Driving throughout the twists and turns up to the top of Mt. Wilson wasn't nearly as dizzying as standing in the great 100- inch Hooker telescope observatory. As we stood in the dark and ominous observatory full of original technology from 1917, with the 100-inch monster of a telescope standing over us, our tour guid clicked a button and without warning, the telescope began to spin around. For some reason the experience of seeing the telescope spin like that turned my stomach upside-down. But the tour guid soon told us that the telescope was not actually moving, but rather we were moving around the telescope. No wonder I was feeling so disoriented. The machinery of this incredible observatory quite literally made the room I stood in, spin around the stationary telescope! I was left dizzy and in awe of the giant metal contraption.
Our class was lucky enough to use the 60-inch telescope all night; able to point it to what ever we wanted to explore in the night sky. It was amazing to be able to actually look through the eye piece of the telescope and not just view the object on a computer.
Not only were we out at Mt.Wilson to use the telescope, but we had the opportunity to take some great star photos. As amazing as the starts looked out there, I was much more interested in the movement of the telescope and our interactions with it. So here are some photos that I took from the trip:
Student looking at Saturn throughout the 60-inch Telescope
The observatory moving around the 60-inch telescope
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