200-inch Hale Telescope
48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope
60-inch Telescope
Palomar Testbed Interferometer
Planet Search Telescope
18-inch Schmidt Telescope
24-inch telescope
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The 200-inch Hale Telescope
The 200-inch (5.1 m) Hale Telescope (f/3.3) was the world's largest effective telescope for 45 years (1948 - 1993). It is still a workhorse of modern astronomy. It is used nightly for a wide range of astronomical studies. On average the weather allows for at least some data collection about 290 nights a year. Images of the Hale Telescope and Laser guide star images. Russell Porter's 1938 Cutaway drawing of the Hale Telescope (~500kb) Watch members of the Palomar day crew install the
adaptive optics instrument PHARO (Palomar High Angular Resolution Observer) into
the Hale Telescope's Cassegrain cage in this time-lapse movie (~62 mb Quicktime movie).  Watch another instrument change as the Large Format Camera is pulled out of prime focus (at the top of the Hale Telescope) and the Wide-field Infrared Camera is installed in its place this time-lapse movie (~31 mb Quicktime movie).:  Instrument changes like these happen several times a month.
Time lapse movie of the Hale Telescope dome at night. (~36 mb Quicktime movie)
History of the Hale Telescope & Palomar Observatory Adaptive Optics on the Hale Telescope
Re-aluminizing the 200-inch mirror
Re-aluminizing the Hale Telescope's secondary mirrors
The Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory is operated as part of a collaborative agreement between the California Institute of Technology, its divisions Caltech Optical Observatories and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (operated for NASA), and Cornell University. Choose one of the telescopes listed on the right to see images and learn more about another of the Palomar Observatory's Telescopes.
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