Canon 400 f/2.8 II .. times 8!

[Harry]

Now, you might find this a waste of eight perfectly good lenses .. I prefer to see it as a demonstration of the amazing quality of the new generation of big whites!
http://news.yale.edu/2014/07/10/hi-ho-astronomers-discover-seven-dwarf-galaxies

 

[NancyP]

Cute. Other uses of Canon lenses in wide field astronomy include a planetary search project that uses 8 or so Canon 200mm f/1.8 lenses. They are shooting wide areas of sky repeatedly and using computer program to detect stars that have an occlusion in one photo and don't have an occlusion in a paired photo.

 

[Menace]

Not a waste at all - in fact good on them for thinking outside the box to answer certain astronomical questions.

 

[Jim Saunders]

COTS parts which they can have repaired if necessary, and probably sell for most of their starting cost? Why not?

Jim

 

[privatebydesign]

I posted about this in the Astro thread the other day. I have seen several wide field astro cameras with 200 f1.8 arrays. Indeed one of them had the worlds largest supply of FD manual focus 200 f1.8's, it was a long time ago but, I recall it had four of them.