Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/10/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 01:08 AM 1998-10-02 -0400, Dan Post wrote: >I had read that the reason the Hubble Telescope was misground was that the >sagitta of the mirror was calculated without the consideration of the >Earth's gravity, or lack thereof, when the thing was placed in orbit! >Typical "oops!" situation! I wonder if any similar situations have ever >occurred in Solms or Wetzlar. Good heavens! Perkins-Elmer is a perfectly capable firm. The problem with the Hubble was that NASA, to save bucks, refused to pay for the final tests, which would have revealed the astigmatism. The problem has now been corrected, of course, and Hubble has been giving us stunning images for more than a decade. It has been a wonderful device, and the "paper weight" canard is a cheap and quite undeserved jab -- the better jab would be at NASA, which is said to stand for "Needlessly Assinine and Stupid Arrangements". If it were up to me, I'd fire the lot and turn space exploration back to the military, where it belongs. But that's far off-topic, so I'd suggest that conversation is better conducted off-line. Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!