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News from Mount Wilson: Huell Howser featured Mount Wilson Observatory in a one-hour California's Gold special airing on Southern California PBS stations in June and July. Airtimes are: KCET, Los Angeles, Sunday, June 20 at 7 pm & Saturday, June 26 at 7 pm; KVIE, Sacramento, Thursday, July 1 at 8 pm; KVPT, Fresno, Thursday, July 1 at 8 pm & Sunday, July 18 at 7 pm; KVCR, San Bernardino, Thursday, July 1 at 8 pm. Don't miss it! Professor Charles Townes, leader of Berkeley's Infrared Spatial Interferometer on Mount Wilson and Nobel Laureate for his invention of the maser, reflects on the fiftieth anniversary of the laser. The Michelson Prize, a new award in the field of optical interferometry is being co-sponsered by the Mount Wilson Institute and the International Astronomical Union. New images from the CHARA Array showing the eclipse in the mysterious 27-year binary system epsilon Aurigae have been published in Nature. 2010 Mount Wilson Calendar is now available for on-line ordering 60-inch Telescope Model - Reserve one from a second edition
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Constructed in 1908, George Ellery Hale used this telescope to identify magnetic fields in sunspots, the first time that a magnetic field had been shown to exist outside of the Earth. His discovery used an effect previously identified in the laboratory, the Zeeman effect, that causes spectral lines into multiple components. Working in the field of solar seismology, a field created at Mount Wilson, astronomers use the 60-foot solar tower to study wave-like motions of the Sun's visible surface, which in turn convey information about the hidden solar interior. This project is operated by USC as part of the High Degree Helioseismology Network. Behind the 60-foot Tower is the oldest telescope on the mountain, the Snow solar telescope. |