Palomar Observatory

33.356388888889 - 116.865Koordinaten: 33 ° 21 ' 23 " N, 116 ° 51' 54 " W

The Palomar Observatory is a great observatory of the United States, which is mainly due to the 5 - meter reflecting telescope, the Hale telescope, known.

It is located about 80 kilometers northeast of San Diego on the summit of 1706 meters ( 5,600 feet) high Palomar Mountain and had over 30 years the largest telescope in the world. Today the observatory to Caltech, the California Institute of Technology belongs.

In addition to the Hale Telescope and the Oschin Schmidt telescope, Palomar Observatory is also home to yet another mirror telescope with a primary mirror 1.5 meters in diameter, and a Schmidt telescope with an aperture of 46 cm.

Mount Palomar Mountain is often referred to in the German language as Mount Palomar.

Hale telescope

The largest telescope at the Palomar Observatory, the Hale telescope, which was from 1947 to 1975 also the largest telescope in the world. It is a reflecting telescope and has a primary mirror with a diameter of 5.08 meters ( 200 inches ) and received its name in honor of George Ellery Hale died in 1938. Hale had with funds from the Carnegie Institution building the 60 - initiated and 100 -inch telescopes on Mount Wilson, which were completed in 1908 and 1917 respectively. With these telescopes Harlow Shapley confirmed the up to then still controversial existence of distant galaxies beyond our Milky Way and found Edwin Hubble first indication of the expansion of our universe. Hale won in 1928 the President of the Rockefeller Foundation from the construction of an even larger 200 -inch reflecting telescope, whose location was chosen because of the increasing " light pollution " in Los Angeles in the 1930s to 120 miles from Pasadena distant Mount Palomar. The line was transferred to the Caltech in Pasadena (and not the Carnegie Institution as the Mt Wilson observatory ). The construction of the telescope lasted over 15 years. The Rohspiegel was made in the glass works in New York Corning Pyrex glass, which is less sensitive to changes in length due to temperature changes. Alone for careful cooling after casting one needed eight months. The housing of the secondary mirror is so large that for specific tasks when measuring and adjusting the astronomer can sit in it. The more than 400 -ton telescope is housed in a 1000 -ton dome of 42 m diameter and 41 m in height, which was completed in 1936. The Rohspiegel was transported in 1936 to Pasadena and there in the optical laboratory of Caltech from 1936 to 1947, interrupted by the war years, ground to a paraboloid shape. To transport the 20 -ton 5 -meter mirror of Pasadena by Palomar, which took place on November 12, 1947, a private vehicle, including road was built. On 3 June 1948, the telescope was inaugurated, but saw only in January 1949 " First Light " ( under Hubble itself). The end of 1949 the full-time operation was opened by astronomers at the Caltech and the Carnegie Institution.

The rank as the world's biggest telescope " lost " it after 30 years at the 6 -meter telescope BTA -6 of Selentschuk Observatory in the Caucasus, but the Hale telescope continues to be the largest telescope with equatorial mount. The placement of the second largest telescope still held up for installation of the first Keck telescope in 1993. ( See also List of largest optical telescopes )

Oschin Schmidt telescope

On the Palomar Observatory's also the famous Oschin Schmidt telescope is (also called Big- Schmidt, the name as Samuel Oschin taken in 1987 ) with opening of 120 cm (48 inches) and 180 cm mirror diameter, the field of view is 36 deg ². With this Schmidt telescope was taken in the 1950s of the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey ( from 1985 there was a further digital screening ). He is still a prime source for finding galaxies and when searching for the progenitor star of a nova or supernova in a " closer " Milky Way. Also newly discovered asteroids are often found on archived photographic plates of the Oschin Schmidt Telescope, taken earlier by years or decades, which allows much more accurate orbit determination. The telescope went into operation in 1948 ( " First Light "). The telescope was used with an additional 18 -inch Schmidt telescope scan ( operational from 1936) also cause areas of the sky for interesting targets for the large 200 - inch telescope at Palomar.

In 2003, the Oschin Schmidt telescope was equipped with the so-called QUEST camera, which is composed of a total of 112 CCD chip and has a resolution of 161 megapixels. This instrument was partly the discovery of the dwarf planet Eris.

Palomar Testbed Interferometer

The Palomar Testbed Interferometer is an astronomical interferometer to observe in the near- infrared spectral range. It serves as a test facility for the development of interferometric observation techniques that will be used later in the Keck Observatory. Initial investigations began in 1995, the full scientific operations started in 1998. Were examined, among other things high-precision astrometry as well as mass, shape and determine the diameter of stars. For example, it was possible to show that the star Altair is flattened by its high rate of rotation at the poles. The high precision was achieved by a dual star system that allows the observation of two stars is possible. This makes it possible to eliminate atmospheric effects, the Seeing.