I just read this great article by Timothy Ferris on large telescopes in the new National Geographic. I'd like to share it with you all:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/07/telescopes/ferris-text/1
and I have a question I'm hoping somebody may be able to answer. In the section on the subaru telescope, Ferris mentions that of all these giants on Mauna Kea, Subaru is the only one anyone's every actually looked through: "Subaru happens to be one of the few giant telescopes that anybody has ever actually looked through. For its inauguration in 1999, an eyepiece was attached so that Princess Sayako of Japan could have a look through the scope, and for several nights thereafter eager Subaru staffers did the same. "Everything you can see in the Hubble Space Telescope photos—the colors, the knots in the clouds—I could see with my own eyes, in stunning Technicolor," one recalled."
That is simply astounding! Imagine getting full color images at the eyepiece without any electronic 'help'! Subaru is an 8.2m telescope and a few people... a few dozen perhaps, looked through it directly. To see hubble like images, in full color, without electronics must be mind blowing. I hadn't even considered that one could do that. I think it's rare on any giant telescope to have eyepieces anymore, correct? I'd love to know more about this... who were these lucky people, and what was their full unexcerpted story? anybody know who (besides the japanese princess) looked through it?
I assume this is the largest telescope anyone's ever looked through directly but if anybody knows different, let's hear it.
Enjoy the article, and let me know if you know any more about these lucky staffers and/or if there are other 1st hand reports from anyone lucky enough to look through a giant-class scope in full technicolor.
Tom
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/07/telescopes/ferris-text/1
and I have a question I'm hoping somebody may be able to answer. In the section on the subaru telescope, Ferris mentions that of all these giants on Mauna Kea, Subaru is the only one anyone's every actually looked through: "Subaru happens to be one of the few giant telescopes that anybody has ever actually looked through. For its inauguration in 1999, an eyepiece was attached so that Princess Sayako of Japan could have a look through the scope, and for several nights thereafter eager Subaru staffers did the same. "Everything you can see in the Hubble Space Telescope photos—the colors, the knots in the clouds—I could see with my own eyes, in stunning Technicolor," one recalled."
That is simply astounding! Imagine getting full color images at the eyepiece without any electronic 'help'! Subaru is an 8.2m telescope and a few people... a few dozen perhaps, looked through it directly. To see hubble like images, in full color, without electronics must be mind blowing. I hadn't even considered that one could do that. I think it's rare on any giant telescope to have eyepieces anymore, correct? I'd love to know more about this... who were these lucky people, and what was their full unexcerpted story? anybody know who (besides the japanese princess) looked through it?
I assume this is the largest telescope anyone's ever looked through directly but if anybody knows different, let's hear it.
Enjoy the article, and let me know if you know any more about these lucky staffers and/or if there are other 1st hand reports from anyone lucky enough to look through a giant-class scope in full technicolor.
Tom
