In June 1948, the Palomar Observatory opened in San Diego. Construction of the 200-inch mirror for the Hale Telescope, named for its inventor George Ellery Hale, had begun in 1934. Edwin Powell Hubble, who in 1929 discovered that clouds of light in the night sky were from galaxies beyond the Milky Way, was the first astronomer to use the telescope. It remained the largest in the world until 1975, when the Russians built a bigger one. Discover more San Diego history in Tazia and Gemma (see NOVELS).
