California Dreamin'

When I first became interested in astronomy as a teenager, I used to marvel at pictures of the famous astronomy sites in California, not imagining that I'd ever get the chance to see them with my own eyes. To me they were iconic - some of the biggest telescopes in the world; landmark observatories known for some of the most famous discoveries by world renowned astronomers and, of course, the most famous meteor strike in the world.
Well, this summer, I finally had the opportunity to visit some of these places that I'd known since childhood as mere images in books, and I wasn't disappointed.

Mount Wilson's 150 foot Solar Tower telescope

150 foot Solar Tower telescope

Dome of the 60" telescope, largest in the world when it was built in 1908

Dome of the 100" Hooker telescope

100" Hooker telescope, the largest in the world until 1948, famously used by Edwin Hubble



Viewing gallery for the 100"

Dome of the 100" Hooker telescope

Panoramic image of the Barringer Meteor Crater, Arizona

Meteor Crater visitor centre amidst the desolate Arizona desert

 

The Pluto Discovery astrograph, used by Clyde Tombaugh

Rotunda library "Saturn" lampshade

Blink comparator, used by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930 for the discovery of Pluto

Pluto discovery telescope observatory

The "Mars" telescope observatory

24" Alvan Clark refractor famously used by Percival Lowell to study the Red Planet

Percival Lowell mausoleum in the shadow of the Mars observatory