Palomar Skies

A Work of Art - II

2009-07-11T11:54:00.000-07:00

Back in late May I posted about Mark Peiser's glass art based on Palomar's 200-inch mirror.

I just had some questions come my way concerning his work, so I thought I would post some photos of another piece. It's called Section 1, Detail 1 and was purchased by the Museum of Art and Design (MUDAC) in Lausanne, Switzerland.

I think that this piece really captures the flavor of our mirror's honeycombed underside. You can read more about Mark's project here from the Glass Quarterly blog and you can find Mark's website here.

Galileo, Neptune & Palomar

2009-07-10T09:52:00.000-07:00

Neptune imaged in 2006 with the Hale Telescope & adaptive optics by Don Banfield of Cornell University

There are some stories in the news this week about the fact that Galileo spotted Neptune back in 1613. I didn't think that this was news. Former Palomar astronomer Charles Kowal made that discovery thirty years ago.

You can read his paper on this here and see that he and Stillman Drake published this in Nature back in 1980. Thanks to Palomar Skies commenter Anonymous for prodding me to post this for all.

Oscar Mayer & Palomar Observatory

2009-07-10T08:15:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week I learned of the passing of Oscar G. Mayer, of meat-processing fame. I was a bit confused as I confess that I had already thought that Oscar G. Mayer had passed years ago. Why? Because at Palomar Observatory our 60-inch telescope resides in the Oscar G. Mayer Memorial Building. Here is the plaque that is inside the building:

As it turns out our building is named for Oscar G. Mayer, Sr. who passed in 1965. It was the younger Oscar G. Mayer who died this week.

Here is a short obituary from Google News:

Oscar Mayer
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Oscar G. Mayer, retired chairman of the Wisconsin-based meat processing company that bears his name, died Monday. He was 95.
Mayer died of old age at Hospice Care in Fitchburg, said his wife, Geraldine.
He was the third Oscar Mayer in the family that founded Oscar Mayer Foods, which was once the largest private employer in Madison. His grandfather, Oscar F. Mayer, died in 1955 and his father, Oscar G. Mayer Sr., died in 1965.
Mayer retired as chairman of the board in 1977 at age 62 soon after the company recorded its first $1 billion year. The company was later sold to General Foods and is now a business unit of Kraft.

Our condolences go out to the Mayer family. The 60-inch telescope continues to generate impressive results. All these years later we still very much appreciate the Mayer Family's gift to astronomy. Here is the Oscar G. Mayer Memorial Building:

And the Hot Wheels version of the famed Oscar Mayer Weinermobile that resides on my desk:

There's No Place Like Dome

2009-07-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

A week ago, I was waiting around at the observatory's visitor center to meet a reporter (who incidentally didn't show up) when I happened to meet a group of people with some amazing connections to the observatory.

I had no idea when I met them that they had ties to Corning Glass Works, James "Jimmie" Fassero (Author of The Photographic Giants of Palomar), 1930's Palomar plumber Thomas Young, and to the construction of our big dome. As the conversation went on I became more amazed. One of the ladies mentioned that she and her sister had even been here at the observatory and had their photo taken with the dome while it was under construction. Wow!

Thankfully, Betty and Ethel were kind enough to share that photo with me and have allowed me to share it with you.
That's Betty Dixon on the left and Ethel Dixon on the right. The photo was taken by their father Ralph E. Dixon, an Escondido citrus rancher.

For me this photo is unique of all the dome construction photos that I have ever seen at Palomar. It is not that I haven't seen people posing with the dome before. That's been going on since construction began in 1936.

To prove it, here's Edwin Hubble posed with the dome in ~~1936~~ 1937:

Photo from the Journal of San Diego History

Note the Betty & Ethel had their photo taken with the dome before Edwin Hubble did. (Of course, Dr. Hubble did make sure the camera got his good side.)

