Once again they again come from Lee Farnsworth.
The first shot shows a view of the dome for the 200-inch telescope taken while it was under construction. The photo was taken September 29, 1937.
This is a pretty nice, but typical, photograph showing dome construction. Notice the crane inside the dome what was used to lift the huge steel pieces into place.
The companion photo was taken by Mr. Farnsworth just nine days earlier. What is unique about this shot is that it was taken from inside, on the ground floor looking up at the dome structure and sky.
It is one of the very few such shots that I know of. The dark part on the sides is the ground floor ceiling and (from the other side) the observing floor. All of the parts for the telescope, which when these were taken would not arrive for another 13 months, came up through this opening.
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3 comments:
I'll assume that your aware of this photo by famous LIFE magazine photographer, Margeret Bourke-White:
http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Girders-Spanning-Space-in-Dome-Pattern-Construction-of-Palomar-Telescope-Mt-Wilson-Observatory-Posters_i4330944_.htm
Clearly I had forgotten about it. I think you can get a better version from the Google LIFE archive here: http://bit.ly/a71HPX
Yeah, that too. The Google LIFE archive.... of course.
That link was the first image I came across when I googled it, so that's what I posted.
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