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How the US Influenced Mount Stromlo MOUNT S"IROMLOOBSERYATORY How the US influenced This article has been accepted for publication in Astronomy and Geophysics ©: 2015 Ragbir Bhathal Published by Mount Stromlo Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Ragbir Bhathal continues the observatory. This time, it did not turn to Britain, but to the us. story of Australia's Mt Stromlo New director Bart Bok arrived at Mount Observatory, charting the role of Stromlo Observatory from Harvard US astronomers in establishing it University in March 19!>7.. His arrival as a world-class institution. ~a turning point in MountStromlo's programmes, in its profile in international astronomy, and in its relations with the n the early years ofits existence, British Australian government and public. Bok, influence was key to the establishment with his wife Priscilla Bok, established Iand runningof MountStro:mlo Observa­ a very successful international graduate tory (see Bhathal 2014, last issue). But with school along the lines of Harvard Univer­ the departure of Ricl:wd. Woolley as dinac­ sity. There were hopes that the observatory tor in 1957, the imperial influence slowly would.help the.ANUbecome the Harvard declined. Itwasdwing Woolley's tenure of the Southern Hemisphere. Jahn White­ that the Americaninfluence began. with oak. one ofBok's studenf:s, wrote: ''Bok was the arrival.of Gerald lCronand Olin Eggen their Godfather and theyweretrained to from the Li.ck Observatory on extended become scientists in Bok's own image;' visits beginning in 1951. They brought (Whitooak 1984). up-to date instrumentation (photometers) 1; Under the guidance of director Bart Bok, the Bok established Siding Spring Mountain and.new ideas, such as Baade'swodc on International graduate school at Mount Stromlo as the site for Australia's major astro­ stellar populations and. ifs implications for Observatory became a great success. {National nomical facilities. He released. the .first the chemical and dynamical evolution of Library of Australia) photograph of Sputnik (1957) as it passed galaxies. Their arrival marked the begin­ ovedtead and. became the only astronomer ning ofphotoelectric photometry as a major offer to help pay for the Anglo-Australian in Austmlia to address both Houses of research programmeatMountStromlo. Telescope rather than going it alone. Parliameni and to have theear of the prime Standards for photometric systems became One of the early bene£i.ciaries of the minister (De Vorkin 19?8}. He became the an area of intensive study in the 19'70s Americaninlluencewas Ben Gascoigne. public.face of Australian astronomy. He by Mike Bessell, who was to become an Kron had brought his Lick photometer and, also brought the observatory internaf:ionaJ. inf:emalkmal authority (Bessell 2005). The with Gascoigne, established the first red attention by organizing the .first sympo- development of instrumentation by the and near-infrared photoelectricmagni- shun on the Milky Way al Stromlo in 1963. Americans who went to work there became tudesin the southern hemisphere (Kron The IAU and the URSisymposiumon one ofthe mainstays of the observatory. et al. 1953a,b, 1957). Gascoigne's collabora- ''The Galaxy and. the Magellanic Clouds" According to Harvey Butcher (2014), a tion with Kron led to new insights into the attracted well-known American astron.o- former director of the observatory: ''The nature and. properties ofthe Magellanic mers such as MaartenSchmidt Halton Arp mindset;. at least among Australian govern­ Clouds. In partkular, they • • and Olin Eggen from Mount ment and most Australian academics, .found that the distances of "'Bokreleasecl 1he first Wilson and Palomar,, and Jan does not value engineering and technol­ the Clouds and the extra- photograph of Sputnik Oort from Leiden. ogy enough to invest adequa.tely to really galactic distance scale had andbecame1he pubic Gascoigne also ben- advance the observational art indepen­ been under-represented by face ofastronomy" e:filed from the Bok yea.rs. dently ... So here one has to get advanced. a factor of two. According to .An expensive photometer technologies from overseas .•. Jn any case, ~"Gascoigne and I.found the so-called boughlhomfwtds provided by Bok, Gas- our astronomical commu:nity does seem blueCepheidsin the Small Cloud and coigne ~"enabled {Gascoigne] to study to want to join foreign projects rather than that caused a real .flap in the astronomi- Cepheid stars to find the distance to the develop ils own.,, cal world/' (De Vorkin 1978). Gascoigne Magellanic Clouds. The photometer really HistD:rian Daniel Boorstin (1987) believes wrote: "This work ... established. lines of made me," (Bhathal.1996). Alex Rodg- that geographical distance from Britain work which have been followed at Mount ers, Colin Campbell.and.John Whiteoak and the frontier were conducive toinven­ Stromlo ever since," (Gascoigne 1984). published an Atlas ofH-a EmissWri in the tion andinnovationinAmeri~ Bw that SoulhernMilky Way, which became a stand­ distance did nothave a similar effect LRnlngtDwardstheUS ard reference. in .Australia, at