Telescopes
200-inch Hale Telescope
48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope
60-inch Telescope
Palomar Testbed Interferometer
Planet Search
Telescope
18-inch Schmidt Telescope
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The 200-inch telescope is mounted in a equatorial alignment, with
one axis of rotation, right ascension (or RA), parallel to the earth's
rotation axis, and the other axis, declination, perpendicular
to this. The telescope can be pointed at any object up in the sky
by moving in both RA and declination. Then, as the earth turns, and
the object appears to move across the sky from east to west, the
telescope rotates slowly in RA in order to follow the object. We have two animations showing a computer model of the telescope moving -- one with the central tube of the scope rocking back and forth in declination (Quicktime, 1.9 Mb), the other with the tube, horseshoe, and support arms twisting in right ascension (Quicktime, 2.5 Mb).
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