Palomar Observatory Tour Getting inside the 200in Hale Telescope

Added: Jul 26, 2009   By: beautyintheuniverse

Duration: 10:16

Channel: Education

A quick summary of the Palomar Observatory. Many thanks to CaptainCaustic and Palomarskyguy for helping set this up. It was greatly appreciated. http://www.youtube.com/user/CaptainCaustic http://www.youtube.com/user/palomarskyguy The scope itself is intimidating impressive. You stand it Its Presence. Seeing the collage of technology was fascinating (from the smell of Victorian steam engines to the 8W laser used for the adaptive optics (along with actuators that twitch about 2000 times per second)). The dome itself also has a feel of Roman Empire Grandure. The building is beautiful and white. Thursday 23nd july Well, didnt really get up the dawn chorus broke out, and the light grew more full, and then I could see the high cloud that had ruined the seeing for the latter half of the night. No matter, both transits could clearly be seen, and Im pretty sure to meteor impact site too! (southern hemisphere) Packed up the scope and drove up to observatory. There by 7ish. Slept in car till they opened gates at 9ish. Had the observatory much to myself. And amazing place, got a vaguely greek feel to it. Very white, large buildings, tied up with the discovery of the unknown. Had a nose around myself, before trying to call the outreach guy. My phone struggled for signal, so I asked for help from one of the helps in the visitors center. The guys name was Scott. We got on well. Very much kindred spirits with an appreciation for what these great machines symbolize. The Palomar observatory is over 50 years old, but its mass has the feeling of mightier than man. It dwarfs you you stand in its presence it is an icon of what men achieve when they work together. I was honored to be able to get inside this machine, both in the yoke of the main drive axis, and in the cage under the scope. This place like the VLA is a curious museum of the technology of the ages. The construction, equatorial as there was no technology for alt-az, the drive motor, the whole thing smells of the characterisitic Victorian oils used in steamtrains. The whole thing predates computers. The balancing for the mirror, a sort of mechanical computer for automatically adjusting the force applied to the mirror as the scope changes its altitude. Then there is a mixture of early technology that looks like its from the space race years oscilloscope type CRTs for displaying the position of the scope. Then there is the uber advanced, the 8W laser used for the adaptive optics, the adaptive mirror, with actuators twitching at about 2000 times per second. The IR, and radar to ensure that they dont shoot down planes. It is a magnificent place. Even by modern standards it seems impossible that men could have merely built this scope, but when you look at the high tech end of it (which while it doesnt have any of the intimidating scale to it), it scraped the face of the impossible. Spent a couple of hours going around the scope. The drive down into the valley was very long and winding- a tough drive I didnt remember it being so long and winding on the way up, nor was I aware of the drop offs on the sides. rest of entry cut as too long!

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