Saturday, August 29, 2009

Mount Wilson Threatened by Fire

Historic Mount Wilson Observatory in California is being threatened by wildfires. The mountain staff have been evacuated as the Station fire closes in.

Mount Wilson is a great old observatory. It is home to the historic 100 inch Hooker Telescope. It was the largest in the world when it was built in the early 1900's and played pivotal role in Edwin Hubble's observations that proved the universe is expanding and led to the Big Bang Theory. Mount Wilson houses several other telescopes as well, including the CHARA array which does some very high resolution interferometry.

You can view the observatory webcam as long as it functions. I am embedding the current image.


Firefighters are on the scene and hopefully can save this historic site.

Reprinted with permission from the Half-Astrophysicist Blog.

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8 comments:

  1. kkditherAugust 30, 2009 at 12:49 PM

    The image is a little clearer right now. Hopefully, the firefighters are getting things more under control. It would be a real shame to lose all the equipment and the historical element.

    Thanks for keeping us in the loop again.

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  2. Bar L.August 30, 2009 at 7:21 PM

    Fire season has officially started for us :( I hope the observatory, all the homes and wildlife are safe.

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  3. OrbsCorbsAugust 30, 2009 at 8:20 PM

    As of this posting, they're saying that the observatory will be "impacted" by fire within 2 to 4 hours.

    :-[

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  4. MinnesotaChickAugust 30, 2009 at 8:55 PM

    I do hope they can save it. What a horrific loss if not.

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  5. kkditherAugust 30, 2009 at 10:17 PM

    http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/56266907.html
    This website has some amazing pictures taken of the fire in the valley behind the observatory. I checked the link to the webcam and it appears that the fire still has not reached it.

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  6. hale-boppAugust 31, 2009 at 12:09 AM

    I was talking to my father tonight and suggested we try to rent a night on the 60 inch telescope. It's expensive, but we have some relatives in the area so we would try to get a good size group together to bring the cost per person down to a reasonable level...that is assuming it survives.

    I saw that JPL was threatened by the fire and evacuated. They are looking better right now, but still will be closed tomorrow due to the smoke.

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  7. Huck FinnAugust 31, 2009 at 6:02 AM

    6am Wisconsin, 4am Pacific, there are fires visible.

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  8. drewzepmeisterAugust 31, 2009 at 12:06 PM

    I've been closely monitoring the wildfires in CA for personal reasons. Here's the latest.

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