Compare Constellations

Humason, Milton Lasell, 1891-1972. Oral history interview with Milton Lasell Humason, ca. 1965.

Title: Oral history interview with Milton Lasell Humason, ca. 1965.

Focusses on Humason's interests in observational astronomy. Origins and extension of velocity-distance relations in the 1920s; his work with Edwin Hubble, Walter Baade, Alan Sandage and Nicholas Mayall. Own spectroscopic work. Comparison of observing conditions at Mt. Wilson Observatory and Mt. Palomar Observatory; the most distant object observed at Mt. Wilson; living conditions and relations between astronomers at Mt. Wilson. Description of life since retirement.

ArchivalResource: Transcript, 11 p.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/78291583 View

Bok, Bart J. (Bart Jan), 1906-1983. Oral history interview with Bart Jan Bok, 1978 May 15 to 14 June.

Title: Oral history interview with Bart Jan Bok, 1978 May 15 to 14 June.

Interview discusses, not in chronological order: early home life and schooling; undergraduate at Leiden, influence of Paul Ehrenfest, Jan H. Oort, Jacobus C. Kapteyn, Gerard Kuiper, Antonie Pannekoek, Ejnar Hertzsprung. Recollections of work of Georg Uhlenbeck and Samuel Goudsmit. Assistant to Peter van Rhijn at Groningen ca. 1928, work on various stellar and galactic topics. Move to Harvard, 1929, and atmosphere there under Harlow Shapley. Marriage to Priscilla Fairfield Bok; her contacts with William W. Campbell. Search for and interpretation of spiral auras of our galaxy; studies of stellar density distribution. Activities during World War II. Harvard astronomy group's difficult postwar transition; McCarthyism. Work on nebulae and globules. Comments on astronomy at Mt. Wilson, Tonantziutla, and South Africa. Origins of Harvard radio astronomy and National Radio Astronomy Observatory, and their funding. Move to Australia, 1956, and conditions there. Move to Steward Observatory of University of Arizona, 1964, and conditions there. Location of national observatory at Kitt Peak; management of Kitt Peak. Discussions of astronomy, education, popularization, employment, and organization. Also prominently mentioned are: Wilhelm Heinrich Walter Baade, McGeorge Bundy, Edwin F. Carpenter, Tom Cherry, James Bryant Conant, Arthur Stanley Eddington, Sergei Gaposchkin, Jesse Leonard Greenstein, Haro, David Heeschen, Ejnar. Hertzsprung, James Jeans, Ivan Robert King, Bertil Lindblad, Antonia Maury, Nicholas Ulrich Mayall, Joseph McCarthy, Sidney McCuskey, Aden Meinel, Donald Howard Menzel, Robert Menzies, James E. Miller, Edward Arthur Milne, William Wilson Morgan, Edward Charles Pickering, Harry Hemley Plaskett, Nathan Pusey, Martin Schwarzschild, Willem de Sitter, Otto Struve; American Astronomical Society, Associated Universities for Research in Astronomy, Associated Universities, Inc., Boyden Observatory, Case Institute of Technology, Harvard College Observatory, Harvard Series on Astronomy, Indiana University, Mount Stromlo Observatory, National Science Foundation (U.S.), Ohio State University, Princeton University, Rijksuniversiteit te Groningen, Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden, University of Arizona, University of Illinois, University of Michigan, and University of Texas.

ArchivalResource: Sound recordings: 10 sound cassettes (ca. 9.0 hr.), 4 sessions.Transcript: 166 p.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/81865348 View

Aller, Lawrence H. (Lawrence Hugh), 1913-2003. Oral history interview with Lawrence H. Aller, 1979 August 18.

Title: Oral history interview with Lawrence H. Aller, 1979 August 18.