least in the early days. ll With the departure of Woolley, the Austral­ Bok's directorship of the observatory remained a cultural outpost of the British ianNational University was left to decide was highly sua:essful. but ended ona Empire, accepting, for example, the British who to appoint as the next director of the sour note. He was a strong advocate for MG• Febn.iary 2015 •Vol 56 • www.astrongeo.com 1.19 MOUNTSTROMLOOBSERVATORY 2 Director Olin Eggen focused on the intellectual 3 Institute ofScientific Information 2001 Gtation Laureates, from left to right: Jeremy Mould, Michael and instrumental work of the observatory, Dopita, Ken Freeman, Mike Bess ell, Bruce Peterson and Matthew Colless. {Mount Stromlo Archives) ramping up the output of papers, especially in US publications. (Mount Stromlo Archives) the establishment of the Anglo-.Austmlian 8UppOrt," (Bhathal 1996). US dominance of astronomy, but it never Observatory (A.AO} at Siding Spring Moun­ On the instrument front, Kent Foni from came to fruition. tain. His vigorous advocacy fur the AAO the C.arnegie Institution of Washington came into dll:ect oon£1ictwith the British developed a new image-tube spectrograph Advanced. US instrumentation establishment in the .Awitralian.Academy fur the 1.9m telescope. Another new arrival With Rodgers in charge,. Americanin£lu­ ofScience led by president (Sir) Thomas from America was young Harvey Butcl\er, enceonce again.surfaced with the MACHO Cherry. According to Bok. Cherry wrote to who had come to the observatory on the project, onwhich.Rodgers worked with him: "You should tealiz.e that you have out­ rec:o.m.mendation of Sandage. With Bes­ American astronomersCluuies.Alcockand lived. your usefulness to our country, and sell and Alex Rodgers he put together in Cui.a Stubbs to try to solve the dark matter the sooner you go back to where you came the Coude one of the first high-resolution problem. In £act, John Bahcall from the from, the better ii will be for all concerned,'' echell.e spectrographs in astronomy Institute ofAdvanced Studies in Princeton (De Vorkin 1978). InMarch 1966, Bok left (Butcher 19'75). It was also • • gave Freeman the credit as Mount Stromlo Observaf:oryto join the during the Eggen years that "'.American influence being "the first person in Uniwrsityof Arizona whereafutw:e Nobel heavy-element enrichment surfi1ltaMI once again printto say this was actually Prize winner from Stromlo, Brian Sclunidt, processes in the .formation with1he MAOIO a problemn within galax- was to spend his undergraduate days. and evolution of galaxies led project" ies (Bhathal 1996,Freeman Olin Eggen succeeded Bok in 1966, to the active involvement of 19'10}. According to Alcock: continuing the US influence. He came to Bessell, Freeman, Norris and Rodgers in "Rodgers clearly recognized the potential the observatory after havingwritten with this area. .Abundance analysis became and for MAa-IOto be very important and.he Donald Lynden-Belland.Allan.Sandage oonfinues tobe a core activity. acted on this judgement decisively. He their in£luen1ial paper on galaxy formation diditatacareer stage when most of our (Eggen et al. 1962). Rather than chasing new .Auttnill1n Interlude colleagues are much more riskavexse/' and larger felesoopes, he built up the intel­ When Eggen.left, Australians Don (Freeman 1997). The Americans brought lectual and instrumental capacity of the Mathewson (1979-1986),AlexRodgers new advanced instrum.e.ntalin to the observatory. During his years therumlher (199'1-1993) then Jeremy Mould (1993-2001) observatory for the project. Stubbs built the ofpapers published per year jumped.from fx:lok charge. Mathewson, a "true blue detector which was one ofthe first cameras 18 to 44 and oont:inued to rise. There was Aussie'~ brought the observatory inter­ to use mosaic C'CDs. The Australian team also a. shift away from publishing papers in national prestige wilh his discovery of consisted. of Freeman.. Bruce Pete:son. Peter British.and.European journals. the Magellanic St:ream. He was also an Quinn.and AlexRodgers. The observatory As director, Eggen appointed KenF.ree­ astronomical entrepreneur par excellence, again hil the headlines ofinlemal:ional man, Mike BessclL Don Faulkner, Harry responsible for building the highly in.nova· astronomy when the .first-year observations Hyland, John Norris, Bruce Peterson, Agris tive a.It-azimuth Advanced. Teclmology of the MACHO project made the fronlpage I<alnajs, Mike Dopita, Peter Wood and Telescope in a building whlch rotated. wilh of NRture. However, the problem of da.ik Natarajan Visvanathan- an extraordinary the telescope. Mathewson was sua::eeded. matter remains. group ofhighly productive astronomers. by AlexRodgers, an instrumentalist who They raised the profile of the observatory enjoyed nothing more than spending time Big science by publishing significant papers mainly in the workshop. He designed andbuilt a The years from 1993 to 2001 were crucial in American journals. Freeman, espe­ double-beam spectrograph and imager for for the emergence of the observatory as a cially, was a.
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