Centennial History of the Carnegie Institution of Washington: Volume 1, The Mount Wilson Observatory: Breaking the Code of Cosmic Evolution

This 2005 book is an exciting exploration of the development of astrophysics.

Allan Sandage (Author)

9781107412392, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 3 January 2013

662 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 3.4 cm, 0.87 kg

'The book is nicely produced and illustrated … Certainly one for the library, for historians of science, and for nostalgic old astronomers like me! Younger bloods will also learn some good astronomy from it.' David Stickland, The Observatory

Since its foundation in 1904, the Mount Wilson Observatory has been at the centre of the development of astrophysics. Perched atop a mountain wilderness, two mammoth solar tower telescopes and the 60- and 100-inch behemoth night-time reflectors were all the largest in the world. Research has centred around two main themes - the evolution of stars and the development of the universe. This first volume in a series of five histories of the Carnegie Institution describes the people and events, the challenges and successes that the Observatory has witnessed. It includes biographical sketches of forty of the most famous Mount Wilson pioneer astronomers working during the first half of the twentieth century. Contemporary photographs illustrate the development and use of some of the innovative instruments that filled the observatory during this time. This story brings together the elements that formed modern theories of stellar evolution and cosmology.

Foreword Richard A. Meserve
Acknowledgements
Prologue
Part I. Before the Beginning (1542–1904): 1. A telegram
2. The origin of a name
3. Three observatories for Mount Wilson before the real one
4. The creation of the Carnegie Institution and its initial Astronomy Advisory Committee
Part II. Creation of the Observatory and the First Scientific Results: 5. The instruments of detection: solar telescopes, coelostats, spectrographs and spectra
6. Snow, hale, frost and gale: just the right people to study storms on the sun
7. Tower telescopes and magnetic fields and cycles
8. Pioneers of peering: the scientific staff in the early years (1904–9)
9. Solar physics: the intermediate years (1910–30)
10. Yet more solar physics: motions on the surface, clocks in the gravity field and the reality of prominences
Part III. The Beginning of Nighttime Sidereal Astronomy at Mount Wilson: 11. The coming of the 60-inch and 100-inch reflectors
12. Life on the mountain
13. Anatomy of an observatory
Part IV. Preparation for an Understanding of Stellar Evolution and Galactic Structure: 14. Galactic structure in the raw
15. Spectral classification and the invention of spectroscopic parallaxes
16. Radial velocity
17. Globular star clusters and the galactocentric revolution
18. Galactic rotation: Stromberg, Lindblad and Oort
19. The Carnegie Meridian Astrometry Department at the Dudley Observatory
20. Absolute magnitudes from direct parallaxes and stellar motions
21. Threads leading to the population concept that became the fabric of evolution
Part V. Physics of the Stars and the Interstellar Medium: 22. Five problems in astrophysics
23. Long-term research associates and short-term visitors
24. Interstellar gas, instruments and the spiral arms of the galaxy
Part VI. Observational Cosmology and the Code of Stellar Evolution: 25. Observational cosmology I: galaxy classification and the discovery of cepheids
26. Observational cosmology II: the expansion of the universe and the search for the curvature of space
27. Down more corridors of time
28. The observational approach to stellar evolution
Epilogue
Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Astronomical observation: observatories, equipment & methods [PGG], History of science [PDX]