Shoutout to the old guy at the Kitt Peak visitor center

Back in 2018 I was passing through Arizona and stopped at Kitt Peak for a look around. There was this retired astronomer hanging out by the 4-meter telescope exhibit, just chatting with whoever came by. He spent like 20 minutes explaining how they used to develop photographic plates by hand in the 1970s. Said one bad batch of chemicals could ruin a whole night's work. I still think about that when I see those crisp Hubble shots online. Anybody else run into someone at an observatory who put the whole hobby in perspective?

2 comments

2 Comments

mitchell.shane14h ago

Old guy at an observatory explaining hand-developed plates is basically the real-life version of "back in my day we walked uphill both ways" but for space nerds. (And honestly, I kind of love it.)

janahenderson13h ago

Bet those hand-developed plates taught patience Hubble engineers never had to learn.