Data: Stellar Quadrant Observations – 7/27/18 (Mars Opposition)

One of the long term goals of this project is to collect enough data to derive the orbit of Mars. However, because Kepler didn’t know the orbit of Earth, he couldn’t use the observation on any given night. Instead, he only used observations from when Mars was at opposition1. This happened to be last night, so we packed up the quadrant and headed out.

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Instrumentation – The Great Quadrant: Day 9

We’re getting very close to the end of construction, so it’s the point where it’s down to a lot of small details. To start, here’s a better picture of the axle assembly:

I’d shown a picture last time, but today, we added a brass fitting to help tighten the portion that goes through the central column, and using a pipe wrench, tightened the portion that will go through the arm so it cannot rotate, forcing the quadrant arm to rotate on it whereas during the test assembly last time, the arm caused the axle itself to turn. The cap on the end still goes on finger tight so it can easily be removed to disassemble the instrument for transport. Continue reading “Instrumentation – The Great Quadrant: Day 9”