The 200 Inch Hale Telescope

On Palomar Mountain

An Addon for Celestia

Copyright © 2008 Selden Ball
All rights reserved.

Contents

0: Introduction

Documentation for the Control Desk: can be seen by right-clicking on the book at the left on the top of the console and selecting "Info".

These Cel:// URLs cause Celestia to display a model of the Hale Telescope and some images created using the telescope itself.

The Hale telescope model and its associated scripts are large and complex. They may take several seconds to load and may cause Celestia to run extremely slowly on some computers.

If Celestia seems to be running very slowly, you might try the lores version of the model: select (run) the script show_lores_models.cel which is in the \scripts\ directory. If that doesn't help, you might as well switch back to the hires version of the model: select (run) the script show_hires_models.cel which is in the \scripts\ directory.

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1: Exterior views

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2: Observing with the Telescope.

For convenience, this initial 1999 PALAO demonstration is viewed from a point-of-view some distance from the telescope, so you don't have to open doors or disable a field of view image.

  • Using PHARO in 1999:

  • Using PHARO in 2006:

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    3: Looking in from outside

    These are viewpoints looking from outside the dome. To see the indicated feature, you may have to type a command or two to eliminate the obstructing dome and fixtures.

    For improved initial performance, most of the dome's internal fixtures are hidden. Use the Demo Desk to enable the display of the dome's interior.

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    4: Inside the dome

    From these viewpoints, you should be able to use your mouse to wander around and look at the models more closely. See also http://www.astro.caltech.edu/palomar/images/cutaway.jpg (500KB)

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    5: Benchmarking

    1. Select this url:
      telescope control desk
    2. wait for the fps to stabilize (about 10 sec)
    3. note fps rate
    4. select (click on) the blue button at the lower left corner of the desk.
      (It will turn green and the picture of the desktop will go away.)
    5. wait for switch and dial models to load (about 2 seconds)
    6. wait for the fps to stabilize (about 10 sec)
    7. note fps rate
    8. See the contents of the "log book" info for a history of performance tests.

    Contents

    s.ball
    December, 2008