I have also seen many unidentified people posing in front of the dome. Here is an example of a nice group photo from the past (possibly 1938):

The picture is one the photos of Thomas R. Young that were donated to the observatory in 2005. I love this photo, but I have no idea who any of the people are.

What makes the photo of Betty and Ethel so special for me is that they are the only people who I have actually met who were here to witness the event and have had their picture taken with the dome in the background. (For the sake of total disclosure, I have met Thomas Young's son, Hugh, and I do have a construction-era photo of him taken during construction from inside the dome.)

No one else is going to have the chance to have their photo taken in the same way the Betty & Ethel did, but the tradition of having your picture taken in front of the dome continues and has now spanned 73 years. On your next visit, be sure to have your picture taken here. Remember, we want everyone to have a chance to get into the shot. That's why we installed camera posts earlier this year.

In Case of Emergency . . .

2009-07-08T10:43:00.000-07:00

What's that hanging on the wall of the 200-inch Hale Telescope's Data Room between the video monitor and the white board?

It is a Galileoscope!

Deer in the Ferns

2009-07-08T09:56:00.001-07:00

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:

And the Winning Thesis is . . . . .

2009-07-07T13:16:00.000-07:00

I just learned that the Astronomical Society of the Pacific is presenting their 2009 Robert J. Trumpler Award to Kevin Bundy. The Robert J. Trumpler Award is given each year to a recent recipient of the PhD degree in North America whose research is considered unusually important to astronomy.

From the ASP:

In his Caltech thesis, Dr. Bundy used observations with the Wide Field Infrared Camera (WIRC) at Palomar Observatory to quantify the galactic process called "downsizing," in which the sites of active star formation shift from high-mass galaxies early in the history of the universe to lower mass galaxies as time goes on. His study indicated that there is a galaxy mass limit beyond which some mechanism inhibits star formation so that massive galaxies become quiescent. Bundy's analysis of the evolution of the star formation rates and of galaxy morphology has been widely cited and is considered an important constraint on theories of early galaxy formation.

Congratulations Dr. Bundy! He is currently continuing his research at UC Berkeley.

Here is an image on edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 891 that Kevin helped obtain a few years ago using the Hale Telescope's Wide-field Infrared Camera (WIRC). It is a composite image from Palomar (Bundy) and the 10-meter W.M. Keck Observatory (Patrick Shopbell and Judy Cohen). Yellow colors in this composite correspond to the near-infrared image which was obtained at Palomar. The blue colors correspond to the visible light image which was obtained at Keck.

Ferns, Dome & Sky

2009-07-07T07:53:00.000-07:00

Here's a nice shot of the Hale Telescope's dome taken last month. It was sent in to me by a recent visitor, Angela from Baja California, Mexico.

Gracias Angela!

Fred Givant: 1943 - 2009

2009-07-06T13:00:00.000-07:00

I have the sad task of announcing that Fred Givant, one of the Palomar Observatory’s docents, passed away on Sunday June 28.

We only had the pleasure of knowing Fred for just a year and a half, but he certainly left his mark on the outreach program. Fred felt passionately about the observatory and especially the need to educate young people about science. He backed up that passion with frequent visits to the observatory to help with our public outreach program.

In spite of the fact that Fred had a fulltime job (working as a risk manager for a company building the next generation of GPS satellites) he was very committed to making the trek to Palomar Mountain to volunteer much of his limited free time. It has been a record-breaking year for tours at the observatory and Fred was a big part of that. He was volunteering here three of the four weekends in June and four of the five in May!

The staff and docents of the observatory will miss Fred’s enthusiasm and dedication.

A memorial service for Fred will be held on July 10 at the Miller-Jones Mortuary in Sun City, CA. Fred’s wife Carole has asked that instead of flowers donations be made to Palomar Observatory.

Anyone wishing to make a donation can send it to:

Palomar Observatory
Fred Givant Fund
P.O. Box 200
Palomar Mountain, CA 92060

100% of the donations to the fund will be used to help kids to learn about astronomy. Fred would have wanted it that way.

