For Astronomy Lovers…

[Warren B. MusselmanModerator]

VERY impressive. Got to see it today on a friend’s telescope that was set up for solar viewing.
[url]
http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/img_display.php?pic=huge-sun-eruption-101206-02.jpg&cap=This+huge+tendril+of+magnetic+plasma+erupted+from+the+sun+on+Dec.+6%2C+2010.+In+this+photo+from+NASA%27s+Solar+Dynamics+Observatory%2C+the+filament+stretches+across+nearly+700%2C000+km+of+the+sun%27s+surface.+Credit%3A+SDO%2FNASA.+%5B%3Ca+href%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.space.com%2Fscienceastronomy%2Fhuge-solar-eruption-photo-filament-101206.html%3EFull+Story%3C%2Fa%3E%5D%5B/url%5D

[greywolves]

Thanks for the new wall paper, very cool.

[Bruce R. Schaefer]

Thanks, Warren. If I could lift my telescope, I’d be watching the sun every day. Beautiful! [Addition/Edit] The neatest video I ever got was watching the partial solar eclipse in Southern Cal (~91) was getting an airplane from DIA in it. Very cool! We lived a couple of miles from Rocketdyne, and my ex-wife came cross a couple of notebooks, my favorite is an H-1 Rocket Engine notebook… without all the good stuff. But it is a notebook I treasure… probably has electronics in it though. I could have jogged to Rocketdyne! Nah, well, kinda, checked it… NASA soldering techniques. Crud/cool.

[Warren B. MusselmanModerator]

When I was a boy scout and ham, I got to take NASA’s space soldering school at RCA’s David Sarnoff Research Center in Princeton, NJ. I still have the training book somewhere. All kinds of stuff like little kinks in resistor leads. In retrospect, it was 3 days spread over a month and so it likely wasn’t the whole class, but I did learn to do a decent job on soldering to terminals and through-hole stuff. This surface mount stuff is too new-fangled for me though – aside from the fact that I can’t see or pick up the damn parts.

[Bruce R. Schaefer]

Very cool, Warren. Stiffest standards, as you know. I made telemetry transmitters in the late 60’s with a soldering gun, of all things, until my Dad bought me a soldering iron. Made quite a difference. 🙄

[new2hprParticipant]

The surface mount stuff isn’t too bad IF you have a good binoc-scope, fine tweezers, very fine point Metcal, and good flux. I can do 0402 components pretty easily, but get too messy on fine pitch (<.5mm) packages, though!
-Ken

[AdrianParticipant]

I got a hot-air rework tool a few months ago, and since then I haven’t used my soldering iron much. You can squeeze out some solder paste through a syringe, smear it over all the pads, and it will ball up and go to the right places like magic once you hit it with some heat.

[Bruce R. Schaefer]

The surface mount stuff isn’t too bad IF you have a good binoc-scope, fine tweezers, very fine point Metcal, and good flux. I can do 0402 components pretty easily, but get too messy on fine pitch (<.5mm) packages, though!
-Ken

I used to be able to do even the finest pitch SMT compnents, had to. I have a bunch in the garage, that I keep planning to use. 😉 Although I really like the sound of that hot air rework station, Edward.

[Author]

Posts