Drawing by R. W. Porter depicting an interior view of Mount Palomar Observatory showing a 48-inch telescope, 1939

Photograph of a drawing by R. W. Porter depicting an interior view of Mount Palomar Observatory showing a 48-inch telescope, 1939. In the center of the image, a telescope that looks like a stumpy truncated cone rests on a horseshoe shaped base that supports it through a point of contact on either side of the telescope. To the bottom left, a person slouches in a chair as he looks through the eyepiece of the astronomical insturment. On the bottom right, a man seems to be manipulating the telescope with a control board as he stands next to a steep stairway leading up to a platform.; Photoprint reads: "Because the 200-inch telescope, with its small field of view, cannot explore for interesting objects in the sky, other telescopes on Palomar will serve as scouts. One of these is the 48-inch aperture and 120-inch focal length (F/2.5) scope invented by Bernard Schmidt in Germany fourteen years ago. A single one of its 14x14-inch plates will cover a sky area bout 3,000 times that covered by the 200-inch plate. Note the two guiding telescopes above and below the camera. The camera will be balanced and hung in the fork extension of the polar axial shaft. These smaller scopes will be at work in advance of the 200-inch, enabling the astrologers to map out a program of observations with the large instrument".