Harvard Astronomy: Discipline in Transition

A reporter from a British science magazine was looking on while some Harvard astronomers were puzzling over an unusual fluctuation in the recording graph of the Observatory's 24-foot radio telescope. He studied them intently, but finally asked the obvious question: "This is all very interesting, you know, but precisely what do these ups and downs really mean?"

He might well have asked the question of a subject more general than a bug in a new radio telescope--Harvard astronomy as a whole. For after a distinguished history going back more than a century, in January, 1953, the Observatory was directed to give up one of its stations, the Bloemfontein, South Africa location. The Corporation felt at the time that the Observatory had over-extended itself.

Largest in Hemisphere

And now, scarcely more than three years later, the Observatory is today dedicating the largest radio telescope in this hemisphere, taking an active part in planning still larger ones, operating or planning stations in Sunspot, New Mexico, and Fort Davis, Texas, and in general showing the greatest activity in its history.

To some the Bloemfontein decision may have seemed an admission of defeat. But the conclusion was not so much a capitulation as a turning-point. In the causes and implicit opinions underlying it are seen the roots of the successes and problems of Harvard astronomy today--the expanding research facilities, the significant studies, and the thoroughly successful graduate program, and also the inadequacy of some present facilities, the insufficient size of the Astronomy faculty, the pressure of administrative work, and the issue of the adequacy of undergraduate instruction.

The South African station was set up in the twenties, when the Boyden station was moved there from Arequipa, Peru. It offered prime opportunities for photographing the Southern skies, and had a 60-inch reflecting telescope. It was hoped that a definitive photographic catalog of Southern skies could be made there.

Such a projected program paralleled the great contribution being made by the College Observatory here and at Harvard, Mass. A half-million plate library of sky photographs was compiled, mostly at Harvard, and the accomplishment was a notable one. If someone believes he has discovered a new variable star, the Observatory's collection, stored at Garden Street, is where he goes to check.

But by the late thirties and certainly after the war, that task was completed for the Northern Hemisphere. The question was posed as to where Harvard astronomy would lead.

Bloemfontein and the cataloging of the Southern skies were one answer. But it would have required, for a successful consummation, a definite centralization of the Observatory away from Cambridge. Local conditions, and even those at Harvard, Mass., were far too poor for high-quality optical work. The all too familiar New England weather does not supply skies to match those available to Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatories.

Because the Corporation was unwilling to undertake the expense and its resulting implications, the other answer developed. The answer comes in three parts--the much publicized radio astronomy, solar and high altitude research, and meteor research.

This morning the greatest step of the first part will be completed when Alan T. Waterman, Director of the National Science Foundation, will dedicate the new 60-foot George R. Agassiz radio telescope at Harvard. This instrument, the second largest in the world, will be in operation shortly, supplementing but not replacing the 24-foot telescope already at Agassiz.

A Sound Answer

Radio astronomy is for two reasons a sound answer for Harvard. First of all, some of the most significant work in the field, such as the 1951 discovery of 21-centimeter radiation which provides clues to the structure of the Milky Way, was done by Edward M. Purcell, professor of Physics, and Harold I. Ewen, Research Fellow in Astronomy.

The more practical consideration is that radio astronomy is perfectly well adapted to New England weather. Clouds and smoke have only an occasional, negligible effect on radio observations. And the telescope to be dedicated today is so firmly mounted that it can be used in a gale of up to 30 miles per hour.

The radio telescope already at Agassiz has been used with great success and is particularly notable for its work in training graduate students of this new field. The first two Ph.D. degrees in radio astronomy were awarded by the University to David S. Heeschen and Edward A. Lilley, both of whom will speak at a symposium to be held this afternoon in connection with the dedication.

Ewen, and Bart J. Bok, Robert Wheeler Willson Professor of Applied Astronomy, are the co-directors of the Radio Astronomy Program. Bok signalizes the Bloemfontein effect in that he took up radio astronomy seriously when the University gave up the South African installation. He has since attained world stature in the field, and is one of the key planners of the projected National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Ewen, through his firm, the Ewen-Knight Corporation, has developed the electronic apparatus of the telescopes.

