September, 1939
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
334
“He hath set eternity in their heart, yet so that m a r , cannot find out the work that God hath done from the beginning even to the end” (Eccl. 3:11, R.V.).
M AN’S? insatiable desire to reach out into the unknown is creating a gigantic 200-inch Southern California. Why are men grinding the lens ot this great reflector with such precision that over its entire surface, 16% feet in diameter, the variation from the specifications will be no more than one millionth of an inch? Why are they content to live for weeks on a remote mountain top, or else to commute by airplane a full 90 miles to San Diego County from Pasa dena?
of God states the sharp contrast thus: “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honor of kings is to search out a matter. The heaven for height and the earth for depth . . . is unsearchable” (Prov. 2f- ”, 3). In other words, though the Word of God and the Christian's own experience both teach that God may be known personally and progressively, neither He nor His creation can ever be known fully. To have the joy of knowing God and His works better throughout eter nity, yet never to come to the full end of knowing God in Christ, this is the Christian’s privilege and glory. Yes, the opportunity for searching and learning is by no means limited to the material realm. Searching with Mighty Instruments Heretofore, man’s best achievement in the making of a lens and telescope mounting has been the 100-inch Hooker reflector at the Mount Wilson Observa tory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, located on Mount Wilson above Pasadena, California. This great “glass,” like the 200-inch one now be ing prepared, was the result of the vision and initiative of the late George Ellery Hale, who served as Chairman of the Observatory Council of the Cali fornia Institute of Technology. The 100-inch telescope can bring to the photographic negative, light from stars 500,000,000 light years away. When one remembers that light traveling at a speed of 186,000 miles per second requires only about 8 min utes to reach the earth from the sun, 92,900,000 miles distant, it would' seem
[For the benefit of K ing ' s B usiness readers who may not have at hand many facts about t h e 200-inch telescope, a member of the staff of the magazine has visited John A. Anderson, Executive Officer of the Observatory Council at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif., to secure recent facts which are incorporated in the following article. Mr. Stoners article appears at the right of these pages. —E ditor .] Below: Palomar Mountain’s 300-Inch Telescope, Looking North. R. W. Porter Drawing, 1989. Note man near base.
telescope on Palomar Mountain in
Why has the G e n e r a l Education Board of the Rockefeller F o u n d a t i o n given' $6,000,000 to the Cali fornia Institute of Technol ogy for this observatory and telescope ? The search for a multi tude of new starry uni verses, some of which may prove to be 1 , 000 , 000,000 light years away—is only a phase of the new quest of John A. Anderson, assisted by his fellow astronomers. They expect the telescope to help ask questions as to the nature of the p h y s i c a l realm, questions which may find an answer to the prob lem of “the expanding uni verse.” It is this desire to know, to explore infinity, that dis tinguishes finite man from the infinite God. The Word
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