Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy

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ORGANIZATIONS AND STRATEGIES IN ASTRONOMY 7

ASTROPHYSICS AND SPACE SCIENCE LIBRARY VOLUME 343

EDITORIAL BOARD Chairman W.B. BURTON, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S.A. ([email protected]); University of Leiden, The Netherlands ([email protected]) MEMBERS F. BERTOLA, University of Padua, Italy; J.P. CASSINELLI, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA; C.J. CESARSKY, European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany; P. EHRENFREUND, Leiden University, The Netherlands; O. ENGVOLD, University of Oslo, Norway; A. HECK, Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory, France; E.P.J. VAN DEN HEUVEL, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands; V.M. KASPI, McGill University, Montreal, Canada; J.M.E. KUIJPERS, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands; H. VAN DER LAAN, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands; P.G. MURDIN, Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, UK; F. PACINI, Istituto Astronomia Arcetri, Firenze, Italy; V. RADHAKRISHNAN, Raman Research Institute, Bangalore, India; B.V. SOMOV, Astronomical Institute, Moscow State University, Russia; R.A. SUNYAEV, Space Research Institute, Moscow, Russia

ORGANIZATIONS AND STRATEGIES IN ASTRONOMY VOLUME 7

Edited by ANDRÉ HECK Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory, France

A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

ISBN-10 1-4020-5300-2 (HB) ISBN-13 978-1-4020-5300-9 (HB) ISBN-10 1-4020-5301-0 (e-book) ISBN-13 978-1-4020-5301-6 (e-book)

Published by Springer, P.O. Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, The Netherlands. www.springer.com

Printed on acid-free paper

All Rights Reserved © 2006 Springer No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.

Table of contents • Foreword

(R.M. Bonnet/ISSI)

ix

• Editorial

1

• British Astronomy

(P. Murdin/Inst. Astron. Cambridge & RAS)

13

• Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Physics in Greece

(V. Charmandaris/Univ. Crete)

49

• Astronomy in Ukraine

(Ya.V. Pavlenko/MAO et al.)

71

• Focussing European Astronomy

– ESO’s Role in the ‘Comeback’ of European Astronomy (C. Cesarsky & C. Madsen/ESO)

97

• The International Space Science Institute (ISSI)

– An Interview with Roger M. Bonnet

115

• The International Space University (ISU)

125

(W. Peeters/ISU) • EuroPlaNet: European Planetology Network

155

(M. Blanc/CESR et al.) • RadioNet: Advanced Radio Astronomy Across Europe

171

(A.G. Gunn/JBO) • Selecting and Scheduling Observing Proposals

at NRAO Telescopes (D. Hogg/NRAO)

181 v

vi

TABLE OF CON TEN TS

• Selecting and Scheduling Observations

at the IRAM Observatories (M. Grewing/IRAM)

203

• Selecting, Scheduling and Carrying out

Observing Programmes at CFHT (Chr. Veillet/CFHT)

227

• The Scholarly Journals

of the American Astronomical Society (R.W. Milkey/AAS)

241

• Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

(P. Murdin/RAS)

263

• Astronomy & Astrophysics

– A Journal of Astronomers for Astronomers (G. Meynet/Geneva Obs.)

273

• LISA

– The Library and Information Services in Astronomy Conferences (B. Corbin/USNO & U. Grothkopf/ESO)

285

• The ADS Success Story

– An Interview with Gun ¨ ther Eichhorn

307

• The Progressive World Penetration

of the Strasbourg Astronomical Data Center (1970-1990) (A. Heck/Strasbourg Obs.)

315

• The Genesis of the IAU WG on Astronomical Data

(G.A. Wilkins/Univ. Exeter)

355

• Biographical Sources for Astronomers

(W.R. Dick)

367

• German Astronomy in the Third Reich

(H.W. Duerbeck/VUB)

383

TABLE OF CON TEN TS

vii

• The Psychology of Physical Science

(G.J. Feist/UCD)

415

• Thinking Like an Astronomer

(M.E. Gorman/Univ. Virginia)

419

• Mercury Magazine: The Incarnation of a Society

(J.C. White II/Gettysburg Coll.)

429

• Sterne und Weltraum

– A Popular Magazine Devoted to Science and its Use in School Teaching (J. Staude/MPIA)

439

• Communicating Astronomy with the Public

and the Washington Charter (I. Robson/UK ATC)

449

• Communicating X-Ray Astronomy

(M. Watzke/Chandra X-Ray Ctr)

463

• Establishing an Eﬀective Education

and Public Outreach Program at Gemini Observatory – A Case Study (P. Michaud/Gemini Obs.)

477

• Public Outreach

at The University of Texas McDonald Observatory – A Brief History and Current Overview (S.L. Preston/McDonald Obs.)

495

• The Europlanetarium Genk

– The Story of a Planetarium (Chr. Janssen/Europlan.)

517

• The INSAP V Experience on Art and Astronomy

(M. Bolt/Adler Planetarium)

537

viii

TABLE OF CON TEN TS

• What Does the New Climate for Dialogue and Debate

Mean for Communicating Astronomy? (St. Miller/UCL)

543

• Communicating Astronomy

– Successes and Limits (P. Murdin/Inst. Astron. Cambridge) • Updated Bibliography of Socio-Astronomy

553 565

FOREWORD

Astronomy is the most ancient science humans have practiced on Earth. It is a science of extremes and of large numbers: extremes of time – from the big bang to inﬁnity –, of distances, of temperatures, of density and masses, of magnetic ﬁeld, etc. It is a science which is highly visible, not only because stars and planets are accessible in the sky to the multitude, but also because the telescopes themselves are easily distinguishable, usually on top of scenic mountains, and also because their cost usually represent a substantial proportion of the nation’s budget and of the tax payers contributions to that budget. As such, astronomy cannot pass unnoticed. It touches on the origins of matter, of the Universe where we live, on life and on our destiny. It touches on philosophy as well as on religion. Astronomy is the direct contact of humankind with its origins and the immensity of universal nature. It is indeed a science of observation where experimentation is practically impossible and which is ruled by mathematics, physics, chemistry, statistical analysis and modelling, while oﬀering the largest number of veriﬁcations of the most advanced theories of fundamental physics such as general relativity and gravitation. At the beginning of the 21st century astronomy is clearly a multidisciplinary activity touching on all aspects of science. It is therefore logical that in the past and still now, astronomy has attracted the most famous scientists, be they pure observers, mathematicians, physicists, biologists, experimentalists, and even politicians. It is open to the non scientists: amateurs can practice astronomy and they do abound all around the world, sometimes contributing to discoveries like in the case of comets. The images of galaxies and of planets do possess an undisputable beauty and, naturally, astronomy is a subject of interest and most often of excitation to the public. It is one of the most popular branches of science. The drawback, unfortunately, is that it has a tendency of sometimes lying at the limit of scientiﬁc rigor. However, the rigorous scientiﬁc character of astronomy as well as its popularity re-enforces the need for a broad distribution of scientiﬁc results and discoveries in the peer-reviewed journals as well as in more popular magazines and reviews. ix A. Heck (ed.), Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, ix– xi. © 2006 Springer.

x

FOREWORD

As old as it is, astronomy looks remarkably young. This is because in the past 50 years, it has witnessed a genuine revolution. Revolution in the techniques and technologies of observation, which started with the development of larger and bigger telescopes, of radio-astronomy and, since the beginning of the space age, of observatories operating above the Earth’s atmosphere, accessing the full range of the electromagnetic spectrum, free of turbulence image-deterioration eﬀects, revealing phenomena which had no or very little observational signatures in visible light from ground-based observations. Astronomy, together with nuclear physics and space science, is part of the so-called big sciences. In the course of the last 25 years, the revolution has accelerated with the development of even larger telescopes in the 10 meters class, like the Very Large Telescope under the responsibility of ESO, of interferometry like the VLA, IRAM, and ALMA. The advent of the Charge Coupled Devices (CCD), replacing the old photographic plate, together with the informatics revolution, have led to the development of a more precise numerical astronomy and to the establishment of data bases remotely accessible and at the same time, to the concept of virtual observatories. Because stars and galaxies are by essence accessible to everybody on this planet – those who are rich and technologically advanced, as well as the poorer but nonetheless open-minded populations, curious and avid of knowledge as they are –, astronomy is (as it has always been) an activity of intrinsic international character. This character is ampliﬁed today by the need of sharing among nations or groups of nations the big facilities which demand resources very often far too expensive for individual countries resources. On the other hand, this revolution bears in itself potentially and somewhat concerning adverse eﬀects. The size of instruments require the support of big organizations, rely more and more on big industries and less on small groups of experimenters and of laboratory physicists. For the new generation of students, the tendency to avoid risks in the running of their research in view of getting diplomas and PhDs in the shortest possible time, leads to the development of a new class of astronomers which we could qualify as “arm chairs-CRT astronomers”, spending their time more and more on computers and less and less in the development of observational techniques or even hardware. Getting one’s hands dirty in astronomy is less and less easy these days. We witness a tendency for some kind of autism among the young generation being less sociologically active and more remote from the reality of the needs and of the tools and of the mechanisms that support their research. These general – and somewhat trivial comments – outline the more pressing need to describe not only to the scientists themselves but also to

FOREWORD

xi

the public at large, the complexity of the network of tools that make modern astronomy one of the most essential branches of science and a vector of knowledge that permanently pushes the limits of our curiosity and of our ignorance. This last volume of the Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy books is to be seen as a crowning piece of the previous descriptions contained in the past volumes of the series of these complex mechanisms. Readers will get closely in touch with the management of big programs. They will learn how international organizations operate and how individual nations, both the most advanced and the less advanced can develop their own means as well as sharing their resources in common with others in the development of big facilities. They will acquire the notion of this international character also through the networking of data bases of astronomical objects, of observational data, of scientiﬁc articles and of the bibliography of the actors of astronomy, those who contributed to the most advanced discoveries and those who devoted their life and careers to the development of new techniques. Readers will perceive the concerns that confront astronomy in the modern age of space and the growing severity of competition to access these big facilities, and how the supporting international organizations respond to the needs of the scientists worldwide. They will perceive the tremendous power of astronomy for education and for responding to the most profound philosophical questions confronting humanity since the birth of its cognitive capacity. At the same time, they will be in close contact with the needs for scientiﬁc rigor as well as with the responsibility for astronomers to transmit their acquired knowledge to those who through their daily work and their taxes make the development of these facilities and of this research possible. They will be confronted to the fundamental need of scientists and of astronomers for free thinking, for preserving their capacity and their responsibility in resisting political or anti-scientiﬁc arguments. The leading master of this series, Andr´e Heck, should be warmly congratulated for having taken the initiative of this series and having led this set of useful tools. There is a need for pursuing this activity in the future given the rapid status of evolution of astronomy as the new century promises to be one of even more numerous and extraordinary discoveries, as the tools described in the OSA books become operational and deliver their promises. Roger-Maurice Bonnet [email protected] ISSI Executive Director President of COSPAR May 2006.

EDITORIAL

A Matter of Innovation – Majesty, I thought it was the most promising work I heard in years. – Well, then we should make some eﬀort to acquire him. We could use a good German composer in Vienna. I am sure he could be tempted with the right oﬀer, say, an opera in German for our National Theater. – Excellent, Sire. – But not in German, I beg you, Your Majesty. Italian is the proper language for opera. All educated people agree on that. – Hmhm. What do you think, Chamberlain? – In my opinion, Sire, it is timely we had a piece in our own language. Plain German for plain people. – Hmhm. Kapellmeister? – Majesty, I most agree with il Direttore: German is, scusate, too brutal for scene. – Hmhm. Court Composer, what do you think? – I think it is an interesting notion to keep Mozart in Vienna, Majesty. It should really infuriate the Archbishop [of Salzburg] beyond measure, if this is Your Majesty’s intention. – You are cattivo, Court Composer. I want to meet this young man. Chamberlain, please arrange this! [Amadeus (Shaﬀer 1981, Forman/Shaﬀer 1984)]

The central point of this imaginary discussion around Austrian Emperor Joseph II about hiring W.A. Mozart is not so much about language and strategy than about timely innovation within an established context. Like many of you certainly experienced it already, when one wishes to undertake or launch something new, there are always choruses of people chanting it will never work for a number of reasons and that it is not even worth trying. This happened with this series of Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy (OSA) volumes too. 1 A. Heck (ed.), Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, 1–12. © 2006 Springer.

