With the release of a new Beatles track using new AI tech, to mine old gems, I thought I should follow suit.
Attached is an image of my revamped Hypering tank.
The tank itself was kindly made for me, gratis, by the team at Qantas engineering Mascot in the 1990's.
I suspect the work of those wonderful gentlemen has long since been outsourced to someone in Manilla.
I sourced the thermostat controller and Vacuum pump (good to about 0.1 torr) about the same time while passing through Singapore.
Why, in a time of digital imaging, would you want to hyper-sensitize photographic film? I don't...but...
Desiccant plugs in astro-cameras is the answer!
Subjecting a desiccant to a 80C bake in a reasonably hard vacuum
(approximates space at low earth-orbit) one can drive any moisture from the plugs
in under an hour without risk of melting the internal desiccant granules
(OK I'll fess up....No AI was actually required)
But fresh vacuum pump oil certainly helped
The freshly plumbed and cleaned rig still works a treat.