Abstract
Like Monty Python’s dead parrot, our lives will take their course. But the lifetime of telescope equipment can last for several generations. Galileo’s telescope still exists as a museum piece. Alvin Clark’s 1873 26″ refractor at the U.S. Naval Observatory still remains in use for astrometric measurement. Antique Mogey, Brashear, Broadhurst, Clarkson, and Fuller telescopes are widely sought by collectors of antique scientific instruments. Zeiss telescopes, along with Golden Age telescopes by Cave Optical, Optical Craftsman, and Unitron are highly prized instruments that are still continually used for their intended purpose—seeking and gathering faint starlight (Fig. 11.1).
Customer: ‘E’s not pinin’! ‘E’s passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! ‘E’s expired and gone to meet ‘is maker!’E’s a stiff! Bereft of life, ‘e rests in peace! If you hadn’t nailed ‘im to the perch ‘e’d be pushing up the daisies! ‘Is metabolic processes are now ‘istory! ‘E’s off the twig!’E’s kicked the bucket, ‘e’s shuffled off ‘is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisible!!
THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!
—Monty Python in the Dead Parrot Skit
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Chen, J.L., Chen, A. (2017). The Afterlife of Telescope Equipment and Astronomy Books. In: Astronomy for Older Eyes. The Patrick Moore Practical Astronomy Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52413-9_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52413-9_11
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