Mount Laguna Observatory, 2004 Summer


Sunset, seen from the catwalk of the 40-inch telescope, heralds another perfect night. Fog in the valley smothers the lights from the city.


The 40-inch telescope begain service on Mount Laguna in 1981. Its state-of-the-art CCD 2001 camera, inside the cylindrical gold Dewar, was made in the CCD Laboratory at San Diego State.


Fresno State student Dan Chase opens the 40-inch telescope's dome at the beginning of the night.


San Diego State Professor of Astronomy Bill Welsh, in the control room of the 40-inch telescope, observes a gravitational microlensing event.


In front of Harrington Visitors' Center, on Mount Laguna


The trail up to the 21-inch telescope


Approaching the 21-inch telescope


The 21-inch telescope is used primarily for educational eyepiece observing by students.


The deck around the 21-inch telescope has a sundial, at right.


The view from the 21-inch telescope's deck


Going back down to the Harrington Visitors' Center


Passing the Harrington Visitors' Center, with the museum at far right and the classroom at center


The trail to the 40-inch telescope


Approaching the 40-inch telescope


The 40-inch telescope is the primary science instrument at Mount Laguna Observatory.


Passing the 40-inch telescope, approaching the machine shop


Mount Laguna Observatory has this fully equipped machine shop.


The dormitory at Mount Laguna Observatory, a stalwart structure with thick concrete walls, is fine for day sleepers.


The dorm's library is where astronomers pass occasional cloudy nights.


The 16-inch telescope's dome is being renovated to house the new 1-m ULTRA telescope.


The view from next to the 16-inch telescope's dome


The trail to the 24-inch telescope


Approaching the 24-inch telescope


The dome of the 24-inch telescope


Fresno State student Dan Chase in front of the dome of the 24-inch telescope. To the right is the summit of Mount Laguna, planned home for a 3-m robotic telescope, the largest in the world. On it now is the NSF-funded High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network (HPWREN), the microwave data link between the observatory and San Diego State University's campus.


The view from the summit of Mount Laguna


The trail down from the summit of Mount Laguna


Further down the trail, approaching the dorm


This view from near the campground, futher down Mount Laguna, shows one reason Mount Laguna is such a fine observatory site: the haze layer is trapped below the observatory by a temperature inversion.



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