Russian ex-cosmonaut professor visits Lancashire

Some years ago the visiting academic was a specialist cosmonaut aboard the Meer Space Station, prior to which he was involved in the design of the space vehicle.   He recently made a special trip to the UK to use the  VLT (Very Low Telescope)  at the Dean Kos observatory at the top of Mount Euxton in Lancashire.  Professor Yakov from Meerkovo had heard that the EMI (See Note 1 for technical details) for the telescope and mount had been optimised so that low altitude observations could be made directly by specialist observers such as himself , so that space telescopes were no longer necessary.  Polar Alignment was accurate giving only a very small pointing error,  or in Professor Yakov’s own words,  polar alignment was “simples” and also that “collimation is very easy in this meerkatadioptric telescope”.  The eyepiece and finder - scope were easily accessible, eliminating the need for a Light Amplified Diffraction Detector of Electromagnetic Radiation (LADDER)

(NOTE 1: EMI = Eyepiece/ Meerkat Interface)

 

Ross Wilkinson and Len Adam

Apologies to Dean Kos

April 1st 2013