True that, but until recently you couldn't get a photo or video out of your telescope (unless you paid the big bucks for yours). You also couldn't schlepp your telescope up a mountain and get a full, wide angle view and recording of every window on that side of town with the capability of zooming in on ALL of them, one or many at a time, without being visible to any of them. This tech allows constant secret surveillance of large areas that can be re-wound and re-focused to spy into anyone's open window at any time...maybe even at night.

Telescopes have been around a long time : ) My big telescope I can look at spiderweb thread from about 500 ft away. ALL the information is there it just gets dimmer as you magnify smaller chunks. I can actually study trees, bugs, birds better with my scope from 150ft than I could using naked eye.

That is a pretty beefy telescope

@Fairbs I have good days and bad days with them... but the good days are when I am inside not looking at blue skies : ) Or snowy fields, that can be bad. I actually switch my videosift to black and for my job (as software developer) I switch my editors to black backgrounds also. This minimizes their appearance.

For telescopes and microscopes , I use binoviewers which dramatically reduce the perception of floaters as two eyes are averaged out.

Mine are like this in both eyes:
http://www.barransclass.com/phys1090/circus/Gillespie_B/EyeFloaters2.jpg

I got them all 15 years ago when an insanely powerful flash discharged right in front of my eyes. (INSTANT pain ON) Over the next few days my eyes filled with them.

When I look at highly collimated light (like a powerful view in a microscope or telescope) I can see ALLLLL of them swimming in 3D.

A bright sunny day blue sky is like looking through egg whites.

Hi Poolcleaner,

I think you're arguing from a false premise, that a belief in Creation science does not contribute to what you call true science. Some of the greatest scientists who ever lived were creationists. Here is a list of a few of them:

http://creationsafaris.com/wgcs_toc.htm

Their belief that God created an orderly Universe based on laws (which is the reason we call them laws) highly influenced and inspired their exploration of the cosmos. Here are a couple of quotes:

When with bold telescopes I survey the old and newly discovered stars and planets when with excellent microscopes I discern the unimitable subtility of nature’s curious workmanship; and when, in a word, by the help of anatomical knives, and the light of chemical furnaces, I study the book of nature I find myself oftentimes reduced to exclaim with the Psalmist, How manifold are Thy works, O Lord! In wisdom hast Thou made them all!

-Robert Boyle, Chemistry

The more I study nature, the more I stand amazed at the work of the Creator.

-Louis Pasteur, Medicine

Creation science is a collection of data which supports the idea that the Earth is young. Some of the theories within creation science are testable and predictive, but as a whole you cannot put it in a lab and perform a measurement any more than you could do so for macroevolution, because they both concern what happened in the past. You cannot observe macroevolution happening anywhere nor can you subject it to empirical testing. You can make observations and inferences based on a theory, but that is subject to interpretation.

@deathcow what was your gateway telescope?

Indeed, I imagine quite a few people followed the fly-by, hobbyists and professionals alike, probably thousands of people worldwide. Yet there is only this video showing anything unusual about it. You'd think there'd be a crapload of people talking about this if it were true. A flash like that would show even through a small telescope.

Who could name it "Tarquin Fin-tim-lin-bin-whin-bim-lim-bus-stop-F'tang-F'tang-Olé-Biscuitbarrel".

That would at least be easier to remember than "Malcolm Peter Brian Telescope Adrian Umbrella Stand Jasper Wednesday (pops mouth twice) Stoatgobbler John Raw Vegetable (whinnying) Arthur Norman Michael (blows squeaker) Featherstone Smith (whistle) Northcott Edwards Harris (fires pistol, then 'whoop') Mason (chuff-chuff-chuff-chuff) Frampton Jones Fruitbat Gilbert (sings) 'We'll keep a welcome in the' (three shots) Williams If I Could Walk That Way Jenkin (squeaker) Tiger-drawers Pratt Thompson (sings) 'Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head' Darcy Carter (horn) Pussycat (sings) 'Don't Sleep In The Subway' Barton Mainwaring (hoot, 'whoop') Smith"

Extremely Large Telescope?

Could the marketing department not think of anything more creative?

Just to play devils advocate....

a ground based optical telescope? Really?

Surely no matter how good your optics, you will still suffer from atmospheric interference. Wouldn't we be better off with another hubble?

I think it normally depends on the mountain. As I see it, most people have an issue with destroying mountains for things like mining because 1) they disagree with the reasoning for it, 2)it's in places where people can see the damage, and more importantly 3) those 'mountains' are often much lower altitude and are decent habitats for critters with significant water runoff that's contaminated by 'mountain top removal'. When you're talking 9-10K feet up, beyond the tree line, there's far less habitat being destroyed (granted, something likely lives there that's now dead or displaced). That means it's not 0 damage done, but far less damage to what most people consider important. Very few people care about damaging the rock itself, mostly Shinto and Buddhists I would guess. Personally I find this a good trade off of damage vs possible gain, but of course I don't live there.
I'm wondering how this is better than the VLTA http://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/vlt/
I expected there to be no more giant telescopes made now that they know how to combine smaller ones to simulate large ones. I wonder why they went this way on this project?

Came for the blast..stayed for the telescope.

Awesome telescope, but color me unimpressed with the mountain blast. I was expecting the top 1/5 of the mountain to blow, not a puff of smoke!

One you might like, setting sun filmed through a telescope in Western Australia.

http://videosift.com/video/Solar-Cauldron-Sun-setting-over-Rottnest-Island-lighthouse

Also, some bonus links featuring either fire or ice (themes of the day):
http://videosift.com/video/Lake-Superior-Ice-Cover-January-4-through-February-16-2014
http://videosift.com/video/Island-Station-Implosion-St-Paul-Minnesota
http://videosift.com/video/The-Bombs-Bursting