A few of us, from the Tampabay club, were lucky enough to visit the lens shop at Ponce last Sunday. I will try to post some pictures I took inside there later tonight.

Would love to see those pictures, Weasel!

Ponce Inlet Light is a great place to visit. The museum that houses the Cape Canaveral Lens is something to see, it immaculate. I can't imagine TWO restored lenses side by side. Now I have go back!

Well since you asked so nicely, I shall provide the pictures in question and as much as I can remember of the tour.

First off I want to thank the staff at Ponce Inlet and our guide for getting us behind the scenes, so to speak. Keep up the good work!!

We were escorted into the Lighthouse Admin offices and shown to the ground level work area. In this room, the brass fixture that makes up the very top of the lens is being slowly restored. When it arrived on site the brass was black and has been carefully polished to the condition shown in the picture below.



After a few moments for pictures we were escorted upstairs to the area where the prisms that make up the lens are being stored. Here we see some of the prisms that are currently in storage awaiting cleaning and fitting back into their frames. The do not touch signs were not on display in these pictures, but I bet we were asked at least a dozen times to not touch anything. Each prism will be cleaned and polished repeatedly, any extra fingerprints from a stray Wacko or two means even more polishing for someone!




Here is a close up of a couple of the prisms.

We are then escorted into the next room where the lens is slowly being pieced back together piece by piece. In this picture one can see the little wooden pegs that are used to adjust the prisms so that they are in the correct alignment. When everything is lined up properly, the prisms are caulked into place like the prism, seen in the lower part of this picture.



In this picture one can see a completed side panel. Notice that there are no bull eyes, which shows that this was a non-revolving lens. There were two completed panels on the tables at the time of our visit.




I for one can hardly wait to see this lens and the Cape Canaveral lens together on display. One First order is a treat to see, two in the same room will be truly breathtaking As for the third order that used to be on display she is getting ready to go here, and replace the DB9 that is currently in the Lantern room. This is the place a Fresnel truly belongs!



And while we are up here in the lantern room, who can name this wacko? (Here is your hint,I'm paying her back for doing the same thing to me in a post back in Oct.) :p

Nice shots Weasel, I'm envious. Being an engineer, I get into that stuff!

Great pictures, Weasel! And thanks for the informative fresnel tour. :p

Indeed... great photos. Very interesting.

Thanks for the great pictures, Weasel! I hope we will be able to visit this great place again this year!

Thanks so much for the photos from your "behind the scenes" tour. As to who's in that last photo, I'd say that's none other than Bonnie Jean!

Yep that's BonnieJean!

Stephanie

Bringing this one back to the top. I was able to visit Ponce Inlet again on Sunday. Here are some pictures showing the progress of the First Order Lens restoration.

In the first picture one can see that the lens frame and the top and bottom catadioptric prisms are in place. Also installed are the reflectors that sit on the landward side of the lens.



In the second picture one can see what the whole lens looks like. This picture was taken from the steps leading up to the second level, because there is not a real good place to shoot the whole lens without a wide-angle camera lens on the first level. Notice the steps in the pedestal base.




The lens has suffered a bit of damage to 2 of its lower right catadioptric panels. Here are 2 pictures showing the damage.

The extreme right lower panel


The next panel to the left of the first panel



I also asked the staff about the status of the 3rd order lens return to the tower. I was told that they hoped to have it completed and installed by the end of the summer. They are currently waiting on some replacement glass panels.

Thanks for the great pictures, Weasel!!

We will be vacationing south of there in August!
Can't wait to see the work in progress and Ponce again!

Great pictures, I need to make the trip to see this light the next time I'm in Florida