Well, you might not have noticed, but today is the anniversary of a day with considerable symbolic significance.
On January 29th 1931, Edwin Hubble took Einstein up Mount Wilson to see the famous 100 inch telescope where Hubble had done at least two revolutionary things (with the aid of Henrietta Leavitt's remarkable work on variable stars): (1) He demonstrated that the Milky Way Galaxy, where we live, is not the entire universe, but just one of many galaxies, and (2) He confirmed (ahem, not discovered) that the universe was expanding and (with Humason...who started out as the janitor at the observatory) quantified it in what we now call "Hubble's Law".
This photo, which I borrowed from a Carnegie Institution site, shows: From left to right: Milton Humason, Edwin Hubble, Charles St. John, Albert Michelson, Albert Einstein, W. W. Campbell, and Walter Adams. Quite a group! This was taken during the visit, and I imagine it was back at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, in Pasadena. (Worth a visit on their next annual open day, by the way! I went last year.)
I was actually thinking of going on a hike today, after my weekly visit to the market. I considered going up Mount Wilson in view of the above. Instead, I'm still here around the house [strike] [playing with] [/strike] working on various projects with the new power drill I bought yesterday. So instead I'll point you to a long post I did the last time my mind went to Hubble and Mount Wilson. I went up there and showed you some of the sights along the way. I bet you never read it, did you? Well, you can find it at this link, and it says more about the physics I mentioned above.... and there are pictures of telescopes. The other pictures on this page? I took them when I did the hike up the mountain described in the post. The first, big onem is a picture of the commemorative picture that is posted on the bridge leading to the telescope. You can see Einstein, his assistant Walther Meyer (peeking over his shoulder), and the Observatory director Walter Adams (center), and astronomer (and then U of California president) William Wallace Campbell (right). (Where was Hubble, we wonder? Holding the camera? ...and there is a fifth face that is not named in the picture, I wonder who that is?) The other photograph, the small one, is of the bridge itself, as it is today, with the telescope in the background. I'm standing near the commemorative picture while taking this one. -cvj
