Construction of Palomar Observatory

Palomar Observatory is an astronomical observatory in the mountains of San Diego County in southern California, operated by the California Institute of Technology. Its creation was driven by the astronomer George Ellery Hale, who obtained funding from the Rockefeller Foundation for a very large telescope in the late 1920s. Its main instrument, the 200-inch Hale Telescope, was the largest in the world for decades after seeing first light. Construction was delayed by the Second World War and by the difficulty of making its huge glass mirror. The observatory has been used to study galaxies, quasars and the structure of the universe, and has also hosted survey instruments.

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