I photographed a rose today for the blog, but afterwards I decided this photograph was much more interesting. Today I was editing photographs from my trip to the Detroit Observatory in May, because I am speaking at an astronomy jamboree this Saturday. On that trip we also went to the famous McMath-Hulbert solar observatory as well. That observatory is no longer in use for research, but volunteers had it set up to demonstrate its workings for us. This is a photograph of the image of the sun projected on the slit of a spectrograph. I love the heavy industrial construction and the mysterious quality - the "What IS that?" kind of thing.
This photo is very interesting for it's light, composition and mechanical intricacies. And this particular spectrograph gives new meaning to "over-engineered".
ReplyDeleteJas: Everything in these observatories (there are three on the site) is built like the George Washington Bridge!
ReplyDeleteI will send you some other photos of the supports for the mirrors that catch the sun and reflect the sun's image down to the slit. It is important that there be no vibration at all for the light going to the spectrograph. The Hale Telescope at Mt. Palomar is built the same way. These things are really amazing to see!