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45-573: Its approximate boundaries are: There are no permanent streams in the ATW. The highest landform is Agua Tibia Mountain with an elevation of 4,779 feet (1,457 m). Though the summer climate is hot, with limited shade and no water sources, there were no fires in the ATW for 110 years. In the last two decades, there have been four fires including the Palomar Mountain Fire (1987), the Vail Fire (1989),

90-455: A California State Park . There are campgrounds for vacationers, and a campground for local school children until San Diego Unified School District was forced to close it due to state budget cuts. The park averages 70,000 visitors annually. The campgrounds in the park were temporarily closed on October 2, 2011, due to state budget cuts. The park was among 70 California State Parks threatened by budget cuts in fiscal years 2011-2012 and 2012-2013, but

135-462: A fault zone that is parallel to the one in Warner Valley. The water rises with a temperature of 92 °F (33 °C) in a marshy area that covers perhaps an acre. It is conducted from a board-curbed pool to tubs in a near-by house, for bathing and laundry use. Bubbles continually rise in the pool and the water is distinctly sulphureted...This water is essentially primary saline in character, being

180-782: A 1928 article proposing what was to become the 200-inch Palomar reflector; it was an invitation to the American public to learn about how large telescopes could help answer questions relating to the fundamental nature of the universe. Hale followed this article with a letter to the International Education Board (later absorbed into the General Education Board ) of the Rockefeller Foundation dated April 16, 1928, in which he requested funding for this project. In his letter, Hale stated: "No method of advancing science

225-670: A diverse instrument suite of optical and near-infrared spectrometers and imaging cameras at multiple foci . The Hale also operates with a multi-stage, high-order adaptive optics system to provide diffraction -limited imaging in the near-infrared. Key historical science results with the Hale include cosmological measurement of the Hubble flow , the discovery of quasars as the precursor of Active Galactic Nuclei , and studies of stellar populations and stellar nucleosynthesis . The Oschin and 60-inch telescopes operate robotically and together support

270-720: A forest of oak, pine, fir and cedar on large swaths of the mountain. The upper elevations of the Palomar Mountain range have notably different habitats than its lower elevation foothills. The lower regions are in the California montane chaparral and woodlands sub-ecoregion, adapted to the xeric/dry Mediterranean climate with chaparral and woodlands flora. The higher regions are in the California mixed evergreen forest sub-ecoregion, with California black oaks , closed-cone pines , firs, and other California oaks and conifers . Higher elevations receive considerably more moisture than

315-590: A major transient astronomy program, the Zwicky Transient Facility . The Oschin was created to facilitate astronomical reconnaissance, and has been used in many notable astronomical surveys —among them are: The initial Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS or POSS-I), sponsored by the National Geographic Institute, was completed in 1958. The first plates were exposed in November 1948 and

360-434: A new transient astronomy sky survey, the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF). The 60-inch telescope operates robotically, and supports ZTF by providing rapid, low-dispersion optical spectra for initial transient classification using the for-purpose Spectral Energy Distribution Machine (SEDM) integral field spectrograph . Palomar Observatory is an active research facility. However, selected observatory areas are open to

405-522: A relatively short 52 miles to the north, in San Bernardino County , the 10,000 feet (3,000 m) San Jacinto Mountains 30 miles north in Riverside County and the 14,500 feet (4,420 m) high Mount Whitney some 250 mi (402 km) farther north. High Point is located approximately two miles east of the observatory. However, it is not accessible by the public from that direction as

450-612: A soft water of moderate mineralization." Palomar Mountain Palomar Mountain ( / ˈ p æ l ə m ɑːr / PAL -ə-mar ; Spanish : Monte Palomar [paloˈmaɾ] ) is a mountain ridge in the Peninsular Ranges in northern San Diego County, California . It is known as the location of Palomar Observatory and Hale Telescope, and known for Palomar Mountain State Park . The Luiseño name for Palomar Mountain

495-554: Is accelerating or not, and S. George Djorgovski 's quasar search. The camera for the Palomar QUEST Survey was a mosaic of 112 charge-coupled devices (CCDs) covering the whole (4° × 4°) field of view of the Schmidt telescope. At the time it was built, it was the largest CCD mosaic used in an astronomical camera. This instrument was used to produce The Big Picture, the largest astronomical photograph ever produced. The Big Picture

