Ten Years' Work of a Mountain Observatory: A Brief Account of the Mount Wilson Solar Observatory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

Washington [D.C.]: Carnegie Institution, 1915. First edition and one of the few copies bound in cloth. Small octavo.98, [2. list of officers] pp. Numerous photographic illustratations. Publisher's gray cloth with gilt cover lettering within a white frame. An excellent copy.\"In 1904, the Mount Wilson Observatory was founded by George Ellery Hale under the auspices of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. In that year, Hale brought the Snow Solar Telescope from Yerkes Observatory in southern Wisconsin to the sunnier and steadier skies of Mount Wilson to continue his studies of the Sun. With a small cadre of Yerkes scientists and engineers accompanying him, Hale started what would become the world’s foremost astronomical research facility. Hale put such importance on studying the Sun, that it was called the Mount Wilson Solar Observatory for the first decade and a half. In 1919, soon after the largest telescope in the world, the 100-inch, went into service photographing the stars and nebulae, the word “Solar” was dropped. Hubble used the 100-inch to make his great discoveries–that we are just one of many galaxies in an ever expanding Universe. This telescope lead directly to our current understanding of our origins, the Big Bang model. The 100-inch turns 100 years old this November.Founding the new field of astrophysics (referred to at the time as the “New Astronomy”) Hale sought to understand the physical processes that took place in the Sun and other more distant stars. Hale and his colleagues developed new technologies to extract the information encoded in the light from distant astronomical objects. Combined with an earthbound laboratories where cosmic conditions could be duplicated, this small group of pioneering scientists began the long process of deciphering the light from objects that only new, powerful telescopes and instruments could detect, unlocking the secrets of life and death among the stars. Each new answer brought new questions, and each victory brought new challenges." (Mount Wilson Observatory site).