George Ellery Hale - Honors

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.

George Ellery Hale (June 29, 1868 – February 21, 1938) was an American solar astronomer, born in Chicago.

In 1890 he was appointed director of the Kenwood Astrophysical Observatory;

He helped found a number of observatories, including Yerkes Observatory and Mount Wilson Observatory. At Mount Wilson, he hired and encouraged Harlow Shapley and Edwin Hubble and did a great deal of fundraising, planning, organizing and promotion of astronomical institutions, societies and journals. Hale also played a central role in the development of Pasadena's California Institute of Technology (Caltech) into a leading research university.

Honors

Awards

Henry Draper Medal in 1904. Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1904.

Named after him

Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory. Hale Middle School Woodland Hills, CA

Obituaries

ApJ 87 (1938) 369 JRASC 32 (1938) 192 MNRAS 99 (1939) 322 PASP 50 (1938) 156