2

EDITORIAL

But a survey carried out around mid-1998 among the world-wide astronomical community revealed a hard kernel of people interested in what this Editor then called the socio-dynamics of astronomy. Helmut A. Abt was among the strong supporters and, as shown in the bibliographic compilation at the end of each OSA volume, Helmut is the most prominent author in the ﬁeld1 . Rather than to publish yet another conﬁdential newsletter, or to organize an even more conﬁdential workshop, it appeared more appropriate to gather together major (“review”) contributions in an edited book. This idea received a warm welcome at Kluwer Academic Publishers (now Springer) in the person of Harry (J.J.) Blom. And there has been so much material to be published that follow-up volumes were in order, produced at a yearly rythm until this seventh one, breaking records in terms of size and number of papers – all in all, an impressive collection of more than 150 chapters by an even more impressive gallery of authors, with grandees of astronomy honoring each volume with their Foreword. What an immense pleasure for the OSA Editor-catalyzer to put all this together! The range of subjects tackled in those seven volumes has been quite broad and space is lacking in this Editorial to review the tables of contents in detail2 , but here are the main themes: – characteristics and strategies of astronomy-related organizations (globally and speciﬁcally, nationally and internationally), with a planetary sample including even Antarctica; – recruitment and promotional policies; – economy of activities; – evaluation processes (proposals, individuals, institutions, etc.); – policies for professional publications; – bibliometric studies; – evolving sociology of scheduling and coordinated observing; – communication under its diverse facets; – series of astronomy-related conferences; – interactions with other communities and the society at large; together with a long list of matters covering the astronomy-related life and context, in the spirit of sharing speciﬁc expertise and lessons learned. Rather than being devoted to the publication of hard-science results, the OSA volumes describe how astronomy research lives: how it is planned, funded and organized, how it interacts with other disciplines and the rest of the world, how it communicates, etc. Thus this series has been a unique medium for scientists and non-scientists (sometimes from outside astronomy) to describe their experience and to elaborate on non-purely scientiﬁc 1 2

He also contributed to this series with chapters in OSA 1, OSA 2, OSA 4 and OSA 6. See http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/∼heck/osabooks.htm and linked pages.

EDITORIAL

3

Figure 1. ‘Les Phases de la Lune II’ [The Phases of the Moon II] (1941), oil on canvas (143×175 cm2 ) by Paul Delvaux (1897-1994). The door largerly open in the center gives way to a desertic or lunar nightly landscape, with a bright comet in an abundantly starry sky and a Full Moon. Or is rather this Moon an eclipsed one? Indeed a Full Moon would be so bright that neither the stars nor the comet would be visible. The way the Moon is painted, with a brighter left edge and details visible in the dark area, would ideally represent a Full Moon at the limit of a total eclipse. The question here is whether the artist did it intentionally. Note the scheme on the blackboard describing the phenomenon of the phases of the Moon, also present in Delvaux’s third version of the Phases of the Moon reproduced in OSA 4’s Editorial, as well as in The Astronomers illustrating OSA 6’s Editorial. When Delvaux was about seven years old, the secretary of his father (a lawyer) gave him a copy of Jules Verne’s novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. His subsequent enthusiasm for Verne’s works explains the frequent appearance in his paintings of Otto Lidenbrock (the geologist from the Journey to the Centre of the Earth ) from the original illustration by Edouard Riou: he is the foreground character on the right with a kind of frock coat, the glasses on the forehead and examining closely an ammonite, a rock, an undeﬁned object and sometimes ... nothing in his hands. He ﬁrst appeared in March 1939 in the Phases of the Moon I. The middle-class gentleman with the bowler hat at the extreme right is another souvenir from Delvaux’s youth: a man he saw passing every day at the same hour on the sidewalk in front of his house and who became a kind of concept, that of a civil servant from one of the numerous administrations or ministries in Brussels where he was living then (Debra 1991). This character is appearing in many of Delvaux’s paintings. See Nath (1997) for more on Delvaux’s pieces with astronomy-related elements. (Galerie Patrick Derom, by courtesy)

4

EDITORIAL

matters – often of fundamental importance for the eﬃcient conduct of our activities. As illustrated by the histogram included in OSA 6’s Editorial, the global number of astronomy-related papers on organizational, strategical and socio-dynamical issues is growing more than steadily, reﬂecting increased interest. Years ago, the term “sociology” was carrying a negative connotation in hard-science circles where only bibliometric counts were barely accepted. As exempliﬁed by the above diversiﬁcation, the overall approach has now evolved and matured. The last paragraphs of OSA 6’s and OSA 7’s Forewords state eloquently the timeliness of dealing with strategical and organizational issues, insisting on the need of pursuing such publishing and related activities. A Matter of Communication Astronomy-related art is one of the facets participating to the general communication process and can be an excellent vector. Four examples, among many, of astronomy in contemporaneous art are illustrating this editorial. See the legends for speciﬁc comments3 . Astronomy communication has of course many other important faces, be it at the intra-professional level or towards the society at large (see e.g. Heck & Madsen 2003). The theme has been a recurrent one in the OSA series, including in this seventh volume. Here is a follow-up to some of the communication-related points raised in OSA 6’s Editorial: – the proceedings of the CAP 2005 conference, organized by the IAU Working Group on Communicating Astronomy with the Public 4 (see Robson 2006, this volume) are now available (Robson & Christensen 20055 ); the next such gathering, CAP 2007, is currently under consideration for Autumn 2007 in Hawaii, USA; – after its 2005 national conference on the theme Building Community: The Emerging EPO 6 Profession, the Astronomical Society of the Paciﬁc (ASP) stays on that line with the next one: Engaging the EPO Community: Best Practices, New Approaches (Baltimore, September 2006)7 ; 3

OSA chapters have been dedicated to the conferences on The Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena (INSAP): by Ray E. White in OSA 1 (2000) and by Marvin Bolt in OSA 7 (2006, this volume). Refer also to a survey on creativity (Heck 2001/OSA 2) and to a chapter (with CD) by No¨el Cramer (2004/OSA 5) on Czech-born space artist Ludek Pesek. Several art pieces were reproduced in OSA 4’s and OSA 6’s Editorials. 4 http://www.communicatingastronomy.org/cap2005 5 http://www.spacetelescope.org/about/further information/books/pdf/cap2005 proceedings.pdf 6 EPO = Education and Public Outreach. 7 http://www.astrosociety.org/events/meeting.html

EDITORIAL

5

Figure 2. Top: Corinne Gerling’s Constellation (1987), watercolor (50×70 cm2 ). Gerling’s Emergence of Knowledge illustrated the cover of the Kluwer book on Information Handling in Astronomy – Historical Vistas (Heck 2003) and her Pav´e de Saint-Jacques (an ancient regional name for the Milky Way) was used in the Swiss magazine Orion (Nath 2003a). Bottom: Elizabeth Bohlen’s celestial Embrace. (Top: photograph by the Editor; bottom: digital ﬁle by the artist)

6

EDITORIAL

Figure 3. Stephanie Rayner’s Labyrinth (122×168 cm2 ) is inspired from Daedalus’ labyrinth designed after the pattern of man’s entrails, symbolizing together internal and external fears from which it is almost impossible to escape. The Horsehead Nebula at the center represents both the beast within and the fundamental existential questions brought to man by the universe. The tangle of electrical wire on the left is a dual symbol: technological reminder of the mythological Ariadne’s thread that allowed Theseus to get out of the labyrinth after killing the Minotaur ... or it can be seen as another labyrinth! See OSA 4’s Editorial for Rayner’s Galileo’s Eyelid and Nath (2003b) for more on the artist’s creations. (Photograph by the artist)

– an impressive Hands-on Guide for Science Communicators (Fig. 4) has been put together by Lars Lindberg Christensen (2006); together with examples from physics and astronomy, it oﬀers an abundance of practical details in a good-humored style and will be a milestone of its kind. But beyond all these events centered on communicating astronomy towards the outside world, there is a need today for the professional community to reﬂect again on its own internal communication channels – some ﬁfteen years after the ﬁrst international colloquium on professional electronic publishing in astronomy (Heck 1992) from which originate many of today’s materializations and collaborations in the ﬁeld. See for instance Albrecht & Heck (2006) for a proposal of a peerreviewed web service combining elements of both electronic and hard-copy

EDITORIAL

7

Figure 4. This book by Lars Lindberg Christensen (2006) presents, in a good-humored style, an abundance of practical details. It is a fundamental contribution to the ﬁeld of science communication towards the public, de facto ﬁlling a gap. Lars contributed with an important chapter to OSA 4 (Christensen 2003) and is an active leader of the IAU Working Group on Communicating Astronomy with the Public (see Robson 2006 in this volume, Robson & Christensen 2005, as well as the OSA 6 Editorial). (Cover reproduced with permission)

8

EDITORIAL

publishing, a facility that could be hosted by a major research center or a professional society. Quite interestingly, the ﬁeld of astronomy communication is also maturing with investigations on matters such as hype and credibility as in a remarkable study conducted by Roskilde University students (Nielsen et al. 2006) having interviewed a number of astronomers (Fig. 5). A Matter of Credibility As explained in Nielsen et al. (2006), credibility has a number of acceptations. Some see it as resulting from the honesty of the source or of the public-relations (PR) oﬃcer while, for this Editor, credibility occurs if the message conveyed has been received as credible by the receiver – which is no excuse for deliberate cheating or avoiding to chase out possibly misleading formulations. In other words, it is not enough to be honest: one is largely responsible to tailor messages in a way they are correctly received. And this applies externally as well as internally8 . Why do PR people make mistakes? For a number of reasons. They might be fresh and inexperienced, or incompetent, or poorly informed, or because they are not doing properly their homework, i.e. backing and verifying their information sources. They might also think it is not important to use the right wording. PR people could also be submitted to pressures – personal, institutional, temporal. But it is part of their job, as well as a sign of maturity and professionalism, to resist and overcome these. They might also be “intoxicated” by their sources, typically by scientists who can tell stories the contextual importance of which is diﬃcult to be assessed correctly. PR people cannot be competent in all the subdisciplines covered by their institutions, but they could get the substance double-checked. And this is not because things are done according to the book that they come out right every time. The rules of the book can indeed be inadequate for a speciﬁc case, or in need of some upgrade – the basis of evolution and adaptation. Now, why should one be extremely cautious when analyzing hyping cases and avoid to behave as prosecutors? Simply because one is dealing with human material and that nothing is simple. Behind those entities called “NASA”, “ESA”, etc. (so easily pointed at), are human complexities, often with internal conﬂicting interests, from scientists to managers via PR oﬃcers, each ones obeying to their own dynamics and trying to make the best out of internal and external pressures. Years ago, in the infamous case of the discovery of Mars-based life, who was to be blamed for a hyping 8 See OSA 6’s Editorial for a few examples of internal ‘discredibility’ recorded by a ﬁctitious visitor appalled by weirdic absurdities in Weirdland.

