Describes the massive effort that went into financing and building the 200 inch Hale telescope on Mt. Palomar, and its predecessors.

A fantastic story about a monumental project, and written such that every detail was interesting. I found it amazing how the author could deliver the most mundane tasks in a way that made every chapter, every scene, hold my interest, all the way through. The story of the giant telescope starts long before anybody tried to make it, and the author uses that time to describe the buildup, the way telescopes were getting larger and larger, the science of astronomy more refined. He explains how the field evolved, such that the needs for large telescopes grew as astronomy did. His explanations of Hubble’s observations, Zwicky’s discoveries, and so much more, made this a history of not just the telescope, but also the explosive growth of science. The building of the mirror spans a large chunk of the book, from attempts by GE to the two castings at Corning. The author doesn’t shy away from details that make people look good or bad –he uses them all. The most well-developed scene is probably the giant cross-country delivery of the giant mirror. It’s described in a way that made the book emotional. The trip up the mountain was similarly awe-inspiring. There are points where the author uses the same or similar terms to describe somebody or something. This may be intentional, to remind the reader of what happened many years (and chapters) before, and was somewhat distracting when it happened too often. On the other hand, the reminder was often welcome, too. When I first read this book, I had barely graduated from engineering at university. I now recognize the challenges of a budget, manpower, keeping interest, and the force of getting a product made and delivered, and can greatly appreciate Hale’s abilities. Truly a great book, with a happy ending. The world has changed so much since then, and this story shows how much.

The book doesn’t start with the telescope, but with astronomy, which leads into the need for larger and large telescopes. The 1920s were the times of the philanthropists, who wanted immortality by donating lots of money to fund something with their name on it. At that time, telescopes were big because they were recognisable as doing big science. The debate between Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis is a convenient place to start, because it ended with the controversy of what the fuzzy nebulae were –inside the galaxy or external? Although Hubble’s breakthrough much later made it seem like it was a shock, the idea was there a couple of decades after the turn of the twentieth century.

From there, the author describes astronomy in general, and the tools used to observe the stars, from early telescopes to more sophisticated ones, and eventually to the spectrograph and photographic plates. The debate showed that there was still a lot of mystery in what could be observed, and every time a larger telescope came into operation, astronomers saw new things, fainter things, many of which they could not explain.

The book is also a showcase of the old world, essentially before the atom bomb. The world was a much simpler place, governments were less centralized, there were no income taxes, and one man could put together a big telescope project and see it to the end. George Hale did that with several large telescopes, from the 60 inch to the 100 inch, which was theorized to be the largest possible. The author describes the way cars gradually took over streets, and where places thought forever far away from light pollution saw cities radically encroach on their territory. Even old laws made to keep skies dark for astronomy and the great telescopes have since been overturned. Most everything was done by hand, because labor was cheap.

The Palomar telescope took so long to build that it passed through the rich times, the lingering depression, where people would take any job they could find, even up on a desolate mountain putting a dome together, into World War II, and out again. The early years were full of experimentation, and there was money to do it. Through the depression, the telescope kept people working, and shops that were trying not to lay people off were eager for pieces. When war came, the men started disappearing, but the optical shops tried to keep teams together even when the mirror was put aside in favor of war work. The world after the war was completely changed, and while money was scarcer, machines were more readily available, and research became more urgent. Astrophysics was born, and with the splitting of the atom, the analysis of the composition and evolution of stars needed more observations and better equipment to do it with.

I find it astounding how the author could weave the story of the telescope into everyday life, politics, external affairs, the history of science, the big names like Einstein, Hubble, Oppenheimer and Zwicky, and the money of the Carnegie Institution and Rockefeller Foundation. Every chapter has something of interest to just about anybody. Hale was a master manipulator, wearing people down. This author is a master of making the mundane interesting. Early chapters of Hale meeting with people, chasing away his psychological demons, of Hubble and his vanity might seem like he was giving the big personages a single trait with which to identify them, but it becomes more than that.

The solution to the mirror takes several chapters, in which the mirror often takes a minor part to what Hale is doing, and how the 100 inch telescope is being used. When the project finally moved from GE to Corning, there is still action, as the ladlers poured the disk in front of celebrities, and the floods threatened the second disk after the first one cracked. The grinding of the mirror, which took years, should have been a dull read, but it was thoroughly immersive.

The best parts of the book were the ones describing the moving the mirror, first from Corning to Pasadena, and then from Caltech to Palomar. The story of the train ride across the country was fantastic, and it showed a national pride. But the author did such a fantastic job at describing it that the journey was quite emotional. From the engineers testing overpasses and measuring the deflection such that the disk was only a few inches off the ground in a sunken car, to the way it weaved in and out of towns with people waiting on the sides, it was so well written. Similarly, the trip many years later from the optical lab to the mountain was another emotional journey. With the flatbed truck traveling so slowly, more spectators and even threats to destroy it, there were tense moments. Reinforcing bridges, or adding dolly wheels to spread the weight, with the canyon bridge sagging just a little, things got more tense. But nothing could compare with the trip up the mountain- the three diesel trucks and the fog, so they couldn’t see one another, but had to rely on sound to change gears, was intense!

The descriptions of the mounting supports and the mirror supports, the yoke mechanism and bearings were all very interesting. The last time I read this book, I had barely graduated from mechanical engineering. I believe they interested me then, but more so now. It seems like every detail of the telescope was described, and it was all terrific and engaging. The war years were covered in a couple of chapters, and described a solemn patriotism, and an end to the depression.

I, for one, would like to see a sequel by this author, moving from the two-hundred inch telescope to space telescopes (he covers a bit of this in the last chapter), but like he also says, the world has changed so much, and I wonder if it would be as interesting. CCD cameras, the space telescopes, and a retreat from science in general isn’t necessarily a great thing to be writing about.

Needless to say, this book is a keeper on my bookshelf, and I will take the time when I’m older to revisit another age, where people could get great stuff done through sheer force of will, making the world a better place by increasing its knowledge.  

Excellent. This was not only the story of a telescope, but about every single person who worked on the scope! I really felt like I was there. Also, it provided a constant context of the times, from the roaring twenties, to the depression, and through and after the war.