Monthly Archives: April 2013

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Nike-Hercules Missile Base

April 27, 2013 6:09 pm /

Elizabeth and I have an interest in nuclear tourism. We are in the San Francisco Bay Area, and we made a trip to see the decommissioned Nike-Hercules missile site SF-88 located near the Golden Gate Bridge, which is run by the National Park Service as a museum.

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Posted in: Trips / Tagged:

Pictures from the Scanning Electron Microscope

April 9, 2013 11:12 pm /

A few nights back, Brian and I took some images from the SEM. We exported them into TIF format, and then copied them via Sneakernet, a.k.a. using 3.5″ floppy disks and a portable USB floppy reader. I converted them into .png files. Click them for full 1024×768 resolution, the limit of the Leica image capture board. I’m very happy with how they turned out.

nil354

This is the top of a metallic pin or electronic contact, showing what appear to be machining marks as well as what looks like a good deal of surface contamination. Note the scale showing 100 microns.

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Posted in: Projects / Tagged: ,

Scanning Electron Microscope

April 3, 2013 11:46 am /

Ryan with SEM and 10th Doctor
Back in January, I got word that Philip Strong, a past member of PS:One, worked for a company that needed to get rid of a working scanning electron microscope and was considering donating it to PS:One. While PS:One has an existing SEM in the space (a Leica S440, owned by JP, a member), this one supposedly was fully functional, had documentation, and we could get some help from the microscopist, Susan Young, who used it. Of course we were interested!

On Monday the 18th, I learn that yes, the donation was approved, but with a catch: It had to be moved on Saturday the 23rd!

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Posted in: Projects / Tagged: ,