Nighttime view of Palomar Observatory dome with its shutter open. This dome at the Palomar Observatory in California houses the 200-inch Hale telescope, a reflector telescope completed in 1948 and named after the astronomer George Ellery Hale. Palomar Observatory was the site of the first observation of a brown dwarf star and the first optical spectrum obtained from a quasar. It is owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).