Seth Sorenson, an engineering student, and August Enzminger were able to conduct multiple tests on the partially sunny days we have had this past week and he was able to get readings of up to 126 degrees of heat being focused from the trough!! Mind you that his was a cloudy day and he was [...]

Last week we were able to lay down the reflective surface on our trough!! check out the pics!        

We have cut two 5 foot pipes today that will allow use to actually set up the entire trough for our first look at what our final product will look like.  

  BEFORE       AFTER THESE HOLES WILL ALLOW US TO SET UP THE TROUGH IN 10 DEGREE INCREMENTS TO CATCH THE SUN NO MATER WHAT TIME OF DAY OR WHAT SEASON!  

Today we are drilling the holes in the three plywood cut outs of the parabola. We will take pictures as soon as it is finished and post them. The next step will be to get a 1/2 in tube that we can use to stick through the cut holes as a way to hold the [...]

After we finished the first design of the sway base on Solidworks, we are now waiting on material to create the first finished model.

this is the second design for the base.  This uses much less material and will be easier to build.  It will allow for us to adjust the angle of the trough at 10 degree increments.