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60-465: The park was named after Albert Einstein in 1992. The park had already been designed by the middle 19th century according to plans by the architect Paul Emanuel Spieker on Telegrafenberg Since 1992 the following newly founded institutes have properties situated on the grounds: In the 1990s the historical buildings were extensively restored and numerous new buildings were erected. The Einstein Tower and

120-464: A 5,710-foot (1,740-meter) peak in the San Gabriel Mountains near Pasadena , northeast of Los Angeles. The observatory contains two historically important telescopes: the 100-inch (2.5 m) Hooker telescope , which was the largest aperture telescope in the world from its completion in 1917 to 1949, and the 60-inch telescope which was the largest operational telescope in the world when it

180-423: A dozen telescopes in the laboratory. This was one of Mendelsohn's first major projects, completed when a young Richard Neutra was on his staff, and is his best-known building. Between 1917 and 1920 Mendelsohn created numerous sketches with the attempt to create a structure that reflects Einstein's groundbreaking theories. The exterior was originally conceived in concrete, but due to construction difficulties with

240-472: A fund-raising drive, and became operational in 1924. Although Einstein never worked there, he supported the construction and operation of the telescope. It is still a working solar observatory today as part of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam . Light from the telescope is directed down through the shaft to the basement where the instruments and laboratory are located. There were more than half

300-517: A long tour of the completed structure, waiting for some sign of approval. The design, while logical and perfectly sufficient to its purpose, stood out like an "ungainly spaceship" in the suburbs of Potsdam. Einstein said nothing until hours later, during a meeting with the building committee, when he whispered his one-word judgment: "Organic". Mendelsohn himself said that he had designed it out of some unknown urge, letting it emerge from "the mystique around Einstein's universe". In 1911 Einstein published

360-518: A single stone (German: 'ein Stein') was placed where the bust had stood, a tradition that is still kept (the stone is regularly stolen or moved and has to be replaced) . A few meters in front of the stairs to the Einstein Tower and set into the pavement of the forecourt is a fist-sized art object, a bronze reproduction of a human brain highly reduced in size, its shiny surface a sign of wear, inscribed with

420-599: A suitable doublet lens was installed. Research included solar rotation, sunspot polarities, daily sunspot drawings , and many magnetic field studies. The solar telescope would be the world's largest for 50 years until the McMath-Pierce Solar telescope was completed at Kitt Peak in Arizona in 1962. In 1985, UCLA took over operation of the solar tower from the Carnegie Observatories after they decided to stop funding

480-446: A time window of three seconds. We reconstruct temporal continuity based on what is represented in the individual islands of consciousness" (translation). Taking up this idea, März titled his work "the 3 SEC Bronze Brain – Admonition to the Now – Monument to the continuous present" (translation). With the newest refurbishment of the Einstein Tower, a sign in front was unveiled with an access to

540-615: Is expanding. The Hooker's reign of three decades as the largest telescope came to an end when the Caltech -Carnegie consortium completed its 200-inch (5.1 m) Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory , 144 km south, in San Diego County, California . The Hale Telescope saw first light in January 1949. By the 1980s, the focus of astronomy research had turned to deep space observation, which required darker skies than what could be found in

600-468: Is used for public outreach as the second largest telescope in the world devoted to the general public. Custom made 10 cm eyepieces are fitted to its focus using the bent cassegrain configuration to provide views of the Moon, planetary, and deep-sky objects. Groups may book the telescope for an evening of observing. The 100-inch (2.5 m) Hooker telescope located at Mount Wilson Observatory , California,

660-685: The Albert Einstein Science Park in Potsdam , Germany built by architect Erich Mendelsohn . It was built on the summit of the Potsdam Telegraphenberg to house a solar telescope designed by the astronomer Erwin Finlay-Freundlich . The telescope supports experiments and observations to validate (or disprove) Albert Einstein 's relativity theory . The building was first conceived around 1917, built from 1919 to 1921 after

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720-525: The 1960s, Robert Leighton discovered the Sun had a 5-minute oscillation and the field of helioseismology was born. The 60-foot Tower is operated by the Department of Physics and Astronomy at University of Southern California . The 150-foot (46 m) focal length solar tower expanded on the solar tower design with its tower-in-a-tower design. (The tower is actually 176 feet (54 m) tall.) An inner tower supports

