Mount Wilson


George Ellery Hale founded the Mount Wilson Observatory in 1904. Hale was a prominent contributor to the field of astrophysics. The observatory was designed to be on the forefront of astrophysics. It is located on top of a mountain at 5,000ft high. Initially Hale worked up at the location with some of his colleagues in in order to develop new ways of learning about the night sky. Eventually in 1908 Hale had a 60-inch telescope built which is still there today. In 1917 the hundred-inch telescope was also built atop the mountain. At the time it was built it was the largest telescope in the whole world. Initially Mount Wilson was supposed to be a part of the University of Southern California campus and was only going to contain a 40-inch telescope. Before the final decision was made however, Southern California experienced a particularly harsh winter. It is because of this and other obstacles such as miscommunications between Edward Pickering (the USC funder) and that the observatory was never constructed for USC. This is how Hale was able to build his observatory at Mount Wilson. The lease was signed by Hale for the observatory even before the construction plans were approved. He signed a 99 year lease with the toll road company in order to have access to the land where the observatory would be built. The 40 acres of land was given to Hale for free because it was assumed that the laid would pay for itself over time in profit from tourists. There have been several significant scientific discoveries made at the Mount Wilson Observatory. Edwin Hubble worked there when he discovered that the universe is expanding and Albert Michelson accurately found the speed of light there. It was also discovered by Harlow Shapely that our solar system is near the edge of the milky way instead of in the middle of it.

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