EDITORIAL

9

Figure 5. The Editor (left) being interviewed on hype and credibility issues by Roskilde University students Lars Holm Nielsen (center) and Nanna Torpe Jørgensen (Boston, November 2005). This study was supported by ESA/Hubble. (Photograph: A. Heck)

announcement made shortly before an approval vote for a NASA budget? The scientists? The PR people? NASA’s management? The gullibility of the media? The US President’s cabinet (who issued a supporting release)? Or were these all benevolent accomplices? After the striking headlines, few readers noticed the rectifying statement (when published) in the inside pages of newspapers and magazines. But interested people noticed that the original information was wrong and they remember it. Some of our colleagues still make the mistake to believe that the taxpayers supporting most of our activities have little brainware or memory. Why should hype and credibility be issues in astronomy communication and why should we worry at all about such things? After all, our disciplines have not the criticality of, for instance, life sciences that are often referring to ethical committees. Well, in the ﬁrst instance, we all should be committed to truth and veriﬁed knowledge. Beyond this, wrong hype does aﬀect the image of our community as a whole. Worse, it aﬀects credibility in a way that has been so far unquantiﬁable. And at a time we are more than ever ﬁghting for money and positions, this is deﬁnitely to be cared of. Should we also have an ethical committee? Such a label sounds probably too strong, but perhaps a kind of working group might provide exchange grounds on the matter, possibly also formulating recommendations and reference charters.

10

EDITORIAL

At a recent space-related forum, a prominent scientiﬁc reporter said in substance that his job was ﬁrst of all to help his newspaper making money. This Editor does hope that we, from the scientiﬁc world, still rate ﬁrst the conveyance of correct information. This OSA 7 Volume This book starts with a group of chapters reviewing the organization of astronomy in various parts of the world: in Britain, by P. Murdin; in Greece, by V. Charmandaris; and in Ukraine, by Ya.V. Pavlenko, I.B. Vavilova & T. Kostiuk. They are followed by several contributions focussing on international institutions: the European Southern Observatory by C. Cesarsky & Cl. Madsen, the International Space Science Institute in an interview of R.M. Bonnet, and the International Space University by W. Peeters. Two European networks are subsequently described: EuroPlaNet by M. Blanc and RadioNet by A.G. Gunn. Radioastronomy remains at the heart of the next chapters as D. Hogg and M. Grewing detail the selection and scheduling of observing proposals at the telescopes of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and at the observatories of the Institut de Radioastronomie Millim´etrique (IRAM) respectively. Then Chr. Veillet tells us how observing programmes are selected, scheduled and carried out at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT). Next, we move to another ﬁeld with a premi`ere, a group of chapters authored by the managers of the major professional journals: – the Astrophysical Journal and the Astronomical Journal by R.W. Milkey, – the Monthy Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society by P. Murdin, and – Astronomy and Astrophysics by G. Meynet. The Library and Information Services in Astronomy (LISA) conferences are then described by astronomy librarians B. Corbin and U. Grothkopf. Remaining in the ﬁeld of information resources, the following contributions are dealing successively with: – the Astrophysics Data System, in an interview of G. Eichhorn; – the international penetration of the Strasbourg Data Center by A. Heck; – the genesis of the International Astronomical Union (IAU)’s Working Group on Astronomical Data, by G.A. Wilkins; and – biographical sources for astronomers by W.R. Dick. This last chapter introduces a trilogy of contributions related to individuals and their ‘systems’: – a history-making regard into German astronomy during the Third Reich by H.W. Duerbeck,

11

EDITORIAL

– the psychology of the physical science and scientists by G.J. Feist, – the astronomer’s thinking approach by M.E. Gorman. The last substantial part of the book is devoted to public outreach in the broad sense, starting with the presentation of two magazines (Mercury by J.C. White II and Sterne und Weltraum by J. Staude) and of the IAU Working Group on Communicating Astronomy with the Public9 by I. Robson, as well as of the Education and Public Outreach (EPO) activities at a number of institutions: – Chandra X-ray Center by M. Watzke, – Gemini Observatories by P. Michaud, – McDonald Observatory by S.L. Preston, and – Europlanetarium Genk by Chr. Janssen. M. Bolt then reports on the INSAP V conference. Finally St. Miller and P. Murdin share their sound views on the astronomy communication phenomenology. The book concludes with the updated bibliography of publications relating to socio-astronomy and to the interactions of the astronomy community with society at large. Acknowledgments It has been a privilege and a great honor to be given the opportunity of compiling this book and interacting with the various contributors. The quality of the authors, the scope of expertise they cover, the messages they convey make of this book a natural continuation of the previous volumes. The reader will certainly enjoy as much as I did going through such a variety of well-inspired chapters from so many diﬀerent horizons, be it also because the contributors have done their best to write in a way that is understandable to readers who are not necessarily hyper-specialized in astronomy while providing speciﬁc detailed information and sometimes enlightening ‘lessons learned’ sections. I am specially grateful to Roger M. Bonnet, President of COSPAR and Executive Director of the International Space Science Institute, for writing the Foreword of this book and to the various independent readers (“referees”) who ensured prompt and constructive reading of the contributions. Finally, it is a very pleasant duty to pay tribute here to the various people at Springer who are enthusiastically supporting this series of volumes. The Editor Montes Universales May 2006 9

See also the Editorial of OSA 6.

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References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19.

Albrecht, R. & Heck, A. 2006, Concept for a Peer-Reviewed Community-Supported Web Site, poster at the Library and Information Services in Astronomy V conference ( Cambridge, 18-21 June 2006). Bolt, M. 2006, The INSAP V Experience on Art and Astronomy, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 7 (OSA 7), Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht (this volume). Christensen, L.L. 2003, Practical Popular Communication of Astronomy, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 4 (OSA 4), Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 105-142. Christensen, L.L. 2006, The Hands-On Guide for Science Communicators – A Stepby-Step Approach to Public Outreach, Springer, New York, xvi + 288 pp. (ISBN 0387263241) Cramer, N. 2004, Ludek Pesek’s Role as Space Artist, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 5 (OSA 5), Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 259-272. Debra, M. 1991, Promenades et entretiens avec Delvaux, Duculot, Gembloux, 256 pp. (ISBN 2-8011-0991-6) Forman, M. & Shaﬀer, P. 1984, Amadeus, ﬁlm, Warner. Heck, A. (Ed.) 1992, Desktop Publishing in Astronomy and Space Sciences, World Scientiﬁc, Singapore, xii + 240 pp. (ISBN 981-02-0915-0) Heck, A. 2001, Creativity in Arts and Sciences: A Survey, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 2 (OSA 2), Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 257-268. Heck, A. (Ed.) 2003, Information Handling in Astronomy – Historical Vistas, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, xii + 294 pp. (ISBN 1-4020-1178-4) Heck, A. & Madsen, C. (Eds.) 2003, Astronomy Communication, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, x + 226 pp. (ISBN 1-4020-1345-0) Nath, Al 1997, Delvaux en Uranie, Orion 55/5, 29-30. Nath, Al 2003a, Le Pav´e de Saint-Jacques, Orion 61/1, 28. Nath, Al 2003b, L’Univers de Stephanie Rayner, Orion 61/5, 39-41. Nielsen, L.H., Jørgensen, N.T., Jantzen, L. & Bjerg, S. 2006, Credibility of Science Communication – An Exploratory Study of Press Releases in Astronomy, Roskilde Univ., viii + 66 pp. Robson, I. 2006, Communicating Astronomy with the Public and the Washington Charter, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 7 (OSA 7), Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht (this volume). Robson, I. & Christensen, L.L. 2005, Communicating Astronomy with the Public 2005, ESA/Hubble, Munich, 400 pp. Shaﬀer, P. 1981, Amadeus, HarperCollins Publ., New York, xxxiv + 124 pp. (ISBN 0060935499) White, R.E. 2000, The Conferences on “The Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena”: Excursions into “Cross-Overs” between Science and the Arts and Literature in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 1 (OSA 1), Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 203-209.

BRITISH ASTRONOMY

PAUL MURDIN

Institute of Astronomy Madingley Road Cambridge CB3 0HA, U.K. and Royal Astronomical Society Burlington House Piccadilly London W1J 0BQ, U.K. [email protected]

Abstract. This article1 describes the present state of astronomy in Britain by reference to its history. It surveys the facilities that are available to British astronomers, and the research groups and associations that they have formed to carry out their investigations. University groups are particularly strong. There are numerous amateur societies, both local and national, and astronomy has a distinctive place in education as a subject that motivates students to study science at school and university. The article references the present surprisingly large number of organisations in Britain2 that advance astronomy.

1 Paul Murdin was formerly the Head of Astronomy at PPARC and Director of Science at BNSC. He is currently the Treasurer of the Royal Astronomical Society. 2 The modern name of the nation is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (abbreviated UK). There is no adjective except the noun used as an adjective – for example ‘the United Kingdom (or UK) Government’. Before the independence of Eire, less than 100 years ago (a short time in astronomical history), the country was known as Great Britain (the qualiﬁer referring not to the power of an empire, as is often supposed, but to the entirety of the geographic region, including islands oﬀshore from the main one). Great Britain nowadays is a geographical region comprising three countries: England, Wales and Scotland. England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland have their own educational systems, but funding for scientiﬁc research is organised nationally by the research councils, which are therefore UK organisations, like PPARC. In this article for simplicity I sweep all these issues into the single adjective ‘British’, except where I deliberately mean the modern nation of the UK, when I use the abbreviation as an adjective.

13 A. Heck (ed.), Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, 13–48. © 2006 Springer.

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1. Early History Astronomy – observation and theory – has been practiced in Britain since prehistoric times. Among the many megalithic monuments in Britain is Stonehenge3 in southern England (2700 BC – ). It has alignments over the Heel Stone towards sunrise and other alignments of such complexity that it could be, in principle, used to predict eclipses. The Temple Wood circle in Argyllshire in Scotland (2nd millennium BC) appears to be a lunar observatory. The Newgrange burial barrow4 (3200 BC – ) in the Boyne valley in Ireland contains a unique ‘roof-box’ which at the midwinter solstice admits the rays of the rising Sun into the grave passage. The Roman occupation of Britain (55 BC – c. 400 AD) brought a knowledge of practical astronomy, including timekeeping and calendrical calculations. This knowledge was maintained in relation to the calculation of Easter by monasteries when the Romans left, but developed little until Islamic astronomy came to Britain in the medieval period, and brought with it the classical texts. The ﬁrst English-language poet, Geoﬀrey Chaucer (c. 1343 - 1400), author of the Canterbury Tales, wrote for the beneﬁt of his son A Treatise on the Astrolabe, the oldest known ‘technical manual’ in English. The plays of William Shakespeare (1564-1616) show a detailed practical knowledge of astronomical phenomena and a (somewhat sceptical) knowledge of astrology. Up to the 17th , century the teachers of astronomy in Britain were, in the main, clerics with an interest in proclaiming the glory of God and teaching the ‘quadrivium’ (the four classical subjects of arithmetic, harmony, geometry and astronomy, knowledge of which made a man educated in science). Modern knowledge such as Copernicus’ and Kepler’s explanations of the motions of the planets and Galileo’s theory of dynamics were taken up by amateurs outside the established educational professions, like the group that formed around William Crabtree (1610-1644), a Lancashire instrument maker, and Jeremiah Horrocks (1619-1641), a schoolmaster. With his own theory of celestial dynamics, related to Kepler’s, Horrocks predicted a transit of Venus5 , which he and Crabtree observed. 2. The Royal Observatory In the 17th century the British Government began to take a structural interest in astronomy. King Charles II was persuaded to found the Royal Observatory at Greenwich in 1675, in order to provide astronomical predictions 3

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.876 http://www.knowth.com/newgrange.htm 5 http://www.transit-of-venus.org.uk/ 4

