Last Friday Cameron and I went to the observatory with my sister and two nephews.

The round dome is an observatory room.  It isn't used anymore and I didn't get a picture of the big one.

The grounds were very beautiful!  There were georgeous dog woods.

The picture doesn't do it justice.  It was an almost unnatural shade of pink. But they look very different up close.

Cameron loves to spend time with his cousins.

Jesse (the eldest and on the right) is going through a non-smiling phase. (Please don't rub off on Cameron!)

The main telescope is enormous.  I think they said it was 45 feet long.  It is an entity unto itself and the dome is built around it.

The wood floor moves up and down the equivelant of two full stories.  The dome roof only has one slit that opens but it also rotates.  They can look at just about any angle in the sky.

Cameron got to move the telescope.

We weren't able to observe the night sky as it was not only cloudy but also raining.  I think I was more dissappointed than the boys.

We also viewed the smaller telescope and we were able to view inside it.  They had postage stamps in between the two lenses.  That is the width apart that the lenses must be.  Cameron is checking it out.