Tuesday, October 21, 2008

See The Journey to Palomar at Palomar

You may already know that The Journey to Palomar will be broadcast on PBS on November 10 (check your local listings as stations will vary when they show it).

Before it is shown on TV, there will be an opportunity to see the film here at Palomar. The film will be shown on the observing floor under the Hale Telescope itself. The screening will be held on Sunday, November 2nd @ 1 p.m. Follow the link for the details.

All of the proceeds for the event will go toward a new wave of public outreach to take place here at Palomar. We have a new Outreach Center and the opportunity to install a historic telescope for the general public to view through.

Yes, you'll eventually get the chance to look through the same telescope, a 10-inch refractor, that Edwin Hubble is looking though in this photo (pipe optional). The big scope in the photo, the 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope, will continue to be used for astronomical research, but the 10-inch refractor is no longer needed to guide the bigger one. The plan is to use the Outreach Center for all kinds of cool stuff including looking through this and other small telescopes.

Check out the trailer for The Journey to Palomar below and be sure to attend the screening if you can or at least watch the show on TV.

3 comments:

Kimber said...

I'll be watching!

Anonymous said...

So back then you could smoke while observing in a brightly lit dome?

Man, they had it so easy back then.

Palomar Observatory said...

:) I am sure it was a posed photo. Hubble never seemed to be far from his pipe. Maybe he did smoke while observing. If so, he wouldn't have been the first.