The Meteor Project

Professor Fred L. Whipple, chairman of the Department and Director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, is the leading figure in the meteor project. It has centered in the New Mexico desert, where meteor showers have been photographed from twin stations for many years.

This subject will be brought closer to home soon when a radar network is constructed in Southern Massachusetts to study meteors. A million-watt transmitter will bounce radar waves off meteors onto a string of six receivers spaced seven miles apart. The program is to be completed in conjunction with M.I.T.'s project Lincoln.

Donald H. Menzel, professor of Astrophysics, who succeeded Harlow Shapley in 1953 as Director of the Observatory, leads the solar and ionosphere work. The Observatory has given up its part in the operation of the High Altitude Observatory at Climax, Colorado, but still shares the newer Sunspot, New Mexico, site of the Air Force's Sacramento Peak Observatory. The instruments include the largest coronagraph in the world, and four super-Schmidt meteor cameras there and at the companion meteor station at Mayhill, New Mexico.

The Air Force is also cooperating on construction of a 28-foot radio telescope near Fort Davis, Texas, to study solar radio noise.

But this growth has not been without difficulties. Additional opportunities for research lead to increased interest in research on the part of Faculty members, and there is the danger that teaching and student-faculty contacts will suffer as a result. This is a very serious threat, especially so in a Department which has as few Faculty members as the Department of Astronomy, where only five now hold permanent posts. There are, of course, many lecturers and research associates, but their teaching contributions vary widely.

What's Happened?

Certainly the undergraduates feel that this has happened to some degree. They do not articulate an entire case, but point to certain recent decisions, such as dropping a program by which students could work for room and board at Agassiz Station during the summer, or the restriction of opportunities for the use of telescopes. If pressed, they will concede that there are perfectly good reasons for these moves, but nevertheless they contend that they indicate a tendency on the part of the new Administration to pay more attention to research and construction than to teaching.

Faculty viewpoint on this is divided. Menzel, ultimately responsible for the condition of the instruments, contends that observing is not especially valuable for undergraduates and that any extensive observing program conflicts with studies. He also questions the safety to the instruments if students not "especially advanced" use them. Menzel feels, however, that there is no essential conflict between the research and teaching aspects of the Observatory's work, and points to the success of graduate programs.

Bok, on the other hand, is somewhat caustic on the subject, and observed, "a university that does not exist for teaching has lost direction." Bok has worked to interest students in the field, giving this year the new Natural Sciences 7, and starting the series of concentrators' dinners, in which undergraduates meet with Faculty members and guests about every three weeks to discuss various special subjects in astronomy.

Whipple adopts an intermediate position. Conceding that undergraduate instruction has suffered recently, he blames not any fundamental disorientation, but says that the increased research facilities make this inevitable when permanent staff is not increased.

The Department recognizes the problem, he says, and is making what he feels is a successful effort to combat it. The first aspect of this effort is to lay emphasis on making strong courses out of Astronomy 1a-1b. With the advent this last fall of Natural Sciences 7--Problems of the Earth and Universe, given by Bok and L. Don Leet, professor of Geology--the Astronomy Department has felt free to make Astronomy 1a and 1b more technical courses. This year's approach emphasized a mathematical background which had been unnecessary in the past.

Other courses have been strengthened in similar fashion. Astronomy 120--Practical Astronomy--has been made into two half-courses instead of one, and to some extent, simplified. Astronomy 140--Introduction to Mathematical Astronomy--has also been made into two instead of one.

On courses, the one suggestion of5James G. Baker, Research Associate (right), speaks on optics at the last Astronomy concentrators' dinner while Elizabeth B. Borden '59, Tuckerman Moss '57, and David Layzer '47, lecturer on Astronomy, listen. Students, Faculty, and guests gather at these meetings, held about every three weeks in Leverett House.