The Observatories building, designed by Myron Hunt and hiding in a residential area on Santa Barbara Street, is not often open to the public, so I was excited to snoop around inside. There's an expansive interior yard, a machine shop my husband would trade the house, me, and even the dog for, and some solar telescopes I didn't get to see because the line was too long. And more. Science. It takes up space.
The Hale Library is named for George Ellery Hale, one of Pasadena's most multi-talented early citizens. An astronomer, he founded Mount Wilson Observatory among others, and also mentored Edwin Hubble. Hale was a civic minded type, instrumental in how Pasadena's civic center was laid out. The Pasadena Permit Center building, kitty-corner to City Hall, is named for him.
The open house was pretty cool. I got a lot of pictures. I'll pepper them in here on the old blog from time to time. To take this picture, my camera looked through a pair of Rainbow Glasses (made in Reseda!) that demonstrated a fancy-looking machine so popular I never got near it.
Were you there in the crowd? If you got a look at that machine I'll be interested to know what you saw through your Rainbow Glasses.
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