780-618: The 60-inch telescope was fitted with an early adaptive optics system, the Atmospheric Compensation Experiment (ACE). The 69-channel system improved the potential resolving power of the telescope from 0.5 to 1.0 arc sec to 0.07 arc sec. ACE was developed by DARPA for the Strategic Defense Initiative system, and the National Science Foundation funded the civilian conversion. The telescope

840-519: The Hooker telescope was equipped with a special attachment, a 6-meter optical astronomical interferometer developed by Albert A. Michelson , much larger than the one he had used to measure Jupiter's satellites. Michelson was able to use the equipment to determine the precise diameter of stars, such as Betelgeuse , the first time the size of a star had ever been measured. Henry Norris Russell developed his star classification system based on observations using

900-472: The Hooker. In 1935 the silver coating used since 1917 on the Hooker mirror was replaced with a more modern and longer lasting aluminum coating that reflected 50% more light than the older silver coating. The newer method of coating for the telescope mirrors was first tested on the older 1.5 meter mirror. Edwin Hubble performed many critical calculations from work on the Hooker telescope. In 1923, Hubble discovered

960-471: The Leviathan, the 60-inch had many advantages including a far better site, a glass mirror instead of speculum metal, and a precision mount which could accurately track any direction in the sky, so the 60-inch was a major advance. The 60-inch telescope is a reflector telescope built for Newtonian , Cassegrain and coudé configurations. It is currently used in the bent Cassegrain configuration. It became one of

1020-599: The Library of Congress. Kohne and Tsan worked together to create the series, which has run every concert season except for a break during the Covid-19 pandemic . Given that the observatory is no longer able to do significant research due to light pollution, it receives no scientific funding; the concerts therefore provide a significant portion of the budget needed to maintain the observatory as an historic landmark, along with ticketed events such as public viewing nights. The observatory

1080-610: The Los Angeles area, due to the ever-increasing problem of light pollution . In 1989, the Carnegie Institution , which ran the observatory, handed it over to the non-profit Mount Wilson Institute. At that time, the 2.5-meter telescope was deactivated, but it was restarted in 1992 and in 1995 it was outfitted with a visible light adaptive optics system and later in 1997, it hosted the UnISIS, laser guide star adaptive optics system. As

1140-452: The Milky Way galaxy, and that several nebulae were millions of light-years away. He then showed that the universe was expanding . Once the sixty-inch telescope project was well underway, Hale immediately set about creating a larger telescope. John D. Hooker provided crucial funding of $ 45,000 for the purchase and grinding of the mirror, while Andrew Carnegie provided funds to complete

1200-460: The Nazis' anti-Semitic dictatorship began in 1933, the Einstein Tower lost its name and status as an independent institute. Pictures of Einstein were removed and sculptures were supposedly melted down. However, after 1945 it was discovered that staff members had rescued the portrait bust now to be seen at the base of the tower by hiding it behind crates in the spectrograph lab. As a hidden homage to Einstein

1260-465: The Sun published in early 2007. A 61 cm telescope fitted with an infrared detector purchased from a military contractor was used by Eric Becklin in 1966 to determine the center of the Milky Way for the first time. In 1968, the first large-area near-IR (2.2 μm) survey of the sky was conducted by Gerry Neugebauer and Robert B. Leighton using a 157 cm reflecting dish they had built in

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1320-491: The complex design and shortages from the war, much of the building was actually realized in brick, covered with stucco. Because the material was changed during construction of the building, the designs were not updated to accommodate them. This caused many problems, such as cracking and dampness. Extensive repair work had to be done only five years after the initial construction, overseen by Mendelsohn himself. Since then numerous renovations have been done periodically. The building

1380-414: The complex disturbances of the solar atmosphere. The characteristics and behavior of magnetic fields provide the key to understanding solar activity and are at the focus of work at the Einstein Tower. The solar magnetic field can be measured with the help of a double spectrograph and two photoelectric polarization analyzers. Measurements in the photosphere , the visible light realm, permit conclusions about

1440-475: The digital exhibition Einsteinturm revisited . The exhibition shows how the Einstein Tower was conceived both scientifically and architecturally, and explains, why it needs to be refurbished on a regular basis. Mount Wilson Observatory The Mount Wilson Observatory ( MWO ) is an astronomical observatory in Los Angeles County, California , United States. The MWO is located on Mount Wilson ,

