George Ellery Hale (June 29 1868 – February 21 1938) was an American astronomer.

As an undergraduate at MIT, he invented the spectroheliograph.

He helped found a number of observatories, including Yerkes Observatory and Mount Wilson Observatory. He hired and encouraged Harlow Shapley and Edwin Hubble and did a great deal of fundraising, planning, organizing and promotion of astronomical institutions, societies and journals.

Honors

Awards

• Henry Draper Medal in 1904.
• Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1904.
• Bruce Medal in 1916.
• Copley Medal in 1932.

Named after him

• Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory.
• 22-year solar Hale Cycle.
• Asteroid 1024 Hale .
• Hale crater on the Moon.
• Hale crater on Mars.

External links

• Biography
• Bruce Medal page
• Awarding of the Bruce Medal: PASP 28 (1916) 12
• Awarding of the RAS gold medal: MNRAS 64 (1904) 388

Obituaries

• ApJ 87 (1938) 369
• JRASC 32 (1938) 192
• MNRAS 99 (1939) 322
• Obs 61 (1938) 163 (not online)
• PASP 50 (1938) 156