Who's to say the guy doesn't have a
good memory of images of the objects in question. If *you* can't see it,
its simply proves the point. An easy game to play...

Look, whether or not he is the most talented observer is not interesting
to me. I'm not sure at all that one *can* define "most talented" in any
objective fashion...
It seems unlikely to
me that one person will be able to see all details better than anyone
else.

totally agree. but something else is going on at the same time.
dubious as some visual-acuity claims sound, they do have
one important benefit to our hobby: it makes us get out there
and look for ourselves. it challenges us. we strive to get the most out of our
eyesight and need a good
observing challenge now and then. i'm sure the magazines know it.
maybe having a few audacious observer claims out there is not
such a bad idea

SSX