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Old 02-28-2020, 05:30 AM   #41
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otoh, it seems like there's plenty of Hawaiian's who are /for/ the TMT project...

Documents - Maunakea & TMT
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Old 02-28-2020, 06:56 AM   #42
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otoh, it seems like there's plenty of Hawaiian's who are /for/ the TMT project...

Documents - Maunakea & TMT
The polls which were taken at the end of this report suggest there is overwhelming support for astronomy on the Big Island. As far as the economic impact goes -- which was not covered in this study, there are lots of articles including this one from Hawaii Tribune Herald. It is an 'opinion piece' of course but the facts parallel all of the other articles which came up in a search. One of things I learned was that a deadly tsunami slammed into Hawaii back in 1960. Hilo, the coastal city nearest to Mauna Kea was practically destroyed. The economy on the Big Island was devastated. Construction of the first observatories helped jump start the economy.
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Old 02-28-2020, 09:01 AM   #43
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https://www.wired.com/story/inside-s...t-kept-secret/

Hawaii is saying “no” to locating a big, satellite launching, centrifuge in the state. The machine will be designed to throw a 100 kg satellite/booster to 200,000 ft altitude then the booster will move it into orbit. They hope to put up 5 satellites a day, every day. We will be able to use excellent cell phone service to say goodby to the telescopic night sky.
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Old 02-28-2020, 11:04 AM   #44
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The LSST/Vera C. Rubin 8.4 meter primary mirror successfully cast 2008. From planning stage to first light some of these giant telescopes take over 15 years to complete.

Wow, great photo! Where was the mirror cast, do you know?
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Old 02-28-2020, 11:16 AM   #45
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One of things I learned was that a deadly tsunami slammed into Hawaii back in 1960. Hilo, the coastal city nearest to Mauna Kea was practically destroyed. The economy on the Big Island was devastated. Construction of the first observatories helped jump start the economy.

I had an uncle who owned a car dealership in Hilo. His business was literally wiped out by this event.
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Old 02-28-2020, 11:18 AM   #46
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https://www.wired.com/story/inside-s...t-kept-secret/

Hawaii is saying “no” to locating a big, satellite launching, centrifuge in the state. The machine will be designed to throw a 100 kg satellite/booster to 200,000 ft altitude then the booster will move it into orbit. They hope to put up 5 satellites a day, every day. We will be able to use excellent cell phone service to say goodby to the telescopic night sky.

What a bizarre story. It seems like a rail gun on the side of a mountain would be easier to build and use.
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Old 02-28-2020, 04:09 PM   #47
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Wow, great photo! Where was the mirror cast, do you know?
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. On the Stanford Univ. campus.
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Old 02-28-2020, 04:33 PM   #48
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SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. On the Stanford Univ. campus.
I thought U of Arizona did the mirror for the LSST ?

here's the dual mirror being polished... note there's two different curves in one piece of glass. Mirror "M1" is the outer half of the radius, and mirror "M3" is on the inside.



to better explain this, see this diagram... there's 3 mirrors, the light bounces off the 8.4 meter M1 (outer ring of bottom mirror) then the 3.4 m M2 (on top) then the 5 m M3 (inner of bottom mirror assembly), then hits the giant camera assembly in the middle, where it goes through 3 correcting lenses that are around 1 meter across before hitting the worlds largest camera. There's also a filter assembly that can put any one of 4 different filters in front of the monochrome camera.


camera specifics:
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Old 02-28-2020, 06:20 PM   #49
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You got it. The camera was made in Stanford.
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Old 02-28-2020, 06:50 PM   #50
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You got it. The camera was made in Stanford.
one of the lead LSST project designers came and gave a talk to my astronomy club a couple years ago, went into quite a lot of detail on the camera design and construction. very cool stuff.
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Old 02-28-2020, 09:27 PM   #51
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I missed a chance to tour U. of Arizona's Mirror Lab back in the mid-1980s. But several years later I was able to tour SLAC. It's really worth seeing. Those particle detectors look like they are five stories tall.
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Old 02-29-2020, 01:54 AM   #52
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a guy in my Astronomy club is a recently retired physicist, worked at SLAC for many years. has some great stories about the "Klystron gallery" with those 2 story tall vacuum tubes that power SLAC.
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Old 02-29-2020, 07:39 AM   #53
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one of the lead LSST project designers came and gave a talk to my astronomy club a couple years ago, went into quite a lot of detail on the camera design and construction. very cool stuff.
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Old 02-29-2020, 07:53 AM   #54
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one of the lead LSST project designers came and gave a talk to my astronomy club a couple years ago, went into quite a lot of detail on the camera design and construction. very cool stuff.
of the science which will be done and the telescope. Amazing technological feat.
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Old 08-10-2020, 07:29 AM   #55
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Hearth your thrusters

Here is a new article about the satellite problem. I'm posting the link partly because of the article's oddness to a North American reader. I'm guessing the publication is Indian, but I don't know:


https://www.rjrempires.com/amazon-sa...the-night-sky/
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Old 08-10-2020, 12:26 PM   #56
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Here is a new article about the satellite problem. I'm posting the link partly because of the article's oddness to a North American reader. I'm guessing the publication is Indian, but I don't know:


https://www.rjrempires.com/amazon-sa...the-night-sky/
yeah, every article on that site is by one RAHUL NAMASUDRA, and near as I can tell its New Dehli based.
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Old 02-05-2021, 06:08 PM   #57
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Ok guys,
Need help. So y’all are experienced stargazers. I have my new escape and will be going to some dark sky’s sites and others which will be star worthy. I don’t want to invest in something worth 1000.00+.
Is there any amateurs scopes less than 500.00 worth buying. If so I would appreciate the help.
Not star clueless as i’am fair at celestial navigation or used to be. Hats totally different than gazing for fun.
Thank you,
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Old 02-05-2021, 07:04 PM   #58
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6 inch Dobsonian from someone like Orion with a cheap collimating tool and 2 or three decent eyepieces. If you are not afraid of used, Cloudy Nights is a good website. I picked up my 10” Orion Intelliscope Dobsonian that way to have something quick to set up. If looking at a refractor, due to collimating, there are some fair inexpensive 4 inch models. Orion and Skywatcher are a good place to start for lower cost scopes better than junk. A good pair of binoculars are also a good starting point. I’ve bought a lot of stuff from a company called Astronomics. Most people like them, a few don’t. They also run Cloudy Nights.
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Old 02-05-2021, 09:15 PM   #59
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I'd suggest an 8" Orion Classic ... that extra 2" of aperture over the 6" brings you nearly double the light gathering power, and makes for much better views of the 'dim fuzzies' that most deep space objects resolve to. The XT8 Classic is about $400 new.
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Old 02-05-2021, 09:21 PM   #60
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I thought about the 8, but would still need some accessories to fit under $500.
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