Precarious

This is the 26 inch Clark telescope at the McCormick Observatory that I posted a photograph of the other day, in the dome at night. We went back to the observatory during the day today to see it in daylight, and to examine it more closely. The staff astronomer put a ladder up to the mount so members could climb up and inspect the telescope's mounting. I climbed up the stairs of the observing chair, about 20 feet off the floor of the observatory, so I could look at the famous objective (the lens of the telescope.) It is an amazing thing to see this incredible piece of glass, 26 inches in diameter, hand polished and figured to millionths of an inch back in 1878 when it was completed. I am about 20 feet off the floor of the observatory, and in spite of the title of this post, I am not in a precarious position. I was just trying to be overly dramatic. The white areas in the objective, by the way, are just reflections of the dome and the observatory wall, about 3 feet in front of the telescope.