Night at Mt. Wilson Observatory

I recently spent a half-night with a group, observing through the historic 60" reflector.

The 60" is the largest telescope dedicated primarily to public use and outreach. You can rent the telescope for a half-night or a full night. Currently, it's $900 for a half-night, or $1700 for a full night. How much that works out per person depends on how many people you bring in your group (up to 25), and if your group is also planning to rent a bus.

In our case, we rented a bus. And our group size was 25. That made it $125 per person, which is pretty steep, but a price I was willing to pay for my first view through the big telescope.

Unfortunately, the skies at Mt. Wilson are far from dark. That means that even with the 60" of aperture, some extended objects are less impressive here than through an 11" telescope from truly dark skies. Resolution is better, of course, so if seeing is good, you can see better detail on planets and split double or resolve individual stars in globular clusters easily.

The 60" telescope is also limited to objects more than 35 degrees above the horizon. That excludes the heart of the summer Milky Way. I was a little disappointed to learn that.

Of course, if you've never observed under a really dark sky with a moderate-ly large telescope, this will be by far the most impressive view you'll ever have. Also, on planets, the views are superior.

I've attached some shots I took, mostly from inside the dome, after dark. They have numerous red nights around the one end of the dome, so seeing inside is not a problem. It's tough to photograph, though, especially without a tripod.

It's also hard to focus in the dark. I semi-solved the latter problem by stopping my lens down to f/8. Of course, the aggravates the long exposure problem. Still, with enough careful bracing, I'm satisfied with my results.

Objects we viewed included Saturn, M57 (the Ring Nebula), the Cat's Eye Nebula (don't recall that NGC number, off-hand), M13, M92, another planetary nebula, several double stars or significant stars (Barnard's Star, for example), and a comet). M57 was definitely nice, with the central star apparently visible. Of course, had they added an O3 filter. . . ?

Saturn looked great, but the view was too short.

Overall, worth a trip, but less of a quantum leap in viewing experience over what I had seen before. Then again, I've been to much darker places with fair-sized telescopes. For those less telescopically endowed, the experience is undoubtedly more impressive.