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Mount Wilson Observatory celebrates its 100th birthday

When George Ellery Hale started building Mount Wilson Observatory in 20 December 1904, he used mules to carry tonnes of material to the mountaintop because motor vehicles struggled to climb the steep road to the construction site. The observatory would become home to the largest telescopes in the world for the next four decades.

Unfortunately, Hale’s craving for perfection and the responsibility of managing big projects became self-destructive. The overwhelming stress resulted in periods of psychosis that ultimately forced him to spend months in a sanatorium in Maine.

The telescope was eventually completed in 1917, and on the night of 1 November, Hale had the honour of being the first person to stare into the eyepiece.

The man who best exploited the power of the Mount Wilson telescopes was Edwin Hubble, whose first great discovery was to show in 1923 that the faint smudges that populated the heavens were in fact remote galaxies, each one consisting of billions of stars. By measuring the distances to these galaxies, Hubble could estimate the scale of the Universe. Mount Wilson became famous and Hubble became a celebrity.

But Mount Wilson’s dominance began to diminish after the Second World War, when rival telescopes were constructed and the lights of an expanding Los Angeles began to pollute the skies above the San Gabriel Mountains. Today’s astronomers prefer to head to places such as Chile and Hawaii, where observatories are sited on even more remote and higher mountaintops.

However, the spirit of Edwin Hubble, George Ellery Hale and Mount Wilson lives on. For example, the Hubble Space Telescope, in name and ambition, proves that astronomers continue to push the limits of astronomy.

A telescope launched into orbit by a space shuttle might seem far removed from one hauled to a mountaintop by mules, but both are the result of an insatiable curiosity and a never-ending obsession about the Universe.

posted by: kyawoo at 10:57 | link | comments (2) |
astronomy

Comments:

#1  21 December 2004 - 23:55

 

That's a pretty interesting blog...

Incidentally, do you know something super-new about the cosmic strings? Have they gotten Hubble time?

http://motls.blogspot.com/2004/12/astronomers-prove-string-theory.html

Anonymous

#2  23 December 2004 - 14:52

 

I have visited the Wilson Observatory many times, and taken the tour there. Feels like visiting a "once famous" celebrity who is now treated like a has been. It's still an awe inspiring place to visit, and if you go on an overcast day, as you stand on the outdoor deck at the Observatory, you find yourself looking down upon a sea of clouds all about you. Breathtaking.

Anonymous

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