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.

Russell W. Porter's Palomar Art on Exhibit

Shown above is Russell Porter's 1939 drawing The Two Hundred Inch Telescope Looking Northwest. It is one of Porter's many fantastic visualizations of the 200-inch telescope project. Porter's work earned him the nickname "cutaway man" because many of his drawings featured cutaway views of the interior of the telescope and its many parts.

Now five of Porters original drawings (3 of the 200" and 2 of the 48"), including the one shown above, are on public exhibition for the first time. They are part of an exhibition at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA called "Tools".

From their website:

Objects on display are not sleek contemporary designs but rather belong to the worlds of contemporary art, science, and natural history, and can be simultaneously appreciated for their aesthetics and impact on human development, as well as for their utility. The resulting blurred boundaries are the intention of the exhibition's organizers.

The exhibition runs until January 10, 2010.

Swing. Swing. Swing.

In yesterday's post I showed some images of the old Cassegrain observing chair. Before that was realized there was another idea that resembled more of a swing. Here it is as depicted in a 1936 drawing by Russell W. Porter:

You can see this idea represented in my In The Year 1940 post and on this bread blotter:



Yes, that is the 200-inch telescope selling homogenized Bond bread. Apparently both of them are Modern Wonders. The Hale Telescope still is a Modern Wonder. All these years later the 200-inch telescope is still used each and every night (this week it has been used so far to study neutron stars, Kuiper Belt Objects, and Type Ia supernovae), is Bond bread still around?

Porter Garden Telescopes. As Seen on TV!

Back in the 1920s Russell Porter made a number (at least 53, but the exact number is unknown) of Garden Telescopes. There are several of them in the photo of Porter above. Porter's elegant design made them truly remarkable. Look at the right and you'll see one in an open box. At the bottom is the pivoting base which houses the 6-inch, f/4 mirror. There is no tube for the instrument. Instead the bar that extends up holds the secondary mirror and the eyepiece. The design makes it a classic item to display outside, a sundial and a working telescope.

Learn more about them here and see his patent for the design here.

If you have got the money, they are now being reproduced and sold again (but only 200 0f them) by Telescopes of Vermont. Visit their site for more information on these amazing reproductions. Below is a video on how it is done.



The telescope will be included in a segment of CBS Sunday Morning scheduled to air this Sunday, May 10.

UPDATE: CBS Sunday Morning sends this along:

CBS News Sunday Morning will show you the past and the future of telescopes starting with Galileo's heretical look up at the sky 400 years ago. Correspondent Martha Teichner interviewed astrophysicist Neil De Grasse Tyson of the Hayden Planetarium and astrophysicist Mario Livio of the Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute. She also talked to Fred and Russ Schleipman who have recreated the Porter Garden Telescope. You will find science and art, prose and poetry in this CBS News Sunday Morning story.

Russell Porter's Missing Sundial

Back in the 1970s a Sundial, made by Russell W. Porter, vanished from the Caltech campus. It remains missing. Read all about it here from the Caltech News and here from Sky & Telescope.

I will gladly kick in some bucks as reward money if it is returned.

Mystery Man

Later this month will be the 60th anniversary of the death of Russell W. Porter.


Here is Russell W. Porter (at right) during a visit to the construction site of the 200-inch telescope back in November, 1936.

Porter was a Renaissance man of immense talents. At Palomar he aided the design of the 200-inch telescope and its dome. He is perhaps best remembered for his detailed cut-away drawings of the telescope and its many parts. Most of these were done from blue prints long before the actual telescope was constructed.

One of his drawings shows a person in the prime focus cage, much like the photo of Edwin Hubble posted last week. Porter’s illustration was done nine years before Hubble’s first light trip.

Who it was the Porter rendered in the drawing above has long been a mystery to me. The coat and tie is very Hubbelesque, but the likeness certainly isn't Edwin Hubble.

Porter had a history of putting relevant people into his drawings, so it was likely someone connected with the project in some way. He put Bernard Schmidt into his drawing of the 48-inch telescope at Palomar. Schmidt invented the type of telescope (also called a Schmidt Camera) that bears his name, but he never visited Palomar.

So who is sitting at prime focus in Porter's illustration? Last fall a clue came in the mail. A wonderful bundle of photos and documents that used to belong to James "Jimmie" Fassero, author of Photographic Giants of Palomar. In it is a letter written by Porter where he is discussing observing at prime focus and the drawing above.

"The 'poor devil' you refer to at the prime focus is Burton, who designed the p.f. [prime focus] pedestal It's a pretty good likeness of him. I got him to pose for me."

Porter's letter reveals that the mystery man is Burton and that Burton designed the prime focus pedestal. I still do not have a first name, but checking the blue prints reveals that drawings of many of the parts there were approved by "WDB". Perhaps Burton himself.

If anyone knows Burton's full name or any other information about him, please send it my way.

Finally we recently had another discovery about Burton and Porter. Some of our docents were looking at some old photos on lantern slides when they found a photo of Burton posing as Porter described and drew above.

Here is Porter's drawing and Burton. Side by side.

As always, click to enlarge. The likeness is great ("pretty good" in Porter's words), but I think that Porter may have given him a bit more hair than the photo shows.

Back Home Again

Earlier this week I posted about a virtual model of the Hale Telescope. Let me now tell you about a real model.

When I started here there was an old model of the 200-inch telescope & its dome that had fallen on hard times. Look at the 2 pictures below and you'll see what I mean.




The dome was broken in numerous places, part of the inside catwalk had also broken, paint was missing here and the. The entire thing was covered in sawdust.

There are lots of models of the 200-inch telescope in the world, so it would be possible to find or even make another. But this model was built by Russell W. Porter in 1936.

Russell Porter as you may know had a huge role here at Palomar in the early days. He led the surveying team and decided what domes went where. He also figured the optics on the 18" Schmidt, Palomar's first operational telescope. Perhaps Porter's most famous works are the series of detailed cut-away drawings that he did of the 200-inch telescope.

These engineering drawings were made from blue prints, often before the actual parts were assembled. They were detailed enough to show the workers how parts were to fit together. These drawings are magnificent works of art in their own right

Porter's cut-away style is evident in the model, which has been lovingly restored by Robert Kline of Design Dynamics. Bob brought it back last Saturday and I must admit to being overjoyed at seeing the fine work he did.



I think you'll agree that it looks vastly better than the broken-down version above.