Chapter 1: George Ellery Hale Today we proudly launch ‘Discovering Mount Wilson,’ a special series that will showcase some of the most important news, discoveries and events to take place on the mountaintop since its founding in 1904. We begin with the founder himself - George...
Chapter Two of “Discovering Mount Wilson” presents the first instrument constructed on Mount Wilson, completed in 1905 -- the Snow Solar Telescope. The Snow Solar Telescope (SST) remains the largest instrument on the mountain and is easily spotted not only for its size, but also...
Today we celebrate the 153rd birthday of founder George Ellery Hale (born June 29, 1868) by presenting Chapter three of ‘Discovering Mount Wilson’ - a short overview of the accomplishments of his Snow Solar Telescope, the first instrument constructed on Mount Wilson. It consists of...
We continue “Discovering Mount Wilson” with Chapter four, highlighting the 60-foot Solar Tower Telescope. George Ellery Hale knew he needed something to correct the distorted images caused by the sun heating the ground when using the Snow Solar Telescope. His solution? Build a telescope with...
Chapter five of ‘Discovering Mount Wilson’ brings us to the 60-inch telescope. Under direction of Observatory founder George Ellery Hale, it was completed in 1908 and was the world’s largest operational telescope until he went on to finish the Mount Wilson 100-inch telescope in 1917. [caption...
We continue ‘Discovering Mount Wilson’ with Chapter six and the discovery of the Milky Way's true size and shape. From Earth, the Milky Way appears as a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by...
Today we proudly continue ‘Discovering Mount Wilson’ with Chapter seven of our series, celebrating the most iconic item on the mountain, the magnificent 100-inch telescope - the largest operating telescope in the world between 1917 and 1949. [caption id="attachment_7251" align="alignright" width="300"] Founder George Ellery Hale, conferring...
In Chapter eight of our series ‘Discovering Mount Wilson,’ we showcase Edwin Hubble’s discovery of the true nature of the extragalactic universe, with the use of the 100-inch telescope. Edwin Hubble (1889-1953) joined the staff of Mount Wilson in 1919 right around the same time as...
Image caption: Edwin Hubble seated at Mount Wilson Observatory 100-inch ‘Hooker’ telescope. Image courtesy of the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science Collection at the Huntington Library.In Chapter nine of our series ‘Discovering Mount Wilson,’ we continue showcasing the discoveries made with the 100-inch telescope,...
Image caption: Cleve Robert Ferguson (1938-2018) - co-founder and member of the Board of Trustees of the Mount Wilson Institute and Arthur Harris Vaughan, Jr. (1934 - 2015) - co-founder, one-time director, and trustee of the Mount Wilson Institute. Chapter 10 of our series ‘Discovering Mount Wilson’ continues...