Thursday, April 30, 2009

Big Eyes. Big Science.

The 2009 Palomar Science Meeting kicks off today as over 100 astronomers from across the globe gather at Caltech to present findings from their research at Palomar Observatory. Presentations and posters will include results from all of Palomar's telescopes, spanning the observable universe.

In celebration of the meeting here's a view looking down on the Big Eye that I took last weekend. Riding at prime focus is the Large Format Camera.

Compare the modern view above with the classic shot of Edwin Hubble riding the Big Eye from the late 1940s. Times have changed - for the better. Astronomers are able to accomplish more and do it faster than ever before.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Have you seen the beautiful new book Shrouds of the Night:

http://www.springer.com/astronomy/practical+astronomy/book/978-0-387-78974-3

It would seem that Edwin Hubble got many of his ideas on how to classify galaxies from John Reynolds.

Hubble gets the credit and a space telescope named after him, while Reynolds remains a historical footnote.

May 1, 2009 at 7:48 AM

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