I was going through my pictures, just deleting. It is so easy to accumulate, every so often I delete. I came across these from the summer and realized I had never shared them here.
A little history, Mount Wilson is named for Benjamin Davis Wilson, owner of Rancho San Pascual as well as the grandfather of General Patton. In the mid 19th century he created a trail up to the peak, which became a weekend hiking adventure for many in the Pasadena area.
Through the years a toll road, the Mount Lowe railroad made their way up the mountain. The railway never made it to Mount Wilson, but enough people were coming up here. A hotel was built, but it succumbed to fire. Attempts to build and observatory here were started in the late 19th century, but it was only in 1903 when George Ellery Hale got the ball rolling in earnest.
Hale helped build many of the telescopes here as well as bring aboard Edwin Hubble. Albert Einstein visited here as well. 
We didn’t take a tour, although one of these days I feel like I should, I find science and exploration fascinating.
As well as the buildings that house the telescopes.
The Carnegie Institute held the lease for 90 years and in 1984 they wanted to dismantle many of the telescopes and move their operations to Chili, to an area with much less light pollution. In 1986 the Mount Wilson Institute was formed and the observatories were saved and are still in use today.
On a clear day you can see across the whole basin out to Catalina Island. Mid summer is never very clear. A combination of fog, haze and good old pollution led to this almost mystical view. As long as you don’t strain to see the city below, this could be a Japanese print of mountains in the haze.
The other thing that Mount Wilson is known for it’s it’s sea of Radio, Television and microwave relay towers. The first was installed in 1947 for KTLA Channel 5, the station famous for garnering most viewers for the commercial free coverage of the Rose Parade.
The sea of transmitters can be easily seen from Pasadena, I did take a picture but in my purge I must have deleted it. Oh well, the better view is close up.