Here's a docent group photo from last year. Fred is second from the left.

Anniversary of Newton's Principia

2009-07-05T11:07:00.000-07:00

Perhaps the most important book in science, Isaac Newton's Principia was published on this date (July 5) in 1687.

The folks over at Jodrell Bank have a nice video celebration of Isaac Newton and Principia in their latest Jodcast.

If you are looking for a good read on Sir Isaac Newton, you might try the book I am currently reading, Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World's Greatest Scientist by Thomas Levenson.

To tie this all back to Palomar (after all that's what this blog is about) here is Palomar's 200-inch mirror with the crew of opticians who ground and polished the glass. In the center of the disc is a full-sized replica of the first reflecting telescope ever built, constructed by Sir Isaac Newton in 1671.

Galileoscopes: Delivered!

2009-07-04T10:30:00.001-07:00

Check it out, our Order of Galileoscopes has arrived!

Hopefully I'll have a real review of them posted in the next week or so.

4th of July Fireworks in 1054 A.D.

2009-07-04T08:47:00.000-07:00

Some people are going to experience some big Independence Day fireworks shows tonight. None of them will rival the one that the Chinese saw on July 4, 1054 A.D. They witnessed the explosive (supernova) death of a massive star. The "guest star" that they saw was so bright that it became visible in the daytime for 23 days and at night it cast shadows!

The remnant of this colossal event is now known as the Crab Nebula(also called as M1 and NGC 1952).

Hundreds of years after the event was seen observations by Mt. Wilson/Palomar astronomer Walter Baade helped to tie the nebula to the eyewitness reports from the Chinese astronomers.

In honor of the 955th anniversary of the supernova being seen on Earth I give you 2 photos of the Crab Nebula.

This first image is a vintage (possibly 1959) photo from the 200-inch Hale Telescope.

Contrasting the vintage shot is a modern image, again taken using the Hale Telescope.

The modern image looks pretty different, that mostly because it was taken in near infrared light. So the colors seen in the image are not at all what your eyes would see because your eyes can't see into the near infrared.

The Crab Nebula is located approximately 6,300 light years away. It is some 10 light years across and is expanding at about 1,800 km/sec.

At the heart of the nebula lies the Crab Nebula pulsar. The pulsar is neutron star that spins 30 times per second. It is heavier than our Sun but only about 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) across! That makes the diameter of the pulsar a little bigger than the length of Palomar Mountain, yet it weighs more than the Sun.

The pulsar is arrowed in the zoomed version below.

Palomar Skies on twitter (finally)

2009-07-03T13:33:00.000-07:00

Palomar Skies is finally on twitter.

Three Cheers for the Red, White & Blue

2009-07-02T08:02:00.001-07:00

It is nearly Independence Day, so (here in the U.S. anyway) it is time to show off patriotic colors.

To celebrate here's a vintage shot of the Trifid Nebula (M20) as shot from the 200-inch Hale Telescope:

The reddish portions are ionized light from an emission nebula and the blue is from reflection nebula (starlight scattering off of dust).

I am reasonably sure that this shot was from 1961. Imaging at the professional and amateur levels has leaped far beyond what could be done by anyone 40-50 years ago.

Supernova Remnant W49B

2009-06-26T12:28:00.000-07:00

(Credit: Caltech/SSC/J.Rho and T. Jarrett)

This is from a couple of years ago but I felt like posting an astrophoto today, so this is what you get. The image above shows a supernova remnant known as W49B.

It is a composite image taken by the orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory and the 200-inch Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory. It is a false-color combination of X-ray (blue) and near-infrared (red and green) light. The image is 5.7 arcmin on each side.

It is images such as this one that really highlight how ground-based and orbiting telescopes work hand in hand for astronomers as they attempt to unravel the secrets of the universe.

