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MOUNT WILSON OBSERVATORY
By: Robin McCollum and Laura Karabasz
History Founded by George Ellery Hale The Mount Wilson Solar Observatory
was first funded by the Carnegie Institute of Washington
Located on top of Mount Wilson (5,715 feet)
60 inch (1.5 m) Hale Telescope Largest telescope in the world at its first
light on December 8, 1908 Allowed the pioneering of spectroscopic
analysis, parallax measurements, nebula photography, and photometric photography
1992, adaptive optics system increased the potential resolution from 0.5-1.0 arc second to 0.07 arc seconds
Largest telescope devoted to public use
100 inch (2.5 m) Hooker Telescope Resolving power of 0.05 arc seconds Took the title of world’s largest telescope upon first light on
November 2, 1917 1919, equipped with an optical astronomical interferometer
which was used to the measure the precise diameter of Betelgeuse, the first time for a star.
1935, silver coating replace with aluminum coating which reflected 50% more light
Hubble determined that some nebulae were actually galaxies outside our own Milky Way
Hubble and Humason discovered the presence of the redshift that indicated the universe is expanding
Closed in 1986 but reopened in 1992 with adaptive optics
Star Cluster
Other Telescopes Solar telescopes to study helioseismology Several arrays that on July 9, 2003, ISI recorded
the first closure phase aperture synthesis measurements in the mid infrared
A 24-inch (610 mm) telescope fitted with an infrared detector used by Eric Becklin in 1966 to determine the center of the Milky Way for the first time
1968, 62-inch (1.6 m) reflecting dish the first large-area near-IR (2.2 µm) survey of the sky was conducted by Gerry Neugebauer and Robert B. Leighton
The central part of the Great Nebula in Andromeda
Significant Discoveries Discovered that the Universe was larger
than imagined and it was expanding Sun was just another star in the Milky
Way Sun is two-thirds away from the center
of our galaxy Discovered other galaxies
How it Works The Wilson telescope relies on adaptive
optics to make a better picture without distortion due to the Earth’s atmosphere