Word: palomar
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ONCE A MONTH, AS THE MOON WANES, GEOLOgist Eugene Shoemaker, 64, and his wife Carolyn, 63, leave their house in Flagstaff, Arizona, load warm clothes into their station wagon and set off to the west on an 800-km (500-mile) trip across the desert. Their destination: Palomar Mountain, site of the mighty Hale telescope, among others. There, using a smaller Schmidt telescope, they begin a seven-night stint of sentry duty...
During their frigid all-nighters on Palomar Mountain, Gene guides the telescope, shooting two pictures, 40 min. apart, of each patch of sky. After developing the film in the observatory darkroom, he turns the negatives over to Carolyn, who scans each set of two under her stereo microscope. If anything has moved against the background of fixed stars during the 40-min. interval, it appears to float in the eyepiece. If so, it is an asteroid or comet and might someday present a threat...
These are heady days in the rarefied world of telescope making. Not since the 1934 casting of Mount Palomar's 5-m mirror -- a record size at the time -- has there been more innovation or competition to push the edge of possibility. In the clear air above Hawaii's Mauna Kea, the Keck I Telescope's mammoth 10-m mirror, built of 36 separate segments, is nearing final assembly -- a 10-month process was completed last week. Four years from now it will be joined by the Keck II, an equally monstrous twin. By then, the European Southern Observatory hopes...
...They found many existing telescopes, such as the one on Mt. Palomar, to be damaged due to light polution. They needed new telescopes at higher altitudes, above 8000 feet," he says...
...International Astronomical Union, was first detected by Henry Holt, an adjunct professor of geology at Northern Arizona University. That was in late March, after it was already moving safely away from earth. Holt spotted the speeding intruder in photographs taken through an 18-in. telescope at the Palomar Observatory in Southern California, during a systematic search for asteroids passing close by, which scientists call earth grazers. Holt figures that 1989FC may be in Hermes' league, but other astronomers dispute the claim, saying the new asteroid may be only 100 yds. across. Even if the smaller size is correct...