Here's what the Chandra website has to say about the image:

supernova remnant W49B reveals a barrel-shaped nebula consisting of bright infrared rings around a glowing bar of intense X-radiation along the axis.The X-rays in the bar are produced by 15 million degree Celsius gas that is rich in iron and nickel ions. At the ends of the barrel, the X-ray emission flares out to make a hot cap. The X-ray cap is surrounded by a flattened cloud of hydrogen molecules detected in the infrared. These features indicate that jets of hot gas produced in the supernova have encountered a large, dense cloud of gas and dust.

The following sequence of events has been suggested to account for the X-ray and infrared data: A massive star formed from a dense cloud of dust and gas, shone brightly for a few million years while spinning off rings of gas and pushing them away to form a nearly empty cavity around the star. The star then exhausted its nuclear fuel and its core collapsed to form a black hole. Much of the gas around the black hole was pulled into it, but some, including material rich in iron and nickel was flung away in oppositely directed jets of gas traveling near the speed of light. When the jet hit the dense cloud surrounding the star, it flared out and drove a shock wave into the cloud.

An observer aligned with one these jets would have seen a gamma-ray burst, a blinding flash in which the concentrated power equals that of ten quadrillion Suns for a minute or so. The view perpendicular to the jets would be a less astonishing, although nonetheless spectacular supernova explosion. For W49B, the jet is tilted out of the plane of the sky by about 20 degrees, but the remains of the jet are visible as a hot X-ray emitting bar of gas.

W49B is about 35 thousand light years away, whereas the nearest known gamma-ray burst to Earth is several million light years away - most are billions of light years distant. If confirmed, the discovery of a relatively nearby remnant of a gamma-ray burst would give scientists an excellent opportunity to study the aftermath of one of nature's most violent explosions.

The infrared data was observed with the 200-inch Hale Telescope's Wide-field Infrared Camera (WIRC). The individual frames, in very high resolution) from Palomar and Chandra can be found here.

Explore the Stars this Weekend

2009-06-26T10:36:00.001-07:00

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.

Palomar Transient Factory Podcast

2009-06-26T07:19:00.000-07:00

Today's edition of the 365 Days of Astronomy podcasts features me talking about the Palomar Transient Factory. You can read & hear it here from the 365 Days of Astronomy website or get it here from iTunes.

Here's another look at Palomar Observatory's 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope, where the survey begins.

4 Years Ago Today

2009-06-25T15:04:00.000-07:00

Four years ago today, June 25 2005, was our Palomar Observatory Open House. An estimated 4,000 people came to visit Palomar Observatory in just one day.

The lines were epic.

It was immensely gratifying to see so many people know that there are so many people that are interested in the observatory and astronomy. As you might imagine, we are a bit hesitant to hold another such event, as it completely overwhelmed our resources (especially with regard to parking and bathrooms).

Instead we now have a regular program of public tours on Saturdays and Sundays. This makes the situation easier for everyone involved and we still have thousands of visitors each year that get to experience a tour of the Hale Telescope.

Be Careful Out There

2009-06-25T14:16:00.003-07:00

The heat of a warm day, contrasted with the cool air inside the dome and our altitude (5,500 feet above sea level) can really hit some people hard. In just the last week we have had 2 people attending tours at the observatory that have needed medical attention.

If you are planning on heading up for a tour, please make sure that you have had a meal and water before your visit and that you are easily able to handle an hour's worth of walking and standing.

We are glad to have the members of the Palomar Mountain Volunteer Fire Department close at hand, but prefer not having to call them over.

Towerman

2009-06-23T08:33:00.000-07:00

If you've been to Palomar Observatory you may have noticed the old National Forest Service lookout tower located on High Point.

Here's a view of the tower from right next to it:

The U.S. Forest Service closed the tower back in 1992, but Brad Eells and the San Diego - Riverside Chapter of the Forest Fire Lookout Association, Inc. have recently been leading the effort to restore the High Point Tower and re-staff it with volunteers. Brad just sent me this photo, taken in the 1970s, of the view from inside the High Point tower:

Image credit: Cleveland National Forest

Click to embiggen the photo of Towerman Saenz. Over his shoulder you can see the domes of the 48" and 200" telescopes. The dome for the 200" seems to be open in this shot. To the left of them is the dome for the 18" telescope.

