Palomar Mountain Observatory

Today I went up to the Palomar Mountain Observatory with my friend Carla that I met at school.  The observatory about a 40 minute drive east and I have been dying to go there since I got here.  It is part of Caltech and the construction was started in the late 30's so in addition to still being one of the most prestigious and used astronomical observatories in the US - it also is beautiful with a subtle art deco look.  It is located in the Cleveland National Forest and so the drive up there was so scenic but then when we got there - the observatory was more beautiful in person than I imagined.  The last guided tour was at 1:30pm so we missed it but that is ok as it gives me a great reason to return!

How beautiful is this???  The dome rotates and the slit opens so that the telescope with a 200" Pyrex Corning Glass lens can observe the stars.

This was on the side of a workman's truck and I thought it super cool.

I received a lot of comments about this orange tee shirt of mine so it has become my new favorite shirt.  How great is this picture.  It was so awesome up there and guess what - it snows up there - real snow!  The had pictures of the place covered in snow which happens at least once a winter.  Snow pictures that looked as if it was New England.  I could not believe it.

This sign made me a tad nervous so I tried not to focus on it to much and just enjoy how amazing the observatory was.  Eeeeek!

This was the back side of the obserevatory.  You cannot tell by the perspective but that is a huge garage door that you could drive a mack truck through.  Just after I snapped this pic it opened up and a truck exited.  I was so excited I ran up to the door to see what was inside.  I wanted to see perhaps aliens but instead I just saw some staff members asking if I needed help.

This is my friend Carla who I met during my last Spanish class.  She has turned out to be very nice and is very funny too.  She drove me up to the observatory and then we stopped at this biker bar called the Hideout for lunch and some laughs.