On January 26, 1949, the Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory first saw light. The Hale Telescope and Palomar Observatory were the brainchildren of US astronomer George Ellery Hale. He had previously overseen the building of 60-inch and 100-inch telescopes at the Mount Wilson Observatory in the early 1900s. These telescopes helped to vastly increase our understanding of the universe, and also demonstrated Hale’s argument that we needed even larger telescopes. In 1928, Hale received a $6 million grant from the Rockefeller Foundation for a new observatory and 200-inch reflecting telescope. A few years later, Hale selected the site of the observatory, on Palomar Mountain, in San Diego, California. He believed it would be least affected by the increase in light pollution from large cities such as Los Angeles.