I hear that in a few months there may be a webcam installed on the High Point Tower. If so, I'll post here to let everyone know. Here's my post from last year with a photo taken at High Point looking down at the observatory.

Marine Layer Below = Dark Skies Above

2009-06-20T13:53:00.000-07:00

Palomar Observatory's founders made a great choice in picking Palomar Mountain as the site for the 200-inch telescope. We often have clear skies and a stable atmosphere to look through (giving us sharper images of the universe).

What our founders did not anticipate was the almost exponential growth of the population of Southern California. With the increased number of people has come increased sky brightness, what most people call light pollution. Thankfully the founders did choose a site that from time to time has a natural shield from the city lights. When the low marine layer clouds blow in off of the ocean, like they are doing today, the cities and their many lights are below the clouds and the observatory is above them. The result is dark skies, making this site almost as dark as it was back in the 1930s.

The picture above was taken from the catwalk of the 200" Hale Telescope earlier today. Tonight all of lights in Riverside County (and San Diego County too, you just can't see it in this shot) will lie below the clouds. "June Gloom" is gray for those below, but wonderful for astronomers.

Hale Telescope in National Geographic

2009-06-19T14:00:00.000-07:00

The July 2009 issue of National Geographic Magazine is now out and (while I haven't seen it yet in actual print) you should be able to find a beautiful image taken by photographer Joe McNally of the Hale Telescope with its laser-guide star. The article, Cosmic Vision, was written by Timothy Ferris and is available on line. The NGS website has an online photo gallery that includes 2 images of the Hale, which is also featured in their interactive time-line.

Here's a taste of what the inside photo looks like:

You'll have to visit one of the links above to see the rest.

UPDATE: I have not yet seen it on newsstands, but got my issue in the mail today (6/24). The image of the Hale Telescope fills 2 pages (134 & 135) and looks wonderful.

Light Pollution Animations

2009-06-18T12:45:00.000-07:00

Need-less Light Pollution has some cool animations on light pollution that you can freely add to web pages.

Visit their site for more, I especially like their light pollution simulator which shows off the affects of different outdoor lights.

AMA Endorses the Fight Against Light Pollution

2009-06-18T07:40:00.000-07:00

Interesting news reported here:

The American Medical Association, AMA, has officially approved the following lighting resolutions. These resolutions are now official AMA Policy:

Resolutions approved June 15, 2009 by the American Medical Association

RESOLVED That our AMA advocate that all future outdoor lighting be of energy efficient designs to reduce waste of energy and production of greenhouse gasses that result from this wasted energy use, and be it further

RESOLVED That our AMA develop and enact a policy that supports light pollution reduction efforts and glare reduction efforts at both the national and state levels; and be it further

RESOLVED That our AMA support that all future streetlights will be of a fully shielded design or similar non-glare design to improve the safety of our roadways for all, but especially vision impaired and older drivers.

Maybe they are wise to the evidence that light at night is bad for human health.

PTF in the News

2009-06-17T08:40:00.000-07:00

The Palomar Transient Factory story has gotten coverage from Astronomy.com, HPWREN, PhysOrg.com, SpaceRef, Space Ticker, Universe Today, and more.

In case you missed it, here's the press release from Berkeley: NERC Helps Expose Cosmic Transients and from Caltech: Unique Sky Survey Brings New Objects into Focus.

And for your viewing pleasure, here is a shot I took of Palomar's Samuel Oschin Telescope two weeks ago:

The Palomar Transient Factory sky survey begins with this 60 year old telescope. In this shot the telescope remained motionless as the dome was turned behind it. If you look closely you can see stars shining "through" the dome (and a few cirrus clouds too). As the dome slit rotated around it brought different sections of the sky into view. It makes for a pretty unique look including the appearance of the "hole" at the top of the dome.