Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

“With increasing distance, our knowledge fades, and fades rapidly. Eventually, we reach the dim boundary—the utmost limits of our telescopes. There, we measure shadows, and we search among ghostly errors of measurement for landmarks that are scarcely more substantial. The search will continue. Not until the empirical resources are exhausted, need we pass on to the dreamy realms of speculation.”
― Edwin Powell Hubble, The Realm of the Nebulae

“(Popular singer Eddie Fisher, appearing on This is Show Business, told Kaufman that women refused to date him because he looked so young.)

Mr. Fisher, on Mount Wilson there is a telescope that can magnify the most distant stars up to twenty-four times the magnification of any previous telescope. This remarkable instrument was unsurpassed in the world of astronomy until the construction of the Mount Palomar telescope, an even more remarkable instrument of magnification. Owing to advances and improvements in optical technology, it is capable of magnifying the stars to four times the magnification and resolution of the Mount Wilson telescope - Mr. Fisher, if you could somehow put the Mount Wilson telescope inside the Mount Palomar telescope, you still wouldn't be able to detect my interest in your problem.”
― George S. Kaufman

“Science is not, as so many seem to think, something apart, which has to do with telescopes, retorts, and test-tubes, and especially with nasty smells, but it is a way of searching out by observation, trial and classification; whether the phenomena investigated be the outcome of human activities, or of the more direct workings of nature's laws. Its methods admit of nothing untidy or slip-shod; its keynote is accuracy and its goal is truth.”
― Archibald E. Garrod

“I have been through the OSHA system twice and I can confirm that I did not have the right to a safe workplace or whistle-blower protection on either occasion.”
― Steven Magee

“The Hale [telescope] is a refinery for light.”
― Richard Preston

“Why do we study the universe? Why do we look at the sky and ask questions, build telescopes, travel to the very limits of our planet to answer them? Why do we stargaze?

We don't know exactly why, but we must.”
― Emily M. Levesque, The Last Stargazers: The Enduring Story of Astronomy's Vanishing Explorers

“I made the mistake of working at the world's largest telescopes and now show classic health degradation that is associated with that biologically toxic environment.”
― Steven Magee

“In 2001, the internet and email was facilitating my international job search that ultimately landed me in Hawaii, managing the world’s largest telescopes atop Mauna Kea.”
― Steven Magee

“When I managed the world’s largest telescopes atop Mauna Kea, I never knew that I would end up campaigning for their closure.”
― Steven Magee

“I had my health damaged by the world’s largest telescopes and that resulted in me becoming a victim of one of the worst social security systems in the world.”
― Steven Magee

“I am committed to shutting down the toxic Mauna Kea Observatories and this is a serious problem for professional astronomers, given that I was the manager of the world’s largest telescopes.”
― Steven Magee

“We would routinely be exposed to the sunset as we were waiting to open up the telescopes for nighttime viewing atop the very high altitude Mauna Kea mountain in Hawaii, USA. That would be followed by exposure to bright industrial LASER light during the night. It was around this time that I started suffering with chronic fatigue and mental confusion. I had these exposures in my mid thirties and by my mid forties I was seeing rainbow halos around bright nighttime lights and my mental and physical health mysteriously collapsed.”
― Steven Magee

“Dinner on Kitt Peak wrapped up in time for everyone to head outside and watch the sunset together before scattering to the telescope, a time-honored tradition of astronomers everywhere. If asked, we would all supply some good practical scientific reasoning behind the habit - you get a glimpse of what sort of night it's going to be, a sense of upcoming weather, the sky quality, and so on - but the basic reason remains that it's simply beautiful. Standing on a remote mountain with the earth stretching out into the distance and slowly spinning away from our nearest star, it's a wonderful quiet moment to enjoy the vastness and stillness and colors as the night begins. On any given evening, I can promise you that scattered across the planet are a few small groups of astronomers, standing on dome catwalks or dining hall patios or even just a stretch of hard-packed earth and pausing in their work for a few moments to admire the simple beauty of the sky.”
― Emily M. Levesque, The Last Stargazers: The Enduring Story of Astronomy's Vanishing Explorers

