California Wildfire Beaten Back, for Now, on Famous Mt. Wilson

The mountain is home to two historic telescopes and many other scientific instruments, along with a billion dollars’ worth of broadcast transmission towers.

Written byAshley Yeager

| 2 min read

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ABOVE: A view of Mount Wilson Observatory on September 15, 2020.
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Update (September 21): Mt. Wilson observatory is now considered safe from the Bobcat Fire, according to The New York Times.

Update (September 17): Mt. Wilson appears to be under threat again. “The #BobcatFire is still on our back. We thought we might have it down, but...... The more active area appears to be moving northward,” the Mount Wilson Observatory reported a few hours ago on its Twitter feed.

Sparing no effort, firefighters successfully waged all-out war yesterday (September 15) on a wildfire that threatened two famous telescopes and other scientific and communications equipment that sit atop Mt. Wilson, a mountain a little more than 30 miles northeast of Los Angeles.

Flames from the fire tore through the Angeles National Forest and came within 500 feet of the grounds of the historic telescopes on the mountain, David Dantic, a spokesman ...

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Meet the Author

Ashley Yeager
Ashley started at The Scientist in 2018. Before joining the staff, she worked as a freelance editor and writer, a writer at the Simons Foundation, and a web producer at Science News, among other positions. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a master’s degree in science writing from MIT. Ashley edits the Scientist to Watch and Profile sections of the magazine and writes news, features, and other stories for both online and print.
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