Talk:McDonald Observatory

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There are some errors in the account of the attack on the 107-inch mirror:

The fellow that did it was not a janitor but a newly-hired optician's assistant who was doing poorly in his job. He tried to break the mirror with a hammer and, when that failed, shot at it. I doubt that the mirror is made of tempered glass, which I think would have disintegrated. The mirror was damaged; but the astronomers simply cleaned out and ground smooth the fractured glass, resilvered the mirror, and painted the damaged areas flat black. The area damaged is tiny compared to the total area and made no detectable difference, even though it is near the middle.

I did a lot of work at the observatory around that time and saw the damaged mirror the next day. I also got accounts directly from those involved. The perpetrator had been seen earlier watching the Tonight Show, which that evening featured an interview with a fellow who had been in the news for shooting up a Coke machine. I personally think that this was his immediate inspiration, that he thought destroying the mirror would get him similar fame.

Robert Leonard Nelson, Jr. lionelsoni@aol.com

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A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

• McDonald Observatory Aerial View.jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 21:36, 7 June 2022 (UTC)

Shooting at Observatory

I believe there was a shooting by a disgruntled employee several years ago. The main mirror was slightly damaged but still functional. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2603:8000:F201:2879:1C1E:62F5:34E0:A7C2 (talk) 06:29, 2 August 2022 (UTC)

https://astroanecdotes.com/2015/03/26/the-mcdonald-gun-shooting-incident/ Will102 (talk) 05:09, 1 May 2024 (UTC)

Is that really an aerial view?

The main picture used in this article does not APPEAR to be an aerial view as the caption states it is. Do we have an incorrectly labeled photo or am I mistaken? If it is an aerial view, it sure isn't from very high up, so I wonder if a re-worded caption might be best anyway. Owlan (talk) 16:48, 5 April 2024 (UTC)

Yes, you're right. Someone uploaded an aerial view photo, changed the photo and the caption to match, but then asked for their photo to be deleted (Commons:Deletion requests/File:McDonald Observatory Aerial View.jpg. So someone replaced the old image, but forgot to fix the caption. I've removed the caption (which is how the article was before before). -- Finlay McWalter··–·Talk 17:39, 5 April 2024 (UTC)

I've added a caption abridged from the information text on the current image. -- Finlay McWalter··–·Talk 17:43, 5 April 2024 (UTC)