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Portland VII Alt-Az Initiative Workshop
at Sidereal Technology
Portland, Oregon
Saturday July 27- Sunday July 28
Barbecue Friday July 26

Click here for information on accommodations near Sidereal Technology

Portland VII Alt-Az Initiative Workshop

 July 27-28, 2013 at Technical Marine Service, Portland, Oregon
 Dan Gray - local host, Howard Banich - chair, Russ Genet - founder

The Portland VI Annual Alt-Az Initiative Workshop will be held Saturday July 27 and Sunday July 28 at Dan Gray's Sidereal Technology plant. There will be an informal BBQ on Friday evening, July 26. Topics will include lightweight mirrors, large alt-az telescopes, advanced control systems, and other topics.

The first Alt-Az Initiative workshop was also held in Portland at Dan's facility and was instrumental in getting the initiative off to a solid start. The Portland Workshops have brought together advanced amateurs, and professional telescope makers and astronomers in a unique and informal collaboration with the goal of adapting technologies currently used in the world’s largest telescopes for low cost, high performance 1.0 to 2.0 meter amateur telescopes. The setting is casual, with opportunities to directly contribute to the agenda or off-line in small groups.

Howard Banich is chairing the workshop and Dan Gray is the local host. If you plan on attending, please contact Howard at howard.banich@nike.com .

For Your Information
Workshops Already Held:

 Last Year's Workshop Agenda (2012)
 

 Friday, July 27  6pm – bbq at TMS 

Saturday, July 28

8:30 am:     Howard Banich – Welcome to PDX VI and introduction to the workshop
9:00 am:     Richard Berry – The road to operational status for the Cal Poly 18 DD telescope
10:00 am:   Russ Genet – The Alt-Az Initiative at Five Years: Past and Future
10:45 am:   All – Discussion on the future of the Alt-Az Initiative
11:00 am:   Lisa Brodhacker – Progress on spin cast epoxy mirrors

11:45am: lunch

1:00 pm:    Mel Bartels – Slumping 42 inch meniscus mirrors
2:00 pm:    Donny Mott – 48 inch diameter kiln and slumping construction

*15 minute break*

3:00 pm:    Tim Scott - SiTech control system for 1.5 meter Big Woody
3:30 pm:    Bruce Holenstein – 2.4 meter telescope array science (call-in talk)
4:00 pm:    Russ Genet – 2.4 meter options
4:30 pm:    Mounir El-Koussa – Portable, low cost 2.4 meter telescope design
5:00 pm:    All jump in – 2.4 meter preliminary design critique

6:30 pm:   Leave for dinner

9:30 pm:   Richard Berry – Remote demonstration of Cal Poly 18 direct drive telescope (weather dependant)

 Sunday July 29

8:30 am:     Eric Weise - double star astrometry including initial efforts on speckle interferometry with a
                  high speed EMCCD camera
9:30 am:     Mel Bartels - 2nd generation of foldable Zip Dob design and application to 42 inch scopes
10:30 am:   Donny Mott - Linear actuator scope
11:30 am:   Discussion led by Russ Genet - Portland Telescope Maker's Conference (PTMC)

Noon: End of workshop

 


Agenda

Portland V Alt-Az Workshop Agenda

July 30, 31, 2011 at Technical Marine Service, Portland, Oregon


Dan Gray - local host, Howard Banich - chair, Russ Genet - founder

 

Friday, July 29th

6:00pm - Informal BBQ at TMS.

 

Saturday, July 30th

8:30am – Get settled at TMS, coffee, tea.

9:00am – Welcome to Portland V workshop, Howard Banich, Russ Genet

9:15am – Starstone mirror technology, Andrew Aurigema

10:15am - 1.5 meter telescope design review, Russ Genet, Laura Rice, Mounir El Koussa

 

12:00 – Lunch on site. Be sure to check out the poster by Joe Garlitz: Using the UCAC3 catalog to get 0.1 mag accurate "V" magnitudes from a single image using the UCAC3 stars within the image as reference.

 

1:30pm – AAVSO Photometric All Sky Survey (APASS), Thomas Smith

2:30pm - break

3:00pm – Folding Telescopes, Mel Bartels

4:00pm – Appleply, Blake Holton and Bill Powell

5:00pm – End of day one presentations

 

6:00pm – Dinner at local restaurant

  

Sunday, July 30th

9:00am – NIR photometer update, Greg Jones

10:00am – Update on Direct Drive, Dan Gray

11:00am – Workshop wrap up.

12:00pm – End of workshop.


Directions to Workshop and Accommodations

To get to the Technical Marine Service, Inc. on Swan Island:

• From I-5 northbound (or southbound also) take exit 303 (Swan Island exit) and head west after  you get off the freeway. From the northbound direction, this means staying to your left and  heading west on North Going Street.

•  Follow this past Interstate Ave. and go down the hill towards Swan Island.

