I promise this blog isn’t dead, I have been quite busy working for the Arizona Daily Sun as well as printing at a traditional black and white darkroom, this has left the ol’ blog on the way back burner for a while…Hopefully this post will be the first of many as i attempt to reboot this site with new content and new ideas. Below are photos I took while on a tour of the Discovery Channel Telescope for an article at the Sun. This was a rare and exciting opportunity to tour this not typically open to the public site. Please check out the following link to read the story written by Eric Betz…
- The dome building that houses the Discovery Channel Telescope outside Flagstaff. (Taylor Mahoney/Arizona Daily Sun)
- The back side of the Discovery Channel Telescope shown partly disassembled after a recent cleaning. (Taylor Mahoney/Arizona Daily Sun)
- Looking down the barrel of the Discovery Channel Telescope. (Taylor Mahoney/Arizona Daily Sun)
- Detail of a few of the multitudes of gears, wires and hoses that work to control the Discovery Channel Telescope. (Taylor Mahoney/Arizona Daily Sun)
- The Discovery Channel Telescope, mirror freshly cleaned, waits to be reassembled in the dome that houses it outside of Flagstaff. (Taylor Mahoney/Arizona Daily Sun)
- The middle section of the Discovery Channel Telescope, which is responsible for much of the telescopes rotation, as seen from the mezzanine of the housing dome. (Taylor Mahoney/Arizona Daily Sun)
- A giant cement column serves as part of the support system for the Discovery Channel Telescope. The column and the room that surround it, are completely independent from foundation of the rest of the housing dome to eliminate any vibrations from the surrounding area. (Taylor Mahoney/Arizona Daily Sun)
- An aluminum filament that is used in the recoating of the mirror for the Discovery Telescope. Many of these filaments are heated in a vacuum tank above the telescope mirror and tiny particles of pure aluminum fall onto the mirror creating a new reflective surface. (Taylor Mahoney/Arizona Daily Sun)
- A vacuum tank that is used to coat the mirror of the Discovery Telescope with microscopic aluminum particles stands in a building just behind the main telescope dome. (Taylor Mahoney/Arizona Daily Sun)