Palomar History Photo of the Week - January 11, 2010

Here is a drawing of the 200-inch dome by Russell W. Porter.
(Please note that the horizontal line in the sky left of the dome is a scanning artifact that I hope to remove soon.)

The drawing is new to me. The small transparency copy of the drawing was just found in a cache of other old images in storage here at the observatory. This cache represents another vast source of perhaps largely unknown images (Unlike this one almost all of them are actual photos).

The Porter drawing came in an envelope labeled:

"Palomar Observatory, sketched in crayon by R. W. Porter"

If is from early 1936. Porter signed it "R.W.P. '36", but the envelope says that is was copied Feb 13 1936.

To me the biggest surprises of the image is that the dome, which would soon be under construction still resembles the dome for the 100-inch telescope on Mt. Wilson and the fact that Porter drew a taxiway and runway out in front of the dome (click to read his labels). There was indeed an airstrip on the Palomar back during construction but I do not know where it was located.