ATM Singin' in the Stellarain

["Bill Kelley" <flex@commspeed.net>]

Hi List,
The spirits of Porter and other distinguished founders of Stellafane were
unable to shield us from rain, but,
what a wonderful place! Stellafane glows with the origins of our hobby and
is steeped in their history.
Any on this list who have not been there- GO !  I'll see you there next
year.

Colin Caissie of our list was there showing textbook perfect star test
images with an 8"  F7  flexed sphere telescope. Late Saturday evening a
small group gathered about Colin for a vigorous discussion of flex
technology.
A nice mix of all varieties of homemade scopes were scattered over every
field and were being proudly promoted by their builders. A small area of
swap tables always catches me with it's mix of unlikely junk and wonderful
"goodies". How good? I bought an 8"- 1/4 wave aluminized flat for $25.00 !!
:<))  Was it real?  Kurt Sidor was there with a reference flat and a
monochromatic light source- YES - very smooth and slightly curved
interference
figure. Whoopee! Autocollimation heaven.

Good series of talks for newbies the first day- mixed quality until the
last. The parabolization talk was crisp, skillful, and delivered by one who
really knew his subject, and had done it many times.

Can't review without nitpicking- too many scopes with commercial optics and
accessories. Is the core of mirror and lens makers shrinking? Are we an
endangered species? So a lot of the workmanship was carpentry, metal and
materials skills. Nothing really new, or did I miss a bit of worthwhile
innovation? Some very poor engineering  such as sturdy GEM bearings
connected with long slender shafts.  The resulting springiness between the
parts would leave the scope bucking up and down for a long time.

I took Colton Noble, a protégé who has made 2 mirrors for himself and has
done immense amounts of work as my teaching assistant in mirror making
classes. It was his High School graduation gift. Now he's off to the
University of Arizona and a career in optics. The trip would have been worth
it just to see  his enthusiasm.

Dennis Woos and son preached flex to all - willing and otherwise. Yes- we
found pockets of strong resistance
to flex. It almost seemed that they hated that their hard earned
parabolizing skills should be so threatened .
Many arguing against it did not seem to understand it. I think this is
extremely healthy for the concept, it must survive on merit. In its present
embodiment with rubber pushers and pullers it is not a mature technology.
New, better and simpler ways of flexing are in our future.

Bill