The Tale of the Exploding Telescope.
October 31st 2010 03:37
Category: No Category
Dobsonian telescope
Telescopes can cause fires and damage the eyes. (Never look at the Sun using any sort of lens such as binoculars or telescopes)
After reading an article recently published about a fire from a telescope helped bring home the realization that you need to careful were you point your telescope if you plan to leave it unattended.
The story is centered on an amateur astronomer residing in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.
The guy goes to work the next morning after using his 14 inch telescope on a night of observing the night sky.
The telescope was set it up on his back porch and, too tired to drag it back inside.
He retired to bed after covering up the front of the telescope and placing a towel over the eyepiece hole to prevent dew buildup.
That’s all pretty much standard procedure if you plan to leave the telescope in the open.
Normally this procedure would not pose a problem..... that's when he got a phone call from his wife saying that The telescope just blew up, and the deck's on fire,"
He rushes back to find the charred remains of the telescope. The 14 inch telescope’s blackened skeleton was pointing skywards and the cover was blown off by the wind during the night. The wind also disengaged the gear on the telescope pointing it skywards.
As the morning Sun passed over the telescope’s mirror it began to heat up very rapidly enough to melt and explode the upper half of the telescope containing the eyepiece causing the fire to spread to the deck below.
Fortunately his wife caught sight of the fire, and she called to 911. The damage was confined to the deck and, unfortunately the telescope did not survive the might power of the Sun.
Take care and never underestimate the power of the Sun.
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