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540-544: Is on display at Griffith Observatory . Current research programs on the 200-inch Hale Telescope cover the range of the observable universe, including studies on near-Earth asteroids , outer Solar System planets, Kuiper Belt objects, star formation , exoplanets , black holes and x-ray binaries , supernovae and other transient source followup, and quasars / Active Galactic Nuclei . The 48-inch Samuel Oschin Schmidt Telescope operates robotically, and supports

585-445: Is so productive as the development of new and more powerful instruments and methods of research. A larger telescope would not only furnish the necessary gain in light space-penetration and photographic resolving power, but permit the application of ideas and devices derived chiefly from the recent fundamental advances in physics and chemistry." The 200-inch telescope is named after astronomer and telescope builder George Ellery Hale . It

630-598: The Art Deco architecture of the Observatory's buildings, including the dome of the 200-inch Hale Telescope. Porter was also responsible for much of the technical design of the Hale Telescope and Schmidt Cameras, producing a series of cross-section engineering drawings. Porter worked on the designs in collaboration with many engineers and Caltech committee members. Max Mason directed the construction and Theodore von Karman

675-597: The Peninsular Range province and with emphasis on forest succession, long-range ecological changes and the effects of resource management practices. Bigcone Douglas-fir ( Pseudotsuga macrocarpa ) is a relict species and is endemic to Southern California. This population on the ATRNA is unique for its relatively great age, size, genetic purity, placement near the southern extent of the species' range, and for its remoteness and lack of disturbance by man. Other notable plants in

720-529: The stellar nucleosynthesis as to origin of elements in the universe in their observed abundances, and have discovered thousands of asteroids . A one-tenth-scale engineering model of the telescope at Corning Community College in Corning, New York , home of the Corning Glass Works (now Corning Incorporated), was used to discover at least one minor planet, 34419 Corning . † Russell W. Porter developed

765-604: The Agua Tibia Fire (2000), and the Poomacha Fire (2007). Its pollution exposure is monitored within the San Diego Air Basin. The Agua Tibia Wilderness is home to rare and endemic plants. These include: The Agua Tibia Research Natural Area (ATRNA), located within the wilderness, comprises 480 acres (190 ha) of bigcone Douglas-fir—canyon live oak forest. The area was set aside for the study of this forest type in

810-498: The Greenway Center and has extensive embedded multimedia to provide additional context. Similarly the observatory actively maintains an extensive website and YouTube channel to support public engagement. The observatory is located off State Route 76 in northern San Diego County, California , two hours' drive from downtown San Diego and three hours' drive from central Los Angeles ( UCLA , LAX airport). Those staying at

855-820: The Oak Grove Trail, the oldest established trail on the Palomar Ranger District. The hike is 13.5 miles roundtrip. There is an operational USFS fire lookout tower on High Point, built in 1964. It is 70 feet tall, making it the tallest USFS fire tower in California. It was brought back into service in 2009 and is staffed by the San Diego/Riverside County Chapter of the FFLA Forest Fire Lookout Association - San Diego/Riverside . Other local peaks include: South Grade Road,

900-623: The POSS I and POSS II plates). Mueller also discovered several comets and minor planets during the course of POSS II, and the bright Comet Wilson 1986 was discovered by then-graduate-student C. Wilson early in the survey. Until the completion of the Two Micron All Sky Survey ( 2MASS ), POSS II was the most extensive wide-field sky survey. When completed, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey will surpass POSS I and POSS II in depth, although

945-665: The POSS covers almost 2.5 times more area on the sky. POSS II also exists in digitized form (that is, the photographic plates were scanned) as part of the Digitized Sky Survey (DSS). The multi-year POSS projects were followed by the Palomar Quasar Equatorial Survey Team (QUEST) Variability survey. This survey yielded results that were used by several projects, including the Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking project. Another program that used

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990-545: The Palomar 60-inch (1.5 m) Telescope, and the 30-centimetre (12-inch) Gattini-IR telescope. Decommissioned instruments include the Palomar Testbed Interferometer and the first telescopes at the observatory, an 18-inch (46 cm) Schmidt camera from 1936. Astronomer George Ellery Hale , whose vision created Palomar Observatory, built the world's largest telescope four times in succession. He published

1035-469: The QUEST results discovered 90377 Sedna on 14 November 2003, and around 40 Kuiper belt objects. Other programs that share the camera are Shri Kulkarni 's search for gamma-ray bursts (this takes advantage of the automated telescope's ability to react as soon as a burst is seen and take a series of snapshots of the fading burst), Richard Ellis 's search for supernovae to test whether the universe's expansion

