Re: Planet X: 3 Observatories PAST

In Article <tiCN7.17485$Wb7.67370@localhost> Steve Havas wrote:
> Thomas McDonald wrote 
>> I wonder about this "scaffolding."  Any large telescope in an
>> observatory would have some kind of scaffolding, usually a
>> moving ladder, so that astronomers and technicians could
>> work on the telescope (maintenance, filter changes, removing
>> dust covers, etc.)  Of course, there might be other needs
>> for scaffolding in a structure as large as a professional
>> observatory dome.
>
> At the Gordon Macmillan Observatory the obstacle was large 
> water piping which was raised on supports about 12' high on 
> the outside of the observatory and about 2' away from it. 
> When I first got there the operator said the observatory 
> would be unable to point in the desired direction due
> to that but on further inspection we found that there was 
> just enough clearance to be able to swing it around.

Water pipe on supports 12 feet high in FRONT of where the scope would have
to be swung to look at the Zeta coordinates?  Humm.  And add to that the
description of the scaffolding encountered by the team who had rented the
famous Lowell scope, and we have a pattern ...  As I said, "we're not
going to look THERE" being used by observatories, versus closing the
observatory down for indefinite repairs, ala the Vancouver observatory.

    On the night of Sunday April 1st 2001, I reserved the historic 
    Clark 24" telescope at the Lowell observatory in Flagstaff, AZ, 
    for my own private viewing. As it turns out, the telescope 
    operator was unable to point the Clark in the direction of 
    Orion because there was a scaffold in the way which only the 
    operator's supervisor was allowed to move. ... In any event the 
    operator was determined to give me my money's worth and he
    opened up the McAllister telescope, a newer but smaller scope
    with a 16" mirror (f3 primary, f18 system, built in 1963). We
    trained the big do-hickey on the Coordinates given for April 1
    2001:.