Arts @ the Observatory:
Exhibitions and events in the spirit of founder and polymath George Ellery Hale
FEATURED EXHIBIT
Sarah Rosalena: Standard Candle
Exhibition Viewing Opportunities (FREE): Weekends 1–5PM
May 20 & 21
May 27 & 28
June 3 & 4
June 10 & 11
June 17 & 18
Staged in the observatory’s 100-inch Hooker telescope, the exhibition uses instrumentation and darkness as a lens for examining women’s labor and colonialism, and their role in the advancement of western scientific thought and the imaging of space.
Presented by LACMA’s Art + Technology Lab, in conjunction with Mount Wilson Observatory and Carnegie Observatories.
IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE CALIFORNIA ART CLUB
October 15, 2022 |10AM-4PM FREE
Open House & California Art Club Plein-air Paint/Sculpt-Out
Partnering with California Art Club, the Observatory will provide FREE access to the mountain’s historic buildings, plein-air painting and sculpting throughout the grounds, and a one-day only exhibition of fine art Mars landscapes by members of the Art Club in the Observatory Museum.
Watch artists at work as they create new paintings inspired by the breathtaking views of the San Gabriel Mountains that surround Mount Wilson Observatory. Paint/Sculpt-Outs are held by the CAC at scenic locations throughout the year, allowing both artists and art lovers to gather for some camaraderie as the artists create new works.
Ongoing exhibits
Sunstar
Sunstar is a special art installation created and owned by artist Liliane Lijn and astrophysicist John Vallerga. It is on loan to Mount Wilson Observatory, and can now be seen in a number of locations.
Sunstar is an array of six prisms which take incoming sunlight and refract it, bending the light and spreading it into a spectrum–all the colors of the rainbow. It is mounted near the top of the Observatory’s 150-foot Solar Telescope Tower. With motion controls, it can be remotely directed to project the spectrum to a specific point in the Los Angeles basin. An observer below will see an intense point of light in a single wavelength, shining like a brilliant jewel from the ridgeline of Mount Wilson, 5800 feet above in the San Gabriel Mountains. The prisms can be moved to change the color of light an observer sees, or the observer can walk in one direction or another to change the color. In this case, the observer is actually walking across a giant spectrum some 250 yards long. While still very bright, at the great distances involved, it is perfectly safe to look at a single wavelength of sunlight.