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for the purposes of navigation, for the beneﬁt of the Royal Navy and the merchant ships that it protected. John Flamsteed (1646-1719), the Royal Observatory’s ﬁrst director, made careful and precise observations, from which increasingly accurate predictions and investigations could be made of astronomical phenomena. Developing from this historic base, annual volumes of The Astronomical Almanac, The Nautical Almanac, Astronomical Phenomena, The Star Almanac and The UK Air Almanac are still published in the UK by Her Majesty’s Nautical Almanac Oﬃce6 (HMNAO), located now at the Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory (RAL); several of these volumes are published in collaboration with the US Naval Observatory. At the same time that Flamsteed was making accurate observations at Greenwich, from the universities Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) was formulating mathematical theories of motion and gravitation, presented in an equivalent of calculus (but expressed in traditional geometric terms). Newton and Flamsteed clashed over the running of the Royal Observatory. Flamsteed wanted the observations to be the best possible, sought grants to make the best equipment and took time to develop the observing techniques. Newton wanted observations too, but quickly in order to test his gravitational theory of the planets and the Moon. They quarrelled. This tension between the institutes and the academics recurred in 20th century Britain. Edmund Halley (1656-1742), travelled to St Helena in the Atlantic Ocean, then the British Empire’s southernmost possession, to observe the southern stars for Flamsteed in the ﬁrst overseas astronomical expedition by a British astronomer and helped Newton publish his book on gravitation and mechanics, Principia. The second half of the 17th and early 18th century saw the increasing professionalisation of science. Not only was the Royal Observatory founded, but also the Royal Society of London was established in 1666 by twelve scientists including Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723), the Gresham and later the Savilian professor of astronomy (in London and Oxford respectively) and only later an architect (of St Paul’s Cathedral in London, etc.). At ﬁrst the Royal Society counted wealthy amateurs as well as professional scientists among its members (or ‘Fellows’), but by the ﬁrst half of the 19th century it had become an exclusive group of elite scientists, elected on the basis of their scientiﬁc work. The Royal Society7 is the national academy of sciences in the UK and is independent of Government, but nevertheless most of its income nowadays is from a Government grant spent on the support of research (including prestigious fellowships and professorships), the membership of international bodies and to develop scientiﬁc advice on issues of national political interest. 6 7

http://www.nao.rl.ac.uk/ http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/

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Flamsteed, as director of the Royal Observatory, had taken by his own initiative the title Astronomer Royal (AR) as a sign of the state patronage of astronomy as practiced in Greenwich. This title was decoupled from the Royal Observatory in 1972 and became honorary. It was an inept time to do this. The Royal Observatory was appointing its ﬁrst (and only) female director, Margaret Burbidge, denied the title (some said) by gender discrimination. Likewise the title of Astronomer Royal for Scotland was established in 1834 for the director of the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh (ROE), but was decoupled in 1995. The present title-holders are Sir Martin Rees (Lord Rees – he has said that he will resign the position of AR now that he has been elected as President of the Royal Society and to the House of Lords) and Prof John Brown, respectively. The British royal court has from time to time continued its more personal interests in astronomy by maintaining court astronomers under the confusingly similar title of Royal Astronomer. Sir William Herschel (17381822) and his sister Caroline Herschel (1750-1848), at ﬁrst supporting themselves through musical performances and teaching, constructed telescopes with which they made signiﬁcant discoveries – comets, nebulae, double stars, even a new planet – and both were rewarded with royal pensions. William was given a stipend and called the Royal Astronomer, his duties being to get his telescope ready sometimes on ﬁne nights to show discoveries (e.g. new comets) to King George and the royal court. Caroline was awarded a pension of half her brother’s amount. 3. The Astronomical Communities Three communities of astronomers had established themselves in Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries: amateurs, Government astronomers and university astronomers. They were supported by a coterie of instrument scientists, whose status was very high, much higher than that of craftsmen, many having been elected as fellows of the Royal Society. All these social groupings persist to the present day. The amateurs included the independently wealthy, for example the landowner Lord Rosse (1800-1867). They included business- and professional men, for example William Lassell (1799-1880), a Liverpool brewer, and James Nasmyth (1808-1890), a mechanical engineer. All these men built telescopes of substantial sizes at their homes in Britain. Lord Rosse built at Birr Castle in Desmene in Ireland the then-largest telescope in the world, the 6-ft (1.8-m) aperture ‘Leviathan of Parsonstown’, recently restored to working order. Lassell’s last and largest telescope was, however, erected under the clear skies of Malta, and foreshadowed the overseas observatories of modern times. The amateurs also included pensioners such

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as retired servicemen, such as Admiral W.H. Smyth (1788-1865). The amateurs concentrated on visual observations of planets, nebulae and double stars but also used talent, time and their own resources to construct large, ingenious or novel instrumentation, e.g. Sir William Huggins’ (1824-1910) application of spectroscopy and Ainslee Common’s (1841-1903) application of photography to astronomy. The university astronomers, at ﬁrst at the two oldest universities in Britain at Oxford and Cambridge, and later in London, Durham, Manchester, etc, concentrated on the high intellectual content areas of astronomy, typically theoretical mathematical astronomy (at ﬁrst celestial mechanics, later the nature of celestial bodies, or astrophysics). The Government astronomers were principally at Greenwich – example Sir George Airy (1801-1892) – and later also at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh and at the Solar Physics Observatory established at South Kensington, London, and directed by Sir Norman Lockyer (1836-1920) until its move to Cambridge University. Most of their work could be characterized as systematic observations by teams of astronomers and large calculations by teams of human ‘computers’ in programmes principally of positional astronomy. They carried on a tradition started in the 18th century by Edmund Halley (1656-1742) and James Cook (1728-1779) of overseas travel to observe astronomical phenomena not visible from Britain, such as hidden constellations, transits and eclipses. They founded the Royal Observatory at Cape Town in South Africa in 1825, now subsumed into the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO). Charles Piazzi Smyth (1819-1900) of Edinburgh site-tested the mountain of El Teide on Tenerife in the Canary Islands; he established by measurement the superiority of the observing conditions at altitude and set the scene, not only for the establishment a hundred years later of the observatory at the same altitude on the nearby island of La Palma but also for the establishment within decades of mountain top observatories in the USA. The astronomers of Armagh Observatory8 in Northern Ireland fell outside these three groups. The Observatory was founded in 1790 by Archbishop Robinson of the Church of Ireland and is still run under a Board of Governors that includes the present Archbishop. The Observatory is now funded as an independent research institute by grants from the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure for Northern Ireland and the UK Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council. In 1820, the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) was founded as the Astronomical Society of London by Sir John Herschel (1792-1871) and 13 other well-known astronomers and scientists, who met as a gentleman’s 8

http://star.arm.ac.uk/

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dining club to discuss the latest developments. The Society received the grant of a Royal Charter from King William IV in 1831. Its headquarters were built for it at Burlington House, in Piccadilly, London. The RAS9 represents professional astronomy in Britain. As geophysics developed as a branch of mathematical physics, in particular associated with the name of Sir George Darwin (1845-1912) of Cambridge University, its practitioners found no natural home in the established geological societies, so the RAS came also to encompass those scientists who study the solid Earth, as a planet. With the development of the geosciences, the geophysics community self-organises into the British Geophysical Association10 (BGA), now cosponsored by the RAS and the Geological Society11 . Originally the RAS performed many functions that have now transferred to individual university departments. The main functions of the RAS remain to publish the results of astronomical and geophysical research and to hold meetings, in London and elsewhere, at which astronomical and geophysical matters can be discussed. The RAS library12 contains material for research in astronomy and geophysics as well as the histories of these sciences and of associated ﬁelds such as navigation. Other important astronomical libraries and archives of important historical books and papers are located in Edinburgh (the Crawford Collection13 of the Royal Observatory) and Cambridge (at the Institute of Astronomy14 and the Cambridge University Library15 ). The RAS is the UK’s primary national member of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a role recently transferred from the Royal Society of London as part of a Government initiative to focus membership of international bodies into the national organisations that can be expected to participate eﬀectively in their aﬀairs. The RAS meets monthly (except during the summer) in open session with formal programmes of presentations (reports of the meetings are published by the independently edited and delightfully eccentric Observatory magazine16 ). In seven of the months there are three meetings that last all day, two of them in parallel on specialist topics, typically one on astrophysics and one on geophysics, solar physics or planetary science, followed by one on general topics. Once a year, near Easter, the RAS holds 9

http://www.ras.org.uk/ http://www.geophysics.org.uk/ 11 http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/ 12 http://www.ras.org.uk/ 13 http://www.roe.ac.uk/roe/library/crawford 14 http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/∼ioalib/homepage.html 15 http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/readershandbook/D12.html 16 http://www.ulo.ucl.ac.uk/obsmag/ [See also the chapter by D.J. Stickland in OSA 4.] 10

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a ‘National Astronomy Meeting’ for a week in venues around the country, and indeed in neighbouring ones such as Ireland. The NAM is formatted in a mixture of invited reviews held in plenary sessions and parallel sessions on more specialist topics. There is a large number of posters, and a special eﬀort is made to provide a forum for post-graduate PhD students to present their work, either orally or in posters. Several astronomy groups around the country make it almost compulsory for their students to attend the NAM, both to present work and to be educated in the wide range of contemporary astronomy. Originally the RAS meetings were announced and summarized, with news of comets, asteroids and variable stars, in the Society’s Monthly Notices 17 . This journal retains the historical name, although it is now neither monthly nor collections of notices, but a publication of primary research papers in astronomy18 . MNRAS continues as the principal means of publication of professional astronomical research in Britain, but, reﬂecting the globalisation of astronomy, more than half its content is from overseas; it is among the trio of the world’s most important astronomical journals, growing in size in recent years at 10% per year, as a result of an unrelenting emphasis on scientiﬁc quality and a business model that does not make page charges, but seeks payment from readers as the ultimate judges of whether they want what it publishes. The RAS publishes review articles in its magazine, Astronomy & Geophysics. Geophysical papers have moved from MN into their own journal, which the RAS publishes as a joint venture with the Deutsche Geophysikalische Gesellschaft under the title Geophysical Journal International. Reﬂecting its 19th century origins, the Royal Astronomical Society remains a society of both professional and a signiﬁcant number of advanced amateur astronomers, numbering about 3000 altogether, but there are additional mainly amateur astronomy societies such as the British Astronomical Association19 . Some local amateur astronomical societies predate the BAA, which was formed in 1890 from members of the Royal Astronomical Society who wished to participate in coordinated observing programmes, nowadays of the planets, variable stars, comets, meteors etc. but the BAA became the national society for amateurs. It too has 3000 members, mostly amateur astronomers, and its headquarters are also in Burlington House in London under an arrangement with the RAS. It holds monthly meetings and publishes a journal of both review material and scientiﬁc papers, typically either observational papers that bring together members’ observations or practical papers on instrumentation of amateur relevance. The Society for 17

See the chapter by P. Murdin in this volume (Ed.). http://www.ras.org.uk/ 19 http://www.britastro.org/main/ 18

