Mount Wilson Observatory

observatory, California, United States

Written by

David H. DeVorkin

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Britannica Editors

History

Mount Wilson Observatory, astronomical observatory located atop Mount Wilson, about 10 miles (16 km) northeast of Pasadena, California. It was established in 1904 by American astronomer George Ellery Hale as a solar-observing station for the Yerkes Observatory, but it soon became an independent observatory funded by the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Hale built a series of ever-larger solar telescopes at the summit of Mount Wilson. In 1908 a 60-inch (152-cm) reflector, then the largest in...