Journey to Palomar
September 23rd, 2008 By Matt Filed Under Meeting Space, Student Space
There is a new documentary about the events leading up to the creation of the observatory at Palomar Mountain in San Diego County. Astronomers were the first space explorers, and this documentary covers the work by George Hale and others on creating the first of the telescopes that started to give us the kind of data that changed our understanding of the universe. If this doesn’t immediately strike you as an interesting story, it may help to note that Palomar was the biggest telescope in the world at the time and that it took over twenty years to complete it, starting one year before the beginning of the great depression. The mirror itself took 11 years to finish, and moving it to its final location at the observatory was national news at the time.
Their will be a webcast for students and educators to take place on Wednesday, October 8, 2008 at 11:00 a.m. Pacific time. Participants in the interactive session will have the opportunity to ask questions directly to a panel of leading scientists inlcuding Nobel Laureate Dr. John Mather, Science Director for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope; Carnegie Observatories Director, Dr. Wendy Freedman on the Giant Magellan Telescope; and Caltech Optical Observatories Director Emeritus, Dr. Richard Ellis on the Thirty-Meter Telescope. The discussion will be moderated by Dr. Derrick Pitts, television personality and Chief Astronomer at the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia. This will be a great opportunity for any young student interested in space science or astronomy.
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