Living from 1868 to 1938, George Ellery Hale began studying astronomy as a wealthy teenager as he grew up in the city of To his name and credit, he also founded the Astrophysical Journal, (coining the term astrophysics as well) he was awarded the Janssen Medal by the Paris Academy of Sciences in 1894 and the Rumford Medal by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1902, he received the Gold Medal from the Royal Astronomical Society in 1904 and the Draper Medal from the National Academy of Sciences. On top of this massive list of accomplishments, he was also one of the first three Honorary Members of the Optical Society of America, and he won the Ives medal in 1935. He is also accredited with winning the Actonian Prize, and Copley Medal.
Hale was a driving force behind the Palomar Observatory (now owned by CIT) that allowed the Hale Telescope to be built, a 200 inch (5.1m) telescope. As described by Caltech Astronomy: “The 200-inch (5.1 m) Hale Telescope (f/3.3) was the world's largest effective telescope for 45 years (1948 - 1993). It is still a workhorse of modern astronomy. It is used nightly for a wide range of astronomical studies. On average the weather allows for at least some data collection about 290 nights a year.”
A massively influential figure in astronomy- he currently has a telescope, (aforementioned Hale Telescope at Palomar) a 22-year solar cycle, (Hale Cycle) an asteroid, (Asteroid 1024 Hale) as well as craters on both the moon and Mars named after him. He was arguably one of the most influential/productive Astronomers of all time, let alone in his period.
