Mount Wilson Observatory, astronomical observatory observatory, scientific facility especially equipped to detect and record naturally occurring scientific phenomena. Although geological and meteorological observatories exist, the term is generally applied to astronomical observatories.
..... Click the link for more information. located in California on Mt. Wilson, near Pasadena. Mt. Wilson Observatory was founded in 1904 by George E. Hale Hale, George Ellery, 1868–1938, American astronomer, b. Chicago, grad. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1890. He founded and directed three great observatories (Yerkes, Mt.
..... Click the link for more information. . Its equipment includes 100-in. (2.5-m) and 60-in. (1.50-m) reflecting telescopes telescope, traditionally, a system of lenses, mirrors, or both, used to gather light from a distant object and form an image of it. Traditional optical telescopes, which are the subject of this article, also are used to magnify objects on earth and in astronomy;
..... Click the link for more information. and two solar-tower telescopes 150 ft. (46 m) and 60 ft. (18 m) in length. The most recent addition is the CHARA (Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy) array operated by Georgia State Univ.; it consists of six 39-in. (1-m) aperture telescopes arranged in a Y-shape and contained in a 1,300-ft (400-m) diameter circle. When it becomes operational in 2000, the signals from the six telescopes will be combined and analyzed by a computer using optical interferometry techniques, producing the equivalent of the light-gathering power of a single telescope with a 1,300-ft (400-m) aperture. Principal research programs that have been conducted at the observatory include studies of the structure and dimensions of the universe and the physical nature, chemical composition, and evolution of celestial bodies. An ongoing program on the 60-in. telescope is a long-term study of singly ionized calcium lines to monitor sunspot cycles on nearby solar-type stars. The CHARA array will measure details of the surfaces of stars like the sun; the movements of double stars orbiting around each other and of planets orbiting distant stars; and planet formation around stars. The observatory, along with the Palomar Observatory (see under Palomar Mountain Palomar Observatory, operated by the California Institute of Technology. The Hale telescope there, completed in 1948 and named for its creator George E. Hale , was the world's largest reflecting telescope (200 in.
..... Click the link for more information. ), was formerly part of the

Hale Observatories, which were jointly administered by the California Institute of Technology and the Carnegie Institution. In 1986 the Carnegie Institution transferred the observatory's management to the newly formed Mount Wilson Institute.

Mount Wilson Observatory

Astronomical observatory located atop Mount Wilson, near Pasadena, California, U.S. Founded in 1904 by George Ellery Hale (1868–1938), it was operated jointly with Palomar Observatory as Hale Observatories (1948–80). Its largest optical telescope, with a diameter of 100 in. (2.5 m), enabled Edwin Hubble and his associates to discover evidence of an expanding universe and to estimate its size.