HomeCity NewsHale Family Celebrates Scientist’s 154th Birthday

Hale Family Celebrates Scientist’s 154th Birthday

First published in the June 30 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.

George Ellery Hale (1868-1938) — a visionary astronomer and astrophysicist, founder of Mount Wilson Observatory, and chief architect of Southern California’s renowned place in American science history — will be celebrated for the first time by 45 of his descendants from across the U.S. throughout the weekend of Hale’s 154th birthday, June 30 to July 2.
Hale was a scientist and a maker of institutions. Beyond securing funding from the Carnegie Institution and designing the largest telescopes in existence during and after his lifetime, he also contributed to the culture of Southern California as co-founder of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), prime mover behind the Huntington Library and Art Gallery, overseer of Pasadena Civic Center’s master plan, co-publisher of “The Astrophysical Journal” in 1895 that is still published today, and developer of plans for the 200-inch telescope at Palomar Observatory.
Hale family members will celebrate G.E. Hale’s birthday, tour Caltech, visit Pasadena’s Hale Solar Lab and explore the entire Mount Wilson facility, with access to the 60-inch, 100-inch and Solar telescopes designed and built by Hale.
The Mount Wilson visit culminates in a public event Saturday July 2, at 5:30 p.m., where speaker Wendy Freedman will present “George Ellery Hale and The Century that Changed Cosmology.” After the presentation, the public is invited to picnic on the grounds and use the telescopes after dark.
For more information, visit mtwilson.edu/lectures.

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