Palomar Observatory

Palomar Observatory, astronomical observatory on Palomar Mt. 5,660 ft (1,725 m) above sea level, northeast of San Diego, in southern California. Its Hale telescope, with its 200-in (500-cm) reflector, is capable of photographing objects several billion light years away. At the time of its construction (1948), the telescope was the world's largest. The observatory's Schmidt telescopes have photographed all of the northern and half of the southern sky. The Palomar Observatory, the Mount Wilson Observatory, and the Las Campanas Observatory were jointly administered and known collectively as the Hale Observatories until 1980, when the California Institute of Technology assumed separate control of the Palomar Observatory.

See also: Astronomy.