The Day We Found the Universe (53 page)

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Authors: Marcia Bartusiak

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258 Times had assuredly changed: Though Lemaître was both scientist and priest, he believed that science and theology should remain separate entities. He disagreed when Pope Pius XII in 1951 announced that the Big Bang cosmology confirmed the fundamental doctrines of Christian theology. “As far as I can see,” he said, “such a theory [of the primeval atom] remains entirely outside any metaphysical or religious question. It leaves the materialist free to deny any transcendental Being.” See Kragh (1987), pp. 133–34.
259 Baade was able to prove that there were two distinct kinds of Cepheid stars: Baade (1952).
259 Those who desired nature to be uniform breathed a huge sigh of relief: The astronomical community was aghast when Harlow Shapley went to the press and attempted to claim that he, not Baade, had first discovered the correction to Hubble's distance scale. What he actually did was go back to some of his old observations and simply confirm Baade's discovery after the fact. Sandage (2004), p. 310.
259 “Never in all the history of science”: De Sitter (1932), p. 3.
261 “a growing community of American astronomers … by the 1960s were concentrating to an unprecedented degree on the study of galaxies”: Kragh and Smith (2003), p. 157.

Whatever Happened to …

262 In 1900 Charles Yerkes moved to New York City: Miller (1970), p. 110.
262 Within a month, she married Wilson Mizner: Franch (2006), pp. 318–23.
262 maintains its status as the largest refractor: A 49-inch refractor was displayed at the 1900 Paris Exposition but was never used professionally and ultimately dismantled.
262 At the end of a long honeymoon in Europe, he and his bride took a balloon ride: Hoyt (1996), p. 233.
262 the observatory spent a decade fighting in court with his widow for control of his estate…. “opulent squalor” until her death at the age of ninety in 1954: The phrase “opulent squalor” was used by the Reverend Fay Lincoln Gemmell, who did chores for Constance while a theology student in the 1940s. Putnam (1994), p. 104.
264 “I have so little confidence in the theories of Lemaître, Eddington,
et al.
in this field that I shall follow the safe if not sane course of just sitting tight”: HUA, Curtis to Shapley, August 24, 1932.
265 He had hopes for erecting a big reflector for Michigan's use: J. Stebbins (1950). A 36-inch reflecting telescope, dedicated as the Heber Curtis Memorial Telescope, was erected in 1950 on Peach Mountain, northwest of Ann Arbor. It was devoted to the study of galactic and extragalactic structure. In 1967 the telescope was moved to the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile.
265 He always considered his work on the nebulae as his greatest contribution to astronomy: McMath (1942), p. 69.
265 “The truth is … that I have been enjoying from boyhood the things I liked most to do”: Wright, Warnow, and Weiner (1972), p. 99.
266 He moved to his ranch east of Pasadena, growing lemons, oranges, and avocados and dreaming of designing ever-bigger telescopes, with mirrors up to 320 inches in width: Osterbrock (1993), pp. 160–64.
266 controversial design for the Naval Observatory scope, worked out earlier in collaboration with the French astronomer Henri Chrétien, would later be used in many giant telescopes: Ibid., p. 282.
266 “very gracious, kindly person, a real gentleman”: AIP, interview of George Abell by Spencer Weart, November 14, 1977.
266 Ira Bowen was appointed instead, a decision that simply stunned Hubble: Sandage (2004), p. 530.
267 When Grace was about to make a turn into their driveway, though, she noticed Edwin breathing shallowly: Dunaway (1989), p. 247.
267 that rare individual who went from elementary school directly to a PhD: Sandage (2004), p. 192.
267 “My God, Bill,” he replied, “I've looked in an eyepiece all my life, I don't want to look in any more eyepieces”: AIP, interview of Milton Humason by Bert Shapiro around 1965.
267 “high noon of his scientific life”: Kopal (1972), p. 429.
268 His grave is marked by a solid granite rock upon which is inscribed, “And We by His Triumph Are Lifted Level with the Skies”: Bok (1978), pp. 254–58.
268 wrote a thirty-nine-page memoir: See Adams (1947).
268 in the early 1940s Hubble proved once and for all that … a spiral's arms are trailing as they rotate, not leading: Berendzen and Hart (1973), p. 91.
268 Just weeks before his death he finished the measurement of his five hundredth parallax field at the observatory's Pasadena headquarters: Seares (1946), p. 89.
