This is the Hale family reuniting itself with their roots as it was what George

Elri Hale. Welcome to the Travel Show that takes you with George Elry Heel.

Welcome to the Travel Show that takes you to the Final Frontier.

And this week back in history to what may be the most important astronomical observatory in Human History.

I'm Matt Kaplan of the Planetary Society with a special edition of Planetary Radio as I recover

from a brief vacation.

Bill Nye and Emily Lockawall have the week off, but Bruce Betts will be here

for a brand new What's Up segment shortly. First though I want to share with you a few minutes

from a video documentary I'm working on. I couldn't believe my good fortune a few months ago

when I was invited to accompany members of the Hale family on a tour of the Mount Wilson

Observatory. Our tour guide on that cold, cold day high above Southern California's San Gabriel Valley was

Dave Jarasovich, the Observatory Superintendent.

Dave first brought our little group into a small room at the base of a tremendous tower that could be seen from the valley more than a mile below us.

So this is the 150 foot solar tower.

Before we get into talking about how this thing works, I want to talk a little bit about

George Ellery Hale a lot about what he did scientifically.

He was born in Chicago in 1868, three years before Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicked the lantern

over and caused a great fire of Chicago.

He was born into a family that became a very prominent industrialist family in the city of

Chicago.

His father, William E. Hale, was in the elevator business when Chicago

was putting up multi-story buildings after the Great Fire. And I believe Chicago was even preceded

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