Portland XII Alt-Az Workshop

The 12th annual Portland Alt-Az Workshop was held August 9 through 11, 2019 at Dan Gray's TMS workshop in Portland, Oregon.

The Alt-Az Workshop was founded by Dr. Russ Genet and has brought together advanced amateurs, 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 use in low cost, high performance 1.0 to 2.0-meter amateur telescopes.

We’ve had several notable successes, including Dan Gray’s Direct Drive controller and the continuing accomplishments of Mel Bartels and David Davis in slumping, grinding, polishing, and figuring sub f/3 large aperture meniscus mirrors. Lisa Brodhacker’s ongoing work on spin cast epoxy mirrors is also continuing to show promise. 

This year's agenda was super good:

Saturday, August 10

Increasing the accuracy of your Telescope - Dan Gray

Meniscus Magic – 25, 30 and 42-inch slumped meniscus mirror telescope update - Mel Bartels

Spray silvering telescope mirrors, overcoating and the PMRT - Rob Brown

Spray silvering telescope mirrors, how-to update - Howard Banich

Spray silver coatings and meniscus mirrors - Zane Landers

First light of ASV 40” f/3.3 - Tong Liu

Making large flats – David Davis

Tensegrity telescope structures - Don Peckham

The 2nd annual Peter Abrahams Astronomical History talk: Eddington and the Einstein 

gravitational deflection experiment – Richard Berry

Sunday, August 11  

09:00 – The L-Mount and associated projects – Russ Genet

Cube Sat Science – Russ Genet

Howard Banich chairs the workshop and Dan Gray is the local host. If you plan on attending a future workshop, or want to contribute a talk, please contact Howard at hbanich at gmail dot com.

Mel Bartels      

Online presentations   

Dan Gray: http://siderealtechnology.com/IncreasingTheAccuracyOfYourTelescope.ppt 

Dan Gray: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_vQZSa9rz8  (Video presentation. Please note PointXP is written by Dave Rowe, courtesy of Planewave Instruments, and Platesove3 is also written by Dave Rowe, courtesy of Planewave Instruments)

Mel Bartels: https://www.bbastrodesigns.com/presentations/Altaz%20Initiative%202019/presentation.html 

Don Peckham: https://www.dbpeckham.com/Telescope/Tensegrity-2019-AltAz/Tensegrity-2019-08-.html                                                                                                                         

Portland  2023 Alt-Az Workshop Update - Ed Allen's paper about motion control devices