Vintage telescopes, astronomy manuscripts dating back to
the 13th century, a Moon rock and NASA pictures of distant
galaxies are displayed at the Huntington Library, San Marino,
Calif., in an exhibit exploring humanity’s quest to understand
the cosmos.

The exhibit, called “Star Struck: One Thousand Years of
the Art and Science of Astronomy,” features images taken by
NASA/JPL planetary missions over the past four decades, along
with historic astronomical instruments and important works by
Galileo, Cassini, Huygens and other early astronomers.

“NASA and JPL have been part of creating a new era of
observing the universe by sending probes to the planets in our
solar system and putting telescopes in space that can observe
the universe in much greater detail,” said Dr. Edward Stone,
director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
Stone advised the Huntington Library in assembling the
exhibit.

The three astronomical themes included in the exhibit,
Stone said, are: What is our place in the universe? How do we
observe the universe to understand that? What have we seen
that has allowed us to understand better our place in the
universe?

Visitors to the exhibit, which runs until May 13, will
also see the first hand-drawn star map of the southern
hemisphere and a 1913 letter from Albert Einstein asking
astronomer George Ellery Hale, founder of the Mount Wilson and
Palomar Mountain observatories, to review his new theory of
general relativity.

This exhibit is the first in “The Universe” series of
space-related events in the Pasadena area in coming months.
Other institutions and organizations taking part are the
California Institute of Technology, Armory Center for the
Arts, Art Center College of Design, Norton Simon Museum, One
Colorado, Pacific Asia Museum and Southwest Chamber Music.

For hours, admission and more information on the
Huntington Library, see http://www.huntington.org . For
information on space exploration and astronomical objects, see
JPL’s website at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov . JPL, a NASA
center, is a division of Caltech.