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What special about live is that you truly feel you’re seeing the thing as “true” as humanly possible short of actually going there. All astrophotography you see, even in visible spectrum, is so processed, and so convolved with instrument characteristics, it’s kinda a fiction.
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All in all, a 500x difference from my more routine experiences is the difference between riding a bicycle and flying in an airplane. I’m really glad I did this while my eyesight is still decent. Mt.Wilson 100” btw is the largest telescope in the world amateurs have access to.
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And for those who don’t know their astronomy history, these 2 telescopes are responsible for probably the biggest discoveries of the last centuries… the Hubble red shift (expanding universe) the structure of the Milky Way.
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Direct observation was already obsolete in 1908-20 when these 2 telescopes were built. It’s a romantic affectation. Both were really built as cameras. Humans were meant to only look through them to set up the photography not to do observations directly.
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More modern scopes, including the 6-mirror interferometer at Mt. Wilson (an active research instrument unlike these 2 historic ones which are no longer used), can’t actually be used for “naked eye” observing at all.
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You can rent both scopes for group events. 100”: $2700 per half night and $5000 per full night for a group of up to 20 people. 60”: $1,050 per half night and $1,700 per full night for a group of up to 25 people.
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They do occasional individually ticketed nights. 100” is $225, 60” is $95. We got in on a rare 2-for-1 night for $195 each. Highly recommend any of these. Guaranteed to blow your previous telescope experiences out of the water. Size matters.
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Most astronomy events you can go to use smaller historic scopes in much worse places, or modern amateur-grade instruments (usually Celestrons ~12-18”). But these 100+ year old scopes are vastly superior. Modern tech/software can do a lot, but not make an 18” mirror beat a 100” 😆
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Also, Mt. Wilson is now annually threatened by wildfires. There’s a huge tank of firefighting water. It’s basically Russian roulette up there every year, and it’s unfortunately possible it could get destroyed in an unlucky year… so if interested, visit sooner rather than later.
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