JIM MICHNOWICZ / NASA / ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITYFROM OUR READERS
More About O. M. Mitchel
Trudy E. Bell’s article on Ormsby Mac-
Knight Mitchel (S&T: Nov. 2019, p. 30)
nailed a subject of growing interest for
me. In recent years, I have acquired cop-
ies of Mitchel’s old books and started a
fi le with miscellaneous notes, with the
object of writing an article to offer Sky
& Telescope.
Now I don’t need to — Bell’s writingI really enjoyed Charles Wood’s dis-
cussion of lunar pareidolia (S&T: Oct.
201 9, p. 52). While working on my
Astronomical League Lunar 100 award
and NASA Apollo 50th Anniversary
award over the summer, one such
structure really caught my eye: what
I call the “Lunar Tiki God” near Fra
Mauro and the Apollo 14 landing site.
Its elongated, Simpson-esque head was
immediately evident to me, and the
lighter material in the “eyes” seemed to
glow, ready for the lunar luau. Evidence
of Parrotheads on the Moon? No idea,
but I check out my new acquaintance
every chance I get.
Jim Michnowicz
Holly Springs, North CarolinaCharles Wood’s article brought to mind
something I’ve experienced a few times
while observing the Moon through a
Celestron C-14 with a 26-mm eyepiece.is fascinating, and I appreciate the side-
bar about his books and suggestions for
further research.
Some aspects of Mitchel’s work
caught my attention, particularly
Central High School in Philadelphia.
Sadly, the school and its observatory
burned down later in the 19th century,
and apparently most of its astronomical
records were lost.A few years back, during a visit to
Central High (which now occupies a
building away from its original site),
I discovered that the school still has
a collection of 19th-century physics
apparatus for demonstration purposes.
No one there knew anything about
these devices (including a refractor on
a tripod, which I could not examine
because it was in a corner with lots of
stuff stacked against it).
The librarian showed me a leather-
bound guest book titled “Autographs
Observatory Kensington.” It had noth-
ing to do with the school observatory
but instead had come from the United
Kingdom. It was the guest book of Sir
James South — perhaps the preeminent
gentleman amateur astronomer of the
day in London. It contained the signa-
ture of Mitchel, who had apparently
visited South’s observatory during a trip
to England.
Alas, this autograph book was later
sold to a private collector (to raise funds
for Central High), so it is no longer
available for study.
Robert D. Hicks
Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaI was an assistant professor in the
physics department at the University of
Cincinnati for a few years in the early
1980s and, as its “token astronomer,”
was put in charge of the observatory.
Along with Paul Nohr, I kept both tele-
scopes operational and hosted “Astron-
omy Thursday” public viewing sessions.
But I never got around to learning much
about the observatory’s history, so Bell’s
article was especially interesting.
Nate Krumm
Pearblossom, CaliforniaGrateful for Imaging Tutorial
I enjoyed reading Ron Brecher’s
“Demystifying Image Calibration”
(S&T: Nov. 2019, p. 36). As I’m a total
novice interested in astrophotography,
his explanation and ideas have encour-
aged me to improve my images. Brecher
put in a nutshell what would otherwise
have taken me years to fi gure out!
Colleen Ansley
Toronto, OntarioAre You Seeing Things?
pCompare this sketch of a tiki-like face on the Moon with the actual terrain seen telescopically.6 FEBRUARY 2020 • SKY & TELESCOPE
I turn away for a minute or two, and
when I look back I’m astonished to fi nd
that my brain has “reversed” the con-
tours of topography. Craters no longer
look depressed but instead seem to rise
above the lunar plains. Their fl oors now
look like smooth mesa tops.
The fi rst time this happened I was
startled and baffl ed, but upon realizing
what had occurred I was able to main-
tain the “reversed” image. Turning away
from the eyepiece and then looking
back returned me to the correct image.
This has recurred only a few times
over the past 20 years or so. On a couple
of occasions, I have been able to “force”
the transition from crater to mesa, back
and forth; most times, however, I can’t
get the reversal no matter how hard I
try. I’m wondering if others have expe-
rienced this.
Ed Wagner
Olean, New York+Apollo 14Fra MauroParry50 kmMARE COGNITUM