Archive for the 'Travel and Astronomical Landmarks' Category
April 6, 2009
Past a highway sided by orange groves, avocado stands, and an occasional patch of prickly pear cactus, and up a road that winds through the campgrounds and hiking trails of the Cleveland National Forest, sits the famed 200-inch Hale Telescope on Palomar Mountain in north San Diego County, California. The 200-inch was the largest effective telescope in the world for 44 years, and unquestionably the most famous until the Hubble Space Telescope. It’s still an impressive sight up close and remains a workhorse of modern astronomy.
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September 12, 2008
In 1845, William Parsons built a 72-inch reflecting telescope that dwarfed all other instruments of its day. With this “Leviathan”, Parsons discovered the spiral shape of many galaxies and studied the nature of gaseous nebula. The telescope reigned as the world’s largest for nearly 80 years and was a stunning achievement of 19th century engineering.
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May 23, 2008
The first planetarium in the Western hemisphere is found on the shores of Lake Michigan in Chicago, Illinois. If you find yourself in Chicago, it’s well worth the trip.
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April 11, 2008
The world’s largest refractor lives at Yerkes Observatory on Lake Geneva in Williams Bay, Wisconsin. More than a home for telescopes, Yerkes is the “birthplace of modern astrophysics” because it was the first observatory to house chemistry and physics laboratories to study astrophysical processes.
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April 1, 2008
Located in the Diablo mountain range east of San Jose, California, Lick is the world’s first permanently occupied mountain-top observatory. It was founded in 1888 and has been part of the University of California ever since.
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