THE CLIMAX - DECEMBER 1961
Coronal sky time fell off during December to 20^, and nearly all of it was class I. Activity remained at the expected low level, but there was a marked improvement late in the month in the amount of fairly good seeing. These were the Coronagraph observations s Green Surveys 10 good, 2 partial. Red Surveys 8 good, 3 partial, and 1 for ALR only. Iron Series* 1 good. Paschen Series* 1 that was no good. ^078 Spicules* Several sets were attempted, but as yet we have not obtained a very good one. The program is now completely worked out, and patience should eventually yeild that one or two pictures which will show the elusive spicules. Andy1s Image Tube Programss Much work was done here. We now have succeeded in observing IO83O in the 2nd order chromosphere and prominences. 10123 was tried again on slight limb activity with negative results. A number of IO83O 2nd order disk flare scans were shot on the interesting disk flares near the end of the month with negative results also. The Flare Patrol operated well during the month - due in part to the damaging of the suppressor plate early in the month by the extremely low temperature (•2i+°). The plate was removed and sent back to France for repair, and we have operated without it since, ^ome of the new features decided on at the November meeting were installed, but difficulty was experienced by the electronicers so the only one in effect is the slowing down of the sector rotation to allow exposures up to twice as long as before. This is working well, but the cycle now occupies so much of the 10 second interval between pictures that we must shut the patrol off th view (this was anticipated and agreed upon at the November meeting). The exposure meter is nearly ready for testing, but has not arrived yet. The seeing tube for the front of the flare patrol has arrived and will be tested and installed early in January. The data panel illumination control was altered to permit much shorter and brighter flashes of light for the purpose of stopping theseconds drum on the clock. Testing of lamps and settings for this is under way. The Climax - Becmeber 1961 - 2 A
A bandpass monitoring system was tried out without too good results* The method consists of removing both polaroids, then varying the temperature of the filter and taking pictures at each temperature setting. Theoretically, the lightest picture as determined by density measurements would define the temperature for the center of H.,1. In practice, the density wanders too much to give a very clear indication* More work will be done on this. The installation of the house trailer was completed, and the Heynekamps moved in near the end of the month. Chris will devote most of his time to the operation of the K-Coronameter and the reduction and analysis of its data. The Climax observers will continue to fill in on the operation of the instrument when Chris is not able to do it. The contractor finished the alteration work in the big dome, and the results are surprising. xhere has been a significant gain in space in the downstairs hallway, the dome room, and the spectro- gnaph room, and at the same time there seems to be a little gain in accessibility to the spectrograph room. Some of you might be interested in the housing situation over at The Climax Molybdenum camp. Of roughly 300 houses that were in camp two years ago, only 5 remain. Nine of the ten apartment buildings are still in camp and in use. All of these units will be moved to Leadville next spring and summer* The store at the top of the pass continues to do a record business and apparently has no plans to close or move yet. This is definitely the last year for the school at Climax. Of all the homes moved the 15 miles to Leadville, the only mishap was with the last one this fall - the movers tipped it over into the ditch half way down* *or the weather minded: A record winter is in the making at Climax this year* At year’s end our snowfall since September was 171* inches, to be compared with 73 on this date last year and 1*4-5 on this date in the record winter of 1950-51* ^oday, we are only kO inches short of last winters total* In early December the temperature dropped to -2bi , and this was only i short of the record for the station. (These figures are for old-timers Grant and V/alt so they can prepare to top them).