Hale telescope - Legend of the telescope world

The Hale telescope at Paloma Observatory, in California (USA) is one of the world's largest telescopes. The spherical mirror placed in this telescope has a diameter of 200 inches (equivalent to 5.1m), weighs nearly 15 tons.

>>>Close up of the world's largest telescope

The telescope first appeared in the Netherlands in 1608, when a glass maker named Hans Lippershey accidentally discovered the magnification principle when combining lenses. He created a telephoto lens, a precursor to an optical telescope.

This is an important milestone in astronomy history; for just one year later, in 1609, the great Italian scientist Galilei, on the principle of combining Hans Lippershey's lenses - created telescopes with longer lenses, which increased the magnification. many times.

Manufacturing engineers worked diligently for nearly 13 years to complete this giant mirror on October 3, 1947.

Wishing to find answers to many mysteries in the sky, Galilei directed telescopes to observe the Moon and celestial bodies. He finds four Jupiter moons, verifies the phases of Venus and sees that the nebulae are caused by many nearby stars. XVII century marked a turning point of humanity to explore the scientific worldview.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, reflective telescopes used mirrors instead of lenses. People started making telescopes bigger and bigger. Because large telescopes allow observation to avoid problems caused by diffraction, making images more accurate because there is no need to exaggerate too much.

By observing with large telescopes, humans discovered planets, studied nebulae, and spiral forms of some galaxies.

In the early twentieth century, the idea of ​​creating a 200-inch reflecting telescope was made by American astronomer George Ellery Hale in April 1928.

The project was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation for a total of $ 6 million (at the time of the time); including fabrication of glass, observatory and auxiliary equipment. The observatory is built at Mount Paloma, used by the California Institute of Technology.

According to the original design, the spherical mirror placed in the telescope is made of pure quartz material. However, at that time, manufacturing had cost nearly US $ 1 million but still could not produce a large enough quartz mirror. Therefore, George Ellery Hale had to come up with an agreement with Corning in New York to create a mirror from a new glass mixture of Pyrex.

Manufacturing began in December 1934. 20 tons of molten Pyrex glass at temperatures close to 1,500 degrees C are poured into the mold. After that, it was left for nearly a year to lower the temperature.

Within 28 years from 1948 to 1976, Hale holds the record for the largest bridge diameter in the world, until the telescope BTA-6 (6m diameter) of the Soviet Union is finished.

The process of grinding and plating mirrors began in April 1936. Also during this time, an observatory was built on Mount Paloma. The observatory dome is fitted with an air conditioner. The telescopic rotating apparatus is very sophisticated, ensuring that all Hale telescopes weighing over 500 tons can still be moved accurately and easily.

On October 3, 1947, the telescope was officially completed and on February 1, 1949, was put into use. Its name is named after the founder of the project: George Ellery Hale.

By the giant telescope Hale, astronomers have observed the farther space they once explored before. They saw great star cities, also known as the Milky Way, 5 billion light-years from Earth. That means, the Milky Way is so far away from the Earth, the light shining on the Hale telescope has left the Milky Way 5 billion years ago.

The space age opens new great steps from the story of the telescope. Today, large telescopes have double diameters, with four times the ability to focus light; but Hale is still considered one of the legendary telescopes, which has contributed to the modern astronomy revolution of the twentieth century.

The distance will no longer be an obstacle in the vast universe anymore. Telescopes have been brought out of the earth by satellites. And the telescopes on the moon without air will provide the wondrous landscapes of the universe, helping to solve even more mysteries outside our vast universe.

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