Good Times in Seattle

Thanks go out to the Seattle Astronomical Society (SAS) for having me up to speak last weekend at their annual banquet.

I think it was the only talk that I have ever given that had boats parked just outside the venue. Possibly they were there for me to make a quick escape if needed.


Fortunately the boats were not needed. The SAS took good care of me and everyone seemed to have a good time. They even had this sweet (in more ways than one) Palomar cake:

You can read a review of my talk here on Greg Scheiderer's nice Seattle Astronomy blog. Thanks for the nice words, Greg!

Out Giving Talks & A New Exhibit

Here are two pieces of news that are not for those local to Southern California.

Later this month I will be speaking about current research taking place at Palomar Observatory at the Seattle Astronomical Society's annual banquet. The talk will be on Sunday, January 30 and the details are on their website.

On Monday, January 10 the Rakow Research Library at the Corning Museum of Glass will be opening a new exhibit: Mirror to Discovery The 200-inch Disk and the Hale Reflecting Telescope at Palomar. The exhibit runs until October 30, 2011 - so there is plenty of time to plan your trip to see it. I will be heading to Corning, NY to see the exhibit as I am giving an invited talk there about Palomar Observatory on March 24. The date is one day short of the 77th anniversary of the casting of the first, failed, 200-inch disk. This gigantic piece of glass became the centerpiece for the museum and it still on display.

Hopefully some of the people who follow this blog, but are far from Palomar Observatory will be able to attend.

Astronomy Events in So Cal

If you are looking for something astronomical to do this weekend, look no farther than the Pacific Astronomy and Telescope Show in Pasadena. It should be two awesome days of astronomy-related goodness.


If two days of astronomy isn't enough for you, why not consider signing up for a short course on astronomy where you can learn to Think Like an Astronomer? It is only $40 and you get a telescope out of the deal. The details are below:

Hoaxes, Tours, Galileoscopes & More!

There is a lot to catch up on, but for now I'll post a few quick links to some things.

First up, it is August, so that means it is time for the Mars Hoax to rear its ugly head once again. NASA has just put out a story on it. This is the kind of thing that gets people excited about astronomy (a good thing), but then dashes their hopes (a bad thing). This year Mars will not be visible in the sky at all and will be about as far from Earth as it can get--making the story about as untrue as it can possibly be.

Don't forget that Julian Starfest takes place later this week. It should be a fun event and there is a free public star party taking place there Saturday, August 7th.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of hosting a 7th grade science teacher from Boston as she makes the trek to 12 observatories of the southwestern U.S. She is blogging about it, so go on over to check it out.

The photo at the top of this post was from earlier today, as a group of students from UCSD's COSMOS program got a tour of the 200-inch Hale Telescope. Don't forget that you can go on your own tour of the Hale on Saturdays & Sundays through October. Click here for the details.

Speaking of tours, for the last year or so we have been giving out one Galileoscope on each tour. Over 300 were given out. Many of the galileoscopes were given out in the memory of one of our docents, Fred Givant. Last weekend we gave out our last one. I'd like to take this moment to remember Fred and to thank the people who helped continue the program in his memory.

Fred, we still miss your enthusiasm and your dedication to public outreach.

Astronomy Events in So Cal

If you are in or near Southern California there are some pretty cool astronomy events headed your way.

First off is OPT's Southern California Astronomy Expo taking place this weekend and next. Follow the link for more information on the swap meet, barbecue, star party (at a special location), a raffle and more. There is an impressive list of events and prizes for this. So don't miss it.

For a smaller crowd and fewer prizes (okay, none), check out Explore the Stars taking place this weekend at the National Forest Service's Observatory Campground. If you can't make it the event this weekend it will be repeated August, September & October.

But that's not all! August brings the third annual Julian Starfest and September brings the Pacific Astronomy and Telescope Show (PATS) in Pasadena.

It is a great summer for astronomy. Go out and enjoy it.

Talk on the Thirty Meter Telescope at Palomar in June

Saturday, June 5 - Quest for the Best: Astronomy's Window on the Universe

Location may be important in real estate, but it's essential for astronomy, especially when the home you're building is for the world's most advanced and powerful telescope, the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). But how do you find the best and what makes one site better than another?

Join TMT scientist Tony Travouillon as he takes us to the high deserts of Chile, the mountains of Mexico, and 13,600 feet above the Pacific Ocean to the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii in search of the best possible window on the Universe. This quest for the stars was truly a 5-year mission in which Tony and his colleagues braved highly unusual and often harsh working conditions to gather as much data as possible about Earth's turbulent atmosphere so astronomers would be able to explore distant worlds, stars, and galaxies.


