Hale, Hubble, and  the History of LA's Mount Wilson Observatory and Southern California Astronomy
Channel: Long Beach Public Library
Date: 2022-03-11

The Miller Special Collections Room is very pleased to announce the kickoff of our first Starry Starry Night Lecture Series, entitled "Hale, Hubble, and  the History of LA's Mount Wilson Observatory and Southern California Astronomy."

Enjoy a fascinating presentation featuring Dr. John Mulchaey, astrophysicist and the Director/Crawford H. Greenewalt Chair of the Carnegie Observatories.  Astronomer George Ellery Hale, along with the support of industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, conceived and built the now-historic Mount Wilson Observatory in 1904 atop Mt. Wilson in Los Angeles.  This observatory contains two telescopes, groundbreaking in their time -- the sixty-inch Hale reflecting telescope (completed in 1908) and the 100-inch Hooker telescope (1917) -- the latter of which was used by Sir Edwin Hubble to discover and photograph the first galaxies known to humankind, among many other notable achievements.

This discussion will explore the local history, astrophotography, and rich astronomical legacy of the Mount Wilson Observatory and the history of Southern California astronomy.   Mount Wilson's stellar achievements and discoveries have illuminated an ever-expanding universe of astronomical study, technological innovation, and exploration around the world -- and continue to contribute to the growth and development of a luminous array of academic/government/non-profit research programs and commercial enterprises in the space sciences, especially across the greater LA area and Southern California.