Eagle-Eyed Carolyn 30 Comets and Counting

Abstract

Five hundred miles west of the site from which I found Comet Okazaki-Levy-Rudenko, the sun was about to set over Palomar Mountain in Southern California. At Palomar this is like those few moments in a theater when the audience awaits the curtain rising. Slowly, majestically, the dome shutters at this magnificent observatory move apart, revealing the darkening sky whose brightest stars are already tuning up for the overture. The smallest of the four domes houses Palomar’s 18-inch Schmidt, a telescopic camera whose films can record large sweeps of sky—almost 9 degrees across—on a single photograph. Although I have seen hundreds of these observatory nights, I’m still struck by the wonder of the moment the domes open.