Childhood; early interest in science (astronomy). Member of Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 1928. Special student at University of California at Berkeley, 1931, with Donald H. Menzel's help. Regular student from 1932; comments on teachers and fellow students at Berkeley Student Observatory. Summer assistantship at Lick Observatory (Nicholas Mayall, Arthur B. Wyse), life at Lick Observatory. To Harvard University in 1937 for graduate studies; comparison between Harvard and Berkeley/Lick; teaching assistant at Radcliffe; 3-year membership in Harvard Society of Fellows, from 1939, of enormous importance for his development; works with Menzel and James G. Baker on the Theory of Physical Processes in Gaseous Nebulae, 1937; Analysis of the Atmospheres of the A-type Dwarfs Gamma Geminorum and Sirius based on data from Louis Berman; Jesse Greenstein. Comments on Harvard Summer Schools, Harlow Shapley's "Hollow Square." Volunteer teacher of elementary physics courses from 1942 at Harvard. Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, 1943-1945; work involved evaluation of the chemists and the Counting Group's output from the electromagnetic separation process. Job offer from University of Indiana (Frank Edmunson) accepted due to cutback at Radiation Laboratory. Indiana years, 1945-1948, very productive (drafts for two astrophysics books); problems getting telescope time at Yerkes Observatory and unsatisfactory living conditions leads to. Acceptance of a promising tenured position at Michigan, a center with very active research due to Leo Goldberg; Robert McMath's influence in the department; Keith Pierce and Aller's work on infrared solar spectrum. Work performed at Mt. Wilson Observatory and Dominion Astrophysical Observatory. Goldberg resigns in 1959; comments on Aller's decision to leave Michigan; discussions of funding; "over-head" (Aller's talk at an AAAS Meeting); comparison of Lick Observatory and Kitt Peak Observatory policies. Work at Mt. Stromlo Observatory, Australia on sabbatical visits, 1960, 1968-1969, 1977-1978. Overview of opinions of the present state of astronomy. Comments on personal life, wife and children.

ArchivalResource: Sound recordings: 5 sound cassettes (ca. 4.5 hr.), 1 session.Transcript: 69 p.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/82694647 View

Shane, Charles Donald, 1895-1983. Oral history interview with Charles Donald Shane, 1977 February 11.

Title: Oral history interview with Charles Donald Shane, 1977 February 11.

Main topic is Edwin Hubble and his work on variable nebulae, and the magnitudes of the Cepheids as an inspiration for other astronomers (Nicholas Mayall, Shane, Harlow Shapley). Extragalactic nature of spiral nebulae (Hubble) and red shifts discoveries; Shane's interest in galactic distribution, superclusters/clouds and spectral classifications. Briefly mentioned are Shane's directorships of Lick Observatory and Mt. Hamilton and relationships with the University of California, Berkeley Astronomy department. Also prominently mentioned are: Ira Sprague Bowen, Edwin Powell Hubble, Gerald Edward Kron, Armin O. Leuschner, Nicholas Ulrich Mayall, Charles Edward Kenneth Mees, Jerry Mulders, Allan Sandage, Harlow Shapley, Robert Smith, William Hammond Wright; and National Science Foundation (U.S.).

ArchivalResource: Sound recording: 1 sound cassette (ca. 1.0 hr.), 1 session.Transcript: 13 p.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/82694635 View

Mayall, N. U. (Nicholas Ulrich), 1906-1993. Oral history interview with Nicholas Mayall, 1976 June 3.

Title: Oral history interview with Nicholas Mayall, 1976 June 3.

Family, early education, attendance at University of California at Berkeley, 1924-1928, and change to major in astronomy. Influence of William F. Myer, Charles D. Shane, Seth Nicholson, Armin O. Leuschner. Research at Mt. Wilson Observatory with Walter Adams, Alfred Joy, Roscoe F. Sanford, John E. Merrill, Gustav Stromberg, Theodore Dunham, 1929-1930; work with Nicholson on Pluto, with Milton Humason on specta of stars, with Edwin Hubble on red shift. Return to Berkeley, 1930-1934; marriage, research at Lick Observatory for thesis, 1932. Career at Lick, association with Hubble, work on spectrum of crab nebula, direct rotation of galaxies, redshifts, gaseous nebulae. Work with Walter Baade and Horace Babcock, with Jerzy Neyman in statistics; position at Berkeley. War work at MIT Radiation Laboratory and Kellogg Laboratory, and Caltech. Return to Lick, 1945-1960; large telescope project. Director of Kitt Peak National Observatory, 1960; Lick moves to Santa Cruz; difficulties for directors of observatories, operation of Kitt Peak and Cerro Tololo. Social and scientific relations with Edwin Hubble and Milton Humason. Topics include early work on redshifts, preservation of his papers, thoughts on theories of the universe, ground and space based astronomy, his work on Mt. Wilson, his move to Kitt Peak, and public relations of astronomy. Also prominently mentioned are: Charles Donald Shane, and Adriaan van Maanen.

