Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Journey to Palomar on Planetary Radio

This week the Planetary Society's on-line show Planetary Radio profiles The Journey to Palomar and interviews filmmakers Robin and Todd Mason. Check it out here.


Sunday's screening of the new documentary inside the dome of the Hale Telescope was a big hit. Above is a webcam shot from during the screening. That's Ronald Florence, author of The Perfect Machine, on the big screen. After the show, we opened the dome for our guests.

More shots later in the week.

p.s. Don't forget to vote today!

2 comments:

Edward said...

The screening was awesome! I personally have now seen this documentary three times. My first time was at the Hale Solar Lab, then at the Temecula Valley Film Festival with a sold out crowd, and now at Palomar in the dome!

I can not quite put in to words what it was like to be watching the Journey to Palomar while sitting in the dome under the Hale telescope. It was quite a feeling indeed to be watching a story about a great man while sitting under one of his greatest achievements.

Having the creators of the documentary and the staff of the observatory on hand only added another layer of depth to the enjoyment.

When the dome shutters opened at the end of the film, it provided the wonderful effect of the house lights coming up in a theater that made some on the observing floor tear up.

It was definitely a once in a lifetime event that I am not likely to forget. I would like to say a big thank you to all that made it happen! If you have not yet seen the film, I HIGHLY recommend it!

Kevin Kawai said...

Scott, thank you so much for inviting Celestron as your guests to watch the advanced screening of "Journey to Palomar." Corey, Derek, Jason, Mark and myself enjoyed the presentation very much, and it was quite a thrill for us to be able to sit under the 200" Hale Telescope with other guests while watching the documentary film. I couldn't help but think about the old black and white photograph of guests sitting under the same telescope during the grand opening ceremony many, many decades ago. Robin and Todd Mason did a superb job of making this documentary film to help educate people throughout the world on the history of Palomar Observatory. I learned so much from this film, in addition to your wonderful, informative behind the scenes, VIP tour. I will never hesitate to recommend other astronomy enthusiasts to make their own "Journey to Palomar" trek someday. It's definitely worth the drive to visit Palomar Observatory at least once in a person's lifetime. I look forward to meeting up with you again in the future. From all the Celestron Reps who accompanied me last Sunday, we thank you very much. It was awesome! More photos from this event are already up on celestronlife.com.