A facility built with funds from the Carnegie Institution of Washington and the California Institute of Technology to house the 5-meter (200-inch) Hale Telescope. Work on the observatory began in 1934 but was not completed until after World War II; the Hale Telescope itself was inaugurated in 1948. Palomar Observatory is located on Palomar Mountain, at an altitude of 1,706 m, 80 km (50 miles) northeast of San Diego, California, and operated by the California Institute of Technology. Other instruments at the site include a 1.5-meter (60-inch) reflector, opened in 1970, and the 1.2-meter Oschin Schmidt Telescope, opened in 1948, which was used for the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey.
