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Turbo through time and space Part 3

Stories
meteo1But suddenly Turbo realized that Hale, his desk and his untidy papers had all vanished, and he found himself looking at something he’d seen before, but only on a picture postcard.

It was Palomar Mountain Observatory, and Turbo himself was there at the 200 inch telescope. “I’m accomplishing everything tonight”, he thought to himself.

telescope200smAnd then he raised his nose. Food!

Some of the workers had stopped work and were munching sandwiches.
Turbo walked over to the men. He was excited to be at Palomar but he was also Hungry!
turbodog3smOne turned to look at him. “The jokes are terrible here”, one said at last to the others.
“A Yorkie at Palomar! What is it Yorkie? Are you happy to be working here?” Silence.

“Look into it deeply,” said the workman indicating the telescope. “Don’t worry,” he said to the little dog. Turbo realized all eyes were on him.

So, the telescope was real!

Turbo through time and space Part 2

Stories

Some choky smoke exuded from the area round Quabita. Turbo  sneezed, but he pricked up his ears and listened. Quabita continued, “I want you to meet George Ellery Hale. He played a central role in developing Caltech into a leading research university almost 100 years ago.” Turbo gasped. He’d gone back almost 100 years inTime!

hale“Tell me about Hale” Turbo asked.
“he discovered magnetic fields in sunspots and is known for his development of great astronomical instruments; solar telescopes are usually extended beneath the earth. ” Quabita explained. “The reason we are as far down as the telescopes.” Turbo looked flummoxed, as well as he might.

 

Why am I in the steam tunnels?” exclaimed Turbo, wide-eyed.  Quabita gave an incandescent smile.

“Well, I never!” Turbo sighed. He was tired from a long day but didn’t want to admit it. He felt like sneaking back to the freshly cut lawns of the campus. But Quabita withered him with a determined glance, and blew some different colored smoke around itself. By the time the smoke had cleared Turbo saw that he was in the corner of a gloomy laboratory. Courageously, he trotted towards a feisty scientist, who was propping his head up over papers strewn on an untidy desk.

 

“That’s Hale,” Quabita said. “He is writing an important paper; he is composing; whilst he’s composing, I ‘m decomposing….” and Quabita gave another tinkling laugh. Hale looked up. He didn’t seem at all surprised to see a dog and he began earnestly to explain that he built solar apparatus of great power.

 

telescopeTurbo was intrigued.  At last he asked the professor, “What if your eye was, itself, powerful enough to be able to see the stars?” Then he thought to himself, the eye is not powerful enough to see distant stars and never will be; that’s why you need telescopes.

 

There was dead silence. Turbo quaked a little. Still silence. At best, all he could expect from Hale was a curt “goodbye”. At last Hale drew a breath.

 

“You given me an idea” he said slowly. “We shall construct the world’s larger telescope this time on Palomar mountain, under the auspices of Caltech. What about calling it “Big Eye” he said, in touching overtones, stroking Turbo’s ear.
“A new discovery” mumbled the astronomer. “An eye powerful enough to see the stars. A 200 inch telescope. A big eye telescope, created at the suggestion of a dog!” Hale seemed to enlarge with his own laughter.

 

To be continued

 

note: The 200″ is not an eye; it’s a telescope exactly like the 60″ and the 100″ but bigger, so that its mirror can gather more light and therefore see stars farthest away

Turbo through time and space Part 1

Stories
Turbo tugged at the lead.  It was far too late for his evening walk and Caltech was deserted. “No other dogs to play with now and no children,” thought Turbo, “just the occasional security guard patrolling the pathways, whistling cautiously.”

 

Black Car lightsTurbo was angry. The little Yorkshire Terrier normally had an afternoon walk when he was able to chase a ball or join in a children’s game, but today his owner had been so intent on discussions and phone calls that the moon had been rising as he set out. He lifted his nose to sniff the balmy night air. Suddenly a large car screeched across the parking lot.
turbolooking1

 

Turbo barked. What monster was this? He tugged at the leash. His owner bent to remove the leash, and Turbo scampered off across the campus lawn, glad to be running freely.
He run round and round in huge circles. His tongue lolled out. He sat down, and panted. He gazed absent-mindedly around. And then he caught sight of a ball of orange and white; his hackles rose.

 

catturborunningA cat? The cat disappeared in a flurry.With a growl and a leap, Turbo was after the cat. He kept his nose to the ground and inhaled the cat’s scent. He took one turn and then another.

 

 

 

 

 

path1And the next thing he knew, he was in the maze of the Caltech steam tunnels. These had been constructed when the university was built so that scientists could perform experiments in safety and seclusion.  Turbo paused and looked around. The cat’s tail whisked round the corner and disappeared. “Dark, damp and dismal” thought Turbo to himself, as he looked at the labyrinth of tunnels. “Anyway, there seem to be as many problems down here as there are on campus.” He was thinking of the cat, hot and cold water power, gas, compressed air.
As he swiveled round, he saw green glow in the far corner. Forgetting about to chase the cat any longer, he decided to investigate. He approached cautiously – and then saw it was his friend, (the meteorite) Quabita.

 

meteo1“You’ll never catch Sunspot” said Quabita. Turbo showed no surprise that tQuabita could converse; he knew this from other adventure they’d both had together.

 

“How could I catch a sunspot down in the dark labyrinth?” he asked Quabita. Quabita gave a tinkling laugh.

 

“Sunspot is the name of the cat I sent up to campus to bring you down here,” it explained. He climbed the wall and is back in the open air now. But I wanted you to come and join me in an adventure. An adventure through time and space”.

 

to be continued