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Popular Astronomy20 (SPA) is a third national amateur astronomy society, also with 3000 members, catering for amateur astronomers who want fun. British astronomical history is represented in museums, universities and observatories throughout Britain, including the Science Museum21 in London, the Whipple Museum22 in Cambridge, the Museum of the History of Science23 in Oxford, the National Maritime Museum24 in Greenwich and the Herschel Museum25 in Bath, and others, where there are important scientiﬁc collections and sites. The University of Leicester’s Archaeology department has the only archaoastronomy research group26 in a British university. The Society for the History of Astronomy27 (SHA) promotes academic, educational and popular interest in the history of the science of astronomy. The Journal of the History of Astronomy 28 (JHA) is independently published from Cambridge. The British Sundial Society29 (BSS) aims to advance the art and science of gnomonics, to catalogue and restore sundials in Britain and to research their history. 4. Theory, Radio and Space Astronomy In the 20th century, astrophysics became more important in Britain than positional astronomy. Spectroscopy and stellar structure emerged as areas in which the new physics of quantum mechanics and quantum thermodynamics could be successfully deployed. Cosmology became very strong – this is the period of Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882-1944), E.A. Milne (18961950) and Sir James Jeans (1877-1946). Theoretical astronomy continues in Britain as an area of strength, for example in gravitational physics around Steven Hawking30 in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP) in Cambridge, in calculations of the development of the structure of the universe in Cambridge31 , Durham32 , Edinburgh33 , 20

http://www.popastro.com/ http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/collections/subject themes/environmental.asp 22 http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/whipple/ 23 http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/ 24 http://www.nmm.ac.uk/ 25 http://www.bath-preservation-trust.org.uk/museums/herschel/ and http://www.williamherschel.org.uk/society.htm 26 http://www.le.ac.uk/archaeology/rug/aa/index.html 27 http://www.shastro.org.uk/ 28 http://www.shpltd.co.uk/jha.html 29 http://www.sundialsoc.org.uk/ 30 http://www.hawking.org.uk/ 31 http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/gr/public/cos home.html 32 http://star-www.dur.ac.uk/cosmology/xgal index.html 33 http://www.roe.ac.uk/ifa/research 21

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Figure 1. The British Isles and the locations of the universities that received grants etc for astronomy from PPARC in 2004, and the planetaria, museums, etc, of astronomical importance for the United Kingdom. (Figure by Amanda Smith, IoA, Cambridge)

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Oxford34 , Portsmouth35 and London Universities36 , amongst others, and in plasma physics as applied to the geosphere, the heliosphere37 and stellar astronomy in several universities. There are powerful supercomputing facilities for use by all the UK theoretical astrophysics community at the UK Astrophysical Fluids Facility (UKAFF) based at Leicester38 . Theory continues in Britain to be not only a way of understanding the universe but also a way of guiding the future direction of the observational programmes. In mid-century, a generation of young scientists – for examaple Sir Bernard Lovell (1913- ) and Sir Martin Ryle (1918-1984, Nobel Prize 1974) – returned to the universities (Manchester and Cambridge) from which, as young men, they had been recruited to work on radar in the Second World War. They established radio astronomy in Britain, a subject of observational astronomy suited to its cloudy skies. The radio interferometers at Lord’s Bridge near Cambridge made all-sky radio surveys, establishing the evolutionary big bang theory of the universe, demolishing the steady-state theory produced by Sir Fred Hoyle (1915-2001) and his associates and discovering ﬁrst quasars and then pulsars (Anthony Hewish (1924- ), Nobel Prize 1974). Pulsar research remains strong in Britain at Jodrell Bank39 . The work of the Cambridge radio telescopes at Lord’s Bridge continues under the name of the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory40 (MRAO), with the Ryle Telescope, the Cosmic Anisotropy Telescope, the Cambridge Optical Aperture Synthesis Telescope, and the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager all deployed into sophisticated special projects on the cosmic microwave background, optical interferometry, the Sunyaev-Zeldovich eﬀect etc. Run by Manchester University at Jodrell Bank Observatory41 , the Lovell Telescope was for a time the largest fully-steerable dish for radio astronomy. Jodrell Bank Observatory participates in the European VLBI interferometer and is the centre of the MERLIN interferometer of six radio telescopes spread across England to provide radio maps at a resolution matched to the Hubble Space Telescope. MERLIN (Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network) has produced beautifully intricate maps of gravitational lenses, supernova remnants in external galaxies and planetary nebulae. The Lovell Telescope has been refurbished to become part of MERLIN. Cambridge and Manchester collaborate with the Instituto de 34

http://www-astro.physics.ox.ac.uk/booklet http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/icg/ 36 http://www.star.ucl.ac.uk/groups/cosmology/ and http://www.imperial.ac.uk/research/astro 37 http://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/lyndsay/MISC/solar/groups.html 38 http://www.ukaff.ac.uk/ 39 http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/∼pulsar/ 40 http://www.mrao.cam.ac.uk/ 41 http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/ 35

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Astrof´ısica de Canarias to operate the Very Small Array, named with characteristic British understatement. It has been making a survey of the cosmic microwave background as observed from Teide in Tenerife. The Cambridge, Manchester and Oxford radio astronomy groups have combined under the name UKSKADS to become the UK participation in design study for the projected Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope42 . The Design Study is ﬁnanced overall by a grant by the EU Framework Programme FP6 through the Netherlands Astron organisation and is being carried out in 29 institutes worldwide. For the work that is to be carried out in the UK, the EU ﬁnancing is being more than matched by the UK’s PPARC in part because of the commercially interesting development of computing that it will produce. Meanwhile, space astronomy groups established themselves, at ﬁrst in the universities of Birmingham43 , Leicester44 and London (University College45 and Imperial College46 ), initially developing X-ray astronomy, solar astronomy and magnetospheric physics with sounding rockets and small British satellites, such as the Ariel and STRV series. Space activity at University College moved out of London to the Mullard Space Science Laboratory47 (MSSL) in Surrey. Additional to bilateral agreements to participate in the satellites of non-European countries, the space science programme in Britain is now focussed primarily on ESA’s Science Programme48 . The European Space Agency (ESA) was formed in 1975, with its Science Programme to launch more powerful satellites containing astronomical telescopes and to explore not only geospace but also the Sun, the heliosphere and planets through in situ measurements, and this European partnership clearly provides far greater opportunities than the UK could provide on its own. The UK takes a high proﬁle and active interest in ESA. The UK provides not only its GDP share of the Science Programme budget but considerable instrumental and scientiﬁc support for the satellites. As a result Britain has participated to a greater or lesser extent in most of ESA’s scientiﬁc satellites, including Cassini-Huygens, Cluster, CosB, Exosat, Giotto, Herschel, Hipparcos, HST, ISO, IUE, Lisa Pathﬁnder, Mars Express, Planck, Rosetta, Smart-1, SOHO, Ulysses and XMM. No doubt this interest in the ESA programme will remain strong. The strongest interest in the UK in space astronomy is undoubtedly in the orbiting telescopes (X-ray and infra-red general purpose telescopes, 42

http://www.skatelescope.org/ http://www.sr.bham.ac.uk/ 44 http://www.star.le.ac.uk/ 45 http://www.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/ 46 http://www.imperial.ac.uk/research/spat 47 http://www.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/ 48 http://sci.esa.int/ 43

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as well as targeted telescopes like Planck), and the solar and heliospheric missions. But because of the ESA programme, there has recently been a rise in interest in the UK in planetary exploration and astrobiology. The community self-organises into the UK Planetary Forum49 and the Astrobiology Society of Britain50 (a media resource website51 of the UK Planetary Forum lists all the UK activity in these ﬁelds). Planetary dynamics and planetary- and star-system formation has long been a ﬁeld of interest to British theorists (e.g. at Queen Mary College University of London52 , Cardiﬀ53 and observers (e.g. at Cambridge54 , Manchester55 and numerous other groups), re-invigorated by the study of extrasolar planets (e.g. at St Andrews University56 ). It appears that the UK will participate if it can, not only in most of the high scientiﬁc quality planetary science and extrasolar planet missions of the future ESA Science Programme, but also in the ESA Aurora57 programme for planetary exploration, if it is continued and focuses on science. As a result of the broad science interests in the programme, space science activity has spread into other universities with astronomical interests, with space astronomy instrumentation being developed at Cardiﬀ58 , Manchester59 and Southampton60 , and a large planetary science group developing at The Open University61 , supported by a broad spread of smaller groups elsewhere. Space Engineering is taught and researched at Brunel62 , Cranford63 , Glasgow64 , London65 , RAL66 , Sheﬃeld67 , Southampton68 and

49

http://ast.star.rl.ac.uk/forum http://www.astrobiologysociety.org/ 51 http://ast.star.rl.ac.uk/forum/mediainfo/index.html 52 http://www.maths.qmul.ac.uk/Astronomy/SSD/ 53 http://carina.astro.cf.ac.uk/groups/starform/ 54 http://www.mrao.cam.ac.uk/research/ 55 http://jupiter.phy.umist.ac.uk/ 56 http://star-www.st-and.ac.uk/astronomy/Welcome.html 57 http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Aurora/index.html 58 http://carina.astro.cf.ac.uk/groups/instrumentation 59 http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/∼raw/planck/ 60 http://www.phys.soton.ac.uk/staff/ajd.htm 61 http://pssri.open.ac.uk/ 62 http://www.brunel.ac.uk/about/acad/sed/sedres/si/ista/research/and http://www.brunel.ac.uk/courses/ug/cdata/s/space+engineering+beng+and+meng/ 63 http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/soe/postgraduate/msc-astronautics.htm 64 http://www.aero.gla.ac.uk/ 65 http://www.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/www solar/space/Space engineering files/v3 document.htm 66 http://www.sstd.rl.ac.uk/Divisions/Space Engineering.htm 67 http://www.ssg.group.shef.ac.uk/ 68 http://www.soton.ac.uk/Space/ 50

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Surrey69 universities. Industrial interest in space science in the UK is conﬁned to two prime contractors – Astrium70 and Surrey Satellite Technology71 (SSTL) – and many smaller specialist space industries72 , but no longer to rocket launchers. UK Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (UKSEDS) is the UK branch of the international organisation, SEDS, dedicated to space education and space related issues. Its website73 contains lists of space courses, research and industries in the UK, as well as general space topics. 5. Large Telescopes After the Second World War, the Royal Observatory moved out of London to less smoky, less light-polluted skies over Herstmonceux in the south of England, keeping its link with Greenwich in its new name, the Royal Greenwich Observatory (RGO). As celestial navigation became less important for ships and even less important for aircraft, the RGO shifted its emphasis from science applications towards pure research. In 1965 it was transferred from the control of the Royal Navy to one of the new British Government bodies set up to fund scientiﬁc research (research councils). This was the Science Research Council, later renamed the Science and Engineering Research Council. SERC’s remit was split in 1994 between the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council74 (PPARC). This placed astronomy and particle physics side by side in the same organisation. In part this was to exploit common scientiﬁc structures and the convergence of the sciences in astroparticle physics, and in part to contain within the same boundary the two Big Sciences that used international scientiﬁc organisations with international subscriptions that had ﬁnancial features (e.g. GDP growth, exchange rate ﬂuctuations) that were problematic to the government and the other research councils. Some expected a battle to the death of the two sciences as the cuckoo grew in a smaller nest and squashed the other bird; this has not happened and the scientists have found common interests. PPARC is thus the current UK funding agency for astronomy. In 2006, however, the UK Government announced a proposal to split PPARC into two. Its telescopes and space activities would be merged with similar physics and chemistry installations into a new Large Facili69

http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/SSC/ http://www.space.eads.net/ 71 http://www.sstl.co.uk/ 72 http://www.bnsc.gov.uk/spacedirectory.aspx?nid=3226 73 http://www.ost.gov.uk/ 74 http://www.bnsc.gov.uk/ 70

