The First 50 Years at Palomar: 1949-1999 The Early Years of Stellar Evolution, Cosmology, and High-Energy Astrophysics

An account is given of the history of two observational programs set for the Palomar 200-inch telescope, one by Walter Baade and the other by Edwin Hubble near the start of the scheduled operation of the telescope 50 years ago. The review is partly an assessment of whether, and how well, these programs have been carried to completion, and partly an account of the response of Palomar to new discoveries and developments not foreseen in 1950. Stellar evolution, the discovery of variations in the metallicity of stars of different populations, the chemical evolution of the Galaxy, the Cepheid P-L relation, the redshift-distance relation of the expanding universe, and the extragalactic distance scale are discussed as they relate to the predictions for progress on the programs set out by Baade and Hubble. Not foreseen was the invention and development of radio astronomy and high energy astrophysics, leading to the discovery of radio galaxies, quasars, and the gradual realization of violent events, both in stars and in galaxies. The review is highly restricted to these subjects, covering only three areas among the totality of the work in observational astrophysics studied during the first 50 years at Palomar.