Hale, George Ellery

Hale, George Ellery

(1868–1938) astronomer; born in Chicago. Doctors thought him too intense and anxious as a child (and he would suffer 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 trolley, 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 cofounded 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-inch telescope for the Yerkes Observatory, in Chicago, which he directed (1892–1904). Then he built a 100-inch telescope for Mt. Wilson, near Pasadena, Calif., 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, Calif., for which he designed a 200-inch 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 honor.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Hale, George Ellery

 

Born June 29, 1868, in Chicago; died Feb. 21, 1938, in Pasadena, Calif. American astronomer. Member of the National Academy of Sciences (1902).

Hale graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1890 and became a professor at the University of Chicago in 1897. He was director of the Yerkes Observatory from 1895 to 1905 and of the Mount Wilson Observatory from 1904 to 1923. Hale’s principal works are devoted to solar and stellar research. He is known for his use of the spectrohelioscope, the spectroheli-ograph, and the tower telescope to make solar observations. He predicted and verified with observational data the existence of magnetic fiel-s in sunspots. Hale was the founder and first editor of the Astrophysical Journal (1895).

WORKS

“The Spectrohelioscope and Its Work, parts 1–2.” Astrophysical Journal, 1929, vol. 70, pp. 265–311; 1930, vol. 71, pp. 73–101.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.