From Dream to Reality: Building the Hale Telescope: Primary Source STEAM Project
Overview
The 200-inch Hale Telescope (historically known as the “Palomar Telescope”) at the Palomar Observatory in California represents an amazing feat of engineering
and ingenuity, the result of decades of trial and error.
The primary sources in this project describe the last great hurdle in the Hale Telescope’s construction: successfully transporting the 40-ton, 200-inch mirror and its packing materials from upstate New York to the top of Palomar Mountain in southern California.
This project is designed for advanced middle school or high school students. It contains a suggested project that puts students in the role of problem-solvers, with students using the actual data points drawn from the 1947 primary sources. Students will learn how to work with a formula, and to manipulate the formula’s variables to achieve different outcomes.
Primary Source STEAM Project: Building the Hale Telescope
The primary sources in this project describe the last great hurdle in the Hale Telescope’s construction: successfully transporting the 40-ton, 200-inch mirror and its packing materials from upstate New York to the top of Palomar Mountain in southern California. Documents include shipping manifests discussing moving the mirror across the country, conversations regarding the movement of the mirror, and photographic documentation of the mirror’s journey up Palomar Mountain.
This project puts students in the role of problem-solvers, with students using the actual data points drawn from the 1947 primary sources. Students will learn how to work with a formula, and to manipulate the formula’s variables to achieve different outcomes.