biography
| name: |
Hale, George Ellery
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1868–1938)
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| biography:
| Astronomer, born in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Doctors thought him too intense and anxious as a child, and he suffered three breakdowns in his lifetime. While a student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he made astronomical observations at his own ‘Kenwood Observatory’ at his home. In 1889, while on a Chicago trolleybus, he got the idea for the spectroheliograph, an instrument for measuring solar prominences in the daytime. His main work as an astronomer was in solar research, and he wrote some 450 articles and books. Cognizant of the importance of institutions in fostering science, he co-founded the Astrophysical Journal (1895), held the organizing meeting of the American Academy of Sciences (1899), and established the National Research Council (1916). His most enduring monuments are the three observatories he established. First he built a 40-in telescope for the Yerkes Observatory, Chicago, which he directed (1892–1904). Then he built a 100-in telescope for Mt Wilson, near Pasadena, CA which he directed (1904–23). His poor physical condition forced him to retire from Mt Wilson, but in 1928 he returned to lead the construction of a new observatory for the California Institute of Technology at Mt Palomar, near San Diego, CA, for which he designed a 200-in telescope; it was not installed until 1948, when it was named the Hale telescope. In 1970 the two California observatories were named The Hale Observatories in his honour. |
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