But tonight is different. As I stared outside my window while working on math problem set, I can see only darkness with some streetlights. Since I turn on the light in my room, the sky outside is completely dark – not a single star shows up. Then, I notice a tiny orange spot. It’s definitely not an airplane or Jupiter since it stays stationary. What else could it be? (I’m pretty sure that it’s not an UFO also) So, I take another picture from my digital camera and compare with the one taken during a day. It’s the area indicated by a red circle. (The camera makes everything look so much brighter than what is seen by naked eyes) Suddenly, I realize that the light must come from one of the most famous places in astronomy history – the Mount Wilson Observatory.
The Mount Wilson Observatory (MWO) is located on the peak of, well, Mount Wilson at 5715 foot above sea level. It contains two important telescopes: the 60-inch Hale telescope and the 100-inch Hooker telescope.
The Hale telescope was once the largest operational telescope in the world allowing many scientific procedures, e.g. parallax measurements, nebula photography. The Hooker telescope, also, was once the largest telescope until the 200-inch telescope at Palomar Observatory was built (which is also called Hale telescope.) Here, Edwin Hubble, a prominent astronomer, made the discovery of redshift which leads to the conclusion that the universe is expanding.
It’s true that the MWO appears as a tiny dot outside my window. However, its place in the astronomy history gives me some inspiration (at least enough for me to write this post!) To be true, the scene of parking lot with an orange flickering spot is not bad at all.
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