·     Get in the right hand lane and at the bottom of the hill follow the signs to Mocks Landing and veer  to the right onto Basin Ave.

•  Go about 1.5 miles to the signal light at Leverman and turn right and go over the bridge to the first street on the right, which is N. Cutter Circle.

•  Turn right on North Cutter Circle and go to the end of the block to 6040 North Cutter Circle.

            TMS is in the first building as you turn in the driveway (there's a big "TMS" on the side of
             the building. Parking and entry for the workshop is at the side of the building.


Howard Banich has supplied the following information
about accommodations near Sidereal Technology:

Monticello MotelStation
4801 North Interstate Avenue - (503) 285-6641
<http://maps.google.com/> Portland, OR 97217-3623 <http://maps.google.com/>

Get Directions <http://maps.google.com/>

This isn't as nice, may be cheaper

Super Value Inn
5205 North Interstate Avenue (- 503) 285-2556
<http://maps.google.com/> Portland, OR 97217-3726 <http://maps.google.com/>

Get Directions <http://maps.google.com/>

 



Portland IV Alt-Az Initiative Workshop
at Sidereal Technology
Held July 31 – August 1, 2010   Portland, Oregon


Portland 1, 2007
Howard Banich Portland II, 2008
Dan Gray & Direct Drive Motor

The Portland IV Annual Alt-Az Initiative Workshop will be held on Saturday and Sunday at Dan Gray's Sidereal Technology plant, preceded by an informal BBQ on Friday evening, July 30.  Last year’s Portland III Workshop featured a wide variety of speakers, and was featured in Amateur Astronomy magazine as will be this year’s workshop.  Topics this year will include lightweight mirrors, large alt-az telescopes, advanced control systems, instruments (including near IR aperture photometers), and other topics.  Howard Banich is chairing the workshop, and Dan Gray is the local host.  If you plan on attending, please contact Howard at howard.banich@nike.com.  See www.AltAzInitiative.org for the latest information on the workshop. 

A nearby hotel is Monticello Motel Station, 4801 North Interstate Avenue <http://maps.google.com/> Portland, OR 97217-3623 <http://maps.google.com/>.  To get to the Technical Marine Service, Inc. on Swan Island:

• From I-5 northbound (or southbound also) take exit 303 (Swan Island exit) and head west after 
   you get off the freeway. From the northbound direction, this means staying to your left and
   heading west on North Going Street.

•  Follow this past Interstate Ave. and go down the hill towards Swan Island.

·         Get in the right hand lane and at the bottom of the hill follow the signs to Mocks Landing and veer
    to the right onto Basin Ave.

•  Go about 1.5 miles to the signal light at Leverman and turn right and go over the bridge to the first
    street on the right, which is N. Cutter Circle.

•  Turn right on North Cutter Circle and go to the end of the block to 6040 North Cutter Circle.

                TMS is in the first building as you turn in the driveway (there's a big "TMS" on the side of the  
                building. Parking and entry for the workshop is at the side of the building.

                                                                      Agenda 
                              (Some of the topics, talks, and discussion areas—more will be added) 

Friday, 7/30 (6pm)

Welcome BBQ at TMS 

Saturday 7/31 (8:30am)

Introduction and agenda review – Howard
“What’s the telescope for?” – Richard, Russ
Research opportunities – Richard, Jo, David, Russ, Gary Cole. Bob Nelson, David Haworth, Bruce:
                                           Occultations (Lunar and asteroid) 

Break 

Light Bucket astronomy – Bruce: Light Bucket Mirrors, some light bucket mirror theory (figures of merit
                                                     overview), Pneumatic LBTs, Evaluation of other new types and coatings
                                                     (Starstone, solar, Peacock Labs). Russ
 Visual observing - Howard   

Lunch

Brief history of the alt-az telescope – Richard, Peter Abrahams 
Herschel and Lord Rosse – Richard 

Break 

Mirror technologies – Mel, David, Drew, Peter Chen, Bruce, Umesh and Brian
                  Active primary and secondary optics – Umesh:
                  Closed loop control of membrane mirrors using electrostatic actuators, Brian:
                  Laboratory experiments on electrostatically controlled membrane mirrors, Bruce:
                  Correctors –Lenses, Deformable Secondary. Greg
Spherical aberration correction via spherical refractive elements - Dave

Dinner

Sunday, 8/1 (9:00am)

Direct drive motor and controller – Dan, Dave and the PlaneWave gang 
Instrumentation – Greg, Dan, Bruce: Fast Detectors, Area (CCD & CMOS) and diaphragm (high speed
                                                            electrometer design)

Break 

Update on Russ Genet’s 1 meter scope – Russ 
Professional alt-az updates – PlaneWave, Craig

 Lunch

 CDK700 - Dave
1 meter CDK Cassegrain – Dave
Future plans - what scopes and instruments are being planned by participants? 

Break

 Large Telescope Portability - Howard
SPIE update – Russ
Wrap up, going forward – Howard, Russ
 

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