Antarctic Telescope?

angkor pastes "'A novel Antarctic telescope with 16-m diameter mirrors would far outperform the Hubble Space Telescope, and could be built at a tiny fraction of its cost, says a scientist from the Anglo-Australian Observatory in Sydney, Australia.'"

Comments

Rather quite expensive in the long term

[Anonymous Coward]

Even though the Hubble Space Telescope was expensive initially, you must admit that it has been cheap and easy to repair. This new telescope would be located all the way down in Antarctica. Has anyone priced flights to Antarctica lately? When there's a problem, it's not like you could just hop on the next Space Shuttle and slap another lens in. And plus it's COLD down there! It'd probably need some kind of heater or something. Think of the electric bills!

It's ridiculous how these "scientists" really don't think these things through. I expect more from people with fancy "college degrees" and smartypants names like "Will."

Re:Rather quite expensive in the long term

[Anonymous Coward]

whooooosh! /sound of hubble telescope passing over your head :)

Re:Rather quite expensive in the long term

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you had your satire detector checked recently? I think yours is broken.

Re:Rather quite expensive in the long term

[table_62]

Maybe this is why we've been clearing out all that pesky ozone down there: the view is so much better now.

Re:Rather quite expensive in the long term

[sahonen]

Dear god, look at all the morons who took this post seriously. IT'S A JOKE, PEOPLE!

Re:Rather quite expensive in the long term

[HermanAB]

Yes, of course it is a joke, but the responses of these guys are waaay more funny...

idea

[Anonymous Coward]

that's neato, we can even get it powered by penguins! in more ways than one!

Now that we got rid of that pesky ozone

[Anonymous Coward]

It really is as good as being in space!

Re:Press Release... funding

[nwbvt]

""Give me money because I _think_ I can build some cool stuff.""

Yeah, NASA should sue him for infringing on their patent.

Re:Spaceflight?

[Epistax]

Umm, actually I think Mars is quite happy with the prospect of not having us.

Gyros and retros

[nn5ks]

I can just imagine the size of the gyros and retros we will need to rotate the planet so that this Antarctic telescope can view something interesting from the northern hemisphere.

--
What am I on?? I'm on poverty, it's like
life but with less money.

No danger of aberation

[catmistake]

At least there is no danger of a "mistake" at the mirror grinding factory causing a "myopia" in the telescope, because I think the Pentagon knows that it can't spy on Earth from Antarctica. However, there is some danger, in having mirrors exposed like that, to crazy Swedes shooting at dogs. Hopefully, MacReady got the damn Thing.

Cleaning procedures

[tgrigsby]

"Ok, Bob, now you drew the short straw, so you'll have to go out there and clean the lens. Now here's how you do it: take this here high-tech, zero-loss, botanical fibre cleaning pad..."

"Um... isn't that a towel?"

"Well sure, to the untrained eye! Stay focused, Bob. Now, the first thing you'll want to do is gently blow the snow off. Then ... Bob, have you brushed your teeth since you last ate?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, sure."

"Floss?"

"Well... yeah."

"Gargle?"

"I don't think so... why?"

"Bob, you're going to want to gargle before you go out there, because the best cleaning solution we've been able to come up with is saliva."

"Yeah right! ... You're kidding, right?"

"Bob, do I look like I'm a kidding kind of guy?"

"..... No."

"Bob, you'll need to gargle with something to make sure there are absolutely no food particles in your saliva. You don't want someone to mistake a piece of Fruit Loops for a new moon around Jupiter, do ya?"

"Oh, heck no!"

"Good man. So be sure to get the saliva really clean. And your tongue."

"Well, yea, sure."

"Because the next thing you're going to do after blowing the snow off is to apply the saliva with your tongue."

"So, you mean, lick the lens?"

"That's right, Bab, lick the lens."

(an hour later)

"Stan, that was just mean."

"Hey, he's a noobie! Everyone gets their tongue frozen to the lens at least once. We'll give him about 5 more minutes, then we'll go out with a cup of hot water and free him."