Image left: American astronomer Edwin Hubble in 1924 - used the 100-inch Hooker Telescope.

John Daggett Hooker (1838-1911), was an American ironmaster, amateur scientist and astronomer, and philanthropist who made the initial donations for the Hooker Telescope.

Its record size was not surpassed until the completion of the 254-cm (100-in) Hooker Telescope in 1917.

It was with the 100-inch Hooker Telescope on Mount Wilson that Edwin Hubble discovered, in 1929, that the universe was expanding.

In 1917 the 100" Hooker Telescope became operational and would be the world's largest telescope until the opening of the 200" Palomar Hale Telescope in 1948.

In 1919, American astronomer Edwin Hubble arrived at Mt. Wilson and, throughout the 1920s, made many astronomical discoveries using the Hooker Telescope.

In 1996, Juno was imaged by the Hooker Telescope at Mount Wilson Observatory at visible and near-IR wavelengths, using adaptive optics.

But with the help of volunteers working independently of major astronomical funding groups, the great Hooker Telescope atop Mt. Wilson may once again see the light of the stars.

The Hooker Telescope, known to astronomers as the "Hundred-Inch" because of its 100-inch-diameter light-focusing mirror, was completed in 1917 and for three decades remained the largest telescope in the world.

But as Hubble began making observations with the Hooker Telescope, he noticed that objects known as "nebulae," thought to be components of the Milky Way, were located far beyond its boundaries.