| Mount Wilson Observatory |
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An observatory near Pasadena, California, located on Mount Wilson at an altitude of 1,750 metres (5,700 feet). The first instrument built there was a horizontal solar telescope in 1904, a project initiated by George E. Hale. Two solar tower telescopes were added in the next few years, first a "60-foot" then a "150-foot" in 1910. A 1.5-metre (60-inch) reflecting telescope was begun in 1904 and brought into service in 1908. The mirror blank had been a birthday present to Hale from his father. It was the largest telescope in the world until the opening of the "100-inch" (2.5-metre) Hooker Telescope in 1917. Until 1985, the observatory was operated by the Carnegie Institution. From 1948 to 1970 it was administered jointly with Palomar Observatory under the title "Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatories". From 1970 to 1980 the name was changed to "Hale Observatories". Between 1980 and 1985, Mount Wilson Observatory became part of the "Mount Wilson and Las Campanas Observatories". Carnegie withdrew from Mount Wilson in 1985, when the Hooker Telescope temporarily ceased operation. From 1985, the solar towers and the 60-inch telescope were operated by Harvard University and the astronomy departments of the University of Southern California and the University of California at Los Angeles. The Hooker Telescope was subsequently renovated and brought back into use in 1993. The Mount Wilson site also has several optical and infrared interferometers. The largest, scheduled to start operation in 1998, is Georgia State University's CHARA array. (CHARA stands for Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy.) It consists of five 1-metre (40-inch) telescopes arranged in a "Y" shape on a 400-metre-diameter circle. See also: Las Campanas Observatory. |