Here's what it looks like from the front.
New Computer! - II
And here's a view showing the pretty stuff (to a nerd, anyway)
that's inside.
Laser Rain Sensor in Action
On our photographic safari we caught this portrait of the laser
rain sensor (see previous page) in action. Green.
