Astrophoto Friday: Bonus Palomar in Science Fiction Edition!

Here are a couple of classic Palomar images from the early days of color astrophotography.

The Andromeda Galaxy (aka M31) as photographed with the 48-inch Schmidt telescope (now called the Samuel Oschin Telescope).


The Ring Nebula (aka M57), a planetary nebula in the constellation of Lyra as photographed by the 200-inch Hale Telescope.

Both of these images were part of a 1959 article in LIFE magazine, The Hues of Heaven, that showed off the first ever color astrophotos. These and other images from Palomar, were inspirational to people like me. They also worked their way into popular culture. My favorite example is that they were used as set dressing for the bridge of the Starship Enterprise in the first season of the original series of Star Trek. The shot below shows M31, M57, Lt. Uhura and Mr. Spock from the episode, The Naked Time (By the way, it is a pretty good episode and you can watch it here.).

In their day these photos were revolutionary and looked futuristic enough to have them displayed on the bridge of the Enterprise. Times have changed. We have moved on to doing things like imaging exoplanets. The big, familiar objects like the ones shown above can now be easily by amateur astronomers with off of the shelf equipment.

In another 44 years what kinds of images will professional and amateur astronomers be able to take?

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.

Palomar in Science Fiction - Kronos

I just had the opportunity to watch the 1957 sci-fi movie Kronos and was pleased to learn that it is another of the many films that have featured Palomar Observatory.

In the movie the astronomers, working at LabCentral, are tracking a 4-mile wide "asteroid" known as M47 (not to be confused with the star cluster of the same name), which is apparently headed directly for, you guessed it, Earth.

Early on we see LabCentral from the outside, the dome look a bit like the 200-inch at Palomar, but not too much, as we are lacking the other buildings, the security guard station, etc.


Further observations and analysis determines that "asteroid" M47 will hit near New York and we get to see Palomar's 200-inch Hale Telescope.



Of course in the film it isn't Palomar, its LabCentral. Palomar does get named though as astronomer Dr. Gaskell mentions that he needs to phone professor Winter at Palomar to get verification of the position of M47.

The gang at LabCentral launch 3 nuclear missiles to destroy M47 in our upper atmosphere (that might even be worse than letting it hit), but alas the mysterious object absorbs the nuclear energy and lands in the Pacific Ocean off of the coast of Mexico (no where near New York).

What emerges is a giant, um robot, dubbed Kronos.


The still image doesn't do Kronos justice. Check out the trailer for the film embedded below and you'll see what I mean.




Yes, the movie is cheesy, but it is fun and surprisingly good in places.

p.s. This is my 500th post on this blog and I am wishing a Happy New Year to all the readers of Palomar Skies!

Palomar in Science Fiction - Destination Moon

Destination Moon is a science fiction film from 1950 about the first trip to the Moon. While Palomar Observatory isn't shown in the film, it is mentioned. Have a look at this clip below:

Yes, "The astronomers at Palomar say they can see you if they knew where to point the Big Eye."

Nope, that isn't possible. Even using adaptive optics, which removes blurring caused by Earth's atmosphere, the best resolution we can get is about 200 meters per pixel. That's about what we got when we took a good look at the Moon last October as NASA's LCROSS probe crashed into the crater Cabeus:


So if Spaceship Luna (or its shadow), was a few football fields long we would just be able to distinguish something with modern instrumentation. Alas, Spaceship Luna wasn't portrayed as being that big, so technical adviser Robert A. Heinlein didn't quite get it right. (Still, it is a cool film.)

I bring this up because I am often asked if we look at the artifacts left on the Moon by the Apollo astronauts. As with Spaceship Luna, they are too small to be seen from Earth-based telescopes. That isn't true from the vantage point of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has returned images of the Apollo landing sites (for an example see High Noon at Tranquility Base).

On that same vein I am also often asked if we look at the International Space Station. It turns out that the ISS is an easy target and amateur astronomers have taken some amazing images of it (for an example see the shots posted at spaceweather.com).

Yet we don't take any time from our nights to look at the ISS. Why? The Hale Telescope was built not to look at the places and things we already know about. It was built to study the unknown.

Palomar in Science Fiction - Gumby Edition

Gumby? That's right. Gumby.

I don't imagine that there is much of Gumby on TV these days, but the entire Gumby Saga is
available on DVD and it contains some pretty interesting stuff. The very first episode of Gumby dates from 1956 and certainly qualifies as science fiction. In that episode Gumby takes a trip to the Moon --13 years before Neal & Buzz went there.


