author
George Ellery Hale
1868–1938
A driving force behind modern astronomy, this American astrophysicist helped turn giant telescopes into reality and revealed that sunspots are magnetic. His work connected bold engineering with a deep curiosity about the Sun and the wider universe.
1 Audiobook
The New Heavens
by George Ellery Hale
About the author
Born in Chicago in 1868, George Ellery Hale became one of the most influential figures in American astronomy. While still young, he developed a strong interest in observing the sky, studied at MIT, and invented the spectroheliograph, an instrument that let astronomers photograph features of the Sun in new detail.
Hale is especially remembered for discovering magnetic fields in sunspots, a breakthrough that helped open up modern solar physics. He was also a remarkable organizer and builder: he played a central role in creating Yerkes Observatory and later led the development of major facilities at Mount Wilson, where ever larger telescopes transformed what astronomers could see.
His ambition for powerful observatories continued to shape astronomy even late in his life, and his name was eventually given to the great 200-inch Hale Telescope at Palomar. He died in 1938, but his mix of scientific insight, technical imagination, and institution-building left a lasting mark on how astronomy is done.