Our Great Visit to the Discovery Channel Telescope
Part of the operations of the Lowell Observatory
Flagstaff, AZ

with special thanks to Russell Tweed, Development Director

Below are some images from our visit there on 2/2/11.  Click on the image below for a much enlarged version.
(Those in 3D can be viewed with anaglyphic (red/blue) glasses. Best viewed in darkened room w/no glare on monitor screen.)
(I should have better legend info on & under the images in the near future, as I hurriedly posted these before having to have Windows reinstalled
on my computer.  This is posted on 2/9/11.  Return for better info later.)

Outside, in early Feb., it was about -5 deg., w/winds at about 35k.  Inside, it was just as cold as it should be.  Camera batteries froze & I
could only get a few shots to illustrate the scope, but most of these stereo shots turned out nicely.  I forgot about the hand warmers in my pockets!

Development Mgr. Rusty Tweed w/Kay Farmer at base of scope                                                                    2 shots looking up thru base of mirror

Myself & my wife Kay at the base of the scope (photo by Rusty).  I laid down under the scope on the floor to get the photos above. (These are 2D)

The truss of the scope, the aperture doors, and another shot of the truss.

Some of the electronics.  This is the vacuum container for aluminizing the mirror.  Engineer Frank Cornelius conducting aluminizing work, in an also cold location.

These last 4 are in 2D.
When you see the enlargement, it's like an optical illusion.  The spot in the center is not a plate in the vacuum chamber, rather the center of the mirror as it's being aluminized.  Note the port on the far side.  I was shooting through the opposite port.
The shot on the right shows the ports where the aluminum coils are placed to dispersion onto the mirror when the chamber reaches 16 deg. above 0 Kelvin.

It felt like 16 below zero Kelvin outside.  Left is the box the blank was transported in.
Right is the observatory from the road just below.  It was too cold & windy to actually try to get photos of the observatory above.
There are plenty on the observatories website of its construction progress.
All photos by Walt Farmer except one as noted above.  (The observatory has my permission if they wish to use any of the photos above as they choose.)

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