* Astronomy

Station Fire grows, threatens communications towers, observatory at Mt. Wilson
Television and radio communications towers at Mt. Wilson and the historic Mt. Wilson Observatory will likely be overtaken by fire Sunday night, U.S. Forest Service Incident Commander Rick Dietrich said in a press conference.

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Fire continues out of control
An explosive fire that destroyed dozens of buildings, burned through 30-foot high vegetation and forced thousands of evacuations continued to spread Saturday, torching more than 20,000 acres in an area that hasn't burned in four decades, officials said.

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Weary firefighters were hoping for slightly cooler weather and more resources today as they battled a fire in the Angeles National Forest that had burned more than 20,000 acres and threatens 10,000 homes.
The fire marched north overnight through remote mountain ridges toward Acton. The U.S. Forest Service was sending firefighters into those areas, which have become the northern edge of the blaze. Mandatory evacuations were in effect in La Cañada Flintridge, Pasadena, La Crescenta, Altadena, Glendale and Big Tujunga Canyon.
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Mount Wilson telescope turns 100
It's been a century since the Mount Wilson Observatory arose almost 6,000 feet above Pasadena. Cutting-edge astronomy happened there before technology, development, and environmental changes made its original 60-inch telescope a relic. Southern Californians can still use it to sample the stars.

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Five-thousand feet above Pasadena, a small group of USC researchers and graduate students celebrated a milestone last week: the 100th anniversary of Mount Wilson's solar telescope.
That wasn't all they were celebrating, however.
In June 1908, just months after the telescope's completion, George Ellery Hale, the astronomer responsible for the device's creation, made a critical discovery - the surface of the sun has magnetic fields, just like Earth.

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