Friday, March 20, 2009

Here's to You Mr. Robinson

A while back I posted about the new Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics. Astronomers and staff are now occupying the new building. Of course that means that the old building, the Robinson Astrophysics Lab, is being vacated. I visited on Wednesday looking for interesting relics that may eventually go on display here at Palomar.

I didn't manage to get any photos, but thankfully there are some over at the Pasadena Daily Photo blog. If you are reading this around on or around March 20 you'll see the posts. Anyone finding this later should specifically check the posts for March 18, March 19 (with a great photo of a bust of George Ellery Hale), and March 20. In reading the comments of one of the posts I found that the Pasadena Permit Center is named for none other than G. E. Hale. I had no idea.

The Robinson Astrophysics Lab was named for Henry Robinson, who was an L.A. businessman and a member of the Caltech board of trustees. Robinson provided an endowment for the operation of the Palomar Observatory and even negotiated the deals to make the initial land purchases for the observatory.

The building will have its interior remodeled and will be occupied by Caltech Geology become the Ronald and Maxine Linde Center for Global Environmental Science where people will "address the complex issue of global climate change from a wide range of disciplines".
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3 comments:

  1. Petrea BurchardMarch 20, 2009 at 10:00 AM

    Hi Scott, thanks for the mention(s). It was a privilege to tour the Robinson building and library. The building's new purpose will be devoted to the study of climate change; there are links about it in my posts. I'm glad to see the brains at Caltech devoted to this problem.

    Thanks for visiting Pasadena Daily Photo!

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  2. Palomar ObservatoryMarch 20, 2009 at 10:07 AM

    Yikes, thanks for the correction, which I have now fixed in my post.

    And Petrea, keep up the good work at Pasadena Daily Photo!

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  3. Petrea BurchardMarch 21, 2009 at 7:32 AM

    Is it a correction? I wouldn't be surprised if Caltech Geology was part of the new project. But what the hey.

    And thank you! I'll do my best.

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