ArchivalResource: Transcript, 46 p.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/80830874 View

Edmondson, Frank K. (Frank Kelley), 1912-. History of AURA : interviews and documentation, 1978-1991.

Title: History of AURA : interviews and documentation, 1978-1991.

Recorded interviews with transcripts conducted with 80 people about the early history of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), and Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO). Includes permission forms for interview subjects.

ArchivalResource: 3 lin. ft. (3 boxes)

https://history.aip.org/ead/20090271.html View

Kron, Gerald Edward, 1913-. Oral history interview with Gerald Edward Kron, 1978 May 20.

Title: Oral history interview with Gerald Edward Kron, 1978 May 20.

Family origins; early life in Milwaukee; interest in mechanical things; development of interest in astronomy; engineering at University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee campus; interest in photoelectric photometry; graduate study at Madison and work with Charles Huffer and Joel Stebbins; Stebbins and Alfred E. Whitford's work; graduate study at Lick Observatory and University of California at Berkeley; photoelectric instrumentation; Lick in the pre-war years; World War II at MIT and Caltech; return to Lick and use of 1P21 photomultipliers; Walter Baade; origin of 120-inch telescope; Australia; Lick during the 1950s and Charles D. Shane's retirement; the electronic camera; contacts and association with Harold Johnson, Merle Walker and André Lallemand; move to Flagstaff and the Naval Observatory; recollections of Lick staff in 1930s; Henry N. Russell; Katherine Kron's work at Harvard University and astronomical interests. Also prominently mentioned are: Horace W. Babcock, Bart Jan Bok, William W. Campbell, Olin Eggen, George Herbig, Hamilton M. Jeffers, Harold Johnson, Alfred H. Joy, Armin O. Leuschner, Nicholas Ulrich Mayall, J.H. Moore, G. Neugebauer, George Paddock, Roger Revelle, Franklin Roach, Robert Gordon Sproul, Robert Julius Trumpler, Olin Chaddock Wilson, Carl Wirtanen, William Hammond Wright, Arthur B. Wyse; Commonwealth Observatory, Inyokern Project, Kitt Peak National Observatory, Mount Wilson Observatory, National. Science Foundation (U.S.), Radcliffe College, Rocket Project, 120-inch Telescope, 200-inch Telescope, and University of California at Santa Cruz.

ArchivalResource: Transcript, 85 p.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/79752532 View

Mayall Symposium : (1971). Symposium honoring the retirement of N. V. Mayall as director of Kitt Peak National Observatory [sound recording]

Title: Symposium honoring the retirement of N. V. Mayall as director of Kitt Peak National Observatory [sound recording]

Nicholas Mayall served at Kitt Peak National Observatory from 1945 - 1971, and as director from 1960.Speakers include: W. W. Morgan, "Optical Forms of Compact Galaxies;" Margaret Burbidge, "Rotations of Galaxies;" R. Minkowski, "A Medley of Comments on the Crab Nebula, Supernova Remnants, and Ancient Nova."

ArchivalResource: 4 sound cassettes (4 hrs.) : analog, mono. ; 4 in.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/79391123 View

Records of the Director, Donald H. Menzel, 1951-1969.

Title: Records of the Director, Donald H. Menzel, 1951-1969.

Donald Howard Menzel (1901-1976), astronomer and astrophysicist, served as director of the Harvard College Observatory from 1952 until his retirement in 1966. The Records of the Harvard College Observatory Director Donald H. Menzel consist chiefly of incoming and outgoing letters with a variety of correspondents, including many notable scientists from the United States and abroad, and document the research and administrative activities of the Harvard College Observatory from 1951 to 1969. Also chronicled is Menzel's work with professional organizations and government agencies, particularly the Smithsonian Institution.

ArchivalResource: 73 containers.

https://id.lib.harvard.edu/ead/hua23020/catalog View

Johnson, Hugh M. Papers, 1946-1999.

Title: Papers, 1946-1999.

