The Journey to Palomar

This is a very well made, 90 minute biography of George Ellery Hale, the well-born, brilliant, driving solar astronomer (or astronomical entrepreneur) who was responsible for the building of the successively larger observatories: Kenwood, Yerkes, Wilson and (postmortem) Palomar. I would only add that the theme is interpreted through the dry scientism of the current era and that, in a rather amorphous way, the spirituality, for want of a better word, that was the motivation behind Hale and his coworkers is lacking. One ends wondering why it was all done. A second criticism I would have is that the comment is made that Hale had hallucinations, in telling others of the little elf who bedeviled him. If you read about Hale in depth, you'll find that the elf is simply his personification of his episodes of depression, much as Abraham Lincoln personified HIS depression as a black dog. He did not hallucinate this critter. (Overall, it would seem that Hale was most likely bipolar, with his energetic pursuit of observatory building the result of his manic phases - and that he was not a schizophrenic, the mental illness more typically associated with hallucinations).Finally, amateur astronomers will relish the brief segment of Russell Porter, the fellow amateur who participated in the design of the Palomar telescope and building and who left us such pleasing drawings of these.

I had the opportunity to see this documentary presented in its near final cut at Caltech in the presence of most of the living members of the Hale family. It's an excellent effort, and well worth watching for anyone interested in telescopes or the history of astronomy. Also a good choice for inspiring a child interested in astronomy or engineering.For nearly a century (93 years by my count) the largest productive astronomical telescope in the world was one of Hale's creations. (The Yerkes 40", the 60" and 100" on Mt. Wilson, and the 200" Palomar telescope, named after Hale.) He also established the the Yerkes, Mt. Wilson, and Palomar Mountain observatories, co-founded the Astrophysical Journal, was instrumental in creating the modern Caltech, created the greatest solar telescopes of his time, invented the spectroheliograph, and conducted research in solar astronomy. This documentary is good introduction to the amazing man Hale was, and the unprecedented accomplishment the "Hale Telescope" represented.A documentary can't, of course, give you the depth of information that a good book can. If this DVD whets you appetite for more, turn to "The Perfect Machine" by Ronald Florence for more about the 200" scope, or "Explorer of the Universe: A Biography of George Ellery Hale" by Helen Wright (sadly out of print, but available used) for more about the remarkable man.

The first third was fine but the rest of it consistently balked and skipped. i had seen it years ago and knew it was a good production. Disappointed that I couldn't see the second two /thirds of it. Recommend it for anyone interested in history of astronomy.

This show attempts to do three things at once, be a biography of George Hale, explain astronomy, and document the creation of three large telescopes (Yerkes, Wilson, Palomar).Let's start with the bad news. The biography of Hale is so sketchy you'll be running to Wikipedia to make sense of it. It starts with Hale as a 12-yr old watching Chicago burn. In the next scene he's having his father build him a major observatory. Ummm, did he go to college somewhere? Was his father rich? No clues here. Later his wife appears for a quote or two but is otherwise ignored. He speaks fluently about the arts and Italian art to the wife of one of his backers... when did he have an interest in that? No clue here about that either.As for the second thread, the narration attempts to justify the creation of these ground-breaking new telescopes by giving very brief descriptions about what astronomers wanted them for. Unfortunately there's way too much 20-20 hindsight and these diversions make no sense either.The show's real strength is in the raw history of the telescopes themselves. They seem to have found a mother lode of wonderful photographs showing many under construction photos of the telescopes.So if you're interested in telescopes, this DVD is 5-stars. As entertainment, it's somewhat annoying due to the many gaps in the story line.

This story tells of George Ellery Hale and his epic struggles to buildthe 40",100", and the 200" telescopes.Hale also had to battle mental illness and he was truly heroic ashe never gave up!The focus of the story is the great 200" telescope on Palomar.The Hale telescope is still a cutting edge instrument after 60years and I found that it is at least 100 times more powerfulthan when it was first built due to the support technology builtfor it bt Cal-tech.This is my all time favorite science special. Watch it and enjoy!

This is one of the most important stories of the 20th century. It's an amazing tale of the inspired genius of George Ellery Hale, who designed and got the money to build the three largest and most important telescopes in the world.

If you love astronomy, you will love this DVD.

I am an amatuer astronomer and just loved the history of Palomar Observatory (actually worked with the 18" and even touch the 200"). You really get a sense of what it took to complete such a huge endeavor back then. Hale was a wonderful man. Also have the book 'The Perfect Machine' about building the 200". Would like to see other stories about Lick, Mt. Wilson, Yerkes, etc. Turn of the Century Astronomy, got to love it. Thanks