Kitt Peak Favorites From The 'Fellas

I completed my post about the trip Ken, Stan, Mike and I made to Kitt Peak last night. It occurred a month ago, but I've been distracted by several things, but thinking back, really wanted to include a couple images taken by my fellow travelers. While I normally don't use images taken by others, these favorites are appropriately credited.

Photograph by Stan Honda

First up is a panorama taken by Stan Honda from atop the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope. While a nice accompaniment to my IR version included in the above post, what I really like about it is that I appear in it twice, on both ends! While Stan was working on the panorama, I was likely doing stereo pairs, moving back and forth to get a baseline for 3D images. So not only is it an impressive (7 frame!) image, you are treated to double images of me! While the railing is straight, because of the very wide angle of the panorama, it looks like he is standing on the vertex of a "V". In fact, he is in the middle of a straight section of guard rail.

Photograph by Ken Spencer

Photograph by Ken Spencer

The next pair were taken, and appeared on the blog of Ken Spencer. I contemplated using one of my shots of the main heliostat of the scope, but I didn't have a good one, and fortunately, Ken took a great one (at left) of the 80" (2 meter) flat mirror that directs the light down the telescope, with our guide Detrick, and Stan in front. Unfortunately, I again intrude into the left edge of the image with my worn-out hat... A few minutes earlier, he also took the great image from inside the solar telescope (at right), down by the objective of the East Auxiliary scope at left, and the shaft to the main mirror. It is a great image from a different perspective than I was shooting between Stan and Detrick. Sometimes you just have to step back and see the bigger picture - appropriate words for both these images of Ken and Stan.

Anyway, I'll continue to use my images almost exclusively, but loved these appropriate shots as a great addition to my most recent post.