An inside look at the Discover Channel Telescope

The Discovery Channel Telescope is a 4.3-meter wonder in Arizona. Observer Tom Polakis wondered what the view through it would be like. Would the images on his retina resemble those in textbooks? One night, he got the chance to find out. He and a rag-tag team of serious amateur astronomers and astrosketchers camped out under the 65-foot (20 meters) dome. They found out that size does matter, and they took these images because extraordinary claims — like “I put my eye at the end of that huge telescope!” — require extraordinary evidence.