A Great Tragedy Looms: Mt Wilson Observatory is in the path of Bobcat

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SUMMARY

The Mount Wilson Observatory, a historic site crucial for astronomical discoveries, faced an imminent threat from the Bobcat Fire, which approached within 500 feet. Fortunately, the observatory was declared safe after heroic firefighting efforts, with only one unused structure suffering damage. The observatory's operations, managed by the Mount Wilson Institute since 1989, have been impacted by smoke, potentially affecting the telescopes' optics. As of the latest updates, there are no active fires or significant smoke in the area.

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https://laist.com/2020/09/15/mt_wilson_observatory_bobcat_fire_hubble.php
You may not have realized it, but sitting atop one of the highest points in the San Gabriel mountains, looming 5,700 feet over L.A., is arguably one of the world's most important spots for scientific discovery: the Mount Wilson Observatory.

The 114-year-old site is covered in equipment that not only helped mankind discover the universe and cement Southern California as an astronomy hub, but still connects normal people to wonders beyond our own world.

Worryingly, the Bobcat Fire is charging right for it. Only 500 feet away as of Tuesday afternoon.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Latest news suggest it was spared.
 
500 feet for a wildfire "charging right toward it" is less than a minute.
 
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I've read "El País" newspaper (a reliable source) today here in Spain: the headline is "California fire smoke hits U.S. East Coast"; "Firefighters keep struggling...";"The European Union's Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service has found traces of ash in Europe", finishes.
TV also covers the news day by day.
I have no words... Yes, I do: hope.
 
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Yeah, Lick Observatory here above Silicon Valley had the same thing happen just a few weeks ago (because of the SCU Lightning Complex Fire):

https://www.wired.com/story/california-wildfire-historic-lick-observatory/

1600355969913.png


The observatory and grounds were evacuated (about 30 people), except for the manager who stayed behind to help direct the CalFire firefighters. In the end, only one unused structure burned. Whew!

In its assault on Mount Hamilton and Lick Observatory, the blaze consumed an unused residence on the property, damaged a few others, and ate through power poles. But Chloros—with his knowledge of the terrain, roads, fire trails, and water supplies—helped direct the movement of Cal Fire crews, who held back the flames, saving the iconic observatory. “This is a miracle, that these folks—with heroic efforts—they were able to keep the structures still standing,” Chloros said.
 
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Any news about the fire? And Mount Wilson Observatory?. No news here in the Basque Country today on newspaper (I don't usually buy it). I went to Los Angeles USA when I was a teenager, on the eighties, for a month. I feel concerned
 
  • #10
Here is a NY Times article on it.

From the article:
Mount Wilson Observatory, where astronomers a century ago first described the expansion of the universe, appears to have survived a close call with the Bobcat fire, which has been ravaging the San Gabriel Mountains in Southern California.

“It looks very good,” Dan Kohne, a trustee of the Mount Wilson Institute, which runs the observatory, said in an email Friday morning. “The Observatory has been declared safe.”

The observatory sits on a knife-edge ridge overlooking Pasadena.
Things are very steep in places there. Its also a hang gliding jump-off place.

But by 10 a.m Friday, a composite image, generated at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, at the foot of Mount Wilson, of the observatory and the fire boundaries suggested that the observatory buildings had been saved; the edge of the burned area only just brushed the edge of the ridgeline. There was blue sky above the mountain.

“It’s not over yet,” Rebecca Oppenheimer, astronomy curator at the American Museum of Natural History, said in a note to the astronomy community on Thursday morning. “Fingers crossed, but the smoke damage has to be horrific already, even if this fire business goes away.” The many days of smoke and heat had most likely wreaked havoc on the telescopes’ optics, she said.

Mr. Kohne said that it would be some time before anyone could visit in person but that there had been no reports of damage.

In 1989, as part of an effort to free up resources to build telescopes in Chile, the Carnegie Institution handed over operation of the observatory to the nonprofit Mount Wilson Institute. Subsequently, the 100-inch and 60-inch telescopes were retired from research and are now devoted to public observing. Mount Wilson itself has become a tourist attraction, a place where in normal times the public can visit, eat at the Cosmic Cafe, see the stars and commune with the ghosts of Hubble, Einstein and other great minds of the cosmos for at least a little while longer.
 
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  • #11
Bobcat has extinguised? Los Angeles city is been affected?
 
  • #12
mcastillo356 said:
Bobcat has extinguised? Los Angeles city is been affected?
There are currently no fires or significant smoke in the area:

Screen Shot 2020-11-27 at 1.25.45 PM.png
 
  • #13
Los Angeles city was affected by Bobcat?. I feel concerned. I was to the USA when I was sixteen. I loved it.
 
  • #14
Sorry, I don't know if LA neighbours had to be evacuated, removed from their houses, due to the fire. When I went to Los Angeles to study the idiom, I was hosted by a lovely family far from downtown for a month. Those people suffered?. I mean, nowadays they must be aged people. Were they victims, or stood aside? I mean the population of the boundaries of LA.
Thanks! If I am wrong somehow in this post, delete.
Greetings!
 
  • #15
I guess if you knew their address you could find a burn map for the fires or via google maps although those maps have no date on them and may not reflect current conditions accurately.
 
  • #16
The one I posted would have little fire symbols if there were fires around.
 
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  • #17
I know a way to find out exactly where they lived. I will call FSL (Foreign Study Language), here in the Basque Country. They arranged family inmersions in the USA. It was the summer of 1981, in August. Hope there will be information avaliable.
I'll tell you.
Thanks!
PS: Today is saturday, hope they will be working,