Re: Status report from Rochester

[Chris Albertson <chrisalbertson90278@yahoo.com>]

Michael,

I guess you know there is a table on the anti-freeze bottle
that tells you the anti-freeze to water ratio needed to
prevent freezing at a given temperature.  The trouble is
the cost of that much anti-freeze.  Maybe you could try
using an aquarium 50W heater.  Get a small submersible one
and just throw it in the tank and plug it in.  A good
quality fully submersible heaters cost about $16.00.
less then the cost of the antifreeze and maybe would help
to keep the water temp above the dew point too.

Also maybe using one of those insulation blankets made for
covering hot water heaters would be cost effective.  They
don't cost much.  Same for foam pipe insulation over the
tubes.  Insulating the tank and plumbing may help keep the
water cool in the summer too.  It will tend to stay at the
average outdoor temperature rather then tracking the daytime
high and nighttime low.

Water chilling is not an issue this time of year but while
om the subject... I did
need to keep a 60 gallon aquarium cool.  Here in California
we don't have A/C indoors.  It's not needed as it is only
hot a few days a year and then it is a dry air kind of hot.
But if the indoor air is 90F an aquarium will start to heat
up.  The "standard fix" is to spend $1K on a chiller that is
plumbed in-line to the filters.  Not wanting to spend $1K I
rigged the return line from the pump to a horizontal 1/2 inch
PVC pipe with 1/8" holes drilled along one side.  It was a 
spay bar that sprayed water over the top of the tank.  The
spay bar was held above the water surface with nylon zip
ties. Next
I installed a small muffin fan (salvage from a PC) and blew
air down into the tank where it went across the water and
the length of the spray bar and then out exhaust holes.  Given
that I already had the pump the additional cost was near zero.
This poor man's evaporative cooler really does work when run
24x7.  I had the heater set for 80F and it did hold near 80F.

--- Stupendous Man <richmond@a188-l009.rit.edu> wrote:
> 
> 
>   I have now verified that the RA drive does work properly: last
> night,
> for the first time, I took images with the RA drive running at the
> sidereal rate, and they indeed show little trailing. Rah! 
> 
>   Last night was the coldest night of the season so far: the
> temperatures
> dropped below freezing as soon as the Sun disappeared below the
> horizon. I discovered that the water/antifreeze mixture I use to cool
> the
> cameras had frozen. Actually, only the portion of the liquid in the
> small section of tubing which is exposed to outside air (between the
> garbage can and the shed) was actually frozen. I managed to thaw out
> that section by pouring warm water over the tubing. When I finished
> using the camera, I connected the two ends of the exposed tubing
> together, and kept the pump running. This morning, I verified that
> the
> fluid was still running freely. I guess I ought to add some more
> antifreeze. ...
> 
>                                 Michael Richmond
> 


=====
Chris Albertson 
  Home:   310-376-1029  chrisalbertson90278@yahoo.com
  Cell:   310-990-7550
  Office: 310-336-5189  Christopher.J.Albertson@aero.org

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