Graytrain

(continued)

to give an idea of the great improvement, here is before and after:

before:

after:

After this cleaning, we are now collecting about 20% more light than before!

BITCHIN.

Dont let the pictures fool you, this was a 6 hour process.

I wont just leave you on that note, here are some pretty pictures from this weekend:

the galactic center to the south:

The big dipper to the north:

Its been a while!

So as some of you may not remember, I currently work with a astronomical research group at the University of Utah. We work with a .8 meter telescope in Southern Utah.

The snow finally melted to a point were we could get up the mountain, our first trip of the year. Being that our telescope had been sitting unattended for all of winter, we knew we would have to do some clean up. This trip therefore has only a small bit of interesting content and a lack of pretty pictures.

The most important part of this trip was the cleaning of the primary mirror. This is a very delicate operation as this is the single most expensive piece of the telescope, coming in at ~$150,000.

So here is our telescope:

That round bottom part houses our mirror, and that has to come off. Some 400 pounds of it.

SLOWLY

almost there

There she is in here filthy glory

Then the ROYs dawned a clean suit for the operation.

We have to be extremely careful not to get any oil, spit or anything on the mirror as we cannot clean it in the conventional way. Our cleaning method can only remove dust and other electrostatically bound particulates. The coating on the mirror is only ~5 microns thick (about the thickness of 2 E. Coli bacteria) and any rubbing or abrasion will damage that coating.

Here I rinse the mirror with chemically pure water, trying to rinse as much of the dust off.

Then we use a gentle surfactant (soapy water) to release more of the dust from the surface.

Then the most delicate part of the operation, taking sterile cotton gauze soaked in the surfactant and dragging it across the mirror under its own weight and no pressure. This will lift most of the remaining dust from the mirror.

AND the final product:

an incredible improvement.

Ah, I cant believe its already been a year. see you all in a week and change.

sold

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sold

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bump.

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bump.

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bumperson.

bump

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bump feel free to pm with offers, trades.

up and up.

still here!

Sold

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I figured i'd ask this here, as this is probably the most relevant thread:

Anyone know where to get knives duracoated? I wanted to get the blade AND handle of one of my Boker's done.

Also, if you've had it done, is it expensive? It's a 8" overall length knife, with a ~4" blade.

Hopefully it's not more than $50, because this knife was only $100 and i'd rather just buy a whole new knife if it's gonna be a shit load.

I just actually got this done on a Emerson Commander, both blade and handle AND liners. cost 46 bucks. Great clean work.

Making a Hinderer Xm18 vid tomorrow, anything you guys would like to see?

Yeah.... just...uh... fuck shit up with it. stab a car or something.

THis is hot. how did u wash i?

This shit cracks me up.

still not interested?

Real Measurements added to the bottom of the first post.

gone....

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Wow, TragicBliss... Its been a while. Nice to see you around.

SC's look great!

gone....

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love that brick

Just to tease...

Roys at 3.5 months

gone....

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Just to tease...

RS1 at 3.5 months

gone....

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