ABSTRACT
The peripatetic George Ellery Hale, who was soon fighting depression, acute indigestion, and severe pains in the back of his head diagnosed by doctors as brain congestion, was long gone from Williams Bay by the time Hubble began his graduate studies at Yerkes in the autumn of 1914. Hubble was also respected for never letting a night assistant do for him what he could do for himself. While Hubble languished at Camp Grant awaiting word of the fate of the 86th Division, the 100-inch telescope was pointed to the sky for the first time on the night of November 1, 1917. Silhouetted against the blackness of the dome were the figures of nineteen men, ranging from Mount Wilson’s director, Hale, to Roy Desmond, a janitor’s helper. Hale and assistant director Walter S. Adams climbed the long flight of iron steps to the observing platform, not unlike condemned prisoners ascending the scaffold.
