Discoveries in the Physics & Astronomy shop | Science, curiosities, and surprises
A surprise discovery on a hallway bulletin board at the Observatory: a push pin Big Dipper!
It’s good and charming and subtle, and we can forgive that this version has eight stars instead of the night sky’s seven. (Not counting the visual double of Mizar and Alcor where the handle kinks.) Someone did this on a whim, and now it’s hard to resist the idea of putting up others all over campus to see who notices.
Have a great semester break!
There are many, many reminders in a workshop to wear appropriate protective equipment, and the first time you watch a flying piece of material bounce off of your safety glasses, you’re ever so grateful. This one’s one of our favorites.
Yeah, when you see enough of them, you get opinions on label design quality.
Making an ‘X’ across your telescope’s eyepiece is a handy thing, letting you mark the center instead of eyeballing it. There are all sorts of reasons you might appreciate that little bit of assistance, provided it doesn’t actively interfere with seeing things. So you use as fine a wire as you can. Which is going to break, of course, so keep some spares in the desk drawer.
How thin? This is AWG 53, all of 0.0007 inches thick (0.0178 mm). Enough to make even the finest human hair seem chunky in comparison.