Well we finally got the concrete mixed up and down the hole. That means next month we'll be able to hook Cetus back up and start on the flower beds. Come out and help!

Thanks to Jeannie for bringing muffins and tea.

Yep, we did FINALLY get the rest of that concrete poured. Miserable hot day that it was, we only spent about an hour and brought the level of the concrete up to within an inch or two of the underside of the concrete floor in the CETUS building, or "CETUS Lair" as I like to call it now.

Concrete can attain 75% to 80% of it's final strength after about three weeks according to a scale I found online a couple of months ago. That will allow for the top plate to be welded on in the next week or two, and then for the original half-pier and electronics to be reattached. Shortly after that, we can then re-affix the tube assembly, counterweights and the device that will attach to the 8" Schmidt Camera to the 14" tube so that they'll finally be mated for life that way. I also want to provide a way for a dedicated guidescope to ride along on one side or the other of the camera, and then I'd like a separate device that will allow for 35mm or digital SLR cameras to ride "piggyback" for long exposure, wide-field imaging.

What we'll wind up with will be an instrument that will allow for computer-guided astrophotography with 35mm, digital and CCD cameras, as well as extreme-wide-field astrophotography with the Schmidt as well. There won't be enough hours in any night of the year that will allow for everything to be used in one night's session. We'll likely do several nights at a time of one type of astro-imaging or another and switch off as the need arises for something else to be used. We truly will need to have an observatory director as a full-time position that will basically be an unpaid job. LOTS of work will go into setting observing schedules and programs on a nearly nightly basis.

It will once again call for many AOAS members to be closely associated with what's happening at Coleman Observatory. No one person can handle the work load that we should be able to come up with for everything we now have available. That means many members being fully qualified and capable operators of everything that we'll have on-hand. Whatever observing programs we decide to undertake will have usually two people operating the equipment and taking the data we gather.

Time will tell who will be on these crews as qualified operators. The day will eventually arrive when we'll be taking stock of our members to see who will have what will be required to be one of the primary operators of our now impressive equipment. It may be you, so the time to start thinking about this, is NOW!

Bob