Author describes the building of the Palomar telescope in California, one of the greatest technical achievements of this century.

A thought provoking study of the powerful impact of images in guiding astronomers' understanding of galaxies through time.

"Letters to the Editor" issued as Part 2 and separately paged from v. 148, 1967. Beginning in 2009, the Letters published only online.

Drawing on his experience as historian of astronomy, practicing astrophysicist, and director of Lick Observatory, Donald Osterbrock uncovers a chapter in the history of astronomy by providing the story of the Yerkes Observatory. "An excellent description of the ups and downs of a major observatory."—Jack Meadows, Nature "Historians are much indebted to Osterbrock for this new contribution to the fascinating story of twentieth-century American astronomy."—Adriaan Blaauw, Journal for the History of Astronomy "An important reference about one of the key American observatories of this century."—Woodruff T. Sullivan III, Physics Today

Jesuits established a large number of astronomical, geophysical and meteorological observatories during the 17th and 18th centuries and again during the 19th and 20th centuries throughout the world. The history of these observatories has never been published in a complete form. Many early European astronomical observatories were established in Jesuit colleges. During the 17th and 18th centuries Jesuits were the first western scientists to enter into contact with China and India. It was through them that western astronomy was first introduced in these countries. They made early astronomical observations in India and China and they directed for 150 years the Imperial Observatory of Beijing. In the 19th and 20th centuries a new set of observatories were established. Besides astronomy these now included meteorology and geophysics. Jesuits established some of the earliest observatories in Africa, South America and the Far East. Jesuit observatories constitute an often forgotten chapter of the history of these sciences.

Scientists and historians today know of Ritchey only through the reports of Hale and Walter S. Adams, Hales's successor as director at Mount Wilson. We associate Ritchey with the Ritchey-Chretien system, used in almost all large reflecting telescopes today, with the 60-inch Mount Wilson telescope, and with the 100-inch Mount Wilson mirror, but we know little about his life and career. Yet today's large telescopes have demonstrated the validity of many of Ritchey's predictions, which seemed fantastic to most of the astronomers of his day.