The collection is centered on Johnson's time at Lockheed Space & Missile Company (1963-1986), but there is also material pertaining to his work before and after this period. The bulk of the research is on x-ray astronomy, but there is also material on Johnson's other research interests (x-ray astronomy, nebulae, galaxies, galactic structure, and interstellar matter). The collection is comprised mainly of correspondence, with lesser amounts of notes, newspaper clippings, and notebooks. The correspondence is both personal and professional. The correspondents include: Helmet A. Abt, Lawrence H. Aller, Frank M. Bateson, Bart J. Bok, Riccardo Giacconi, David S. Heeschen, George Herbig, William Hiltner, W.E. Howard III, Helen Hogg, Willem Luyten, N.U. Mayall, Donald Osterbrock, Stuart Pottasch, Arcadio Poveda, Frederick D. Seward, Lindsey Smith, Theodore Snow, Bruce Stephenson, Polydore Swings, Yervant Terzian, and Gart Westerhout. Some correspondence related to specific research subjects, observatories, meetings and programs is accompanied by research notes and photographs. The collection also contains notebooks from courses at the University of Chicago (taught by Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Gerard Peter Kuiper, and Bengt Stromgren), the 1964 Hamburg IAU meeting, Yerkes Observatory Colloquia, and an NSF conference for teachers of astronomy at Berkeley in 1954.

ArchivalResource: 4.25 linear feet (9 boxes)

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/154303330 View

Shane, Mary Lea Heger, 1897-1983. Letters to Nicholas and Kay Mayall.

Title: Letters to Nicholas and Kay Mayall.

ArchivalResource:

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/84276320 View

Hubble, Edwin Powell, 1889-1953. Selected papers [microform], 1900-1960.

Title: Selected papers [microform], 1900-1960.

Correspondence and manuscripts. Primarily professional correspondence, also selected manuscripts and addresses, and condolence letters to his wife after his death. Topics include galactic and extragalactic structure, astronomical observation and techniques, and participation of scientists in World War II. Correspondents include Vannevar Bush, Willem de Sitter, Arthur Stanley Eddington, Caryl P. Haskins, Grace Hubble, Aldous Huxley, Nicholas U. Mayall, Jan Hendrik Oort, C. Donald Shane, Harlow Shapley, Robert Sproul, Joel Stebbins, and Otto Struve.

ArchivalResource: 1 microfilm reel.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/80923392 View

Spinrad, Hyron, 1934-. Oral history interview with Hyron Spinrad, 1977 July 19.

Title: Oral history interview with Hyron Spinrad, 1977 July 19.

Early life in New York and California, and decision to do undergraduate work in astronomy at University of California at Berkeley. Decision during army service, 1955-1957, on a career in astronomy; return to Berkeley, 1957, for graduate work. Professional career: work at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), 1961-1964; return to Berkeley as professor in 1964, and research in galaxy-related problems. General problems in cosmology. Also prominently mentioned are: Wilhelm Heinrich Walter Baade, Jerry Brown, Armin Deutsch, Jesse Leonard Greenstein, Louis Henyey, Alfred H. Joy, Lou Kaplan, Richard Kron, Gerard Peter Kuiper, Nicholas Ulrich Mayall, Rudolph Leo Bernhard Minkowski, William Wilson Morgan, Guido Münch, George Preston, Ronald Reagan, Allan Sandage, Emanuel B. Spinrad, Bengt Georg Daniel Strömgren, Otto Struve, George Wallerston, Joe Wampler, Harold Weaver, Albert Edward Whitford; California Institute of Technology, Hayden Planetarium, International Astronomical Union, Lick Observatory, San Diego State University, Sky and Telescope, United States Army Map Service, and Yale Conference on Cosmology (1977).

ArchivalResource: Sound recordings: 4 sound cassettes (ca. 4.0 hr.), 1 session.Transcript: 95 p.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/80830951 View

Babcock, Horace W. Oral history interview with Horace W. Babcock, 1977, July 25.

Title: Oral history interview with Horace W. Babcock, 1977, July 25.

