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Mt. Palomar, California
The telescope on Mt. Palomar was the largest telescope in the world for many years. It's 200-inch mirror was a marvel of engineering for it's time, and about as large as mirrors could go by the old manufacturing process- a solid casting method. There was a 237-inch mirror in Russia, but my understanding was it's image quality was not as good. Nowadays, thin mirrors are cast and computer-controlled actuators keeps it's shape precise no matter what angle it's tilted at. The actuators can even compensate for atmospheric distortion by adapting continuously, making images even sharper than possible with the mirror itself.
©1997, Jeffrey L. Cooper
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