Restore the 12 Inch

First a little backgroud. It was first made in 1956 by Nikon for the Defense Mapping Agency. They used lunar occultations (when a star passes behind the moon) to determine the precise locations of islands mainly in the Pacific after WWII (precursor to GPS). Then around 1968, at the height of the Vietnam Era, the Navy donated it to Boston University. It was immediately repainted to keep from looking too militaristic. You can see it featured in the 1964 Nikon Catalog.

Sometime before or during the 1970s, the secondary mirror was dropped on the Primary mirror (by John Westling, BU's former President), chipping both. They were realuminized (a process where they strip the glass of any existing aluminum and recoat it with aluminum, which makes the mirror reflect) in the 70s. It was put in the dome where the 10 inch is now until 2002, when it was retired because of poor performance. This poor performance is largely because of desperate need to realuminize the mirror again. Click on any thumbnail for a larger picture and description.

Our goal is to realuminize the mirrors (or possibly replace them), get a new optical tube (first picture), repaint it, and generally fix it up and make it look and work like new.