60-inch Telescope at Mount Wilson Observatory

60-inch Telescope at Mt. Wilson Observatory-September 2025

Sometimes the part of you with the greatest potential is the one that has been waiting the longest to be understood. 

If you drive up the winding mountain road through the San Gabriel Mountains above Pasadena, California, you eventually reach the Mount Wilson Observatory. Founded in 1904 by George Ellery Hale and supported by the Carnegie Institution, the site became one of the most influential observatories of the twentieth century. It shaped the early decades of modern astrophysics, especially through its solar studies and the telescopes housed inside its domes. When you park and walk through the campus, you can feel the history around you. Each dome holds quiet wonder inside.

As the guide unlocks the door to the first building, you step into complete darkness. Then the lights come on, revealing an interior that looks almost like a giant submarine. Metal catwalks and grates lead you up a steep set of stairs. When you reach the upper platform, you find yourself face-to-face with a turquoise-framed telescope unlike anything you have ever seen. This is the 60-inch telescope that inspired this article. 

60-inch Telescope Observatory as seen from outside

When Hale completed the 60-inch telescope in 1908, it was the largest telescope in the world. Its mirror had actually been cast much earlier, in 1894, at the Saint-Gobain glassworks in France. For years, it existed only as a heavy glass disk with no home and no purpose. Hale received it as a gift from his father while directing Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin, yet he had no way to build the full instrument until he found the right location, financial backing, and technical support through the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The mirror itself was never the issue. It simply needed the conditions that would allow it to become what it was designed to be. Can someone say metaphor?

People often carry something similar inside them. A part of the self formed early in life, set aside, and left unused. It may sit dormant not because it is damaged, but because the environment around it has not yet offered safety, resources, or encouragement. When someone finally reaches a place that supports their growth, that old potential begins to move into focus.

Fisheye view from the inside of the 60-inch Telescope Observatory

The finished 60-inch telescope was built to be adaptable. Its optical setup could shift depending on what astronomers needed to study. This flexibility helped it become one of the most productive instruments of its era. It contributed to the foundational spectral classification of stars and to long-term projects such as the HK Project, which examined magnetic activity cycles in stars. The telescope’s strength came from its ability to change.

This reflects psychological flexibility in therapy. People grow when they learn to adjust the way they view their experiences. Just as this telescope could change its configuration to study different parts of the sky, people learn to shift their perspective to understand their internal world. 

The telescope later became a testbed for one of the first adaptive optics systems ever used in astronomy. Between 1992 and 1995, it hosted the Atmospheric Compensation Experiment, an attempt to correct atmospheric turbulence in real time. The atmosphere will always move and distort. The answer is not to fight the turbulence, but to learn how to respond to it with precision.

Our inner work functions much the same way. Life will always bring moments of stress, uncertainty, and emotional upheaval. As much as we might want to at times, the goal is not to eliminate these experiences, but to develop skills that let us stay steady while navigating them. Adaptive optics sharpen a star. Psychological tools sharpen self-understanding.

More than a century after it was built, the 60-inch telescope is still evolving. New coatings, modern upgrades, and an expanding role in scientific research and public outreach keep it active. It stands as both a working instrument and a symbol of Hale’s long vision. Its story shows that early potential becomes meaningful through cultivation, patience, and ongoing care.

Heading inside the 60-inch Telescope Observatory

For this reason, the 60-inch is more than a historic telescope. It becomes a reminder of how growth works. Our early experiences shape us, but it is the right environment, steady support, and willingness to adjust that bring the clearest version of ourselves into view. Like the telescope on Mount Wilson, each person carries both a history and a capacity to see far beyond what they once imagined possible.

Even though I didn’t get to see the telescope in action, simply standing before something with such a powerful history shifted my perspective in a quiet but meaningful way.

Kneeling in front of the 60-inch Telescope for scale

References:

Mount Wilson Institute. (n.d.). The 60-inch Telescope. Mount Wilson Observatory. This page provides historical background, technical context, and a summary of the scientific contributions of the 60-inch. https://www.mtwilson.edu/vt-60-inch-telescope/