Big and Bright: A History of the McDonald ObservatoryUniversity of Texas Press, 13 sept. 2013 - 224 pages By day, every year over 40,000 visitors pour in. Across the Rio Grande, a hundred miles away, Mexican mountaineers use the white domes as landmarks. By night, perched almost 7,000 feet above the sleeping, earthbound world, astronomers probe the secrets of the night sky. This is the University of Texas McDonald Observatory, one of the world's largest university-operated astronomical installations. Big and Bright: A History of the McDonald Observatory is the story of a remarkable collaboration between two major universities, one a prestigious private school, the other a growing southwestern state institution. The University of Chicago had astronomers, but its Yerkes Observatory was aging and underfunded; the University of Texas had money for an observatory but no working astronomer to staff it. Out of their mutual need, they formed a thirty-year compact for a joint venture. Unusual in its day, the Yerkes-McDonald connection presaged the future. In this arrangement, one can see some of the beginnings of today's consortium "big science." Now the McDonald Observatory's early history can be put in proper perspective. Blessed with a gifted and driving founding director, the world's (then) second-largest telescope, and an isolation that permitted it to be virtually the only major astronomical observatory that continued operations throughout World War II, the staff of McDonald Observatory helped lay the foundations of modern astrophysics during the 1940s. For over a decade after the war, a lonely mountaintop in West Texas was the mecca that drew nearly all the most important astronomers from all over the world. Based on personal reminiscences and archival material, as well as published historical sources, Big and Bright is one of the few histories of a major observatory, unique in its focus on the human side of the story. |
À l'intérieur du livre
Résultats 1-5 sur 87
... Coude focus an additional flat mirror is needed to deflect the light beam through the polar axis to the Coude Slit Room . This mirror , commonly referred to as the 3rd mirror , must accurately follow the motion of the telescope in the ...
... coude . v . n . En Franche - Comté , Etre coudé . SE COUDER . V. pr . Prendre la forme d'un coude , se courber . || COUDÉ , ÉE . p . passé . Qui forme un coude , un angle . | T. de bot . , Se dit De l'arête des gra- minées lorsqu'elle ...
... coudé focus as one of several optical arrange- ments that could be chosen. This telescope made its first observations in December 1908 and the coudé spectrograph was completed by 1911. The coudé beam in this case was passed vertically ...
... Coudé 20-31 / 3 GERBALDI M. I.A.P. Paris Sp . Coudé 31 / 3-16 / 4 JASCHEK C. Strasbourg Sp . Coudé 16-22 / 4 CARQUILLAT J.M. Toulouse Sp . Coudé 22-30 / 4 JOUSSON M. Genève Sp . Echelec + CE 30 / 4-10 / 5 JASCHEK C. Strasbourg Sp ...
... Coudé 1-18 / 2 MARIOTTI J.M. Lyon Spectro . Coudé Variations rapides et à long terme d'étoiles Be dans l'UV et le visible . Interférométrie IR par retournement de front d'onde . 18-22 / 2 HACK M. Trieste Spectro . Coudé Etoiles ...
Table des matières
3 | |
12 | |
The TexasChicago Agreement | 21 |
Choosing and Developing the Site | 33 |
Triumphs and Transitions | 106 |
Interregnum | 141 |
Epilogue | 153 |
APPENDIX A The Last Will and Testament | 165 |
The Telescopes of the University | 171 |
80 | 177 |
Autres éditions - Tout afficher
Big and Bright: A History of the McDonald Observatory David S. Evans,John Derral Mulholland Affichage d'extraits - 1986 |
Big and Bright: A History of the McDonald Observatory David Stanley Evans,John Derral Mulholland Aucun aperçu disponible - 1986 |