EFTA00834344.pdf

From: "Pritzker, Tom" To: jeffrey E. <[email protected]> Subject: RE: Better Lucky than smart Date: Sun, 14 Feb 2016 20:55:07 +0000 Chicago, then Oxford for weekend From: jeffrey E. [[email protected]] Sent: Sunday, February 14, 2016 2:39 PM To: Pritzker, Tom Subject: Re: Better Lucky than smart grEAT im off to ted conference. you? On Sun, Feb 14, 2016 at 3:15 PM, Pritzker, Tom < wrote: We went down to the Magellan telescope (6.5 m) with Wendy Freedman who is a rock star cosmologist. She recently came to U of Chicago. Once the dovening was over, they told us that they were going to do something that had only been done once before in history. One of the geniuses had adopted an eyepiece to the telescope and we were going to look through it with the naked eye. Turns out that the human eye can (still) do some things better than optics. What they had done was developed 'adaptive optics' for the secondary mirror such that they were able to reshape the mirror many times per second and thereby correct for atmospheric disturbances from moment to moment. This allows the human eye to observe at a resolution unprecedented in history. Margot was the 12th person to do this in history, I was the 13th. We observed Sirius (8 light years). It was quite a show. Before turning on adaptive optics (580 points on the secondary mirror that can change the shape of the mirror in order to consolidate the light of the first minor into a readable image) you only saw a blur of light. Flip de switch and voila, a tight image of the star. This, of course, means absolutely nothing, but it was better than watching the Bearss. tjp The contents of this email message and any attachments are intended solely for the addressee(s) and may contain confidential and/or privileged information and may be legally protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient of this message or their agent, or if this message has been addressed to you in error, please immediately alert the sender by reply email and then delete this message and any attachments. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination, copying, or storage of this message or its attachments is strictly prohibited. please note The information contained in this communication is confidential, may be attorney-client privileged, may constitute inside information, and is intended only for the use of the addressee. It is the property of JEE Unauthorized use, disclosure or copying of this communication or any part thereof is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by return e-mail or by e-mail to [email protected], and EFTA00834344 destroy this communication and all copies thereof, including all attachments. copyright -all rights reserved The contents of this email message and any attachments are intended solely for the addressee(s) and may contain confidential and/or privileged information and may be legally protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient of this message or their agent, or if this message has been addressed to you in error, please immediately alert the sender by reply email and then delete this message and any attachments. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination, copying, or storage of this message or its attachments is strictly prohibited. EFTA00834345