----------------------------------- Mircea Pteancu 27 Apr 2011 20:26 Asteroid self-discoverer ----------------------------------- Va prezint mai jos un mesaj al lui Peter Abraham despre o caricatura si un mic articol glumet aparut in 1873 intr-o revista germana de umor, despre un ipotetic telescop automat pentru descoperirea asteroizilor si cometelor. Pentru a viziona caricarura urmati linkul de mai jos,traducerea din germana in engleza a articolului insotitor o gasiti in textul mesajului lui Peter. ATS este acronimul lui Antique Telescope Society al carui membru activ as fi devenit de saptamana aceasta daca eu as fi fost aradeanul care a castigat cele 10 milioane de Euro. Dar ,pe scurt,nu ma inscriu in ATS .....inca! Mircea .................................................................... At the last ATS meeting, in Virginia, I opened my presentation with a drawing that I only knew as German, 19th century, showing an 'asteroid self-discoverer'. I recently searched for the periodical, as I have been doing for over a decade, and discovered that the entire run of the German humor magazine was now available on line. So I found the issue, and as hoped there was an explanatory text, and a far better copy of the illustration, which I continue to find vastly amusing. I posted the illustration, and (with help from machine translators), I translated the brief text, which was brief enough but in black letter which can really confuse the modern reader. ---------- http://home.europa.com/~telscope/temp/Asteroiden.Selbstentdecker.jpg 673kb ---------- Ein Asteroiden Selbstentdecker. Fliegende Blätter (Flying Leaves) No. 1470, Vol. LIX, 1873. An Asteroid Self-discoverer. We managed to construct an instrument that discoveres the asteroids, comets, and other unknown celestial bodies, in a purely mechanical way. The setup is as follows: A telescope-like instrument, with a combination of lenses constructed on the principle of the camera obscura, is placed facing the sky. This projects all celestial bodies in the visual field, onto a strip of paper which is stretched across two rollers. Using a clockwork, the paper is moved past the focus of the instrument, as the stars move across the field of the instrument. On this paper, all known fixed-stars, planets, & asteroids, are precisely placed, like a map of the sky, and marked by black dots. The remaining area of the paper is chemically prepared so that the slightest impression of light that is not onto these blackened dots, results in an instantaneous ignition of the paper. If this traversing star chart is properly oriented, the image of a star will always fall onto a black dot on the map, but if somewhere in the sky there is a star (asteroid or comet) that is not yet recorded on the paper, i.e. has not previously been detected, and that object is formed as an image on the chemically prepared surface, then there is a point of light, the paper ignites, the sparks fall on the powder filled fuse, which inserts into a small cannon, and a shot is fired. This shot awakens the astronomer sleeping quietly in the next room. He jumps up, rushes to the instrument, and in the small parallel telescope next to the large telescope, he sees the newly discovered star. Klinkerfues, Luther, and the other famous asteroid discoverers need no longer brave the cold winter night air, and to get colds and flu in their strenuous undertaking with comet seekers. Unfortunately it is not possible to have this epoch-making tool displayed in a world exhibition. It is expected that the large number of small planets, which are located between Mars and Jupiter, might cause a shot every quarter of an hour, which shot will show all peoples of the world, the discovery of another new asteroid. Peter Abrahams telscope@europa.com abrahams.peter@gmail.com The history of the telescope and the binocular: http://home.europa.com/~telscope/binotele.htm 10040 NW Thompson Rd., Portland, Oregon, 97229-3822, USA