>From Jed: ...
> Many skeptics do not seem to understand this distinction. They look at the > factors a college instructor would cite in grading an lab exercise: > neatness, correct use of instruments, documentation, exposition, positioning > of thermocouples, and other did-you-follow-the-textbook criteria. They > become so obsessed with these details they overlook the actual test results, > and the fundamental physics the test demonstrates. One clear moonless evening I Witnessed a grad student and a post doc attempt to take a star reading at Pine Bluff Observatory. The observatory is located out in the countryside north of Madison, property of University of Wisconsin. The incident I refer to occurred back in the 1980s when I was an computer programmer at the UW Space Astronomy Lab. The PD and grad student punched in the parameters for the target star into the computer console. The machine creaked and groaned as the telescope repositioned itself. The machine finally stopped at its destination. Unfortunately, the monitor screen remained dark. There should have been a round blob of light representing the star in the middle of the CRT screen. The PD went over to the telescope and diligently looked through the eye piece. He remained flummoxed. He couldn't see anything through the eye piece either. They went back and forth rechecking star coordinates several times making sure they had entered in the parameters correctly. I was just a lowly computer programmer who felt privileged to be able to watch astronomers apply their trade. I certainly didn't know nothing about how to program the telescope. I did however look up. I then suggested that they both might want to look up as well. It was then that they noticed that their massive telescope was peering into the vast distances of about ten feet - all the way to the inner dome of the observatory. They had forgotten to rotate the inner dome to the proper alignment with the telescope. We all thought it was pretty funny. It became known as the Laurel and Hardy maneuver. Regards Steven Vincent Johnson www.OrionWorks.com www.zazzle.com/orionworks
