Month: December 2017
DSES 2017 Year End Update and Membership Renewal
December 22, 2017
To all Deep Space Exploration Society (DSES) Current and Former Members:
I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! Today marks the first day of our 2018 membership dues drive. Our organization relies on annual membership dues to fund most all of the DSES projects at our Paul Plishner Radio Astronomy and Space Sciences Center near Haswell, CO. Annual dues for voting members, continues to be $50.00. For those who wish to be involved as non-voting members the price is $20.00. Those members who have recently joined within the past 3 months (October-December) will be credited for 2018. Annual elections of board members/officers will be in late January. You must be current on your dues to vote in the elections.
You can pay your dues on the DSES web site (DSES.science) by credit card or PayPal. You can also mail dues to the following addresses:
DSES,
4164 Austin Bluffs Parkway #562,
Colorado Springs, CO 80909-2118
Your canceled check, Paypal receipt or credit receipt will be your acknowledgement of your dues paid. If you want a separate receipt signifying payment, please note that with your payment and I will mail you a receipt. PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR CURRENT MAILING ADDRESS, EMAIL ADDRESS AND CONTACT PHONE NUMBER. Also let me know if you DO NOT want this info to be released to the general membership. I would like to pass this membership information containing email addresses and phone numbers out to all members.
Please read the attached DSES 2017 Highlights written by Bill Miller, your Secretary. He did a fantastic job in covering the great success we had in 2017.
Please feel free to email or call me if you have any questions or if you have a change of any contact information, email, phone or snail mail.
Thank You and have a great 2018 New Year;
Myron F. Babcock; DSES Treasurer
[To contact Myron, please use the email address dsestm{at}gmail.com . ]
DSES Commercial Power Installation Update
Posted by Myron Babcock, DSES Treasurer. Photos by Steve Plock, DSES Vice President.
Thanks to Skip Crilly for his $37K donation and to Steve Plock and Ed Corn for leading this effort to fulfill the dream of connecting the DSES Plishner Site to the AC Power Grid. Steve reported on Saturday December 9 that approximately 22 power poles, almost 5000 feet of wire, and a 25KVA transformer were installed last week. The Colorado Southeast Power Association worked 5 days in accomplishing this task. Saturday December 9, Steve Plock, Ed Corn, and Glenn Davis spent the day assisting local resident, Mark Nelson, from Haswell, CO in the trenching of approximately 600 feet of ground from the transformer pole area to the Southwest corner of the bunker area. Number 4/0 3 wire URD/with reduced neutral wire is now in the trench and once inspected by a Southeast Power Association representative the trench will be filled back in. Ed Corn has the necessary supplies for final connection to the bunker power panel. Once completed DSES will have 220 VAC 100 amp service in the communications trailer and 220 VAC 100 amp service in the bunker. Currently the plan is for the existing 30+KW propane generator to be disconnected. A decision will be made at a later date as to the disposition of this generator. Existing solar panels and batteries will continue to be used until such time as it is deemed the continuing expense out ways its usefulness.
Aerial photos of the radio telescope site, summer 2016
These are some photos I took of the DSES radio telescope site about a year and a half ago, in July 2016.
The altitude of the aircraft was 7500 feet above sea level. The elevation of the site is about 4500 feet, and so these photos are about 3000 feet above the ground. The radio telescope site is located in Kiowa County. The neighbors are ranches and farms.
Visible from the air, to the southwest of the radio telescope site, are the remains of a World War II training airfield. The pattern of runways forms a triangle.
-Gary WA2JQZ