Comments on: Space Shuttle Grabs Hubble Telescope, and Astronauts Begin Repairs http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/05/14/space-shuttle-grabs-hubble-telescope-and-astronauts-begin-repairs/ 80beats is DISCOVER's news aggregator, weaving together the choicest tidbits from the best articles covering the day\'s most compelling topics. Mon, 23 Nov 2009 06:31:40 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Nick http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/05/14/space-shuttle-grabs-hubble-telescope-and-astronauts-begin-repairs/comment-page-1/#comment-26922 Nick Thu, 14 May 2009 17:52:19 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/05/14/space-shuttle-grabs-hubble-telescope-and-astronauts-begin-repairs/#comment-26922 Wow, imagine if they turned that camera around and pointed it down - they could probably count your pores, assuming light reflecting from it didn't incinerate you like an ant (i know, i know, chalk it up to artistic license). Still, I'm glad to see ol' Hubbie gettin an upgrade - I routinely work on microscopes that are older than him, and they still function very well. (Well except this one, where like Hubbie, the image acquisition computer died...Hubbie was lucky and had a backup, our backup was film. and we switched off of film lab-wide, so the darkrooms and processors have been decommissioned.... so it's developing negatives by hand with leftover chems and then scanning. Yeah, it sucks.) The addition of infrared and ultraviolet should be interesting, especially since this new camera's about the size of my apartment. It would be neat to see, at some point in the future, if a double-hubble could be built, and they could parking them way the heck out and seeing if ultra-long interferometry could provide even better pictures of deep space (though modern telescopy may obsolete such an idea before it could be economically feasible). Wow, imagine if they turned that camera around and pointed it down – they could probably count your pores, assuming light reflecting from it didn’t incinerate you like an ant (i know, i know, chalk it up to artistic license).

Still, I’m glad to see ol’ Hubbie gettin an upgrade – I routinely work on microscopes that are older than him, and they still function very well. (Well except this one, where like Hubbie, the image acquisition computer died…Hubbie was lucky and had a backup, our backup was film. and we switched off of film lab-wide, so the darkrooms and processors have been decommissioned…. so it’s developing negatives by hand with leftover chems and then scanning. Yeah, it sucks.)

The addition of infrared and ultraviolet should be interesting, especially since this new camera’s about the size of my apartment. It would be neat to see, at some point in the future, if a double-hubble could be built, and they could parking them way the heck out and seeing if ultra-long interferometry could provide even better pictures of deep space (though modern telescopy may obsolete such an idea before it could be economically feasible).

]]> By: Miles Long--Tulsa,ok http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/05/14/space-shuttle-grabs-hubble-telescope-and-astronauts-begin-repairs/comment-page-1/#comment-26909 Miles Long--Tulsa,ok Thu, 14 May 2009 14:11:25 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/05/14/space-shuttle-grabs-hubble-telescope-and-astronauts-begin-repairs/#comment-26909 myself and two other ultrasonic inspectors at the Rockwell facility at tulsa,ok inspected every piece of graphite material used in building the pay load bay doors in all shuttles built by Rockwell International. Boyd Dixon and Ray Osborn were the other two inspectors and very good friends. They are both now deceased and way above any distance the shuttle can go. M. Long----Tulsa,OK myself and two other ultrasonic inspectors at the Rockwell facility at tulsa,ok inspected every piece of graphite material used in building the pay load bay doors in all shuttles built by Rockwell International. Boyd Dixon and Ray Osborn were the other two inspectors and very good friends. They are both now deceased and way above any distance the shuttle can go.

M. Long—-Tulsa,OK

]]>