OT: Scientists Find New Planet - with pair of Canon SLR lenses

[bmattock]

More fun with camera parts...just kind of a fun story...

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/2006/22/full/

...
McCullough deployed a relatively inexpensive telescope made from commercial equipment to scan the skies for extrasolar planets. Called the XO telescope, it consists of two 200-millimeter telephoto camera lenses and looks like a pair of binoculars. The telescope is on the summit of the Haleakala volcano, in Hawaii.
...

And according to Rob Galbraith, the lenses were a pair of Canon EF 200mm f/1.8 L series lenses, stock off the shelf.

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/content_page.asp?cid=7-7894-8356

A team of astronomers using a telescope comprised of two Canon EF 200mm f/1.8L lenses has discovered a Jupiter-sized planet located 600 light years from Earth. The telephoto twins are the front end of a system that can measure dips in light output from a distant star, which suggests the presence of a passing planet.

 

[Ash]

I wonder what I could do with my MD and m42 lenses ..... hmmmmmm

 

[thanatos]

The size of Jupiter? What's the betting that they've forgotten the crop factor and it's really the size of an SUV?

 

[ywenz]

That canon lens is perhaps the sharpest telephoto ever made for consumer use.