The 200" Disk and the Hale Reflecting Telescope: Videos and Websites
Find books, articles, and archival materials on the 200" disk installed in the Hale Telescope at the Mount Palomar Observatory. For more information, please search our library catalog or contact our Ask a Librarian service.
A brief history of astronomy, from the use of constellations to determine the seasons, to the invention of the telescope, with a good explanation of refracting and reflecting telescopes. The film also presents the making of the mirror by Corning Glass Works for the Hale telescope at Mt. Palomar; the lens of the Kitt Peak National Observatory; and an introduction to high altitude telescopes. Briefly discusses Corning’s contribution for the uses of glass in space exploration.
Provides details of telescopes and their use, and the history of the building of the Hale telescope on Mt. Palomar, California. Although there is only a brief mention of the casting of the Pyrex 200" disk, there is much coverage of its grinding and polishing, its transportation to the observatory and its installation and use.
The film traces the story of the Chicago-born astronomer George Ellery Hale, considered the father of astrophysics, as he struggles personally and professionally to build the greatest telescopes of the 20th century at the Yerkes and Mount Wilson Observatories, and finally the 20-year effort to build the million-pound telescope on Palomar mountain beginning in the 1930s
The Pouring of the 200" disk
Find Answers to Your Glass Questions
Meet the Astronomer: Scott Kardel
Corning Museum of Glass Lecture by Scott Kardel, the public affairs coordinator for the Palomar Observatory, a world-class center for astronomical research that is owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology. 2011.
Mirror to Discovery: The 200-inch Disk and the Hale Reflecting Telescope at Palomar told the story of the creation of the huge mirror (known by the American public at the time as “The Giant Eye”) that made Hale’s vision possible.
This exhibit from the Rakow Research Library told the story of the creation of the huge mirror (known by the American public at the time as “The Giant Eye”) that made Hale’s vision possible.