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ties Research Council and its grant-making activities for astronomy would be merged with EPSRC. The research councils come under the UK Government’s Oﬃce of Science and Technology75 (OST), a trans-departmental government body housed in the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and reporting to the Minister of Science. OST gave the research councils university-oriented mission statements and set up governing bodies with members from the universities, whose number, power and inﬂuence were growing with the increase of tertiary education in Britain in the 1960’s and ever since. PPARC coordinates its interest in space science with other UK space interests through the British National Space Centre76 (BNSC), also a trans-departmental government bureaucracy housed in the DTI. There is no state-run executive space agency in Britain on the model of NASA in the USA, CNES in France or ASI in Italy. The philosophy in Britain is that space is not an end in itself, deserving a free-standing, executive space agency, but a tool that is used by agencies for whatever end that they have in view. BNSC represents the UK to other national and international space agencies and tries to ensure that the various space interests in Britain coordinate and talk with one voice. In the 1960’s, optical telescopes within Britain had reached the 36-inch (0.9-m) class at observatories at Cambridge77 , Edinburgh78 , Greenwich/Herstmonceux79 and St Andrews80 . The observatory with the largest range of facilities presently operating in Britain is probably the teaching observatory of the University of Hertfordshire81 , with several domed telescopes (the largest of 0.5 m aperture) and specialised solar and photographic laboratories. All these telescopes operate for undergraduate projects, bright star monitoring and public education. The University of London Observatory82 (Mill Hill) is similar. However, realising that cutting edge optical astronomy had moved on from most of the science that could be accomplished with this class of optical telescopes under the British climate, optical astronomers had already, in 1939, moved the Radcliﬀe Observatory to Pretoria in South Africa from Oxford (the historic building is now part of Green College and has recently been beautifully restored83 ), 75

http://www.ost.gov.uk/ http://www.bnsc.gov.uk/ 77 http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/history/36inch/ 78 http://www.roe.ac.uk/roe/history.html 79 http://www.the-observatory.org/hxttour.htm 80 http://star-www.st-and.ac.uk/astronomy/JGT.html 81 http://perseus.herts.ac.uk/uhinfo/schools/pam/university-observatory-atbayfordbury.cfm 82 http://www.ulo.ucl.ac.uk/ 83 http://www.green.ox.ac.uk/ 76

Figure 2. The locations of international facilities of importance to British astronomy. (Figure by Amanda Smith, IoA, Cambridge)

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building the 74-inch (1.9-m) telescope in Pretoria by 1948. With other telescopes from Cape Town, the Radcliﬀe Telescope84 was later moved to the Sutherland outstation of the SAAO in the Karoo Desert in 1974. Meanwhile, British optical astronomers had proposed a large 100-inch (2.5-m) aperture British telescope. Because of its established position of power, it was the Royal Greenwich Observatory, under its then Astronomer Royal Sir Richard van der Riet Woolley (1906-86), which built the Isaac Newton Telescope85 (INT, 1967). Save in one respect, the INT did not satisfy the universities’ needs. During study overseas, university astronomers had used telescopes in good climates such as California and did not like sitting under cloudy skies at night in Sussex. Also they did not easily relate to the civil service style of operation of the telescope. The weak optical astronomical facilities in Britain during this epoch drove a number of British astronomers to other countries – particularly to the USA, South Africa and Australia. The most inﬂuential use of the INT was to aid the development of astronomical instruments, in particular the very productive Image Photon Counting System86 (IPCS) developed at University College, London, by Alec Boksenberg. This was a model instrumental development from the research council point of view. The IPCS consisted of an image tube to amplify individual photons, whose image screen was transferred by a lens to a TV scanner and read out. The output signals were processed in a hardwired unit to sharpen the image and to turn the analogue image into an array of pixels counting individual photons. The image tube and TV scanner were commercial units, developed with industrial money based in the entertainment and communication industries. They were operated in regimes adapted for the astronomical conditions, e.g. low light levels. The lens was ingenious, procured by the academics and the processing unit was not that expensive to make but of high intellectual content. This model for development and procurement of astronomical instruments became the ideal one favoured by the research council. It exploited the industrial development, based on capital which was hugely more than existed in astronomy and much better able to absorb the development risk, and added high-value but relatively small-scale academic know-how, which not only successfully tackled the astronomical problems (such as quasar absorption line systems) but also widened the scope of application of the industrial devices, added to their capability and stretched the involvement of the engineers who built them. 84

http://www.saao.ac.za/facilities/manual/c2/node2.html http://aao.gov.auc.es:8080/PR/int info/ 86 http://www.ing.iac.es:8080/PR/wht info/ipcs.html 85

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A southern hemisphere facility had become important to the optical astronomers with an interest in the southern sky, including the Magellanic Clouds and the centre of the Galaxy, and to space astronomers with their all-sky capability, seeking to coordinate what they had found with optical results. They pressed for the establishment of the 4-metre AngloAustralian Telescope (AAT) and its associated survey telescope, the 48-inch UK Schmidt Telescope (UKST), at Siding Spring Observatory in Coonabarabran (1972-4). The AAT was operated by an Australian Government agency set up for the purpose, the Anglo-Australian Observatory87 (AAO), with 50% British participation. The UKST was wholly British. Although the atmospheric qualities of Siding Spring left something to be desired, these two telescopes worked together as a highly productive pair – there is more to being a great observatory than the meteorological conditions alone, and that special something is exempliﬁed by the scientiﬁc drive behind the use of the two telescopes. The magic ingredients for the AAO were its unique capability in a southern sky till then unexplored by a telescope of that aperture, its versatile instrumentation, especially its spectroscopic capability with electronic detectors (ﬁrst Joe Wampler’s Image Dissector Scanner and then the IPCS), its rapid follow up of space discoveries and its fresh, young staﬀ. At ﬁrst the two telescopes operated as a closelycollaborating but separately-administered pair. They are now both within the Anglo-Australian Observatory. The UK Schmidt Telescope produced all-sky atlases of the southern sky in several wavebands on 14-inch (35 cm) glass plates. These and similar surveys in both south and north have been digitised by plate-scanning machines – the APM (Automatic Plate Measuring Machine88 , now decommissioned) at Cambridge University and COSMOS and its successor SuperCOSMOS89 at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, whose outputs are catalogues of celestial objects categorised by position, brightness and shape (star or various kinds of galaxy) . Although they are being superseded by modern surveys like the Sloan Digital Sky Survey90 (SDSS), the catalogues of photographic data remain of interest because of the associated intellectual capital, used in present-day British astronomy as the basis of numerous studies of the structure of the Galaxy and the universe. At ﬁrst infrared astronomy was an extension of optical astronomy, but as the technology improved and the detector sensitivity moved longwards specialist telescopes became necessary. British infrared astronomers sought 87

http://www.aao.gov.au/ http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/∼mike/casu/apm/apm.html 89 http://www.roe.ac.uk/ifa/wfau/cosmos/ 90 http://www.sdss.org/ 88

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out a high, clear site for the 4-metre United Kingdom Infrared Telescope91 (UKIRT, 1979), and with its pioneering scientiﬁc output the telescope called world attention to the unique properties of Mauna Kea, Hawaii. It continues to operate as a survey telescope. Later, the 15-m. James Clerk Maxwell Telescope92 (JCMT, 1987) pioneered millimetre astronomy on Mauna Kea because of its dry atmosphere, with its self-similarly deformable and active optics dish pioneering the use of the technique for optical-infrared telescopes. It too is to operate in survey mode, including with its trail-blazing camera, the Sub-millimetre Common User Bolometric Array93 (SCUBA, shortly to be replaced by a new generation SCUBA-2) and as part of the Smithsonian Array. It also has receivers94 to observe spectral lines. UKIRT and the JCMT operate as the Joint Astronomy Centre95 on Hawaii. After the AAO was established in the south, British radio astronomers in particular pressed for an optical “northern hemisphere observatory (NHO)” to follow up their radio observations made from Britain, citing their discovery of radio quasars 3C48 and 3C273 whose optical identiﬁcation, including the discovery of the main interest of their high redshift, had been ceded to US astronomers in California. The ‘NHO’ came into being as the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, developed in collaboration with the Instituto de Astrof´ısica de Canarias, its core of astrophysical telescopes, known as the Isaac Newton Group96 , created by the UK with the Netherlands equivalent of PPARC, the Organisation for Pure Research97 (ZWO), by the move in 1984 of the Isaac Newton Telescope from Sussex to La Palma in the Canary Islands. The then main telescope at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory was completed in 1986, the highly productive 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope98 (WHT), now inevitably outperformed by 8-metre class telescopes, except in niche science. Even before the telescope was completed at an aperture that had been achieved by the USA some decades earlier, there was discussion about the scientiﬁc case for Britain to have access to 8-metre class telescopes. The Royal Greenwich Observatory continued to operate the INT and WHT in La Palma but, having lost its main telescope to an overseas site, it was moved for a second time in 1991, from its country location in Sussex to the university environment of Cambridge. There was competition for resources between the two Royal Observatories (Greenwich and Edinburgh), 91

http://www.jach.hawaii.edu/UKIRT/ http://www.jach.hawaii.edu/JCMT/ 93 http://www.jach.hawaii.edu/JCMT/continuum/ 94 http://www.jach.hawaii.edu/JCMT/spectral line/ 95 http://www.jach.hawaii.edu/ 96 http://www.ing.iac.es/ 97 Now Netherlands Organization for Scientiﬁc Research (NWO) [http://www.nwo.nl]. 98 http://www.ing.iac.es/PR/wht info 92

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particularly their rival and duplicative interests in two separate mountaintop observatories, and between them and the universities. The growing feeling that the overseas observatories would operate better if they were controlled locally meant that RGO and ROE progressively lost control of La Palma and UKIRT/JCMT respectively. This all led in 1998 to the closure of the Royal Observatories in Cambridge and Edinburgh. The Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, was transformed into a combined UK Astronomy Technology Centre to make astronomical instruments. With the Institute for Astronomy of the University of Edinburgh, it occupies the site still called the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh99 . That ROE survives in a modiﬁed form while RGO was completely closed, and its building sold oﬀ, led to the episode of 1998 being identiﬁed as the ‘closure of the RGO’. The Rutherford Appleton Laboratory100 also develops technology for astronomy, as for all the sciences funded by the research councils (as clear from the formal name of the whole organisation, namely the Council of the Central Laboratory for the Research Councils, CCLRC). The highly inﬂuential Starlink project101 was housed there. Its primary purpose was to provide from central PPARC funds interactive data-processing facilities (software, hardware and skilled manpower) for UK astronomers. The data were mainly observational data, obtained from both satellite and groundbased instruments. Starlink was founded about 1975 from an unexpected budgetary surplus and ceased operation in 2005, having eﬀectively rendered itself obsolete by having educated the dispersed groups where it placed its nodes, and with many of its functions that linked the community supplanted by the growth of the Internet, which it helped pioneer. Astronomical instrument development of high intellectual content is carried out in several university groups, in the IPCS model described above. Additionally, PPARC expects university-based groups to drive the procurement of large-scale astronomical hardware for the large optical telescopes in the international facilities (VLT, Subaru, Gemini, ...) in a diﬀerent model. This will consist of a university-based project oﬃce, to design and control the project, with manufacture in industry or in a central physics laboratory able to cope with the scale of the equipment. Although space instrumentation is presently of a size that can be built in a laboratory it seems probable that space instrumentation groups may have to move in the same direction as space satellites get larger. Telescope making has had a long history in Britain, with the names of Hadley, Short, Gascoigne, Dollond, Graham, Cooke, Troughton and Thomas Grubb coming to mind. Grubb’s engineering works were originally 99

http://www.roe.ac.uk/ http://www.cclrc.ac.uk/Activity/Departments 101 http://star-www.rl.ac.uk/ 100

