Observing at Palomar

Our present limited operations guidelines.



Please see Palomar Remote Observing resources.

Updated Mon 08 Jun 2020 7:18 am PDT

These pages provide context and information to support observers to propose, plan, conduct, and analyze their Palomar observations.

Observing at Palomar begins with the semi-annual calls for telescope time proposals issued by the various Palomar constituencies: Caltech/Caltech Optical Observatories (COO), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)/JPL Palomar Advisory Committee (JPAC), Yale Astronomy, and National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC).

The COO Proposal Solicitation link has Caltech-specific information on the Palomar proposal process, but some of this information may be of interest to astronomers from other constituencies as well. [more…]

Observers coming to Palomar may want to review these Palomar Observer Travel resources. In particular lodging at the Palomar Monastery must be booked in advance. Visitor keys are available at Monastery check-in. [more…]

P200 supports limited remote observing capabilities for CHIMERA, DBSP, TSpec, WaSP, and WIRC. Interested/eligible parties can find more information on Palomar Remote Observing at our COO Remote Observing page.

The Lead Observer (LO) identified for each P200 night is the single contact point for all scheduling and logistical matters associated with the observing run. Please see the on-line P200 Observing Schedule if you have questions about the LO-designation for an upcoming run.

LOs are responsible for identifying instrument settings at least two weeks before an observing run. [more…]

Please see Palomar Software Resources for information on observation planning, observing, and data reduction software resources.

Any other observing/astronomer support questions should be sent to the Palomar support team.

For feedback on any Palomar topic, please go to the COO Feedback page.