Telescope Dome, Mt. Wilson Observatory, Angeles National Forest, California, 2023.

Telescope Dome, Mt. Wilson Observatory, Angeles National Forest, California, 2023.

The beginnings of "big science" and the evolution of astronomy as more than speculative star gazing are both encapsulated in this structure. Its telescopes are now obsolete for most kinds of optical observations in the visible spectrum as larger mirrors and locations far from urban light pollution make other observatories more useful for those. Mt. Wilson Observatory is still used for some other types of astronomical explorations. Amazing that only a little more than a century old, the observatory saw the known universe expand from a single galaxy to one of countless galaxies spread over billions of light years even as the number of planets known to orbit around stars has grown exponentially. Mt. Wilson's telescopes and the early astronomers who worked there laid the groundwork for all of the magnificent facilities now available to astronomy and astrophysics and for the discoveries they are making. Not least of those is the Webb Telescope in space 1.5 million + km from earth.