“At Mauna Kea Observatories, we would wear cold weather clothing as the telescopes were often below freezing and there would be ice on the floor.”
― Steven Magee

“2.4 billion dollars can buy one Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) or $40 telescopes for sixty million children.”
― Steven Magee

“Where would my suspected hypoxic organ damage come from? High altitude astronomy. I was working in the hypoxic environment of the summit of Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii from 2001 to 2006 at the Mauna Kea Observatories. Blood oxygen SpO2 is typically in the low 80’s, which is well below the 88% SpO2 threshold where the medical profession believes hypoxic organ damage starts occurring in the human adult body. I was sleeping at the Hale Pohaku dormitory for a week at a time at 9,200 feet where the medical profession believes central sleep apnea occurs, causing hypoxia during sleep. Sleeping tablets worsen the hypoxia, which I was using and most night shift workers use. I first started to see daily chronic fatigue in this position, but was able to struggle to work to do my week long night shift.”
― Steven Magee, Magee’s Disease

“I was living in a state where the mountains tower up to 12,637 feet and some of them have manned telescopes atop them! Many towns are thousands of feet high in Arizona! I saw people just like me in those telescopes. Confused and forgetful, struggling in their jobs, looking ill, clearly fatigued and known to the management teams for their poor performance in the workplace. Some of my astronomy coworkers have died relatively young, others have gone on to develop cancers and illnesses, and some are just weird! Hypoxia can do a myriad of strange things to people.”
― Steven Magee, Magee’s Disease

“Richard Feynman once said that "Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars - mere globs of gas atoms. I too can see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more? The vastness of the heavens stretches my imagination - stuck on this carousel my little eye can catch one - million - year - old light. A vast pattern - of which I am a part... What is the pattern, or the meaning, or the why? It does not do harm to the mystery to know a little about it. For far more marvelous is the truth than any artists of the past imagined it. Why do the poets of the present not speak of it? What men are poets who can speak of Jupiter if he were a man, but if he is an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent?"

And if Feynman were alive today, I would reply that "Mr. Feynman, the Poets are happy looking at the moon and stars. They could see Jupiter only if their Telescopes show them!" ”
― Avijeet Das

“There appears to be a higher death rate in the workplace and outside of the workplace in professional astronomy summit workers.”
― Steven Magee

“Professional astronomy summit staff are known to die in accidents.”
― Steven Magee

“I was the manager of the world's largest telescopes.”
― Steven Magee

“Some professional astronomy telescopes are associated with unusual illnesses and deaths in their workers.”
― Steven Magee, Toxic Altitude

“I was hallucinating without the ‘Mad Honeyâ€� atop 13,800 feet Mauna Kea!”
― Steven Magee

“Living in Hawaii and working at the world’s largest telescopes at the W. M. Keck Observatory was my September 11th 2001.”
― Steven Magee

“When I worked at the Mauna Kea Observatories in Hawaii, it was a mismanaged group of telescopes with many OSHA workplace violations.”
― Steven Magee

“I look at the sun all the time and have no eye issues, other than those associated with aging. I wear glasses for reading at age 54. I would never look at the sun through glasses, binoculars or telescopes though, as that is really dangerous! Anything that causes magnification or increased solar radiation levels (such as reflections) is bad for the eyes.”
― Steven Magee

“I started to exhibit Amnestic Disorder during working extreme night shifts at the world’s largest telescopes atop 13,800 feet very high altitude Mauna Kea in Hawaii. I was mal-acclimatized to the mountain, hypoxic, extremely sleep deprived, breathing medical oxygen, and in an unnaturally high radiation environment.”
― Steven Magee

“When I worked in USA professional astronomy it was understaffed, we could not keep up with maintenance tasks, salaried employees were working extremely long unpaid hours, the telescopes were in extreme environments, and there were some shady health and safety issues.”
― Steven Magee