9
Mount Wilson
If I have seen further...
it is because I have a bigger telescope than you.
Anonymous
Astronomers are only satisfied
when there’s a telescope on every molehill.
Jan Bezemer (1938–2012)
We have seen above that George Hale, after building the largest refractor
telescope at the Yerkes observatory, wanted to set up a large observatory in
California on Mount Wilson. Mount Wilson is part of the ridge around the
Los Angeles Valley, north of Pasadena, and overlooks the valley. Initially, Hale
had an observatory in mind with telescopes for researching the Sun, but later he
wanted to set up large telescopes there for nocturnal observations. One needed
to study stars as well before the Sun could be understood. As early as 1894
Hale had persuaded his father, William Ellery Hale (1836–1898), a wealthy
Persiflage of Isaac Newton’s quote If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. Compare
also to the also anonymous If I have not seen as far as others, it is because giants are standing on my shoulders.
Bezemer was a geologist and diplomat at the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, who for many
years represented the Netherlands in the Council of the European Southern Observatory ESO. He made
this remark at a Council meeting in 2005 (it is first hand; I was president of that body at the time), when
the Very Large Telescope VLT with four 8.2-m telescopes had just been put into operation in Chile,
construction of the Atacama Large (sub-)Millimeter Array ALMA with 50 (later 60) dishes at an altitude
of 5000 m in the Andes was well underway and plans were made to build a 50- up to 100-m optical
telescope, the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT, now under construction with a 39-m aperture and
planned for operation in 2025). Although he strongly and effectively supported all these efforts, he could
not resist making this remark.
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license
to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
P. C. van der Kruit, Pioneer of Galactic Astronomy: A Biography of Jacobus C. Kapteyn,
Springer Biographies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55423-1_9
171
Mount Wilson
If I have seen further...
it is because I have a bigger telescope than you.
Anonymous
Astronomers are only satisfied
when there’s a telescope on every molehill.
Jan Bezemer (1938–2012)
We have seen above that George Hale, after building the largest refractor
telescope at the Yerkes observatory, wanted to set up a large observatory in
California on Mount Wilson. Mount Wilson is part of the ridge around the
Los Angeles Valley, north of Pasadena, and overlooks the valley. Initially, Hale
had an observatory in mind with telescopes for researching the Sun, but later he
wanted to set up large telescopes there for nocturnal observations. One needed
to study stars as well before the Sun could be understood. As early as 1894
Hale had persuaded his father, William Ellery Hale (1836–1898), a wealthy
Persiflage of Isaac Newton’s quote If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. Compare
also to the also anonymous If I have not seen as far as others, it is because giants are standing on my shoulders.
Bezemer was a geologist and diplomat at the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, who for many
years represented the Netherlands in the Council of the European Southern Observatory ESO. He made
this remark at a Council meeting in 2005 (it is first hand; I was president of that body at the time), when
the Very Large Telescope VLT with four 8.2-m telescopes had just been put into operation in Chile,
construction of the Atacama Large (sub-)Millimeter Array ALMA with 50 (later 60) dishes at an altitude
of 5000 m in the Andes was well underway and plans were made to build a 50- up to 100-m optical
telescope, the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT, now under construction with a 39-m aperture and
planned for operation in 2025). Although he strongly and effectively supported all these efforts, he could
not resist making this remark.
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license
to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
P. C. van der Kruit, Pioneer of Galactic Astronomy: A Biography of Jacobus C. Kapteyn,
Springer Biographies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55423-1_9
171