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In 1980, I lived in Nanjing China, working at Purple Mountain Observatory, collaborating on understanding the rings of Uranus using occultation data. I brought
by CliffStoll 5y ago
In 1980, I lived in Nanjing China, working at Purple Mountain Observatory, collaborating on understanding the rings of Uranus using occultation data. I brought along an HP-85 and it was just the thing for this kind of work: robust, reliable, easy to use, and capable. A full desktop computer, programmable in Basic. Other astronomers at the observatory used it for analysis of polar wandering and sunspot physics.
Still have the beast in my attic -- I wonder it'll run after 40+ years?
- neilv 5y agoThat's a well-traveled HP 85. If you decide to play with it, appears there's a community around them, including someone who made new ROM carrier PCBs. Before powering it up, I don't know whether there's anything worth checking first (tin whiskers? flux capacitor?), but the community might?