This interview begins with a discussion of Babcock's childhood and youth around Mt. Wilson Observatory, with comments on father (Harold D. Babcock), Walter S. Adams, and Edwin P. Hubble. Also discussed in this interview: education at Caltech, University of California at Berkeley and Lick Observatory (1934-1939), and at Yerkes and MacDonald Observatories; work at MIT and Caltech on World War II hardware; astronomical instrumentation work, especially postwar Mt. Wilson-Palomar diffraction gratings; discovery of magnetic stars and studies of variations; work on solar magnetic fields (with father) and theory of solar cycle; comments on cosmology; discussion of Mt. Wilson and Palomar Observatories since the 1920s, especially under Ira Bowen's and Babcock's directorship (1963); internal administration; staff relations; dealings with Carnegie Institution and Caltech; discussion of Hale Observatories, 1930-1977; role of government funding in astronomy; guest investigators; allocation of telescope time; planning, funding, and construction of the Carnegie Southern Observatory at Las Campanas, 1963-1977. Also prominently mentioned are: Philip Abelson, Ed Ackerman, Carl David Anderson, Wilhelm Heinrich Walter Baade, Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett, Vannevar Bush, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Crawford Greenewalt, Jesse Leonard Greenstein, George Ellery Hale, Caryl Haskins, Louis Henyey, Armin O. Leuschner, Nicholas Ulrich Mayall, Charles Edward Kenneth Mees, Paul Merrill, Rudolph Leo Bernhard Minkowski, Edgar Nichols, Elmer Prall, Bruce Rule, Frederick H. Seares, Sinclair Smith, Otto Struve, Charles Hard Townes, George van Biesbroeck, H.A. Wood, Fritz Zwicky; Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Astrophysical Journal, Bausch and Lomb Co., Eastman Kodak Co., Ford Foundation, Hale Observatories, Hale Solar Laboratory, Inyokern Project, Kitt Peak National Observatory, Las Campanas Observatory, Lick Observatory Bulletin, McDonald Observatory, Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatories, National Science Foundation (U.S.), 48-inch Schmidt Telescope, 100-inch Telescope, 120-inch Telescope, 200-inch Telescope, and University of California at Berkeley, CA.

ArchivalResource: Transcript: 95 p.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/154302815 View

Mayall, N. U. (Nicholas Ulrich), 1906-1993. Nick Mayall talking about AURA's acquiring and developing Cerro Tololo [videorecording] / recorded by W. A. Hiltner; 1987.

Title: Nick Mayall talking about AURA's acquiring and developing Cerro Tololo [videorecording] / recorded by W. A. Hiltner; 1987.

Mayall discusses the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy's (AURA) development of the Cerro Tololo Observatory in Chile and his tenure as director of Kitt Peak Observatory. This is a home video made by W. A. Hiltner mostly at Mayall's home in Tucson, Arizona.

ArchivalResource: 1 videocassette (80 min.) : sd., col ; 1/2 in.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/82211153 View

Alvarez, Luis W., 1911-1988. Niels Bohr Library : oral history transcripts, 1924-1978.

Title: Niels Bohr Library : oral history transcripts, 1924-1978.

Transcripts of tape-recorded interviews from the collection of the Niels Bohr Library, selected by the History of Science and Technology Program of The Bancroft Library for microfilming and deposit in 1983. Interviewees include: Luis Walter Alvarez, Felix Bloch, Ira Sprague Bowen, Lee Alvin DuBridge, William Alfred Fowler, George Gamow, Jesse Leonard Greenstein, Ivan Robert King, Robert Benjamin Leighton, Nicholas Ulrich Mayall, Frank Oppenheimer, Hyron Spinrad, David Locke Webster, Clyde Wiegand, Robert R. Wilson and Dean E. Wooldridge.

ArchivalResource: 1 microfilm reel : positive.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/215460242 View

Zwicky, F. (Fritz), 1898-1974. Papers.

Title: Papers.

Bulk of the collection contains correspondence (over 10,000 items) with 2140 correspondents, including Horace W. Babcock (1937-1973), Watson Davis (1934-1958), George H. Herbig (1941-1968), Willem J. Luyten (1940-1973), Nicholas U. Mayall (1937-1966), Harlow Shapley (1933-1959), and John T. Tate (1931-1946). Collection also includes ca. 100 subject files, 100 diaries (often more than one per year), more than 200 manuscripts, and slides, photographs, tapes, etc.

ArchivalResource:

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/82210846 View

Mayall, N. U. (Nicholas Ulrich), 1906-1993. Oral history interview with Nicholas Mayall, 1977 February 13.

Title: Oral history interview with Nicholas Mayall, 1977 February 13.

This focussed interview treats the social and scientific relationships among Mayall, Edwin Hubble, and Milton L. Humason. Topics include Mayall's early work on redshifts, the preservation of his papers, thoughts on theories of the universe, ground- and space-based astronomy, his work at Mt. Hamilton, his move to Kitt Peak National Observatory, and public relations in astronomy. Also prominently mentioned are: Walter Adams, Wilhelm Baade, Charles D. Shane; California Institute of Technology Kellogg Radiation Laboratory, Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, Lick Observatory, and Mt. Wilson and Palomar Observatories.

ArchivalResource: Transcript, 38 pp.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/80710073 View