Revitalizing Mount Wilson Observatory

Mount Wilson Institute, Mount Wilson CA

Investigators

Abstract

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). This award will permit the renovation of several research facilities at the Mount Wilson Observatory (MWO). This observatory was founded in 1904 in the San Gabriel Mountains of Southern California, remains an active research site in spite of the night sky illumination from the Los Angeles basin. The original 60- and 150-ft solar towers, which established the field of solar physics, are used by teams from the University of Southern California and UCLA to study the sun's surface activity and magnetic field as well as probing its interior using the techniques of helioseismology. UC Berkeley operates the Infrared Spatial Interferometer, a mid-infrared 3-telescope facility with a unique capability for studying supergiant and giant stars and their dusty environments. Mount Wilson is home to Georgia State University's Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy whose CHARA Array is the world's highest resolution optical interferometer. The Observatory has been managed since 1987 under an agreement with the Carnegie Institution of Washington, owner of the original Observatory facilities, by the Mount Wilson Institute (MWI), a non-profit organization incorporated in California with offices in Atlanta. MWI seeks to renovate certain facilities that date from the Observatory's beginnings that have received no major attention in decades. These tasks include painting and repairs of solar towers and the original night-time telescopes presently in danger of serious malfunction due to lack of such maintenance, repair of tanks and delivery systems used for supplying potable and fire-fighting water, and reduction of vegetation that fuels forest fires. Many of these tasks involve human safety and all are fundamental to the continued operation of Mount Wilson Observatory as a scientific research site. Ongoing research efforts from Mount Wilson all involve the training of the next generation of astronomers and further public awareness of astronomical research. Undergraduate students are associated directly with four principal projects as well as with a special two-week summer program. MWI has updated the Astronomical Museum on the mountain to more clearly depict the historical contribution from MWO as well as better inform the public of its contemporary science programs.