The Great Palomar Telescope
By Helen Wright
Faber & Faber | 1953 | ISBN: N/A | scanned PDF | 176 pages | 20.9 mb
The giant telescope, erected on Mount Palomar in California, is the greatest wonder of the modern world. Miss Wright's intimate description, and the numerous drawings and photographs with which the book is illustrated, will be meat and drink to those who cannot go and see this marvellous instrument for themselves--as 150,000 fortunate Americans have done in the last twelve months.
Like the 100-inch Mount Wilson reflector-previously the largest telescope in the world-the 200-inch Palomar reflector was not the automatic result of American desire to beat all records. Both telescopes were built because one man-George Ellery Hale-was filled with a passionate determination that they should be built. The successful construction of the Palomar telescope is an epic story of triumph over defeat and disaster.
In Miss Wright's telling it loses nothing of its excitement-up to the appalling moment when the first observation was made, and the great
mirror yielded a hopelessly confused image.
About the Author
Miss Wright is a professional American astronomer, educated in England and Switzerland, and at Vassar College. She has worked in the Vassar College Astronomy Department, the U.S. Naval Observatory, the Mount Wilson Observatory, and the Maria Mitchell Observatory. She wrote the biography of Maria Mitchell, the first American woman astronomer; and has the rare capacity of humanizing her expert knowledge.
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 7
PREFACE 9
PROLOGUE 15
ORIGIN OF THE TELESCOPE 17
BIRTH OF THE TELESCOPE 50
PALOMAR MOUNTAIN 81
A 200-INCH MIRROR 96
TELESCOPE AND DOME 136
DEDICATION OF THE HALE TELESCOPE 167
