Oh, how they hated this thing. You put your eye (just one) against the brass ocular, and stared and stared and stared, while images jumped before your eyes. It made a clack-clack-clack noise, and gave off a smell of burned dust. While interviewing Henry Giclas (who was on staff at Lowell Observatory) I asked exactly how the comparator was positioned in its room on the first floor of the Main Building; they had arranged it near the window, so you could rest your eyes looking outside. You needed to take a lot of breaks.
November 24, 2009
July 10, 2015 at 9:02 am
[…] exposed during hour-long sessions at the 13-inch telescope atop Mars Hill. Here’s the Zeiss Blink Comparator he used to compare one plate with another. (Formerly housed in the beautiful Saturn Dome room at […]