The MONS was one unique experience to me. It taught me a lot!
The telescope is exactly the classical German Equatorial type that allows you to do everything. You point it, you move it, you care for it, all this so that you can use it! It is the most part of the dream any amateur who started with modestly frugal equipment has. However, there was an unexpected taste in this experience.
On one hand, the MONS belongs to a professional observatory, on the other it is an "educational" telescope. Usually, people who go there do not know very well how to really care and take care. There are people who don't always know how to treat a telescope and sometimes people-injuring accidents happen. They have happened in the past. This leads the institute in-charge of the observatory to take preventive fool-proof measures, which somewhat limits what any visitor can do.
Though I have cared for the scope as if it were mine, I never actually felt it was my scope. And I think this ruled atmosphere was to blame.. Not being part of the staff, I am not allowed to try to collimate the telescope; I am also not allowed to hang extra-weight on the telescope.. These are two examples of perfectly understandable rules.. But..
The scope was carefully balanced if you left the cover on, which is not of a specific interest to the common observer. I still don't know if this is done on purpose or not. But no one, independent of it's knowledge, is allowed to do anything about it. Only the maintenance people can do certain things. Any engineer knows the math to estimate how much weight can be placed, and where, to balance the scope, but only maintenance personnel can touch it.
It's curious to note that a 1972 instrument that was almost neglected, on one hand, no longer is a state-of-the-art instrument -- so nobody seems to really want it; on the other hand, no one wants to let go of it.. Do this in a insular Spanish observatory, isolated by Atlantic waters, with a strict organization, and you get the MONS.
The MONS telescope is like this historical caliper with exchangeable tips. You can use the caliper and move it around, but if you want to change tips, you need to call the experts, who work on their own timetable. The caliper is not the most modern one, so it is not considered prioritary for current science, however, no one wants to let go its historical value.
So, an observatory does not seem to me like the dream location that would replace your own telescope. It is a place like any other where you find an unrelated interaction between people of different abilities and people playing different roles. I learned that going to an observatory to "play" with the telescope, is not the same as going to your father's tooling shop to "play" with the lathe machine, mostly because you lack your father as the authority. But it ends up being a work place where each person has its own undocumented value in the cumulative process.
I lacked the knowledge to adequately process the data I was acquiring. I also did not know how to look at our data and check if it was looking good. However, there were people who were supposed to know this, but which did not know how to "use" such an un-automated telescope. Definitively, there is more than enough room for amateurs to cooperate with professional researchers.
However, it was far from being a disappointing experience! Despite the six-and-a-half consecutive nights with bad weather, it was the best vacation I ever had, and I would gladly repeat such endeavor!
The people and policies behind the MONS observatory are only doing what they know how to do. That is the way the equipment is maintained. That is the way safety is kept. That is the way science is made. The MONS is not a playground for scientific astronomy, as the amateur may dream.. The MONS is the science's door that allows almost anyone with a science project to go there and make their science! All the joy that is lived there is a pure extra!
The telescope is exactly the classical German Equatorial type that allows you to do everything. You point it, you move it, you care for it, all this so that you can use it! It is the most part of the dream any amateur who started with modestly frugal equipment has. However, there was an unexpected taste in this experience.
On one hand, the MONS belongs to a professional observatory, on the other it is an "educational" telescope. Usually, people who go there do not know very well how to really care and take care. There are people who don't always know how to treat a telescope and sometimes people-injuring accidents happen. They have happened in the past. This leads the institute in-charge of the observatory to take preventive fool-proof measures, which somewhat limits what any visitor can do.
Though I have cared for the scope as if it were mine, I never actually felt it was my scope. And I think this ruled atmosphere was to blame.. Not being part of the staff, I am not allowed to try to collimate the telescope; I am also not allowed to hang extra-weight on the telescope.. These are two examples of perfectly understandable rules.. But..
The scope was carefully balanced if you left the cover on, which is not of a specific interest to the common observer. I still don't know if this is done on purpose or not. But no one, independent of it's knowledge, is allowed to do anything about it. Only the maintenance people can do certain things. Any engineer knows the math to estimate how much weight can be placed, and where, to balance the scope, but only maintenance personnel can touch it.
It's curious to note that a 1972 instrument that was almost neglected, on one hand, no longer is a state-of-the-art instrument -- so nobody seems to really want it; on the other hand, no one wants to let go of it.. Do this in a insular Spanish observatory, isolated by Atlantic waters, with a strict organization, and you get the MONS.
The MONS telescope is like this historical caliper with exchangeable tips. You can use the caliper and move it around, but if you want to change tips, you need to call the experts, who work on their own timetable. The caliper is not the most modern one, so it is not considered prioritary for current science, however, no one wants to let go its historical value.
So, an observatory does not seem to me like the dream location that would replace your own telescope. It is a place like any other where you find an unrelated interaction between people of different abilities and people playing different roles. I learned that going to an observatory to "play" with the telescope, is not the same as going to your father's tooling shop to "play" with the lathe machine, mostly because you lack your father as the authority. But it ends up being a work place where each person has its own undocumented value in the cumulative process.
I lacked the knowledge to adequately process the data I was acquiring. I also did not know how to look at our data and check if it was looking good. However, there were people who were supposed to know this, but which did not know how to "use" such an un-automated telescope. Definitively, there is more than enough room for amateurs to cooperate with professional researchers.
However, it was far from being a disappointing experience! Despite the six-and-a-half consecutive nights with bad weather, it was the best vacation I ever had, and I would gladly repeat such endeavor!
The people and policies behind the MONS observatory are only doing what they know how to do. That is the way the equipment is maintained. That is the way safety is kept. That is the way science is made. The MONS is not a playground for scientific astronomy, as the amateur may dream.. The MONS is the science's door that allows almost anyone with a science project to go there and make their science! All the joy that is lived there is a pure extra!
