A few weeks ago I signed up for an astrophotography class. Here we are in the middle of an historic drought, and my class was rained out. Instead we got the full tour of the place, which was pretty cool. Here are my favorites:

The Hooker Telescope. This was the largest telescope in the world from 1917 through 1948. The guy next to me had a fancy light gun and I kept the lens open for 4 secs while he was playing with it.


Another shot of the Hooker. On this one I played around, removed the roof and shopped in some stars, just to imagine what it might have looked like if the sky had been clear (although the open area is exaggerated).


An old tank.


This is a solar telescope. The sun's light is directed down the tower into a sensor at the base.


Since I'm a landscape junkie, I had to grab a few shots of the countryside around the observatory. This one is very close to the main observatory housing the Hooker.


Looking down over the city of Los Angeles at twilight.

[Bob Harris]

Wow Jerry, these are great shots of a very interesting place to visit. Thanks for sharing, very interesting.

[slowpez]

Congrats on the rain. Doubt that it was enough to do much good. Sure wish we could send you some. That looks to be quite a place. TFS.

[charliezap]

A very nicely done interesting series Jerry.--charliezap

[TER-OR]

Thanks for sharing, these are very good.

[Sailor]

I'd love to see this place - much about the universe has been learned on that telescope.

Great shots.

Jer

[GeoJerry]

thanks to all who commented on threes shots! It's well worth a visit if you're ever in LA but not easy to get to.