Astronomy buffs may want to check out the small Kentucky town of Carswell. There, at the Sheldon Observatory, they'll find a unique item--what may be the world's weakest telescope.
Mike Sheldon, who runs the observatory from the back room of his mom's house, has this explanation for why he set out to build a telescope who's magnification is twenty times worse than the naked eye: "Well, I beleieve strongly in balance, and I kept hearing about all these Hubbles and things that were allowing people to see galaxies, and quasars, and protons and stuff. Well, I thought, we need to balance that out, and what better way than to make a really weak telescope?"
After three years of intense study, Sheldon hit upon the perfect solution. "I just picked up an empty Miracle Whip jar one day, looked through the bottom, and Bingo! Perfect for the world's weakest telescope. You can hardly see anything through it."
When reminded that a person can simply close his or her eyes and see even less than that, Sheldon begins trembling and whimpering.
Visitors can get their own foggy glimpse of the heavens between 7 pm and 4 am weeknights, and 6 pm and 5 am Saturdays. Mike Sheldon asks that visitors please knock on the back door, as knocking on the front door tends to wake up his mother.
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