(UPDATED*) New Scientist (w/ Sky & Tel.): A huge fire threatens famed So. Cal. Mount Wilson Observatory.
A wildfire roaring along the mountains above Southern California’s San Gabriel Valley and the towns of La Canada-Flintridge and Pasadena has been taking out houses, taxing firefighters, forcing evacuations and, in the roasting bargain, threatening two of the nation’s premier and historic science facilities. At the top of Mount Wilson is the observatory where George Ellery Hale built the 60- and 100-inch telescopes that made him famous (with other telescopes now up there too), and at the bottom is the venerable Jet Propulsion Laboratory now run by NASA.
Several outlets have noted these facility’s in their reports. One excellent one, focussed on the observatory and with info on JPL, is at the New Scientist site. Its Maggie McKee and Kelly Beatty of Sky & Telescope wrote it, expertly. Beatty also is blogging away at the S&T site.
Other Stories:
- Pasadena Star-News: Station fire within half mile of Mt. Wilson communications equipment; TV towers are up there, too.
- LA Times – Corina Knoll, Hector Becerra: TV, cellphone signals from Mt. Wilson at risk / Observaotry’s home is also a major communications hub ; For some reason it calls the place a “historic solar observatory,” which is only part of what it has. Oh well, the observatory may be the cultural jewel up there, but the cell phones and TV signals – that’s what people would notice. The stress in the news judgment is unavoidable.
- *UPDATE (Sept 2) – Regrettably The Tracker missed the Times‘s sidebar on Mount Wilson’s Observatory, by John Johnson Jr: and it’s a good review for readers of what’s at stake should flames enter the complex: Mt. Wilson Observatory: Center of scientific breakthroughs.
Grist for the Mill: Mount Wilson Observatory Fire News ;
-CP
September 2nd, 2009 at 8:21 am
I found the reference to a solar observatory very bizarre too. My takeaway from the L.A. Times story was that only a solar telescope was threatened–plausible, if it were located on a different part of the summit. I don’t know Mt. Wilson well enough to know otherwise, but the Tracker clearly does, and I’m therefore quite disappointed with the story. It’s sad when a little bit of knowledge on a topic makes you realize a story you’re reading is on some level clueless.