Getting Sidetracked

I was supposed to start sorting clothes, do some laundry, and do some ironing this morning for our upcoming cross-country trip.  I was planning to get started on ironing and went searching for an over-the-door hanger so I had a place to hang the shirts I ironed...  I couldn't find it...  I got frustrated...  then I got sidetracked.

During my search for the over-the-door hanger, my spinal injuries started hurting and I was getting worn out.  While searching, I noticed a piece of sheet metal in the back room and that was all it took for me to change gears and work on a different project. 

So, instead of preparing for this trip, I pulled out that piece of sheet metal...  then dug out some tools... and I started working on a solar finder scope that I designed yesterday.  Yesterday, I had already made a crude form of a solar finder scope out of a short piece of PVC pipe and one coupler.  I cut each to various sizes so I could accurately piece everything together in a workable form.

Although most people probably find it hard to believe, it is actually fairly difficult to accurately point a telescope at the sun.  The sun is so bright that you can't easily sight toward the sun because it is blinding.  So, then you sway the telescope back and forth hoping to catch the sun in your eyepiece.  It is a bit time consuming and can get surprisingly frustrating.  The answer is to mount a good solar finder scope on the telescope.  Since you should not look directly at the sun through a typical finder scope without going blind, I decided to design and build one myself that can be used for the sun.  This one has a yellow projection screen on the back of it so there are no optics for the sun to be magnified to dangerous levels.

Today, the first thing I needed was a nice smooth disk with a tiny hole in it for the front cell of this finder scope.  This is an aperture mask for the front cell so that only a tiny beam of light shines into this finder scope.  The sun will shine through this tiny hole and then project a bright dot on the rear cell.  

This metal disk needs a very clean hole and it needs to be centered in the middle of the disk. Cutting out this disk turned out to be a piece of cake with my tin snips.  After using my snips to cut it out roughly, I then cleaned up the edges using my belt sander in a stationary position.  This was looking good.

Then I needed to find the exact center of this disk.  I first covered the smooth metal disk with masking tape.  My pen wouldn't write on the smooth metal but I knew it would write on the masking tape.  I pulled out a square and a combination square.  The combination square has a 45° angle on it so I overlaid that over the corner of the standard square...  I then drew intersecting lines across the disk.  Where the lines intersected is where the center is located. 

Then I went outside to retrieve my drill press.  I need this hole to be a very clean hole so the drill press was the tool for the job.  I lugged the drill press indoors and made quick work of drilling this single tiny hole. 

Now it was time for some flat black paint.  The inside of the tube needs to be flat black so it doesn't reflect light inside the tube.  I also needed to paint both sides of the metal disk aperture mask with the hole in it for the same reason...  to minimize reflected light.  

I did the spray painting outdoors in the snow but then I quickly brought both painted parts indoors and put them under a hair dryer to warm them up and dry them.  They are looking pretty good now.

The rear cell of the finder scope needs to house a translucent yellow plastic disk.  The sun will illuminate a bright dot on this translucent disk (that is the plan, anyway).  I also need a bullseye on this yellow rear cell so I printed a bullseye on laser printer transparency film.  I cut it out to fit this rear cell.  This went more quickly than anticipated.

Then I needed a clear protective cover for this film so I cut that out of some clear old packaging we had lying around in our recycling bin.  I do believe that this rear cell will work well so it should then be quite easy to center the bright dot of the sun inside this bullseye.

I think I am done working on this for the day.  When we get back from our trip, I will add some finish paint to the outside of this finder scope.  Then, I will take some photos of it in use.  Maybe I'll even put together a short video of using this finder scope when it is completed.

At this point, I am beginning to realize that I am nowhere near ready for this cross-country journey.  I can't even find the things I need.  I still am not sure how I am going to fit everything I need to pack into one large rolling suitcase and a tiny carry-on bag.  My daily medications for my primary illness are my biggest problem...  there are a lot of them and they take up a lot of space.  I'll need to fit all my photography gear into the one rolling suitcase too.  

As I am typing this, I keep remembering things I needed to do earlier this week.  

Even though I am looking forward to this trip and pretty excited about such a long and unusual journey, right now, I'm not feeling like it is time for it just yet.