[HN Gopher] It's lights out at a cosmic restaurant
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       It's lights out at a cosmic restaurant
        
       Author : Brajeshwar
       Score  : 34 points
       Date   : 2024-08-05 14:43 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.nytimes.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.nytimes.com)
        
       | selimthegrim wrote:
       | I went there last summer and the site is large but not
       | unwalkable. Maybe they could have opened it to tourists. Other
       | than the nearby campground you have to drive down the mountain
       | quite a bit to get to the nearest store/town.
        
         | Teknomancer wrote:
         | Used to live on Mt. Palomar just below the Observatory. Magical
         | place and time in my life. Sometimes I would drive my old Benz
         | down the hill to Pauma valley or further south through Valley
         | Center into Escondido or sometimes north to Temecula. But often
         | I found myself going up over the hill into the small and quaint
         | town of Julian.
         | 
         | The Observatory was a place I often found myself visiting at
         | night, to enjoy star watching events and the dinner services
         | were equally excellent and magical.
         | 
         | Fond memories. Sad to see it go.
        
           | selimthegrim wrote:
           | So they did let the public eat there
        
         | selimthegrim wrote:
         | Apparently, there is a vegetarian restaurant next to the
         | general store past the campground.
        
       | CalRobert wrote:
       | "... But as the popularity of remote observing from home cuts
       | into observatories' customer bases, the practice has waned...."
       | 
       | Echoes of the impact of wfh on restaurants near offices here. I
       | suppose it's much nicer to not have to schlep yourself out to the
       | middle of nowhere but something is lost.
        
         | Waterluvian wrote:
         | This is something I grapple with a lot. Convenience is
         | _probably_ an improvement, but now the journey is shorter to
         | all the destinations.
        
       | nonrandomstring wrote:
       | > Palomar Observatory in Southern California, home to the famous
       | 200-inch Hale Telescope -- the "Big Eye" -- has closed the
       | kitchen that served elegant sit-down meals to astronomers during
       | their observing runs.
       | 
       | A real life Milliways! [0]
       | 
       | [0] https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Milliways
        
       | toomuchtodo wrote:
       | https://archive.today/yO2Ub
        
       | kristjansson wrote:
       | While it doesn't quite recreate the dinner atmosphere of the
       | article, the Mt. Wilson Observatory hosts a range of events[1]
       | every year, mostly to support the maintenance of site. If you're
       | in southern California, pay it a visit!
       | 
       | [1]: https://www.mtwilson.edu/events/
        
       | Animats wrote:
       | Other isolated research places had things like that. Fermilab has
       | (had?) Chez Leon. The Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton
       | is proud of their wine cellar.
        
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       (page generated 2024-08-05 23:00 UTC)