The Telescope Builder
I read a short piece of fiction recently that I really thought was good. As with most pieces of fiction, there is a certain degree of truth within it, and, in this case, it is of a factual historical reference to George Ellory Hale. For though the speaker of this short story, reminiscing about his high school alma mater, is fictional, the character of Hale was really like the story describes. Hale was a solar astronomer (1868-1938) born in Chicago, Illinois. Even as an undergrad at MIT, he really made some waves by inventing the spectroheliograph that he used to discover solar vertices and magnetic fields of sunspots.
I read more about him on this website: http://www.mwoa.org/hale.html, and apparently, George Ellery Hale was the founding father of the Mt. Wilson Observatory. What is funny to me is he called his observatory the “monastary”. I always felt like observing in the mountains alone was akin to being like a monk in a monastary. So, in this regard, I can totally relate to Hale.
A motivated man, Hale would work himself to death, and like so many geniuses, would straddle the line between supreme intellect and insanity. He would at times hallucinate while staying up for long hours working. Despite this, he was a major catalyzing force in the founding of the Palomar Observatory and the building of the 200 inch “Hale” telescope.
Anyway, I digress, so here is a link to the great short story I was speaking of originally:
THE TELESCOPE BUILDER by Steve Silkin (published by Eclectica online mag)
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1 opinion for The Telescope Builder
Astroprof
Mar 24, 2008 at 9:24 am
Hale set the tone for American astronomy of his time. He is responsible for many of the observatories that propelled American astronomers into the world spotlight. But, he also suffered from depression. From my readings, he seemed to be propelled by a low self esteem, never feeling as if he had really accomplished enough. That led him to build bigger and better instruments.
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