Stupendous Man Visits Palomar Observatory

Look! Up in the Sky! It's a bird. It's a plane. It's Stupendous Man!

Back in the day, the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes ruled the funny pages. The imagination of six-year old Calvin was unlimited.

Here are two days of comics, pulled from the collection Scientific Progress Goes "Boink" where Calvin, disguised at Stupendous Man, visits Palomar Observatory:

Be sure to click on each strip to enlarge.

Alas, the 200-inch telescope on Palomar Mountain (not Mount Palomar) does not have a giant lens. Like all modern research telescopes it uses a mirror to collect light. Of course Calvin can be forgiven. After all he is only six years old. Alas, a great many of our visitors ask about the lens even after we explain that it is all done with mirrors.

This just, perhaps, barely qualifies as another episode of Palomar in Science Fiction. Fear not, more episodes are on the way.