In the inaugural episode Gumby uses a toy of the Hale Telescope. Here's a short clip from the beginning of the episode that shows Gumby looking through the toy telescope.

It is a pretty cool toy, a "Mt. Palomar Telescope" made by St. Pierre & Patterson Mfg., Co, North Hollywood, Calif. As near as I can tell these were sold in the 50s & 60s. From time to time you can find one on eBay. I have a couple of these toy telescopes in my collection. I will devote a future post to these cool toy telescopes.

After Gumby looks at the Moon he rides in a toy spaceship to the Moon there he meets aliens and ultimately gets stuck there. Thankfully his parents use the toy telescope to see Gumby there (That first view of the Moon has to be rescued by his parents.

Gumby! He was once a little green slab of clay. Gumby! You should see what Gumby can do today. Gumby! He can walk into any book, with his pony pal Pokey, too. If you've got a heart then Gumby's a part of you.

Palomar in Science Fiction - Adventures of Superman

I was pretty excited when I first read that an episode of the 1950s TV series Adventures of Superman featured Palomar Observatory. Alas, there was no on-location filming here, but there is a bit of stock footage of the exterior of the Hale Telescope's dome that appears multiple times in the 1953 episode "Panic in the Sky".

It is a pretty good episode. A five-mile wide asteroid is threatening Metropolis (presumably the rest of the planet too) and Superman is the only one who can do something about it.

Here is the Palomar dome as it appears in the show:

The telescope inside is less than impressive when compared to the 200":


There are two things that I really like about this episode. After the astronomer makes his observations, he says that Superman's eyes would probably do a better job than the telescope. If so, then why has Superman been withholding his supervision from astronomical research for all these years?

The real gem is this:

Superman: It's stopped moving now.
Professor: You can't see it move because now it is heading straight toward us.
Superman: Straight? Straight toward Metropolis?!
Professor: [nods]
Superman: Excuse me professor. I've got a date in outer space.

The professor warns that the unknown composition of the asteroid may endanger Superman. I will leave it up to you to watch the episode to see what happens. You can buy the episode directly from iTunes and full seasons of the show are available on DVD.

Star Trek: The Next Generation Visits Palomar

Last week a new release of the Star Trek the Next Generation movies came out in a boxed set on DVD and Blu-Ray. I am not normally in the business of informing my readers of new home video releases, but this one has Palomar Observatory in one of the bonus features.

On the disc for Star Trek Generations is a bonus feature for both the DVD and Blu-Ray releases called Stellar Cartography On Earth.

The feature is just over seven and a half minutes long and it makes the comparison between the stellar cartography room seen in Star Trek Generations (below) and modern reality.

The piece talks a bit about exoplanets, NASA's Great Observatories, Kepler, the proposed Terrestrial Planet Finder mission and Palomar Observatory.

It features Amy Mainzer (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, JPL), Charles Beichman (Michelson Science Center, Caltech, JPL), Michael Werner (Spitzer Space Telescope, JPL) and um. . . me.

They almost got the spelling of my name right (I x-ed out the extra "L" on the screen grab). It was fun to have them visit the observatory last February and to know that Palomar Observatory is now a very small part of the Star Trek universe.

Palomar in Science Fiction - Super Friends Edition

When Superman needs a big mirror to save the day, where would he go? Click on the movie below to find out in this clip from the Super Friends.

OK, this one is a bit of a stretch as the Super Friends are very much fantasy an not so much science fiction, but I just had to post this. They pretty much got everything wrong about Palomar except for the fact that we have a mirror 200-inches across. But, hey, it's just a cartoon, right?

You might recognize the voice of the narrator. That's Ted Knight, which to me was better known as news anchor Ted Baxter from the Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Palomar Observatory was featured in a filmed version of Superman too. More on that later.

Palomar in Science Fiction - V

Hey, its August (OK, its been August for a while already.), so I thought I would give you a classic Palomar magazine cover from the August, 1962 issue of Analog:

That's the Orion Nebula (M42) as photographed by the 200-inch Hale Telescope in 1959. I haven't seen the inside, so I don't know if "SPACE IS NOT BLACK" is an article on the inside or just a caption for the photo.

The Orion Nebula is a pretty interesting place as the nebula is in the process of forming an impressive star cluster. All of that is revealed when you examine it in the infrared. Compare the image on the magazine cover above with this modern near-infrared image of the Orion Nebula also taken with the Hale:


The infrared view can look into the nebula, revealing the cluster within. It doesn't look much like the first picture, does it?