1080-591: The State Park, is home to the Camp Palomar Outdoor School for 6th grade students in San Diego Unified School District. At the base of Palomar Mountain on County Route S6 is Oak Knoll Campground, formerly known as Palomar Gardens. In the 1950s and 1960s, Palomar Gardens was made famous by its owner and resident, UFO contactee George Adamski . Adamski had a self-built, wooden observatory at Palomar Gardens and photographed objects in

1125-535: The coastal and inland valley lower slopes, with 30–35 in (76–89 cm) of precipitation. They can also receive snow from winter storms. Palomar Observatory Palomar Observatory is an astronomical research observatory in the Palomar Mountains of San Diego County, California , United States. It is owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Research time at

1170-480: The community support group, Palomar Observatory Docents. Palomar Observatory also has an on-site museum—the Greenway Visitor Center, containing observatory and astronomy-relevant exhibits, a gift shop, and hosts periodic public events. For those unable to travel to the observatory, Palomar provides an extensive virtual tour that provides virtual access to all the major research telescopes on-site and

1215-485: The county's travelers. Palomar Mountain is most famous as the home of Palomar Observatory which includes the Hale Telescope . The 200-inch telescope was the world's largest and most important telescope from 1949 until 1992. The observatory currently has four large telescopes, the most recent one being a 40-in robotic infrared one operational since 2021. Palomar Mountain is the location of Palomar Mountain State Park,

1260-551: The last in April 1958. This survey was performed using 14-inch (6- degree ) blue-sensitive (Kodak 103a-O) and red-sensitive (Kodak 103a-E) photographic plates on the Oschin Telescope. The survey covered the sky from a declination of +90° ( celestial north pole ) to −27° and all right ascensions and had a sensitivity to +22 magnitudes (about 1 million times fainter than the limit of human vision). A southern extension extending

1305-459: The monster in a lake. High Point, in the Palomar Mountain range, is one of the highest peaks in San Diego County. At an elevation of 6,140 feet (1,871 m), it is surpassed by Cuyamaca Peak (at 6,512 feet (1,985 m)) and Hot Springs Mountain (the county's highest point, at 6,533 feet (1,991 m)). They are dwarfed by the higher 11,500 feet (3,505 m) San Bernardino Mountains

1350-407: The night sky that he claimed were UFOs. Adamski co-authored the bestselling Flying Saucers Have Landed in 1953, about his alleged alien encounter experiences, and in particular his meetings with a friendly "Space Brother" from Venus named Orthon. The 1977 film The Crater Lake Monster had many scenes filmed on Palomar Mountain, including scenes shot at the summit restaurant, but not the scenes of

1395-545: The observatory is granted to Caltech and its research partners, which include the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Yale University , and the National Astronomical Observatories of China . The observatory operates several telescopes, including the 200-inch (5.1 m) Hale Telescope , the 48-inch (1.2 m) Samuel Oschin telescope (dedicated to the Zwicky Transient Facility , ZTF),

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1440-406: The observatory itself and adjacent land are private property, and the road to High Point from the observatory is blocked by a permanently closed gate. It may be reached via Palomar Divide Truck Trail, a dirt road that starts off Highway 79 near Warner Springs, California . The trip is 13 miles one way with 3000 feet of elevation gain via Palomar Divide Truck Trail. High Point can also be hiked on

1485-446: The park and the campgrounds remain open. Palomar Mountain, especially in the state park area, is densely wooded with abundant oak and conifer tree species (pine, cedar, fir). Ferns are abundant everywhere in the shady forest. The forest is supported by annual precipitation totals in excess of 30 inches. Beginning in the 1920s a fire lookout tower has been present on Boucher Hill on Palomar Mountain. The tower had been active until it

1530-427: The public during the day. Visitors can take self-guided tours of the 200-inch telescope daily from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The observatory is open 7 days a week, year round, except for December 24 and 25 and during times of inclement weather. Guided tours of the 200-inch Hale Telescope dome and observing area are available Saturdays and Sundays from April through October. Behind-the-scenes tours for the public are offered through

1575-516: The research area are Laguna linanthus ( Linanthus orcuttii ssp. pacificus ) and Hall's monardella ( Monardella macrantha ssp. hallii ). Both are listed as 1B by the California Native Plant Society 's Rare Plant Program. According to a U.S. government geologist writing in 1915, "Near the southern base of Agua Tibia Mountain and 25 miles in a direct line north of west from Warner Hot Springs , warm water ( agua tibia ), issues along

