Los Angeles viewed from Griffith Observatory
By the time this post hits the Internet, I’ll be on my way to Los Angeles. Although I was in LA relatively recently, I haven’t been up to Griffith Observatory since 1991 or 1992. I think it’s time for a return trip. Look for new photos some time next week.
Click on the image to reach the wallpaper download page.
Icy Dome. Photo courtesy of be*curious
I am completely snowed under right now. My students are discussing Lick Observatory this week in my Architecture & Science seminar, and I had great intentions of posting some images and other ephemera related to class. Not going to happen. Instead, I’m going to attempt to distract you with the photography of be*curious. It’s all superb, but I am particularly fond of his observatories and at night series.
Winter night at Pic du Midi. Image credit: Allain Sallez and David Romeuf
Okay, not a true wallpaper, but certainly one of my favorite APOD photos. Most people hit this site looking for information on Sphinx Observatory (look, I just generated 1000 more hits!) and I’ve always wondered: why isn’t the Pic du Midi de Bigorre Observatory as popular? It’s also a high-altitude observatory, located in a sufficiently dramatic mountain setting. Snow. Cold. Clear skies. Why does all the attention go to Sphinx?
Just for good measure, I’m including a second Pic du Midi image from APOD. What’s not to love?
A Glimpse of CLIMSO. Image credit: Allain Sallez
Online Orrery Screen Capture
How awesome is this online orrery? Embedded in the black background are small grey control switches. You can set the date, display the zodiac, or trace a particular planet on the upper right. The slide on the upper changes the direction and speed of the rotation. I’m particularly enamored with the Tychonian universe option on the lower right and the lunar phase option on the lower left.
ESO's Very Large Telescope with Laser Beam. Image courtesy: ESO/G. Hüdepohl
Because you can never have too many laser beams, I give you one of the Unit Telescopes of European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope with laser beam fully operational. Click on the image to go to the download page.
Workers at Teachout Library rooftop observatory, Hiram, Ohio, c. 1900. Photo courtesy Stephens Memorial Observatory and Hiram College Archives.
I’ve been slowly updating my public programs page. Just the idea of adding all the available viewing opportunities in California exhausts me, so I keep skipping that state to focus on observatories closer to home. Today, as I was digging through the links and thinking about a road trip, I came across a set of photos showing the construction of the Teachout Library and Observatory in Hiram, Ohio (replaced in 1939 by the Stephens Memorial Observatory).
I like the above photo for a couple of reasons.
First, it would seem that the photographer assigned a random tool to everyone, just in case his audience wouldn’t understand these men were involved in the building trades. We can see, from right to left: a carpenter square; something I’m not sure about but could be a flat construction pencil; a handsaw; a hatchet; a pick; and a hammer. The guy with the hammer is also holding an unknown object, possibly another hammer or a scribe.
The only worker not holding a tool is the one at the far left of the photo. That’s the second reason I like this photo. What’s that guy doing, peeking around the door jamb like that?
For more historic photos of the Teachout Library and Observatory, including a few of the 1939 fire that damaged the building but not the Warner and Swasey telescope inside, click the photo below.
Teachout Library and Observatory, c. 1900. Photo courtesy Stephens Memorial Observatory and Cary Bacher.
LGS System on Mauna Kea Sky, Gemini Observatory. Photo credit: K. Pu'uohau-Pummill/Gemini Observatory
Today’s image of the Laser Guide Star of Gemini North makes a sweet wallpaper. Peeking in from behind the LGS system is the sky over the island of Hawaii and, yes, the moon! Click on the image above to connect to the wallpaper download page.
Zimenki Radio Astronomy Station, Радиоастрономическая станция «Зименки», Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
Are we still talking about abandoned observatories? If so, I’ve gathered a few links for the Zimenki Radio Astronomy Station in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. The Zemenki Station was built for Gorki University in 1949, near the village of Zimenki on the Volga River. Originally, only a single radio telescope was constructed on the station. Eventually, two dishes were erected at the site.[1] I’m not quite sure when work at Zimenki came to an end. It was functioning in 1964, when Zimenki and Jodrell Bank participated in several communication exercises.[2] According to the Committee on Radio Astronomy, a single dish was operational as recently as 2002. If it’s still working, I can’t find information about it. A visitor to the site in 2010 indicated that there was only one dish on the station, but none of the radio telescopes was in working order. If anyone can direct me to more information (in Russian or English, print or digital), I’d appreciate it.
Some photos:
From Abandoned Russia
From Wikimedia Commons
From Fishki.net (scroll down)
From Urban3P Project
————————-
[1] W. T. Sullivan III, Ed., The Early Years of Radio Astronomy: Reflections Fifty Years After Jansky’s Discovery (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984): 274.
[2] Edward Clinton Ezell and Linda Neuman Ezell, The Partnership: A History of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4209/ch2-5.htm).
Belief in Ruins, Truro, Cornwall. Photo courtesy: Urban Exploration Resource
And speaking of abandoned observatories…
Urban Exploration Resource has a description and gallery of what remains of the “Observatory for Cornwall” charitable project on Wheal Busy, Truro, Cornwall.
Jet Engine for blowing snow off the (former) 300 foot telescope at the NRAO Green Bank. Photo courtesy NRAO.
I found this photo, which shows an unnamed technician, Clifford Barkely, and Paul Devlin inspecting a jet engine, in NRAO’s facebook photo album. Back in the olden days (okay, before the 1988 collapse of the 300-Foot Telescope), engineers used to set up a jet engine next to the dish to blow it clean it of accumulated snow. I can only imagine the noise—I used to complain about the wind machines in the orchard next to my house when they ran during cold spring nights, and those were powered by car, not jet, engines (you can listen to one here, or you can just imagine a Chevy V-8 parked outside your bedroom window).
Since the 300-Foot Telescope is no more, the snow now accumulates in the dish of its replacement, the Green Bank Telescope (GBT). I’ve never seen it in action, but apparently controllers just tilt the dish past the angle of repose so the snow slides out. Maybe not as awesome as a jet engine blowing snow off the instrument, but I bet it’s still plenty interesting to watch an avalanche clearing a 100-meter dish.
