Drawing on his experience as historian of astronomy, practicing astrophysicist, and director of Lick Observatory, Donald Osterbrock uncovers a chapter in the history of astronomy by providing the story of the Yerkes Observatory. "An excellent description of the ups and downs of a major observatory."—Jack Meadows, Nature "Historians are much indebted to Osterbrock for this new contribution to the fascinating story of twentieth-century American astronomy."—Adriaan Blaauw, Journal for the History of Astronomy "An important reference about one of the key American observatories of this century."—Woodruff T. Sullivan III, Physics Today

Yerkes Observatory, 1892-1950: The Birth, Near Death, and Resurrection of a Scientific Research Institution

Osterbrock, Donald E.

History

University of Chicago Press

Drawing on his experience as historian of astronomy, practicing astrophysicist, and director of Lick Observatory, Donald Osterbrock uncovers a chapter in the history of astronomy by providing the story of the Yerkes Observatory. "An excellent description of the ups and downs of a major observatory."—Jack Meadows, Nature "Historians are much indebted to Osterbrock for this new contribution to the fascinating story of twentieth-century American astronomy."—Adriaan Blaauw, Journal for the History of Astronomy "An important reference about one of the key American observatories of this century."—Woodruff T. Sullivan III, Physics Today

Eye on the Sky: Lick Observatory's First Century

The world's first mountain-top observatory and America's first big-science research center, Lick Observatory exemplifies astronomy's dramatic development in the past century. A dedicated Confederate naval officer and his jack-of-all-trades foreman used the bequest of a miserly California eccentric to transform an isolated mountain peak into the world's premier research observatory. Its first staff included a director from West Point and three of the outstanding astronomers of their time. Since its dedication in 1888, Lick Observatory has been the site of many of the most important discoveries in astronomy. Eye on the Sky presents Lick Observatory from the point of view of the people who breathed life into its giant telescopes. Their community was both constant and constantly transformed, shaped by workers famous and unknown who made it their home. The authors also explain in terms anyone can understand the laboratory advances that were adapted to telescopes to make them more powerful, and the conceptual breakthroughs that discoveries at the telescope helped bring about. The men and women who went to the top of Mount Hamilton in search of greater knowledge of the skies helped to change our conception of the universe and our place in it . They were people with personal and political lives as well as scientific careers, and their story illuminates a time and a place where foundations were laid for the discoveries of the next century.

Gustafson, John R.

Unruh, W. J. Shiloh

Americas

University of California Press

This is the biography of James E. Keeler (1857-1900), a distinguished pioneer of astrophysics, the application of the methods of physics to understanding the nature of the stars, nebulae, planets, comets, and other objects that populate the universe. Keeler was an outstanding scientist, and his fellow astronomers and physicists at the end of the nineteenth century considered him the leading astronomical spectroscopist of his generation. His career was closely linked with that of George Ellery Hale, founder of Yerkes Observatory. Keeler himself was the first astronomer at Lick Observatory, and the story of his life tells much of the early history of these two early American 'big-science' research institutions.

James E. Keeler: Pioneer American Astrophysicist: And the Early Development of American Astrophysics

Biographies & Memoirs

Cambridge University Press

Although less well known outside the field than Edwin Hubble, Walter Baade was arguably the most influential observational astronomer of the twentieth century. Written by a fellow astronomer deeply familiar with Baade and his work, this is the first biography of this major figure in American astronomy. In it, Donald Osterbrock suggests that Baade's greatest contribution to astrophysics was not, as is often contended, his revision of Hubble's distance and age scales for the universe. Rather, it was his discovery of two distinct stellar populations: old and young stars. This discovery opened wide the previously marginal fields of stellar and galactic evolution--research areas that would be among the most fertile and exciting in all of astrophysics for decades to come.
 Baade was born, educated, and gained his early research experience in Germany. He came to the United States in 1931 as a staff member of Mount Wilson Observatory, which housed the world's largest telescope. There, he pioneered research on supernovae. With the 100-inch telescope, he studied globular clusters and the structure of the Milky Way, every step leading him closer to the population concept he discovered during the wartime years, when the skies of southern California were briefly darkened. Most Mount Wilson astronomers were working on weapons-development crash programs devoted to bringing Baade's native country to its knees, while he, formally an enemy alien in their midst, was confined to Los Angeles County but had almost unlimited use of the most powerful telescope in the world.
 After his great discovery, Baade continued his research with the new 200-inch telescope at Palomar. Always respected and well liked, he became even more famous among astronomers as they shifted their research to the fields he had opened. Publicity-shy and seemingly unconcerned with publication, however, Baade's celebrity remained largely within the field. This accomplished biography at last introduces Baade--and his important work--to a wider public, including the newest generation of skywatchers.

Walter Baade: A Life in Astrophysics.

Professionals & Academics

Princeton University Press

Astrophysics of gaseous nebulae (A Series of books in astronomy and astrophysics)

Science & Math

Astronomy & Space Science

W.H.Freeman & Company

Pauper & Prince: Ritchey, Hale, & Big American Telescopes

University of Arizona Press

This graduate-level text/reference covers gaseous nebulae and the emission regions in Seyfert galaxies, quasars, and other types of active galactic nuclei. Written by a world-renowned expert in the field, this book is invaluable for graduate students and researchers in this important research area.

Astrophysics of Gaseous Nebulae and Active Galactic Nuclei

Univ Science Books

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Books by Osterbrock, Donald E.