BellaOnline Forums Education Astronomy 65 years since the Big Eye was dedicated

Today - June 3, 2013 - is the 65th anniversary of the dedication of the 200-inch Hale telescope at Mt Palomar in California. It was nicknamed "the Big Eye", but formally named for the solar astronomer whose vision created it, George Ellery Hale. Hale never saw it to completion as he died a decade before its dedication.

Read more about Palomar Observatory which stands a mile above the California desert. Its 200-inch mirror was officially impossible to make, but George Ellery Hale's vision inspired a nation in the grip of the Great Depression and it became the jewel in the crown of astronomy for the second half of the twentieth century.

Here's a beautiful picture of the dome of the Hale telescope. It was taken at sunset, turning the dome pink, with a risen gibbous Moon above. Palomar Observatory at sunset

Today is the birth anniversary of George Ellery Hale (June 29, 1868 – February 21, 1938). He was a prominent solar astronomer, who made a number of discoveries in his field.

But perhaps his most lasting contribution to astronomy was founding three major observatories: Yerkes, Mt Wilson and Palomar. Each one in turn featured the largest telescope in the world and was a big step forward in telescope technology and the discoveries that could be made.