1500-468: The distortion caused by the heating of the ground by the Sun. On June 25, 1908, Hale would record Zeeman splitting in the spectrum of a sunspot, showing for the first time that magnetic fields existed somewhere besides the Earth. A later discovery was of the reversed polarity in sunspots of the new solar cycle of 1912. The success of the 60-foot Tower prompted Hale to pursue yet another, taller tower telescope. In

1560-563: The dome. The idea to use the dome as a venue for live music originated in 2017 from a conversation between Dan Kohne, a board member of the Mt. Wilson Institute, and Cécilia Tsan, an internationally recognized cellist. Tsan agreed that the acoustics in the dome were "extraordinary", comparable to such world-renowned venues as the Palais Garnier (Opéra de Paris) and the Coolidge Auditorium at

1620-609: The early 1960s. Known as the Caltech Infrared Telescope , it operated in an unguided drift scanning mode using a lead(II) sulfide (PbS) photomultiplier read out on paper charts. The telescope is now on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center , part of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum . On one Sunday each month during the warmer months of the year, Mt. Wilson Observatory hosts a chamber music or jazz concert in

1680-410: The elongated profile of the entire facility. Soon after research started at the site, it became evident that the proof sought would be harder to obtain than originally anticipated since the minimal shift of spectral lines was obscured by other solar influences. The reason was atmospheric turbulence on the solar surface. However, Einstein and Freundlich had from the beginning not only been interested in

1740-436: The end of the 100-inch telescope and used the telescope as a guiding platform to maintain alignment with the stars being studied. By December 1920, Michelson and Pease were able to use the equipment to determine the precise diameter of a star, the red giant Betelgeuse, the first time the angular size of a star had ever been measured. In the next year, Michelson and Pease measured the diameters of six more red giants before reaching

1800-453: The face of the Sun. The 60-foot (18 m) Solar Tower soon built on the work started at the Snow telescope. At its completion in 1908, the vertical tower design of the 60-foot focal length solar telescope allowed much higher resolution of the solar image and spectrum than the Snow telescope could achieve. The higher resolution came from situating the optics higher above the ground, thereby avoiding

1860-400: The first Cepheid variable in the spiral nebula of Andromeda using the 2.5-meter telescope. This discovery allowed him to calculate the distance to the spiral nebula of Andromeda and show that it was actually a galaxy outside the Milky Way . Hubble, assisted by Milton L. Humason , observed the magnitude of the redshift in many galaxies and published a paper in 1929 that showed the universe

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1920-585: The four characters, 3 SEC. It was created by the Berlin artist Volker März , who placed it here and in an identical form in front of the Neurological Institute of the Charité in Berlin. The small sculpture refers to a scientific thesis of Ernst Pöppel according to which "the experience of continuity is based on an illusion. Continuity arises through the networking of contents, which in each case are represented in

1980-527: The funding effort. The observatory was conceived and founded by George Ellery Hale , who had previously built the 1 meter telescope at the Yerkes Observatory , then the world's largest telescope. The Mount Wilson Solar Observatory was first funded by the Carnegie Institution of Washington in 1904, leasing the land from the owners of the Mount Wilson Hotel in 1904. Among the conditions of the lease

2040-453: The growth of greater Los Angeles has limited the ability of the observatory to engage in deep space astronomy, but it remains a productive center, with the CHARA array continuing important stellar research. The initial efforts to mount a telescope to Mount Wilson occurred in the 1880s by one of the founders of University of Southern California , Edward Falles Spence , but he died without finishing

2100-506: The initial version of his innovative General Theory of Relativity. One of the predicted effects according to the theory was a slight shift of spectral lines in the sun's gravitation field, now known as the red shift . The solar observatory in Potsdam was designed and constructed primarily to verify this phenomenon. The Mount Wilson Observatory in California, the first tower telescope worldwide,

2160-408: The lab rooms are under each other; in Potsdam they are arranged horizontally. Another rotating mirror directs the sunlight to the spectrograph lab located in the basement behind an earthen wall on the southern side of the tower. It is about 14 m long and thermally insulated. Here is where the light is split up into its spectral components and analyzed. This design of a horizontal laboratory wing led to

