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Mount Wilson Observatory
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Mount Wilson Observatory Mount Wilson Observatory: telescope
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View of the Andromeda Galaxy (Messier 31, M31).
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Mount Wilson Observatory
Mount Wilson Observatory Mount Wilson Observatory, near Pasadena, California.

Mount Wilson Observatory

observatory, California, United States
Written by
David H. DeVorkin
Senior Curator, Astronomy, Space History Division, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Author of Henry Norris Russell: Dean of American Astronomers and others;...
David H. DeVorkin
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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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...

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