Into the West

Not much time to write today, but I have been meaning to post this photo for sometime now, so here it is:

This is the view looking into the west arm of the Hale Telescope. To put this into perspective see the next picture. To enter the west arm one needs to walk the gangplank into the hole in the photo below:



Inside the west arm is the slew motor that drives the telescope in declination (north or south). The original 1-Horse Power motor was replaced just a few weeks ago by the Palomar day crew. It will get a little bit of care and be used as a spare, should the new one not last 70 years or so like the first one did.