High Flying Over Palomar

On warm days when the thermals are just right we often see a lot of gliders flying around the observatory. From time to time they pass close enough that you can actually hear them flying.

I guess that is why Pilot Getaways magazine was interested in featuring the observatory in an article on the local community Ramona, CA. That, and the fact that they had this amazing photo of a glider over the observatory:


That is a pretty awesome shot. You'll find it on the cover of the September/October issue of Pilot Getaways magazine.

Just underneath the tail of the glider is the dome of the 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope, our one million-gallon water tank, water tower and the Power House. Underneath and to the right of the tail is the Palomar Testbed Interferometer. To the right of that is the dome for the 200-inch Hale Telescope. In front of the Hale is the dome of the 24-inch telescope. Behind and a bit to the right of the Hale is the dome of the 18-inch Schmidt. The observatory's Outreach Center (where I am typing this) is just to the right of the pilots and the Cleveland National Forest's Palomar fire station is to the right of that.