We headed out early for Mount Palomar Observatory on Palomar Mountain - it was our last opportunity to see it, and this morning looked good. At one point we saw a total of six balloons in the air. They are all in the picture below although a couple are hiding very near the intervening hills.
It was a lot cooler on top of the mountain and there was plenty of snow and ice in the shaded areas. Sam got to walk on some ice, but his attitude said: "big deal, I've seen worse back in Georgia."
There was only one other car in the lot and I'm pretty sure it belonged to the woman in the museum store - it must be lonely up here a lot of the time. The nice visitors center had a lot of displays showing some of the history and accomplishments of the observatory. The 200 inch Hale telescope was the largest in the world until the 1970s when Russia built a 236-inch instrument. I think the Hale is by far the more recognizable and more noteworthy telescope (has anyone even heard of the BTA-6 at the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Science?) Now, of course, all new large telescopes are built with segmented flexible mirrors and there is really no limit to how large they can be.
Joani is walking on the concrete weight used to initially set up the telescope's mount. It is the same size, shape and nearly the same weight as the glass mirror now in the telescope.
I had a poster of this guy's work framed over my office desk at work for many years.
As we rounded the corner on the way down the mountain, we were surprised by this little nugget in the road - it was not there when we were headed up the mountain. One more thing to watch for on the treacherous mountain roads along with wildlife and bicyclers and of course, other cars!
We were back down the mountain early enough that we decided to visit the air museum at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, CA. Among several other memorials, there was this monument to military dogs that seemed to be unique.
We miss Sasha (the love of Sam's life)
The museum included quite a variety of aircraft (some restored, some in work) spread over several acres and in several hangers. We were on our own to wander among the planes and since it was such a beautiful day we took our time.
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