This event will be held June 5 at the Palomar Outreach Center. The evening begins at 5 p.m. with a tour of the grounds of the Palomar Observatory. The presentation begins at 7 p.m. Weather permitting, stay after the talk for a brief view of the night sky through some amateur telescopes. This is a free public lecture, but seating is limited. Call (760) 742-2131 or e-mail friendsofpalomar@astro.caltech.edu to make reservations.

Space Art on Exhibit in Borrego Springs

I haven't had the chance to see it in person but there is an exhibit of space art called "dark skies, luminous space" on display in Borrego Springs now through April 4.

More information is at the link above and at the artist's site deepspacepaintings.com.

Talk on Palomar

On Saturday March 13 at 11:00 a.m. I will be speaking at the San Diego Archaeological Center on the construction of Palomar's 200-inch telescope. I gave the talk last November, but since then we have had many new images come our way. The net result is that this time around I will be showing off many images that most people have never seen.

As an example of a nice shot, that likely will not make the final cut for my talk, here is a picture taken by Lee A. Farnsworth, Jr. that was scanned just yesterday:

Written on the back of the print; "Oct. 18, 1937 East side 200" dome." My problem in preparing my talk is that I have too much material.

We have many more pictures and the scanning continues.

Gearing Up

I am giving a talk on the construction history of the 200-inch Hale Telescope at 7 pm tomorrow (November 12) night at the Fallbrook Gem and Mineral Society. I am spending some time today scanning some old photos for the talk that very few people have seen. You might even say that I am "gearing up" for my talk.

Speaking of gears, that is a person with one of the 200-inch telescope's drive gears out on the observing floor. The photo was likely taken in 1939. This photo came from the collection of Lee A. Farnsworth, Jr.

Mt. Wilson Podcast & Lecture

Be sure to check out the new podcast over at The Universe in Mind. In their October 14th episode Hal McAllister, director of the Mt. Wison Instiute, talks about the recent Station Fire and how it threatened the observatory. Also on board is author Marcia Bartusiak. Marcia has written numerous works including the recent and very enjoyable book The Day We Found the Universe. In the podcast Marcia talks about Edwin Hubble and Mt. Wilson.

On October 25, Mt. Wilson Superintendent Dave Jurasevich (black shirt below) will present a free public lecture about his experiences during the Station Fire. The free talk will be held at 2:30 p.m. at the Altadena Library.

Remember, Mt. Wilson is still looking for donations to help them recover from the fire. Visit mtwilson.edu to learn more and make a donation.

Happy Birthday Susan!

Happy birthday to Susan V! Susan is a vital part of the outreach effort here at Palomar Observatory.

In honor of Susan's birthday, I give this vintage photo of a Palomar dome cake.

PATS Redux

A lot happened at PATS last weekend, this is just my first post on some of what took place.

On the evening before PATS began I got to speak to Dave Doody who works on the Cassini mission. He wasn't there to speak about Cassini, but rather Planet Trek. Planet Trek is to be a scale model solar system for the City of Pasadena. It is am ambitious plan, and they are still needing money to make it happen (anyone?), but it looks to be a great project where everything will be set to the same scale. That is very important because it is the only way for people to use to model to learn how vast the solar system is (of course it is tiny when compared to everything else!).

After learning about Planet Trek I went over to the gallery which was displaying photos from The World at Night project. If you haven't been to their website, block out a few hours of time and prepare to be amazed. Some of the work featured was captured by Wally Pacholka. That's Wally below. He was one of the speakers at PATS and from his booth you could buy reproductions of his amazing photographs.


The keynote speaker at PATS last weekend was former Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart. That's Rusty (in the yellow) when he stopped by our Palomar booth.


Rusty wasn't at PATS to retell the story of his spaceflight. He's got more exciting things to talk about. His talk was entitled: Prevent Impacts? Yes we can. He is very much aware of the damage that an asteroid impact could inflict on civilization and as such he is involved in the B612 Foundation which wants to demonstrate our ability to alter, in a controlled fashion, the orbit of a near-Earth asteroid.

It is an ambitious, but perhaps someday, necessary program. Be sure to follow the link to the B612 Foundation to learn more about it.

PATS is this Weekend

The Pacific Astronomy and Telescope Show hits Pasadena, CA this weekend (Sept. 26-27) and Palomar Observatory will be on hand. If you attend, you might want to stop on by and say "hi". We will have a booth and I'll be giving a talk at 10 am on Saturday.

Forest, Fire & Fun

This week the Cleveland National Forest raised their fire restriction level to Extreme. The forest on Palomar is very dry, so be careful out there.

Distant fires, like the 144,000 acre Station Fire, have taken their toll not only on the lands they have burned and the observatories threatened (By the way, things are still looking up for Mt. Wilson) in the San Gabriel Mountains, but they have been hitting Palomar Observatory from afar. Drifting smoke and falling ash have kept our domes closed for a week now.

You can help combat fires by eating and having fun (no, really) at the Palomar Mountain Volunteer Fire Department's annual fund-raising barbecue which is tomorrow. Details are below:

Stories & Stars in Hemet, CA

Tomorrow evening I will be giving a talk on research taking place at Palomar Observatory for Stories and Stars taking place at the Western Center for Archaeology and Paleontology in Hemet, CA. The good folks from the Riverside Astronomical Society will be there with telescopes to give everyone views of Jupiter, the Moon & more!

You can read a news story about the event here.

Ride the Dome

Here's some video that was posted to YouTube by someone who attended one of our recent evening tours run through the Ruben H. Fleet Space Center. You can see part of the tour from the observing floor under the Hale Telescope and experience the thrill of riding the big dome during a rotation.



We have only one more of these tours for the season and I think that it is already sold out.

Palomar Mountain Volunteer Fire Department Barbecue

Mark your calendars for Saturday, September 5 as the Palomar Mountain Volunteer Fire Department will be holding its annual fund-raising barbecue. Details are on the flyer below:


Of course if you are looking for astronomical fun don't forget that the Julian Starfest begins tonight and runs through through Sunday.

See the Planets & More!

In a recent comment an older post someone was asking about how to find what planets are up and where to look for them. Remember not to fall for the Mars Hoax, but there are cool planets and things to see in the night sky right now.


Sky & Telescope Magazine's This Week's Sky at a Glance provides a great summary of cool stuff to look for each week. Another option is to get a desktop planetarium program for your computer or hand-held device. Stellarium is a great free open source program for your Mac or PC.

Another great option is to head out to a star party and look through some telescopes. It is the International Year of Astronomy, so you owe it to yourself to go out and do some stargazing. Some of the options for the San Diego area are described in an article in today's San Diego Union Tribune. This is a busy time for star parties and events. I have a few of my favorites listed below.

The Temecula Valley Astronomers are putting on a star party in Wildomar's Marna O'Brien Park on Saturday August 15.

Explore the Stars is August 14 & 15.

The biggest event of them all is Julian Starfest which takes place August 21 - 23 with a free public star party on August 22nd. Visit their website for more information.

I will be appearing at Stories and Stars at the Western Center for Archeology & Paleontology in Hemet, CA on August 29th.

If you are wanting to visit Palomar Observatory in the evening, we have two programs where that it is occasionally possible. One through the Ruben H. Fleet Science Center and the other through the Friends of Palomar Observatory.

Explore the Stars this Weekend

You can Explore the Stars tonight & tomorrow night on Palomar Mountain from the Cleveland National Forest Service's Observatory Campground (named for Palomar Observatory, but not actually at the observatory).

Lots of amateur astronomers will be setting up telescopes and the views should be great.

Astro Events this Weekend: IYA visits Pasadena & More!

The public is invited to celebrate the International Year of Astronomy 2009 at the Pasadena Convention Center on June 6. The event includes a variety of fun, family-oriented, hands-on activities and exhibit booths, such as a telescope for observing the sun and a 100-foot scale model of our solar system. Special indoor presentations will be made using a portable planetarium and a digital data immersion environment from the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. The event is presented by organizations attending the subsequent summer meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

A stargazing party will follow that evening. Saturn, in particular, will be well positioned for viewing. Small telescopes will be provided by the Old Town Sidewalk Astronomers.

WHEN: Saturday, June 6, from 4 to 8 p.m., followed by a stargazing party ending around 9:30 p.m. The telescope viewing and some of the afternoon outdoor activities are subject to weather conditions.

WHERE: Pasadena Convention Center, 300 E. Green St. in Pasadena. Phone number: (626) 793-2122. Driving directions and parking information are available online here. A street map posted on that site includes a rose and purple background, which indicates where the outdoor astronomy activities and bazaar will be held.

More information about the event is online at http://astronomy2009.us/newscenter/.

If that isn't enough the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center will present a cool astronomy talk and book signing this weekend. Author Evalyn Gates will present "Einstein’s Telescope: The Hunt for Dark Matter and Dark Energy" on Sunday, June 7 at 1:00 p.m.