Imagine this happened to your scope

[allan gould]

I was reading about this
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-07-subaru-meter-telescope-leaking-coolant.html
And it sure shows the perils of remote imaging.
Hope not too much damage done

[multiweb]

300L of Binte'sl Don magic potion will fix that in no time. :P

[gary]

We will have to await for engineering assessments of the damage but this has
the potential to be a major setback for the Subaru Telescope, NAOJ and the greater
astronomical research community.

Nearly all of this instrumentation is painstakingly fabricated, machined and hand-built
for these instruments. For example, the Subaru is the only 8m class scope
in the world where one can mount an instrument at prime focus such as the
Suprime-Cam which is a custom 80 megapixel camera. Likewise, instruments such
as the Echidna Multi-Fiber Positioner for the Suburu Prime Focus, which was
built right here in Epping, Sydney by the extremely talented team at the AAO required
thousands of person hours to machine, assemble, test, calibrate and commission.

These aren't the types of instruments that one buys off the shelf. So what's more,
as engineering teams often dissipate at the end of the development cycle of
projects such as these, the 'corporate knowledge' can dissipate with the various
individuals involved. You might have a set of schematics or engineering CAD
drawings, but without the original team, how to perform some tasks has to
be re-learnt all over again which can take years.

We were lucky enough to see Echidna being fabricated at the AAO several years
back when Wildcard Innovations were contracted to write some of the embedded software associated
with the AAT's IRIS2 infrared camera. I guess the best analogy I can give is if you have
ever seen images or movies of where engineers and technicians hand build satellites
or deep space probes, the construction of some of the instruments that goes into these
large telescopes is a similar exercise.

So let's hope the damage is minimal.

[Waxing_Gibbous]

Spookily enough, my Subaru started leaking coolant everywhere on the same day!
I'm betting on a faulty head-gasket.
Bet mine costs less to fix tho'. :D

[space oddity]

Ouch, this will put the scope out of action for a while- could be some rather unhappy researchers out there. Better still, send Don out there with the cleaner ,guitar, loud shirt and sunnies to help with the cleanup.

[leon]

Peter, you bloody twit, love it.

Leon

[Ric]

Sad to see that has happened, sometimes these accidents can have the big scopes out of action for years.

Hope it's not as bad as it looks.