FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] Re: Weather in AZ

[gene lucas <geneluca@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Speaking of poor observing conditions.... Ol' Will Herschel moved from 
one awful observing spot to another during his observing career, but did 
pretty good... (He bagged the "original" Herschel 2500.....)  Maybe the 
40 ft mirror just sucked up all the photons ???  :>))
The big 48 inch (and other more productive scopes) were set up in his 
front garden in Slough (pronounced like "Cow"), which is just down the 
road from Windsor Castle near London.... 'Course in those days, there 
wasn't any "light pollution" to speak of....
(AJ can fill you on in on what a "slough" or "slew" consists of, I 
think....at least back in Louisiana....)
Gene Lucas
(17250)
NB, the old Observatory House and the telescope(s) are long gone, only a 
placque remains on the nearby office building erected there...
Richard Harshaw wrote:

>I don't know, AJ.  But then, don't forget Gumperson's Inverse Square Law of 
>New Optical Systems, which states that when an amateur buys a new optical unit 
>(telescope, finder scope, eyepiece, binos, etc.) that there will be awful 
>seeing centered on his location for a radius in km equal to the square of the 
>aperture of the gizmo in cm; this awful seeing will continue for as many days 
>as cm of the objective.
>Example:  AJ buys a new 20 cm scope.  He can expect to have 20 nights of bad 
>seeing, and this mess will cover a circle 400 km in radius centered over AJ's 
>house.
>Friedrich von Gumperson developed this law after living next to William 
>Herschel for thirty years.
>DH (tongue in cheek)
>  
>

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