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located in Dublin, run by Thomas and then by his son, Howard, but in 1918 the telescope-making business was relocated to St Albans. On its acquisition by Charles Parsons, the son of Lord Rosse, the company was again relocated to Newcastle, as Sir Howard Grubb, Parsons & Co. Because of the diﬃculty of managing the ‘feast or famine’ cash-ﬂow associated with infrequent, large telescope projects, the company was wound up after it had completed the William Herschel Telescope in 1985 to designs developed by engineers of the Royal Greenwich Observatory. When RGO was closed the telescope-making intellectual capital and some staﬀ were transferred to Telescope Technologies Ltd102 (TTL), now the only large telescope making company in Britain, a company set up by Liverpool John Moores University through its Astrophysics Research Institute103 , but now privately owned. TTL built the Liverpool Telescope104 (LT), a 2.0-m optical telescope which began science operations on La Palma in 2004. The LT, owned and operated by Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), is the world’s largest fully robotic telescope, making its own decisions on what to observe without human intervention, and its scientiﬁc goals are to monitor variable objects on timescales of years to seconds and observe unpredictable phenomena at short notice (gamma-ray bursters, for example, where the intention is that it is triggered to observe by the SWIFT satellite). In an experimental set-up called e-STAR (e-Science Telescopes for Astronomical Research, a collaboration including LJMU and Exeter University) the LT is being operated with the Faulkes Telescope North (also built by TTL on Hawaii) as a prototype for an intelligent global observing network (RoboNet105 ) for such phenomena. TTL is also building telescopes in India and China and has recently announced a contract for a further number to extend the intelligent global network of robotic telescopes. The archives of the Royal Observatory were transferred to the keeping of Cambridge University and its historic memorabilia were returned to Greenwich, to the Royal Observatory, which has become an important centre for the public communication of astronomy within the National Maritime Museum106 . Meanwhile, on the abandonment by the Royal Greenwich Observatory of its site at Herstmonceux, the telescopes of the Equatorial Group (the largest, the 36-inch Yapp reﬂector) had been turned into the Observatory Science Centre107 for public science education, along the lines

102

http://www.ngat.com/ http://www.astro.livjm.ac.uk/ 104 http://telescope.livjm.ac.uk/ 105 http://www.astro.livjm.ac.uk/RoboNet/ 106 http://www.nmm.ac.uk/ 107 http://www.the-observatory.org/ 103

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of the Norman Lockyer Observatory108 in Sidmouth, which evolved out of Lockyer’s privately owned observatory of telescopes (up to a 30-inch) when he resigned from the Solar Physics Observatory and retired to Devon in 1911. All the large telescopes to which UK astronomers have access (save the MERLIN radio array) are multinational, with Britain partnering Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, the USA and other countries. The largest include the two 8-metre Gemini Telescopes109 , the ﬁrst opened in 1999 on Mauna Kea, with the second soon afterwards opened in Chile. Six British universities are partners in the 11-metre Southern African Large Telescope110 (SALT) currently being brought to full operation in Sutherland. The UK joined the European Southern Observatory111 (ESO) in 2002, after having been unable to join on grounds of expense and in a political climate of Euroscepticism, at its foundation. British astronomers became converted after ESO’s impressive project to establish the very powerful VLT of four 8-metre telescopes, and were attracted by the follow-on project to establish the Atacama Large Millimetre Array112 (ALMA) in the Atacama Desert in Chile and the prospect of a European plan to build a very large optical-infrared telescope of the 50 metre class. Attempting to repeat the success of the pairing of the AAT and the UK Schmidt Telescope, the UK initiated the building at ESO’s observatory at Paranal of the Visible and Infrared Telescope for Astronomy113 (VISTA), a 4-m Wide-Field Survey telescope to undertake long-term targeted surveys (at ﬁrst infrared) in support of southern hemisphere observing programmes on Gemini and the VLT. VISTA became part of the contribution made by the UK to ESO as a joining fee. The cutting-edge facilities oﬀered by ESO in the form of the VLT have been progressively taking the attention of Britain’s optical astronomers. Coupled with the cost of belonging to ESO, this has caused a progressive weakening of Britain’s activity in the smaller telescopes in which it has a share. For example, a greater share of the responsibility for the telescopes in the Canaries is being passed to the Instituto de Astrof´ısica de Canarias. The IAC is in any case now completing the 10-metre Gran Telescopio on La Palma and is increasingly lifting its attention from its university centre at 108

http://www.projects.ex.ac.uk/nlo/welcome.htm http://www.gemini.edu/ 110 http://www.salt.ac.za/ 111 http://www.eso.org/ 112 http://www.mrao.cam.ac.uk/∼jsr/alma/ 113 http://www.vista.ac.uk/ 109

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the heart of Canarian politics in La Laguna, Tenerife, towards the scientiﬁc operation of the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma. It is also expected that Britain will have passed its share of the ownership of the AAT wholly to Australia by 2010. This is all regarded with genuine regret, nostalgia and sentiment by everyone (this author included) but accepted, too, as the inevitable cycle of scientiﬁc innovation and re-innovation. 6. Amateur and Educational Astronomy in Britain In Britain today there are about 10,000 amateur astronomers. This number is estimated from the membership of the 200 known amateur societies114 , which run meetings programmes that, in total, challenge the number of available articulate and knowledgeable speakers about astronomy. 170 of them are members of the Federation of Astronomical Societies115 (FAS), which brings some coordination to their activities. The national amateur astronomical societies are the BAA and the SPA, already mentioned. The principal amateur astronomy magazine in Britain is Astronomy Now116 , with a reputed 24,000 circulation recently challenged by a BBC-sponsored Sky at Night magazine117 . Astronomy features in the National Curriculum taught in schools, which requires school pupils to learn about the sun, earth, moon and the solar system. One examination board oﬀers a qualiﬁcation in astronomy as part of the General Certiﬁcate of Secondary Education (taken usually by students aged about 15) – but, apparently, only about 500 students sit this exam each year (many of them adults and amateur astronomers). The Association for Astronomy Education118 (AAE) promotes public education in astronomy. The Open University119 has a distinctive place in the ﬁeld of tertiary education in Britain, established to provide mass university education for adults at their own pace and via distance learning techniques; its astronomy course is its most popular science course. Following in its model there are now university-level distance-learning courses in astronomy given from a collaboration of Liverpool John Moores University, the University of Central Lancashire and Manchester University120 . Three 2-metre telescopes have time available for use by students and amateurs in Britain, the largest telescopes so available in the world: the 114

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/myspace/localspace/index.shtml http://www.astronomy.ac.uk/ 116 http://www.astronomynow.com/ 117 http://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/ 118 http://www.aae.org.uk/ 119 http://physics.open.ac.uk/ 120 http://www.astronomy.ac.uk/ 115

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Liverpool Telescope on La Palma (5% of the time available through the National Schools Observatory121 , based in Merseyside at the Spaceport, for oﬄine access by schools) and two privately-endowed Faulkes Telescopes122 at Haleakala in Hawaii and at Siding Spring Observatory, operated from Cardiﬀ University (most of the time on each available free for British students through the WWW for remote observations from their schools). The Bradford Robotic Telescope123 is three co-mounted telescopes ranging from a 16 mm camera lens to a 36 cm telescope, all with a CCD camera, and operating for student oﬄine access at the Observatorio del Teide on Tenerife. There are large static planetaria124 at public education centres for astronomy in Armagh, Bristol, Chichester, Dundee, Glasgow, Greenwich (a new one under construction), Isle of Wight, Jodrell Bank, Leicester, Liverpool, Sidmouth, Southend, Stockton, and Todmorton, some with active public observatories. Its owners, Madame Tussauds, recently announced the closure of the London Planetarium, which, however, had progressively reduced its astronomical presentations in favour of more commercial activities. Leicester is home to the National Space Centre125 (NSC), a major educational venture126 associated with Leicester University’s Department of Physics and Astronomy. NSC has considerable success in attracting school students, especially the Challenger Learning Center, where it is possible to simulate space travel. There are important astronomy educational centres at the locations listed above, at the newly opened Spaceport127 on Merseyside, and elsewhere. Perhaps I may be permitted to include Birr Castle128 in Ireland in this list because of its connection with British astronomical history. All this educational activity in astronomy is known from opinion surveys to be an important inﬂuence in attracting students to science, and is recognised as such at Government level. This accounts for some of the support given to high proﬁle research astronomy by Government sources. Amateur astronomy is recognised as a component of continuing professional development for adults and its broad appeal ﬁgured in an enquiry by the members of parliament who form the Parliamentary Committee on 121

http://www.schoolsobservatory.org.uk/ http://www.faulkes-telescope.com/ 123 http://www.telescope.org/ 124 http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/myspace/localspace/planetaria index.shtml 125 The name is confusingly similar to ‘the British National Space Centre’ from which it is completely distinct. 126 http://www.nssc.co.uk/ 127 http://www.spaceport.org.uk/ 128 http://www.birrcastle.com/ 122

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Science and Technology on light pollution in the UK129 . The enquiry was triggered by amateur astronomers in the British Astronomical Association organised under the name of the Campaign for Dark Skies. The main result from the committee’s recommendations was a provision in the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 making ‘exterior light emitted from premises so as to be prejudicial to health or a nuisance’ a criminal oﬀence. The eﬀect of this provision is yet to be seen and light pollution is a limiting factor on the achievements in optical astronomy achievement from Britain. 7. The Professional Astronomy Community In Britain there are almost 1000 professional astronomers, plus 500 associated technical staﬀ (these ﬁgures from the most recent demographic survey carried out by the RAS in 2003). There are also 440 students of astronomy studying for a PhD (the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, normally regarded as the entry point for a career in astronomy research or university teaching). It is nominally a three-year programme (on average a few months longer; PPARC has just begun to fund 4-year courses where this better ﬁts the programme of research and training). The PhD programme starts in September for each annual intake when all the PPARC-funded students are gathered together for a week in an introductory residential school to introduce them to astronomy – some have been mathematics or physics students and this is their ﬁrst comprehensive exposure to astronomy, others may know some or all of the scientiﬁc material but review it, are brought up to date and learn from the socio-economic components to the lecture programme. The experience is that the students form relationships during this week that persist during their later careers in the British astronomical community. During the PhD course, and according to the programme decided by the student’s university, the student attends lectures and courses, attends meetings (including the National Astronomy Meeting) and, most signiﬁcantly, completes a signiﬁcant piece of scientiﬁc research under supervision by an established academic, for example by making calculations, taking and reducing data and writing it all up, both as individual scientiﬁc papers and as a thesis. At the end of the course, the successful student is awarded the degree of PhD. As for science students in universities everywhere, astronomy students become masters of information technology, sitting at their computer terminals, searching the astronomical literature through NASA’s bibliography, the Astrophysics Data System, planning observing runs, reducing 129

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmselect/cmsctech /747/74702.htm

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data, organising large data ﬁles, calculating numerical models and writing presentations, posters and their theses. About half the PhD students go on to post-doctoral appointments in astronomy and about 20% of the PhD students remain in astronomy after a decade, in long-term jobs – most of them eventually transfer their skills, particularly in information technology, to industry and the UK economy. Satisﬁed by their achievement at the highest intellectual level, some move with enthusiasm to the better-paid non-academic opportunities; others accept such jobs with disillusion after failing to ﬁnd the academic job which they were seeking. By contrast with many continental European countries, professional astronomy has become dispersed into the universities, and is not concentrated into special institutes. There are presently 126 universities130 in the UK, of whom 19 belong to the so-called Russell Group131 of research-intensive universities. About 50 universities teach astronomy at an undergraduate level, usually as part of a department of physics and astronomy and with challenging physics and maths components. About 40 of the 50 universities have signiﬁcant astronomy research groups, receive grants from PPARC for research and have PhD research students funded by PPARC (data from the 2004/5 PPARC report132 ). The largest group of astronomers (staﬀ and research students) is at Cambridge University, in fact spread into three subgroups, one for radio astronomy, one for mathematical astronomy and one for astrophysics. The next largest groups are at Oxford, University College, Imperial College, Durham, Manchester and Birmingham. In spite of problems with the climate and light pollution, a surprising 33 universities have an observatory on-campus or nearby, usually for undergraduate use. The interest in astronomy among science students is the reason for this broad provision of learning opportunities, because ﬁnance for undergraduate teaching follows student numbers. The number of universities in Britain has shown a steep upward trend since the 1960’s, in response to an ambitious Government aim now targeted at a ﬁgure of 50% for the proportion of young people who have some experience of higher education and currently approaching 40%. Many of the new universities have been created from groups of specialist institutes of higher education, amalgamated and expanded to form something with the comprehensiveness of a ‘university’. The number of universities teaching and researching in astronomy has in particular shown a steady increase. In part this is practical – astronomy is a high proﬁle ﬁeld of scientiﬁc research that requires the university to make no large capital investment – the ‘laboratories’ are telescopes centrally 130

http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/ http://www.russellgroup.ac.uk/ 132 http://www.pparc.ac.uk/Pbl/AnnualReport.asp 131

