The Battle Over the Structure of the Universe

Abstract

Blessed with great natural skill at the telescope Milt finds that his talents are his enemy when he takes on an incredibly long observing run to photograph the spectra of extremely far off galaxies for Edwin Hubble. Unhappy with the notion of continuing with the work, Milt quits the project and it takes an invitation by the honorary director of the observatory, George Ellery Hale, and a promise of innovations in camera technology to change his mind. The new technology proves equal to the task, reducing exposure times for deep space galaxies and helping Hubble and Humason to push their velocity-distance relationship farther and farther, until Einstein himself is ready to concede that the universe must be expanding. The world’s best-known scientist visits the observatory and meets with Hubble and Humason to discuss their findings.