Good News Everyone!
You may recall the terrible fires of last year in the San Gabriel mountains, and the scare about whether the Mount Wilson facility might have been overrun by flames. There were Tolkienesque scenes of flaming mountains, dramatic battles on mountaintops, and so forth. No Balrogs were involved (a far as I know), but it was nail-biting enough for many.
One of the fallouts (fallsout?) of this was that the public access to the Observatory needed to be suspended. This included the ability to reserve access to the famous 60 inch telescope for your own use for an evening, an activity that I have highly recommended (from first hand experience) here on the blog.
Well, I can happily announce (I heard this from my friend Shelley Bonus who works 
there – you can see her in the picture to the right that you can click for a larger view) that the facility is open again, and you can rush to the website to plan your next visit. Do consider taking a party of friends, and/or your bingo, yahtzee, chess, or model ship-building group, etc., up for an evening of pure fun, using an historic telescope to look deep into the heavens and appreciate the wonder that is the universe just above your head. Have a look at my old post for the significance of the telescopes at the Observatory, and a description of the visit I did with a group of writers, led by my friend Aimee Bender who generously invited me along.
-cvj
Hi,
I think it is very much up to you… The schedule is viewable online. Book early to avoid disappointment. I am not sure of optimizing things with regards weather, etc, as I don’t know what the patterns are up there… Is the telescope affected by June gloom, for example? I have no idea, but I doubt it… I think it pokes up above the low-lying clouds/fog. Shelley or other docent (if reading) might be able to say more.
Enjoy! (Don’t forget to take a picnic!)
-cvj
When’s the best time to go this summer, Clifford?
Pingback: Tweets that mention Mount Wilson Open For Business! at Asymptotia -- Topsy.com