From: Alan Friedman <alan@greatarrow.com>

Date: February 20, 2010 11:55:13 AM MST

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] Mars with a 74" reflector!!!!!!!

Hi Jim, 

Thanks for this fascinating look at and through a large aperture telescope. Tell us more about the night and about the instrument. Did you observe visually at all? I'm not sure why the focal length would be a problem for imaging, though I can imagine a huge mirror like that could be hard to tame on a night of poor seeing. Did you use a color chip for imaging? Would love to see a stream of data from this scope through an IR pass filter. If you will excuse me for this comment, the image is remarkably awful. I've heard of large instruments being handicapped by air turbulence, but it would be very difficult to imagine this result. 

I've been doing some research for an article on large 19th century instruments and had noticed a Canadian telescope built for the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory that had hoped to be the largest in the world, but was beaten to the punch by the Hooker 100 inch. This one would have beaten it too if it were built a couple of decades earlier. What a great resource for your club.

best,

Alan

On Feb 20, 2010, at 10:07 AM, Jim Chung wrote:

Sorry, missing a slash!

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Astro_IIDC/files/Planetary/MarsDDO.jpg

Quoting Terrence Redding <tredding@mac.com>:

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>
> terry
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