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Post by Mike on Jul 21, 2013 20:26:45 GMT -5
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Post by Mike on Jul 21, 2013 21:17:52 GMT -5
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Post by Watcher3 on Aug 3, 2013 10:48:53 GMT -5
Nice, but I wonder how big a refractor you guys can stuff inside that dome!
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Post by Mike on Aug 7, 2013 8:38:42 GMT -5
We could try to get the new 204mm F12 R35 TCR inside there. It would be close but I think it would fit If you ever get to visit Palomar, it's really amazing. Something that really impressed me is even though this scope is really old, it's doesn't look old. Cal Tech really takes care of it. Even the dome is really nice inside and out. When you step inside the entrance to the observation room, the stairs, walls and doors are really old architecture but look new. I took the tour which is only given twice a day on Saturday and Sunday. You enter from the service door in the rear so everything looks pretty modern from there. If you go during the week you can only do the self guided tour. So, you only would get to view the scope through a large window. Three of the guides had been to the SCAE show the day before and recognized me from the Istar booth. Angie and I got special treatment. One of the guides hung back and talked to me the whole time telling me little tid bits and showing me things that are not normally part of the tour. There were 5 guides that worked our group and 3 of them were amateur astronomers and belonged to the local club. The scope has been used for research every single clear night from 1949 to the present. Just before our tour they were fitting the scope with a different instrument for that nights research. I want to note that lights inside the dome made all my photos of the scope and dome look yellow.
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Post by mikey cee on Aug 7, 2013 19:35:19 GMT -5
I visited Palomar in 1986. Honestly all I can remember was that big plate glass window we had to look thru!! Mike
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Post by Mike on Aug 9, 2013 16:03:07 GMT -5
Man! That's the pits! Ales said the same thing. You must have went on a weekday or too late on the weekend. I was the first person there on Sunday morning. I was sitting outside the gift shop before it opened just daring anybody to try to step in front of me. I take my astro shrines very serious. You obviously didn't get the VIP treatment either. They ask that you fill out a suggestion card. I wrote on the card that I was highly disappointed that I didn't get to look through it. Of course, they probably get that all the time but serious. I also asked where was the George Hale person. I wanted to talk to him.
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