900 mounts at Dome C in Antarctica

Hi folks,

One of our French dealers sent me this link showing the French research team
down under with two of our 900 mounts getting ready to track the Sun and stars
with a pair of specially made C11 scopes. These mounts already spent last
season down there in weather as cold as -60C doing research on seeing at Dome C.

Interesting that the platform and tripods were made from wood. I was told
that they resist the cold better than metal and won't twist with the temperature.

Some pictures:

http://pleiades.unice.fr/~agabi/galerie/Agabi_DSCN9206_m.jpg
http://pleiades.unice.fr/~agabi/galerie/Agabi_DSCN7818_m.jpg
http://pleiades.unice.fr/~agabi/galerie/Agabi_DSCN9370_m.jpg
http://pleiades.unice.fr/~agabi/galerie/Agabi_DSCN9219_m.jpg

Home page: http://pleiades.unice.fr/~agabi/

Roland Christen

Nice pictures. Makes me feel good when I consider that the coldest it usually gets here is right around zero and thats only a couple of nights each winter.

On a side note. They could have built the tripod and platform using parts from Synta mounts. Im sure the grease (glue)in that cold weather would resist all twisting. ;-)

And I thought Minnesota was cold!!!! 8O 8O

Maurice