The shadowy, closely-analyzed photo of space shuttle Columbia’s underside was not snapped with cutting-edge military equipment, but by three researchers playing around with an old computer and an ordinary telescope in their free time, officials said Wednesday.
[…]
But contrary to reports last week, the photo was not snapped by one of Starfire’s extraordinarily powerful telescopes, which are designed to spy on enemy satellites and detect incoming missiles.
Instead, it was taken by Starfire Optical Range engineers who, in their free time, had rigged up a device using a commercially available 3 1/2-inch telescope and an 11-year-old Macintosh computer, the researchers said. The telescope was surplus laboratory equipment, kept in a cabinet at the Starfire range.
Thanks to MacSlash for pointing this out, but <rant>SHAME ON THEM for pointing to the printable version rather than the on-screen version. I think that’s bullshit. We’re using their resources (information), and they need to pay for it (ads). I also totally lost any chance of navigation from that story to elsewhere in the site. The other problem with the printable version is that at first it didn’t seem credible. It was text on a blank background with a teeny Washington Post logo. I thought it had been faked. I checked the URL to see if someone had spoofed the address (washing.tonpost.com or similar), and had to remove the ?language=printer to be sure.</rant>
I need more caffeine!