To the Perfect Machine

Rachel, I've never read such a nerdy book in a single day. So brilliantly written, I am still at awe.. Almost a half-century after its completion, the 200-inch Palomar telescope remains an unparalleled combination of vast scale and microscopic detail. As huge as the Pantheon of Rome and as heavy as the Statue of Liberty, this magnificent instrument is so precisely built that its seventeen-foot mirror was hand-polished to a tolerance of 2/1,000,000 of an inch. The telescope's construction drove some of the brink of madness, made others fearful that mortals might glimpse heaven, and transfixed an entire nation.

#obsession