2220-401: The light in phase as the Earth rotates. CHARA began scientific use in 2002 and "routine operations" in early 2004. In the infrared, the integrated image can resolve down to 0.0005 arcseconds. Six telescopes are in regular use for scientific observations and as of late 2005 imaging results are routinely acquired. The array captured the first image of the surface of a main sequence star other than

2280-528: The limit of the available technology and it took about thirty years for faster computing, electronic detectors and lasers to make larger interferometers possible again. The Infrared Spatial Interferometer (ISI), run by an arm of the University of California, Berkeley , is an array of three 1.65 meter telescopes operating in the mid-infrared. The telescopes are fully mobile and their current site on Mount Wilson allows for placements as far as 70 meters apart, giving

2340-407: The mid infrared. The Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA), built and operated by Georgia State University , is an interferometer formed from six 1 meter telescopes arranged along three axes with a maximum separation of 330 m. The light beams travel through vacuum pipes and are delayed and combined optically, requiring a building 100 meters long with movable mirrors on carts to keep

2400-404: The most productive and successful telescopes in astronomical history. Its design and light-gathering power allowed the pioneering of spectroscopic analysis, parallax measurements, nebula photography, and photometric photography. Though surpassed in size by the § 100-inch Hooker telescope nine years later, the 60-inch telescope remained one of the largest in use for decades. In 1992,

2460-483: The observatory of the Great Refractor of Potsdam also host exhibits. Buildings are interspersed with an English country garden style landscaping and also vegetable garden areas until the 1980s. 52°22′49″N 13°03′54″E  /  52.38028°N 13.06500°E  / 52.38028; 13.06500 Telegrafenberg The Einstein Tower (German: Einsteinturm ) is an astrophysical observatory in

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2520-559: The observatory. For the 60-inch telescope, George Ellery Hale received the 60-inch (1.5 m) mirror blank, cast by Saint-Gobain in France, in 1896 as a gift from his father, William Hale. It was a glass disk 19 cm thick and weighing 860 kg. However it was not until 1904 that Hale received funding from the Carnegie Institution to build an observatory. Grinding began in 1905 and took two years. The mounting and structure for

2580-419: The optics above, while an outer tower, which completely surrounds the inner tower, supports the dome and floors around the optics. This design allowed complete isolation of the optics from the effect of wind swaying the tower. Two mirrors feed sunlight to a 12-inch (30 cm) lens which focuses light down at the ground floor. It was first completed in 1910, but unsatisfactory optics caused a two-year delay before

2640-439: The resolution limit of the 20-foot beam interferometer. To expand on the work of the 20-foot interferometer, Pease, Michelson and George E. Hale designed a 50-foot interferometer which was installed at Mount Wilson Observatory in 1929. It successfully measured the diameter of Betelgeuse, but, other than beta Andromedae, could not measure any stars not already measured by the 20-foot interferometer. Optical interferometry reached

2700-403: The resolution of a telescope of that diameter. The signals are converted to radio frequencies through heterodyne circuits and then combined electronically using techniques copied from radio astronomy . The longest, 70-meter baseline provides a resolution of 0.003 arcsec at a wavelength of 11 micrometers. On July 9, 2003, ISI recorded the first closure phase aperture synthesis measurements in

2760-447: The rotating solar disc and daily solar images in several wavelengths. Stellar research soon followed as the brightest stars could have their spectra recorded with very long exposures on glass plates. The Snow solar telescope is mostly used by undergraduate students who get hands-on training in solar physics and spectroscopy. It was also used publicly for the May 9, 2016 transit of Mercury across

2820-420: The situation at higher altitude levels. The Potsdam astronomers participate in the operation of an observatory on Tenerife . Instruments to be used there are first developed and tested at the Einstein Tower. The Einstein Tower also plays an important role in training students. In the tower's entrance area there is a bronze bust of Einstein which was originally located in one of the rooms of the observatory. After

2880-405: The specific problem of the red shift, but had also intended basic research in solar physics , and the laboratories were so designed that new equipment could be installed without difficulty. The turbulent behavior of the outer solar atmosphere soon became the primary subject of research at the Einstein Tower. The red shift could be proved only in the 1950s after it became possible to precisely analyze

2940-419: The sun. Because of the vertical arrangement, air turbulence near the ground has virtually no effect. In the Einstein Tower the construction containing the optics consists of two wooden platforms, each six m high, placed one above the other. The telescope has a lens objective of 60 cm diameter and focal length of 14 m. Rooms for observations and measurements are located at the base of the tower. In California