268 “everywhere the two men went, the lambda was sure to go”: “Amiable Abbe” (1961), p. 42.
269 at last received news of the discovery: Deprit (1984), p. 391.
Acknowledgments
M
y journey into this special moment in astronomical history began at archives located on both coasts of the United States. For their invaluable help during my research, deep appreciation is extended to archivists Dorothy Schaumberg and Cheryl Dandridge at the Mary Lea Shane Archives of the Lick Observatory; Kristen Sanders and Christine Bunting with the special collections at the library of the University of California, Santa Cruz; Charlotte (“Shelley”) Erwin and Bonnie Ludt at the Caltech Institute Archives in Pasadena; Janice Goldblum at the National Academies Archives in Washington, D.C.; Melanie Brown, Julie Gass, Mark Matienzo, Jennifer Sullivan, and Spencer Weart with the Niels Bohr Library and Archives at the American Institute of Physics in College Park, Maryland; Nora Murphy at the MIT Archives and Brian Marsden with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, both in Cambridge, Massachusetts; the Harvard University Archives; and Meredith Berbée, Juan Gomez, Kate Henningsen, Laura Stalker, and Catherine Wehrey at the Henry Huntington Library in San Marino, California. There Dan Lewis, Huntington's curator for the History of Science and Technology, was particularly helpful in tracking down last-minute bits of information as the book was nearing completion.
A special thank-you goes to Antoinette Beiser, Lowell Observatory's archivist in Flagstaff, Arizona. Antoinette went to extraordinary lengths to unearth every letter, logbook, journal, and artifact connected to Vesto Slipher, which allowed me to deepen the record on this oft-forgotten astronomer. More than that, she and her friends, the “Thursday Night Wing Dingers,” offered much-needed respite after hours.
I was certainly not the first to peruse these archives in search of the story behind the discovery of the modern universe. I am hugely indebted to the historians who went before me and blazed the trail. Several graciously offered sage advice and beneficial suggestions while reviewing sections of my work in progress, in particular David DeVorkin, curator for the history of astronomy at the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and Robert Smith, professor of history, University of Alberta, Canada. I am especially beholden to Norriss Hetherington, visiting scholar with the Office of the History of Science and Technology at the University of California, Berkeley, who provided guidance and feedback from the very start of my project until its finish. And I thank his wife, Edith, for her cordial hospitality while visiting the San Francisco area. Donald Osterbrock, former Lick Observatory director, provided similar counsel, until, sadly, he passed away at the age of eighty-two in 2007. I am grateful to his wife, Irene, who helped in his historical research, for reviewing the sections that involved his areas of expertise.
I would like to thank my engaging guides to three of the facilities crucial to this story: Kevin Schindler at the Lowell Observatory, Don Nicholson at the Mount Wilson Observatory, and Tony Misch at Lick Observatory, who also provided copies of historic photographs taken by both James Keeler and Heber Curtis.
And throughout this long venture, I was fortunate to receive continual encouragement from my colleagues in the MIT Graduate Program in Science Writing—Rob Kanigel, Shannon Larkin, Tom Levenson, Alan Lightman, Boyce Rensberger—as well as close friends and family who kept my spirits high with their unceasing interest in my progress. For this I thank Elizabeth Eaton, Linda and Steve Wohler, the McCabes—Tara, Paul, Ian, and Hugh—Elizabeth Maggio, Ike Ghozeil, Sarah and Peter Saulson, Ellen and Marty Shell, Eunice and Cliff Lowe, and my mother, who will celebrate her eighty-eighth birthday soon after this book is published. I am grateful to my agent, Russ Galen, in never wavering to get this project off the ground, and to my editor, Edward Kastenmeier, for his ever enthusiastic advocacy, superb insights, and invaluable suggestions.
I am indebted to my husband, Steve Lowe, who provided both gentle criticism and a keen editorial eye throughout the course of my research and writing. His love, encouragement, and expertise on matters scientific helped bring this book to fruition. Thank you, Steve, for always being there.
Lastly, I should mention that the immense pleasure I experienced in working on this book inspired me to name my new bearded collie puppy, both a champ and a scamp, Hubble.
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