Technology is taking romance out of astronomy

I recommend Peltier's book as well.There is a "Mount Peltier" named after him somewhere.

One incidence where an eyepiece would have come in handy was the Hubble Space Telescope.

Had NASA turned it on the sky and took a glance at the stars through it (or snapped a picture) while it was still on the ground the spherical abberation on the primary mirror would have been instanty recognised.

It would have saved millions on the risky repair mission.

Peter.

I remember the horizon documentary about Hubble many years back, it was the most perfectly shaped mirror ever made, its just a pity the shape was the wrong one. :lol: I'd be the QA guys got kicked hard for that one.

Dave
I think I remember that one. Wasn’t it a fleck of paint on the optical mirror measuring device that was deemed to be the culprit of the mirror being made perfectly, but perfectly wrong? :roll:

Clear skies
Mike

It wasn’t just the QA guys who got punished. The entire Optical Systems Division of Perkin Elmer was sold to Hughes.(Now Hughes Danbury Optics)
(Perkin Elmer had a base in Cork at that time. I used to work there.)

Perkin and Elmer were two amateur astronomers who set up a telescope making business in the 1930s.

They built periscopes and bomb aiming equipment and range-finders etc. for the US military during WW2.

They were the main contractors for US spy satellite optics right up until the HST fiasco.

In many ways HST is a spy satellite aiming the wrong way!

Peter.

yea, the null lens was out of position by a tiny amount, something like the width of a human hair. I'll never forget the look on the guys when they saw the first star images, spherical abberation all over the place. :oops:

To professional astronomers, its a job, most of them have/had no interest in amateur/visual astronomy, so what romance is there in the first place???
Its a job, they get payed and if they're lucky they'll discover something new and interesting.

Yea thats it, they just went to college studied something boring and then managed to got a regular job doing it, hey it pays the bills, they don't really care about it. Someone who owns a small telescope and goes out in the cold clearly has more 'romance' for the subject than those who spend their lives doing it :roll: :lol:

fwiw any of the professionals I've met really like what they do. Some got interested by looking though a telescope at a young age, other got into it through an interest in geology or physics. Though perhaps they should be stoned if they cant reduce an image themselves or tell me what constellation Antares is in :lol:

Professionals, by and large, have access to better tools and better processes than amateurs. Thats the difference. Sure Marcy could try looking for planets by visual observing, but using a camera is more efficient. He could go and take the darks, flats etc. himself, but having that automated or at least done by an experienced operator is more efficient. If he really misses the romance that much then he can buy a scope and a few eyepieces, a flask of coffee, insect repellent, lots of thermal clothing...

To logically follow the 'taking the romance out of' angle, then you would have to say that the telescope took the romance out of observing, and that computers took the romance out of counting. Perhaps they did, but you don't hear many people complaining about it!