Cool Breeze, the mirror box air conditioner is progressing! Here's a view of the control board with a temp controller, dual TC meter with TC's on a thick and thin portion of glass to show temperature uniformity, and, a dew point meter.

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Here's a view of the mirror box cover with 4" ducting and the custom AC unit.

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Here's a view of the backside of the custom AC unit. The compressor will reside under the truss poles and the Cool Breeze box will be in front of the mirror box along side the truss poles.

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Next to the scope these parts don't look so big anymore....

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What I won't do for good images..., but it's a work in progress.

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Another view of the AC unit. For now I'll have to still use my box-fan mirror box cover but eventually it'll be air conditioned.

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There's still an aisle way when it's all packed up....

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There was a Horned Lizard down by the Poderosa Pine this year!

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Arrival to the property with about an hour of daylight....

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The scope's out and cooling! Do you see any stars in the blue background?

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Maybe this image will help.... What an awesome first night, up until 3am

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John set up the 13".

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Ron took many awesome 30 second images....

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Ron studying the morning coffee.

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I'm organizing the satellite pass info.

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The screened-in area for cooking. It worked quite well.

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We had chicken that first night.

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Scope's cooling down and chicken's nearly done....

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Another one of Ron's images illuminating us and the scope with red light....

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The next morning it was coffee, donuts, and other snackies.

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Ron's first cup of coffee since 6am..., milk?

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Kuiper and Sagan (Thunder and Lightning, or, Port and Starboard)....

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We had many more Desert Paintbrush blooming this year than all the other years combined!

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One of the bush species is also in bloom this time of year....

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The 6"f3.5 needed a little work.... Collimating an f3.5 can be challenging.

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Especially when the 2.6" secondary is in an 8" tube, note the concentration....

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Now this is more like it! A scope I can actually work on! I needed to see the laser re-enter the unit after having reflected off all the mirrors.

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Cool Breeze II in the making.... A standard air conditioner will be modified to accept the 4" unsulated hoses to cool the primary.

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Here's the cover with hoses attached.

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Using materials from the original Cool Breeze the foam was re-purposed, though the AC unit was placed upon the 1" thick Baltic Birch castor plate.

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The first time it powered up the air exiting the AC unit into the hose had an air temp of 6F. Eventually it reached -7F. It cooled the mirror to the expected night time temp with ease... :).

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Cool Breeze II.... It too fits under the truss poles leaving an aisle in the observatory.

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The obligatory Photo-Op; Ron.

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The obligatory Photo-Op; John.

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Another of John....

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And another of Ron.

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This one has me on the scope as Ron took a 30" image. He also bathed the area in red light to give it a fore-ground.

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Taken from the back of the scope, can you tell what we were looking at...?

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