2007/02/28
Bullet Holes in the Telescope?
Luckily the wind wasn’t too bad this morning so the bird walk actually happened. There was some wind so there weren’t as many birds around as we would have liked so the walk turned into a drive as the group checked the local hot spots for birds. An added bonus for Ed and I as we hadn’t driven on some of the roads we went on.
This evening was the “dinner and 107" telescope viewing” which we had based our visit around. After dinner everyone headed up to the observatory for a talk on spectroscopy by one of the visitor center staff and a talk by a Phd student who was scheduled to use the telescope tonight — both were very interesting. The dome cannot be opened if the wind reaches speeds above 50 mph in the previous 30 minutes and as the wind was gusting to 57 mph the dome didn’t open so no viewing for us. Plan B was to put the telescope into maintenance mode (i.e. lower it and make it parallel to floor) so we could look down the telescope at the mirror. This was actually really interesting. When you looked down the telescope you noticed a couple of marks on the glass about the size of a dime. Turned out that a year or so after the telescope was in operation (late 60s) one of the astronomers had a melt down and shot at the mirror, he also hit it with a hammer or some other heavy object which explained some of the “scratch” marks. The mirror is more than a foot thick so I guess it takes more than a bullet to shatter it. The only effect of the “flaws” is to make the 107" telescope equal in power to a 106" ---- pretty amazing. We also went into the control room where the Phd student showed us how the some of the equipment worked.
Thainopepla
Loggerhead Shrike
The Hobby Eberly Dome was sparkling in the sun.
The tour guide and his "spectroscopy" equipment.
Spectroscopy is about splitting light into the colour spectrum --- this is what we saw when we looked through a glass reflector. Astronomers use spectroscopy to determine the composition of an object, the direction it is moving and probably other things as well.
The Phd student in the control room --- he has 4 computer screens in front of him.
Looking down the telescope at the mirror --- the bullet holes are the three dots on the right side of the photo.
Starry, starry night --- a view as we were getting ready to head home.
This evening was the “dinner and 107" telescope viewing” which we had based our visit around. After dinner everyone headed up to the observatory for a talk on spectroscopy by one of the visitor center staff and a talk by a Phd student who was scheduled to use the telescope tonight — both were very interesting. The dome cannot be opened if the wind reaches speeds above 50 mph in the previous 30 minutes and as the wind was gusting to 57 mph the dome didn’t open so no viewing for us. Plan B was to put the telescope into maintenance mode (i.e. lower it and make it parallel to floor) so we could look down the telescope at the mirror. This was actually really interesting. When you looked down the telescope you noticed a couple of marks on the glass about the size of a dime. Turned out that a year or so after the telescope was in operation (late 60s) one of the astronomers had a melt down and shot at the mirror, he also hit it with a hammer or some other heavy object which explained some of the “scratch” marks. The mirror is more than a foot thick so I guess it takes more than a bullet to shatter it. The only effect of the “flaws” is to make the 107" telescope equal in power to a 106" ---- pretty amazing. We also went into the control room where the Phd student showed us how the some of the equipment worked.
Thainopepla
Loggerhead Shrike
The Hobby Eberly Dome was sparkling in the sun.
The tour guide and his "spectroscopy" equipment.
Spectroscopy is about splitting light into the colour spectrum --- this is what we saw when we looked through a glass reflector. Astronomers use spectroscopy to determine the composition of an object, the direction it is moving and probably other things as well.
The Phd student in the control room --- he has 4 computer screens in front of him.
Looking down the telescope at the mirror --- the bullet holes are the three dots on the right side of the photo.
Starry, starry night --- a view as we were getting ready to head home.