By the way Analog Science Fiction and Fact has been around for quite a while and it still around today.

Yes, I realize that this makes for a pretty weak installment of Palomar in Science Fiction (maybe it should have been Palomar on Science Fiction). I have got some way cool things in the wings for future Palomar in Science Fiction posts. Stay tuned.

Palomar in Science Fiction - IV

The 1951 sci-fi disaster movie When Worlds Collide offers up the end of the Earth. In it a star with a planet of its own hurls into the solar system bringing our planet to its doom.

In the film the discovery is made at the Mt. Kenna Observatory in South Africa. Have a look at the Mt. Kenna Observatory. Does it look familiar to you?


Clearly both of the matt paintings were based on the 200-inch Hale Telescope at Palomar.

Here's a short clip for you:

The movie is available on DVD. If you watch you'll also see a background painting showing the 100-inch Hooker Telescope on Mt. Wilson.

Palomar in Science Fiction - III

Today I bring you the Thanksgiving version of Palomar in Science Fiction. Well, sort of. Have a look at this.



Yes, it is a Bugs Bunny and Marvin the Martian in the cartoon known as Hasty Hare. Just watch it before you read any more. OK?



About 5:40 the cartoon really takes off as far as I am concerned. Bugs drops anchor from the spaceship and all sorts of mayhem ensues.

You wont see the "Palomar" reference until a little later (6:19) as an observatory comes into view. The observatory looks a lot like Mt. Wilson. Wouldn't you agree?

Here's the cartoon version:
And the real thing:

That's much more than a passing resemblance. It looks to me like the artist used Mt. Wilson as the subject for the cartoon.

Finally, here's the observatory with the various astronomical objects that Bugs has managed to drag along.
The Palomar reference (and the admittedly weak Thanksgiving reference, well it is more to do with turkeys) comes at the end when the observatory's director, I. Frisky Frisby, resigns. Notice the stationary:
Yes, it is the Shalomar Observatory. The cartoon was released in 1951 just a few years after the Hale Telescope at Palomar became the world's largest telescope.

As far as I know no employee of the Palomar Observatory has ever resigned to take up turkey farming - yet.

UPDATE: Commenter Anonymous points out that it was actually I. Frisby who signed the letter (I must need to get my glasses checked) and that the astronomer is a caricature of Warner Brothers animator Fritz Freleng.

Judging by the number of comments & emails I have received on this post I would say that I need to have more cartoon astronomy posts in the future.

Palomar in Science Fiction - II

"Hurtle toward the far reaches of the universe with the
space vikings of the future!"

How can you pass on a tag line like that? Riders to the Stars (1954) is another science fiction film that features Palomar Observatory.

The basic premise is that there's important material in meteors that gets destroyed when they pass through Earth's atmosphere. So to get it, you've got to go up there and catch 'em. That's where Palomar comes in - tracking the meteors so that the, um, space vikings (which I take to mean explorers) come in.

If you watch the video below, you'll notice that the Palomar footage looks exactly the same as the footage from Rocketship X-M in my first Palomar in Science Fiction post.

Both Rocketship X-M and Riders to the Stars got their footage from The Big Eye Space Telescope, a seven-minute 1948 (newsreel?) documentary film made about the observatory.

For your viewing pleasure I have edited down The Big Eye Space Telescope to show the same clips as seen in Riders above.

Perhaps the use of the same video several times represents the 1950s version of a video going viral.

Palomar in Science Fiction - I

Thanks to Palomar Skies reader George S. for pointing out to me that the Palomar Observatory was featured in Rocketship X-M, a SciFi movie from 1950. The movie stars a very young looking Lloyd Bridges as one of the pilot of the rocket. Hugh O'Brian who plays Harry Chamberlain - an astronomer of the Mt. Wilson and Palomar Observatories.

In the film a crew of five takes off on the first voyage into space with the Moon as their destination. Somehow they end up off course and make it to Mars. Curiously enough as the rocketship decends to Mars the landscape does bear a resemlance to the real Red Planet. Craters and a dry riverbed can be seen.


Of course any hint of the real Mars is blown away as the intrepid explorers are greeted by a thunderstorm as they touchdown on the Martian surface.

Here is a video clip of the Palomar 200-inch telescope in Rocketship X-M.

The Palomar Observatory has appeared in other science fiction movies (and in novels too!). I'll post some clips from other movies in the near future, but if you know of any science fiction films that show the observatory please send me an email or post them in the comments. Thanks!