Visitors Gallery

During visiting hours, the 200-inch (5.1-meter) Hale Telescope can be seen from the Visitors Gallery. The gallery is accessible from the northeast dome entrance at the end of the visitor path, and up the stairway. The gallery includes a full-length window area providing a direct view of the telescope from the observing floor. Displays along the window describe the telescope's major components and foci, how the telescope moves to find an object and track it through the night, the structure of the 200-inch primary mirror, and the path light follows inside the telescope. On weekends, an observatory docent is often stationed in the Gallery to answer visitor questions.

Displays along the Gallery walls feature information, images, and recent scientific developments by other Palomar Observatory telescopes, as well as a short biography and sketches of the multi-talented telescope maker and technical illustrator Russell W. Porter.

Near the Porter exhibit, a small window shows two of the truck wheels upon which the dome rolls.

Updated on a weekly basis, a computer monitor displays short explanations of ongoing astronomical research with the Hale Telescope and its instruments. Find out what is being observed tonight with the Hale Telescope.

The Gallery is open during the observatory's regular visiting hours. Please note that public access to the Gallery requires climbing several dozen steps. For those unable to climb steps and do not require a wheelchair, limited elevator access is offered using a small passenger elevator, see Visiting Palomar for details. Wheelchair access to the Gallery and the P200 dome is not available at this time.

The Visitors Gallery at observation level in the P200 dome (Palomar Observatory/California Institute of Technology)

Truck wheels on which the P200 dome rolls as seen through a window in the Visitors Gallery (Palomar Observatory/California Institute of Technology)