3000-415: The telescope and dome. The Saint-Gobain factory was again chosen to cast a blank in 1906, which it completed in 1908. After considerable trouble over the blank (and potential replacements), the Hooker telescope was completed and saw "first light" on November 2, 1917. As with the sixty-inch telescope, the bearings are assisted by the use of mercury floats to support the 100 ton weight of the telescope. In 1919

3060-478: The telescope was built in San Francisco and barely survived the 1906 earthquake . Transporting the pieces to the top of Mount Wilson was an enormous task. First light was December 8, 1908. It was, at the time, the largest operational telescope in the world. Lord Rosse's Leviathan of Parsonstown , a 72-inch (1.8-meter) telescope built in 1845, was, by the 1890s, out of commission. Although slightly smaller than

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3120-410: The use of multiple viewing points to increase resolution enough to allow for the direct measurement of details such as star diameters. The first of these interferometers was the 20-foot Stellar Interferometer. In 1919 the 100-inch Hooker telescope was equipped with a special attachment, a 20-foot optical astronomical interferometer developed by Albert A. Michelson and Francis G. Pease. It was attached to

3180-458: The use of the telescope for scientific work diminished again, a decision was made to convert it to use for visual observing. Because of the high position of the Cassegrain focus above the observing floor, a system of mirrors and lenses was developed to allow viewing from a position at the bottom of the telescope tube. With the conversion completed in 2014, the 2.5 meter telescope began its new life as

3240-410: The world's largest telescope dedicated to public use. Regularly scheduled observing began with the 2015 observing season. The telescope has a resolving power of 0.05 arcsecond . Astronomical interferometry has a rich history at Mount Wilson. No fewer than seven interferometers have been located here. The reason for this is the extremely steady air over Mount Wilson is well suited to interferometry,

3300-408: The world. The telescope was donated to Yerkes Observatory by Helen Snow of Chicago. George Ellery Hale, then director of Yerkes, had the telescope brought to Mount Wilson to put it into service as a proper scientific instrument. Its 24-inch (61 cm) primary mirror with a 60-foot (18 m) focal length, coupled with a spectrograph, did groundbreaking work on the spectra of sunspots, doppler shift of

3360-772: Was completed in 1908. It also contains the Snow solar telescope completed in 1905, the 60 foot (18 m) solar tower completed in 1908, the 150 foot (46 m) solar tower completed in 1912, and the CHARA array , built by Georgia State University , which became fully operational in 2004 and was the largest optical interferometer in the world at its completion. Due to the inversion layer that traps warm air and smog over Los Angeles, Mount Wilson has steadier air than any other location in North America, making it ideal for astronomy and in particular for interferometry . The increasing light pollution due to

3420-465: Was completed in 1917, and was the world's largest telescope until 1949. It is one of the most famous telescopes in observational astronomy of the 20th century. It was used by Edwin Hubble to make observations with which he produced two fundamental results which changed the scientific view of the Universe. Using observations he made in 1922–1923, Hubble was able to prove that the Universe extends beyond

3480-490: Was heavily damaged by Allied bombing during World War II, leaving it in a state that, as the architecture blog A456 noted, was ironically more in line with Mendelsohn's conceptual sketches than the pre-war structure was. It underwent a full renovation in 1999, for its 75th anniversary, to correct problems with dampness and decay that had meant decades of repair. It is often cited as one of the landmarks of expressionist architecture . According to lore, Mendelsohn took Einstein on

3540-454: Was that it allow public access. There are three solar telescopes at Mount Wilson Observatory. Just one of these telescopes, the 60-foot Solar Tower, is still used for solar research. The Snow Solar Telescope was the first telescope installed at the fledgling Mount Wilson Solar Observatory. It was the world's first permanently mounted solar telescope. Solar telescopes had previously been portable so they could be taken to solar eclipses around

3600-403: Was the model for the facility designed by Freundlich. In tower telescopes a coelostat (a system with two deflecting mirrors, pronounced "seelostat") at the top of a vertical construction directs light down to an objective. The actual lens system is rigidly integrated into the construction. The mirrors at the top are movable and only these small lightweight instrument components are needed to track

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