Mount Wilson Observatory

News from Mount Wilson:

4/3/2012 - The Observatory's Cosmic Cafe is now open Friday through Sunday, 10 am until 5 pm. Our program of 1 pm guided tours is once again underway on Saturdays and Sundays.

3/13/2012 - UCLA professor Roger Ulrich's work at the 150-ft Solar Tower telescope is featured in the European magazine International Innovation.

Banner photographs by David Jurasevich.

Mount Wilson Observatory is operated by the Mount Wilson Institute under an agreement with the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The Observatory occupies lands belonging to the USDA Forest Service set aside under a long-term leasehold agreement between CIW and the USDA Forest Service. The Observatory subscribes to the USDA non-discrimination policy as expressed here.

U.S. Forest Service Undertakes a Fire Fuels Reduction Program on Mount Wilson

Mount Wilson Observatory is located on lands owned by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and managed by the U.S. Forest Service. In an effort to reduce fire danger at the Observatory as well as in the area encompassing the broadcast facilities on the mountain, the Forest Service has contracted with RCO Reforesting Company of Yreka, California, to carry out a project whose strategy includes reduction of tree density, removal of competing vegetation, reduction of hazardous fuels, reduction of crown length to promote forest health, and reduction of tree mortality from bark beetles and wildfire. The contractor will employ between 15 and 25 workers who will process about five acres per day. The effort is expected to be completed by the end of the year. A second phase will be carried out in early 2012 and will concentrate on a 60-acre tract inclusive of the northern portion of the Observatory leasehold and extending to the drop off into the West Fork Canyon, an area that had been particularly threatened by the 2009 Station Fire. We are very grateful for this extraordinary effort on the part of the Forest Service to significantly reduce the vulnerability of the Observatory to destruction by wildfire.