Manawatu astronomers excited to get telescope
<strong><font face="Verdana" size="2">The arrival of a deep-sky telescope, "which resolves beautiful star clusters", is exciting news for members of the Palmerston North Astronomical Society.</font></strong><br/><p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif" color="#000000" size="2"></font></p><p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif" color="#000000" size="2">"The club is thrilled to get it. We have evaluated it, and the optics are very good. It is a quality instrument at a good price," president Ian Cooper said of the 20-inch Starsplitter. </font></p><p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif" color="#000000" size="2">The society has paid $5000 for the telescope, which would have cost more than $12,000 new, committee member and optics tester Peter Wilde said. </font></p><p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif" color="#000000" size="2">It was previously owned by a Japanese entrepreneur, who used it for tours he ran to the Mt John observatory near Tekapo. </font></p><p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif" color="#000000" size="2">"But it was too big, physically, for the needs of his clients, so he wanted to sell it," Mr Cooper said. </font></p><p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif" color="#000000" size="2">The Palmerston North Society tried the telescope and loved it - "and the cheque's in the mail", he said. </font></p><p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif" color="#000000" size="2">"Both Peter and I have looked through many large-aperture telescopes over the years. I can safely say this one's performance is right up there with the best of them," Mr Cooper said. </font></p><p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif" color="#000000" size="2">The Starsplitter is designed for deep-space viewing of objects such as star clusters, galaxies and nebulae. But Mr Wilde and Mr Cooper found that it is also good for the observation of planets. </font></p><p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif" color="#000000" size="2">"We had a fine view of Jupiter, with the Great Red Spot and Red Junior (an Earth-sized storm) both well seen. The Great Red Spot seems to have a dark band around it like a pharoah's eye liner, or is it Ma'a Nonu?" Mr Cooper said. </font></p><p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif" color="#000000" size="2">The telescope is likely to go to a dark-sky site, at least 5km out of Palmerston North, so that the best use can be made of its wonderful attributes, he said. </font></p><p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif" color="#000000" size="2">A digital encoder is being fitted, which will enable the telescope to link directly to a data base of many thousands of deep-sky objects, Mr Wilde said. </font></p><p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif" color="#000000" size="2">Astronomers still refer to the apertures of telescopes in inches, unless they are over a metre. They then go metric. </font></p><p><font face="Verdana" size="2">原文网址：<a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3698329a11,00.html">http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3698329a11,00.html</a></font></p> 关于太空望远镜的
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