Carnegie Institution of Washington. Observatories.
Carnegie photographic plate collection, 1890s-1990s.
The Carnegie plate collection contains photographic imaging plates from Mount Wilson, Palomar and Las Campanas Observatories, which comprise a unique and historically important record of some of the most fundamental astronomical and cosmological discoveries of the twentieth century. For example, the plate collections include those of Milton Humason, Edwin Hubble, and Allan Sandage, as well as the plates used in the discovery of the expansion of the universe, those used by Walter Baade to understand and define stellar populations, and the plates used by Sandage to understand stellar evolution and stellar age. Other important plate archives in the collection are those of Halton Arp, Rudolph Minkowski, and George Ellery Hale.
The Mount Wilson Solar Observatory was founded in 1904 by George Ellery Hale with the support of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. In pursuit of his goals to understand the internal physics of the Sun and the stars, Hale soon added stellar telescopes to the initial solar telescopes on Mount Wilson, the first being the 60-inch, then the 100-inch Hooker telescope. In 1928 the Rockefeller Foundation funded a 200-inch telescope on Palomar Mountain which was operated by California Institute of Technology. The two observatories formed a partnership that lasted until 1980. In 1969 the Carnegie astronomers established the Las Campanas Observatory high in the reaches of Chile's Atacama Desert and the 40-inch and the 100-inch telescopes were moved there. Las Campanas became Carnegie's principal observing site.
Arp, Halton C.
Baade, Walter, 1893-1960.
Hale, George Ellery, 1868-1938
Hubble, Edwin, 1889-1953
Sandage, Allan.
Mount Wilson and Las Campanas Observatories.
Palomar Observatory.
Astronomy -- History -- 20th century.
Cosmology -- History -- 20th century.
Photographic plates. aat
Humason, Milton L. (Milton La Salle), 1891-1972
Minkowski, Rudolph Leo Bernhard, 1895-1976.
AIP-ICOS
Carnegie Institution of Washington. Library of the Observatories. 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, CA 91101, USA