11 Feb 2010 Ponch’s side of the story

Chuck,

 We got our snow tuesday, although it was mixed with wet sloopy rain, and alot of it.  Global warming has broken out all over the SoCal area with record low temps and large amounts of rain.   The water was running in all the streets and gutters along with a few houses transported by copious amounts of mud.  The mountains are packed with snow right down to the valley floor…very beutiful.  I would enjoy it allot more by skiing however I tried to recapture my youth and do allot of running when I was up at Beale.  The running tracks up there were so buetiful and inviting and the weather was perfect, unitl my knee got screwed up trying to run faster then an old man should :-(  Damn the old age…. 

Now for more fun and interesting news.  We are pretty well along into the great 1 meter telescope production.  We accomplished a huge milstone about two weeks ago by accomplishing first light.  The first light through a scope is a big event as what was once all theory, design, sparks and sawdust becomes reality.  You hope that the optics will function and the weight and balance works ect ect.  It was a big celebration as all worked as advertised. Tomorrow I am scheduled to take the scope down to Inca Corp. A Dr. George Roberts fomerly of NASA, wants to see what we have done so far.  His company is building the lower transport cradle and rocker box out of aluminum.  What we have designed and built is the “mock-up” for the actual scope, however the good Dr. Genet plans to utilize the wooden mock-up as a functioning telecope as soon as we get another mirror.  We will then network the two scopes together for some very interesting science.  Dr. Roberts is one of the founding fathers of the JPL in Pasedena and was personaly involved with the U.S. moon effort from Mecury to Apollo.  It was his research that determined the calcium bone loss due to weightlessness in space.  He is good friends with most of the current and former astronauts.  How I know this is because my buddy Dr. Genet introduced me to Dr Roberts as an Edwards test pilot were upon both of them began to tell pilot jokes and personel experiences with such guys as Chuck yeager and the like.  I had to quicky qualify my meager existance as a Global Hawk tester.  No record breaking space flights for me …yet.    

Cheers

Ponch 

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