Science: One Billion Light-Years

The 200-inch Hale telescope on Palomar Mountain has already proved itself astronomically successful. But with a little fixing it can do better still.

Astronomer Edwin Hubble told last week how he went to Palomar in January to put the great telescope through its paces. He knew already that the giant mirror and the intricate mechanism supporting it were good enough for nights when the "seeing" is only ordinary. On such nights the perfection of a telescope's performance is limited by irregularities in the air. Hubble wanted to try the great telescope on one of...