One day last week it was time for a routine inspection of one of the Hale Telescope's three secondary mirrors. The extreme pointing of the telescope to the east provided for easier access for the crew to get to the secondary mirror and it made for some nice photo opportunities.
Here is the view of the telescope from the inside catwalk. The photo was taken from the east side of the telescope.
The view from the north of the telescope's horseshoe reveals just how far to the east it was pointed. For those who are really curious, it was pointed 5 hours 41 minutes east of zenith.
Here is the view from on the observing floor on the north side of the telescope. The inspection crew is in the basket of the yellow lift.
From the catwalk, west of the telescope, the view showed off the bottom of the Cassegrain cage.
The view from south of the telescope reveals that it wasn't quite pointed to the horizontal -- but it was pretty close.
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6 comments:
Thanks for these, they're a really interesting set of photographs.
Dave
Excellent pictures! I've added them to my collection :)
Did the south control pulpit get moved? I had the (perhaps mistaken) impression that it used to be centered on the telescope's axis.
For that matter, is it even connected to anything any more?
Seldon, the old control station is still there. I took the photo from the observing floor standing just in front (south) of it. It still works too - everything except the clocks.
Here is a bonus picture just for readers of the comments.
http://www.astro.caltech.edu/palomar/images/blog/smi7439.jpg
In it you can see a little bit of the top of the control desk & a monitor that displays, RA, DEC, HA and other information.
Scott,
I cant get your link to the bonus picture to work. Did the link info get cut off by the formatting?
jg
It seems to work for me.
Anyone else?
jg,
It won't work if you just click on the link. You have to copy-and-paste it into the URL field of your browser. I get a nice wide-angle picture taken from under the North plinth.
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