1620-854: The same field centers as the corresponding northern declination zones. Unlike POSS-I, the Whiteoak extension consisted only of red-sensitive (Kodak 103a-E) photographic plates. The Second Palomar Observatory Sky Survey ( POSS II , sometimes Second Palomar Sky Survey ) was performed in the 1980s and 1990s and made use of better, faster films and an upgraded telescope. The Oschin Schmidt was upgraded with an achromatic corrector and provisions for autoguiding. Images were recorded in three wavelengths: blue (IIIaJ. 480 nm), red (IIIaF, 650 nm), and near-infrared (IVN, 850 nm) plates. Observers on POSS II included C. Brewer, D. Griffiths, W. McKinley, J. Dave Mendenhall , K. Rykoski, Jeffrey L. Phinney , and Jean Mueller (who discovered over 100 supernovae by comparing

1665-417: The sky coverage of the POSS to −33° declination was shot in 1957–1958. The final POSS I dataset consisted of 937 plate pairs. The Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) produced images which were based on the photographic data developed in the course of POSS-I. J.B. Whiteoak, an Australian radio astronomer, used the same instrument to extend POSS-I data south to −42° declination . Whiteoak's observations used using

1710-737: The stretch of San Diego County Route S6 going from State Route 76 to the summit provides access with over 20 hairpin turns over the distance of less than 7 mi (11 km). According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Palomar Mountain has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate , abbreviated "Csa" on climate maps. Annual precipitation on the mountain averages 30–35 inches (highly variable from year to year), mostly falling between October and April. Snow falls during cold winter storms. Summers are mostly dry, except for thunderstorms in July to early September. The humid climate supports

1755-558: Was Paauw and High Point was called Wikyo . The Spanish name Palomar , meaning "pigeon roost" or “place of the pigeons”, comes from the Spanish colonial era in Alta California when Palomar Mountain was known as the home of band-tailed pigeons . The peak was once called Mount Joseph Smith but reverted to its Spanish name, Palomar, in 1901. During the 1890s, the population was sufficient to support three public schools , and it

1800-538: Was a popular summer resort for Southern California , with three hotels in operation part of the time, and a tent city in Doane Valley each summer. Nathan Harrison, the first African American homesteader in San Diego area, purchased several acres on the western slope of the mountain in the 1880s and graded a road that became a popular tourist route called Harrison's grade . According to an article by Daniel Weiss, "Harrison

1845-454: Was abandoned in 1983 and then was reactivated when the San Diego/Riverside County Chapter of the FFLA Forest Fire Lookout Association - San Diego/Riverside Chapter began manning it in 2012. Boucher Hill sees more than 11,000 visitors a season. The tower opens around May 1 in conjunction with the fire season and closes in early December. During this period the tower is typically staffed 7 days a week from 9am to 5pm. Doane Valley, located within

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1890-527: Was briefly married twice, both times to Luiseño Indian women who were part of a community that lived on the mountain," and he was baptized into the Catholic faith "by a Luiseño chief in Rincon who had converted to Catholicism." Harrison's tall tales of the mountain's fauna, including his overcoming of countless grizzlies and aggressive mountain lions, and his blithesome, joking disposition, made him locally famous among

1935-545: Was built by Caltech with a $ 6 million grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, using a Pyrex blank manufactured by Corning Glass Works under the direction of George McCauley. Dr. J.A. Anderson was the initial project manager, assigned in the early 1930s. The telescope (the largest in the world at that time) saw first light January 26, 1949, targeting NGC 2261 . The American astronomer Edwin Powell Hubble

1980-485: Was involved in the engineering. Much of the surrounding region of Southern California has adopted shielded lighting to reduce the light pollution that would potentially affect the observatory. Palomar Observatory remains an active research facility, operating multiple telescopes every clear night, and supporting a large international community of astronomers who study a broad range of research topics. The Hale Telescope remains in active research use and operates with

2025-486: Was the first astronomer to use the telescope. The 200-inch telescope was the largest telescope in the world from 1949 until 1975, when the Russian BTA-6 telescope saw first light . Astronomers using the Hale Telescope have discovered quasars (a subset of what was to become known as Active Galactic Nuclei ) at cosmological distances. They have studied the chemistry of stellar populations, leading to an understanding of

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