Astrophoto Friday: Spiral Galaxy NGC 7217

This week we have another vintage photo for Astrophoto Friday. It is a picture of a spiral galaxy known as NGC 7217 that was taken with the 200-inch Hale Telescope by Edwin Hubble the night of October 13, 1950.

NGC 7217 is located about 50 million light years distant in the direction of the constellation of Pegasus.

Beautiful Nighttime Time-Lapse Movies

If you have a few minutes to spare in your day you might want to check out the video embedded below:

Timescapes Timelapse: Mountain Light from Tom Lowe @ Timescapes on Vimeo.

If you have a few more minutes, check out Tom Lowe's other videos on his Timescapes page on Vimeo. It is wonderful stuff.

Palomar History Photo of the Week - April 26, 2010

This week's Palomar Observatory History Photo of the Week is a few days late, so to help make up for that I present two photos from the Caltech optical shop.

Both photos come from the collection of pictures donated by optician Blake Mitchell.

Here is Blake's description for the top photo:

"Bob, Mel & Blake, the living tool-pressing weights."

He gives a more detailed description for the second photo:

"Standing was tiring so we sat down for 30 minutes to press the 68-inch polishing tool into perfect contact with the 200-inch mirror."


From left to right in both pictures is Bob (Robert) George Smith, Melvin Johnson and Blake Mitchell.

Note that the center plug is in place in these photos. The center plug was used during the grinding and polishing work on the mirror and is now on display at Griffith Observatory.

I don't have firm date on the photos, but I believe that they were taken sometime after work on the 200-inch mirror resumed after the conclusion of World War II.

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.

Meet Me at the Corner visits Palomar Observatory

Last year Meet Me at the Corner, a website that offers virtual field trips for kids visited me at Palomar Observatory. The video is available on their website and is embedded below.



Since they shot the interview with me the price of a Galileoscope has gone up.They are now $30 each (unless you buy a bunch of them) plus shipping, which is still a bargain.

Delayed History

My usual Palomar History Photo of the week is normally posted on Monday mornings. Unfortunately it will not appear until later in the week. Sorry about that.

Open Again

Palomar Observatory is open and back to regular visiting hours.

Shoveling Snow from the Dome

The dome of the Hale Telescope is 135-feet high. From this wide shot you can't easily notice the people on it, can you?


A zoom lens brings them nicely into focus as the crew shovels snow off of the dome:




It is hard work, but somebody has got to do it.

Closed Today. Tomorrow?

Palomar Observatory will likely be closed for all or most of Friday as we still have dangerous amounts of snow and ice on the compound and on the 135-foot high dome of the 200-inch telescope.

Work will continue throughout the day on snow and ice removal in the public areas and on the domes.

Right it is looking like we will be open for the weekend. I will post a confirmation when it is certain one way or the other.

Astrophoto Friday: the First Brown Dwarf

A brown dwarf is an object that is more massive than a planet like Jupiter, but not massive enough to undergo sustained nuclear fusion like a star. For many years they existed only in theory, as they had not been found in nature.

All of that changed in 1994 when a team of astronomers using Palomar's 60-inch telescope (armed with an early form of adaptive optics) captured the first image of one:


The big blob in the image is a dwarf star known as Gliese 229. The smaller blob to the right is Gliese 229B, the first brown dwarf discovered. The discovery was confirmed just over a year later by the Hubble Space Telescope.