Palomar Owl

Last month, just before sunrise after the first successful laser test for the 60-inch telescope's Robo-AO system, Christoph Baranec (Robo-AO's P.I.) spied and photographed this owl:

We do not know if this is the same owl who had been perching on our all-sky camera, but we are checking into it. Alas, a technical issue has delayed out all-sky camera from going public just yet.

We will let you know as soon as the all-sky camera is up for public display. In the meantime, enjoy this full-resolution look at the owl.


By the way, Christoph also took some great shots of the Robo-AO laser in action. Look for those to be posted here soon.

Giant Owls from Space Invade Palomar?

It only took about 5 days for an owl to decide that our new AllOwl-Sky Camera makes for a pretty good perch. Sigh.

The photo above is a 151 second exposure taken the night of the 14th. The owl didn't even have the good graces to hold still during the exposure so there are multiple images of the talons.

It seems that Palomar is not the first to have this kind of problem. Unfortunately our owl has been back and left "calling cards" on the glass dome of the camera. We need to both clean the lens and discourage the owl from perching there (or give it a place that is even better). Does anybody have any good ideas about that?

Look tomorrow for a short video of from the all-sky covering about 4 nights & days taken before the owl came to visit.

Rattlesnakes!

We have had quite a large number of rattlesnake sightings at the observatory the last two weeks or so. I have personally encountered two of them in the last two days.

The picture below shows the one I sighted about 11:00 a.m. today, just outside the observatory's front gate:


Visitors to the observatory may have noticed the signs that warn people not to venture out into the fields of ferns. That's because you would not be able to spot a rattlesnake until it was too late.

Remember, should you see a rattlesnake, leave it alone and put some distance between you and the snake.

Should someone get bitten call 911 immediately. Cell phones rarely work on Palomar, so you may need to head for the gift shop or flag down someone who works here.

Be careful out there.

Rawhide

People often ask me about the cattle guards and the cattle signs up on Palomar Mountain. They are often astonished to hear that there are real, live cows up here. Once in a while the evidence is obvious:

About twice a year the ranchers on Palomar Mountain put on a real cattle drive. The last one took place just about 2 weeks ago. I managed to miss it completely, but did see the after affects lying in the road to the observatory.

Thankfully, the folks at HPWREN captured the above image on their way home after a meeting with me and made it their Image of the Week for July 18, 2009.

Deer in the Ferns

Palomar Observatory is home to a great variety of wildlife. Like our visiting astronomers, many of the animals are nocturnal. Deer are very common, but usually only sighted during dusk and during the night.

Once in a while I seen them during the daytime, as I did earlier today:

Can you spot the deer in the ferns? There were actually two of them, but only one was visible when I took this photo. Here's a cropped version showing the one that was visible: