BBSO

[rjgjr]

On my recent trip to Southern California the wife and I took a drive up to Big Bear Lake east of Los Angeles where I spent many summer nights laying out under the stars as a young teen back in the 60's. I watched them build the Big Bear Solar Observatory over the course of several summers. The elevation of the lake is about 7,000' and I understand they built the observatory out into the lake for atmosphere stabilization. Knowing nothing about solar observing or imaging, I have recently read and seen images of the new 1.6 meter optics that received first light back in July. The Observatory is now run by the New Jersey Institute of Technology. They have limited tours and looks like they weren't observing this day as the structure door was closed. I just thought this might be interesting to some of you!

[markt]

Fantastic stuff Richard!  Big Bear is one of the many places I would love to be able to go along to take a look at.  Thanks for sharing

[Conor McDonald]

That looks like a really cool place indeed. I would love to see the sky from there!

[John9929]

Lovely images Richard of a place I would love to visit! The idea of building a solar observatory on a causeway seems to have been copied quite a lot for the reason you suggest. This is the San Fernando Valley Solar Observatory that I visited in 1976, if I can remember correctly the main instrument was 24-inch aperature.

[DaveH64]

Interesting to see, looks a great set up.

[JohnC]

Very good,Richard,glad you zoomed in too,really interesting.

[martinastro]

Excellent Richard, I could imagine how clear and steady the atmosphere must be from there - great location and congrats on getting the great images, 2nd and 3rd are fantastic.