Mt. Hale Mt. Young Sat, Aug 11, 2007 With: Michael Graupe		Etymology Mt. Hale Mt. Young	Story	Photos / Slideshow	Maps: 1 2	Profile

"George Ellery Hale was one of the America's foremost men of science. Born in Chicago in 1868, Hale was an astronomer whose life work was to expand our knowledge of solar and stellar evolution. In 1889, he invented the spectroheliograph, which made it possible to photograph the Sun's prominences in full daylight. In 1891, his father built him an observatory attached to their house, known as the Kenwood Physical Observatory. In it they installed a 12-inch refracting telescope.

Hale was hired by the University of Chicago in 1892 on condition that the university build a large observatory for him. At an astronomy meeting in New York during the summer of 1892, Hale heard of a 40-inch lens that was available. He persuaded Charles Yerkes, a wealthy businessman in Chicago, to pay for an observatory and telescope. Located in Williams Bay, WI, the Yerkes Observatory was completed in 1897. Hale was an energetic man, completely dedicated to scientific research. His need to learn more led him to found several observatories with ever larger telescopes and ever better equipment.

In the seven years after graduating from MIT in 1890, Hale revolutionized spectral observations with the invention and application of the principles of the spectroheliograph; started the Astrophysical Journal; brought together, twice, the great astronomers of the world and proved that the time was right for an astronomical society; built his own observatory; became the first Professor of Astro-Physics of the University of Chicago and the first astronomer to be officially called an astrophysicist; inspired the founding of the Yerkes Observatory, and made possible the means for much additional work to be produced on the 40-inch telescope by other famous astronomers. He died in 1938."
- Yerkes Observatory Virtual Museum