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provided. In part it is to motivate students to take the more fundamental courses in basic sciences that the university oﬀers, and it exploits the desire by students to learn about astronomy. As a result, over the past two decades roughly one new astronomy department or teaching group has been added to British universities per year, although this trend must plateau soon. A recent example is the foundation of the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation at Portsmouth University133 . The University was created from a polytechnic college in 1992. A member of the maths department had an interest in relativistic cosmology and in 1994 was joined by another likeminded mathematician. With a PhD student and a postdoctoral fellow, the group applied for and won its ﬁrst PPARC grant in 1998. Supported by the University, the group recruited productive researchers, including high proﬁle observers, and achieved its present recognition by 2001. The history of the Astrophysics Research Institute134 (ARI) of Liverpool John Moores University is similar, created in February 1992 and having grown under a dynamic director to its present size of over 40 individuals. It has signiﬁcant PPARC grants, what was a Starlink node and the Liverpool Telescope Project, funded in part by an EU grant for the development for the Merseyside region. The Liverpool Telescope is used by ARI for observational programmes in the its area of interest, especially exploiting the telescope’s suitability for ‘time-domain astrophysics’ including randomly occurring rapid phenomena like novae and gamma ray bursters. The telescope was the ﬁrst of a series built by what was then a subsidiary company of LJMU, Telescope Technologies Ltd, created and developed by LJMU from the closure of RGO. ARI’s core function is education and, as well as undergraduate and graduate teaching, it has an extensive distance learning programme, it runs the National Schools Observatory and it founded Spaceport, an astronomical Visitor’s Centre based in an old ferry terminal on the banks of the Mersey River. For all this it was awarded one of the 2005 biennial Queen’s Anniversary Prizes for Further and Higher Education, intended to recognise contributions by a UK university to the intellectual, economic, cultural and social life of the nation. In 2003, there were in the universities some 330 astronomers with permanent jobs, 460 post-doctoral researchers with ﬁxed-term positions and 200 technical support staﬀ, as well as the 440 PhD students. About 180 people were employed as research staﬀ and 320 as technical support staﬀ in Government institutes. The proportion of females in the astronomical community varies from 6% among astronomers of professorial rank to 30 % or more among the PhD students. The trend is due to two reasons. In the 133 134

http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/icg/ http://www.astro.livjm.ac.uk/

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ﬁrst place there has been an increase from year to year in the proportion of females at a given status, with young women both becoming more interested in astronomy (even though it is a physical science to which they have been stereotypically resistant) and gaining access to it (even if there have been gender barriers). However, there also remains a progressive drop-out of females as they progress through astronomy, as there is in many academic careers. 8. Astronomical Research The RAS collected data about the areas of research covered by British astronomers in the RAS-PPARC Demographic Survey of 2003. About 80% of the eﬀort was being put into various areas of astronomy itself, and 20% into solar system studies (including the sun). 30% of the eﬀort was being put to research into galaxies and cosmology, 12% into stars; a further 10% of eﬀort went into the study of radio, X-ray, UV, infra red and sub-millimetre point sources, which must cover the subject matter of both stars and galaxies. Instrumentation was 10% of the scientiﬁc eﬀort, but supported by much more technical eﬀort. Mention has already been made of planetary science as a developing area of astronomical research in Britain. Other new areas of research include astrochemistry, stimulated by millimetre wave observations and organised within its community through the Astrophysical Chemistry Group135 , jointly sponsored by the RAS and the Royal Society of Chemistry. Another new area is astroparticle physics, which grew from interest in gamma ray astronomy and cosmic rays into the particle physics of neutrino astronomy and the Big Bang. Lying on the boundary of astronomy and particle physics, the funding of this cross disciplinary subject has been easier because both ﬁelds are, in the UK up to now, funded by PPARC. An astroparticle detector has been operating through the UK Dark Matter Collaboration136 since 2003 in a deep mine in Boulby in Yorkshire, and the UK has an interest in the Sudbury Neutrino Detector137 in Canada. There is burgeoning interest in Britain in gravitational waves (universities of Birmingham138 , Cardiﬀ139 , Glasgow140 , etc), as the last unexplored waveband region of astronomy. There is strong theoretical interest and considerable technical expertise. Britain’s practical participation is focussed on 135

http://www.astrochemistry.bham.ac.uk/ http://hepwww.rl.ac.uk/ukdmc/ukdmc.html 137 http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/ 138 http://www.sr.bham.ac.uk/gravity/rh,d,4.html 139 http://carina.astro.cf.ac.uk/groups/relativity/research/ 140 http://www.physics.gla.ac.uk/igr/ 136

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a German-British gravitational wave detector, GEO 600141 , near Hanover, working in concert with an American detector, LIGO, and is regarded as preparation for Britain’s participation in the ESA-NASA space project LISA, the Laser Interferometric Space Antenna142 , to detect low-frequency gravitational waves from close binary stars, the Big Bang and black holes. (Other high-frequency facilities for gravitational wave astronomy will be forgiven if they ﬁnd nothing, because there may be nothing to ﬁnd, but if LISA detects nothing there will be trouble.) There is considerable interest in Britain in solar physics and solarterrestrial physics, including strong theoretical capability (about 14% of the research activity, according to the RAS-PPARC Demographic Survey). The community self-organises into two groups, the UK Solar Physics Group and MIST143 (standing for Magnetosphere, Ionosphere and Solar-Terrestrial) both of them holding regular meetings (those of the solar-terrestrial community beguilingly called spring and autumn MIST respectively). Solar observers use ESA and other satellites (Ulysses, SOHO, Yohkoh, etc) and participate in solar helioseismology networks such as BiSON144 (Birmingham and Sheﬃeld Hallam universities). Ground based solar-terrestrial physics facilities include the Cooperative UK Twin Located Auroral Sounding System145 (CUTLASS), consisting of two high frequency (HF) radars located in Iceland and Finland to measure backscatter from ionospheric irregularities, the European Incoherent Scatter Radar146 (EISCAT), which is three pulsed incoherent scatter radar systems, used to measure the properties of the upper atmosphere, and several smaller facilities. That these facilities are part of PPARC’s responsibility and in this article is a consequence of a Government deﬁnition that puts the boundary of the subject matter of astronomy at a height of 100 km, much of what happens below being the domain of the Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC). Stellar astronomy has been concentrated on X-ray binary stars, coordinating and modelling X-ray and optical observations made by multi-user, multi-wavelength facilities. Perhaps these kinds of systems were favoured for study, not only because of the novelty of the discoveries from X-ray astronomy, but also because cataclysmic variable stars could be followed for complete orbits in the small number of nights usually available in time allocation bites. New scheduling methods like queue scheduling and new technologies have diversiﬁed the stellar types studied into, for example, young 141

http://www.geo600.uni-hannover.de/ http://lisa.jpl.nasa.gov/ 143 http://www.mist.ac.uk/ 144 http://bison.ph.bham.ac.uk/ 145 http://www.ion.le.ac.uk/cutlass/cutlass.html 146 http://www.eiscat.uit.no/ 142

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stellar objects (beneﬁting from technical advances in IR spectroscopy and imaging on Gemini and UKIRT), extrasolar planets (still in practice stellar astrophysics), large-scale imaging surveys for variability, originally designed to look for machos and now extended to planetary-transit searches (new instruments like SuperWASP147 , which consists of 8 wide-angle cameras on La Palma that simultaneously monitor the sky for planetary transit events, coming on stream), and studies with the largest telescopes of individual stars in the Local Group (supernova progenitors, eclipsing binaries for the distance scale, evolution of stars in the Galaxy, the Large and the Small Magellanic Clouds). There is some work on more conventional interpretation of stellar (and solar) spectra. The largest part (more than 30%) of the eﬀort in British astronomy is however deployed on galactic and extra-galactic astronomy, in a number of British universities too large to list. In an article like this, which has attempted to be comprehensive, the subject is often underrepresented, since research areas are mentioned one by one. The astronomers take a ‘multiwavelength approach’ in which they deploy telescopes of all kinds on the problems they seek to solve. Often the projects set up by these astronomers are large-scale, generating prodigious amounts of data and using large quantities of computing power, telescope time, and big instruments, such as 8metre telescopes and multi-object spectrographs like 2dF148 (which covers a 2 degree ﬁeld and has been used to gather redshifts of 250,000 galaxies and 25,000 quasars distributed over 1500 square degrees of the southern hemisphere), or X-ray telescopes on satellites. The focussed nature of British astronomical funding helps make such a concentration of resources possible. In a project under the name of AstroGrid149 , the archives of data are made publicly available and the large number of diverse archives is being integrated. This is part of a Government initiative on e-science coordinated by the National e-Science Centre150 to develop information technology. The extragalactic problems tackled are strongly founded in physics and include investigations in the structure and spectra of galaxies, gamma ray bursters, star formation, development of structure in the universe – the whole range of contemporary cosmology, and the most signiﬁcant part of British astronomy. 147

http://www.superwasp.org/index.html http://www.aao.gov.au/2df/ 149 htpp://www.astrogrid.org/ 150 http://www.nesc.ac.uk/ 148

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9. Money and Power The university astronomical groups are ﬁnanced by ﬂows (some say trickles) of money from the Government in the ‘dual support system’, namely money is fed into university astronomy groups or departments through two routes. One route feeds money to Higher Education according to certain criteria of vigour and achievement (e.g. student numbers, publication record, quality and impact of research, as reckoned in a repeated, periodic Research Assessment Exercise151 , known as the RAE); this money, together with other money as decided by the university, is used to support permanent staﬀ. The other route feeds in money in response to competitive applications for grants to support speciﬁc projects, and is awarded by the Research Councils. This ‘soft’ money is used typically to build and purchase equipment, to employ post-doctoral workers on ﬁxed term contracts, and to support PhD students. Some positions and activities are ﬁnanced by other organisations such as the Royal Society and, increasingly, by European sources. 40% of astronomical staﬀ in British universities obtained their PhD from outside the UK. The UK participates strongly in European collaborations such as, not only ESA and ESO, but also OPTICON152 (the Optical Infra-red Coordination Network for astronomy), which is focussing on a number of issues of European interest but particularly an extremely large telescope, and RADIONET153 (the Infrastructure and Cooperation Network in Radio Astronomy), which is likewise focussed particularly on an extremely large array radio telescope of collecting area a square kilometre (SKA). Strong links remain, however, between the British astronomers and those of the USA, as a result of past collaborations, of current ones (like Gemini) and of emigration, permanent or temporary, as well as other cultural aﬃnities. British astronomy is increasingly focussed on Europe because of ﬁnancial and political realities, the excellence of recent European scientiﬁc assets and the natural formation of collaborations as a result of European funding to encourage mobility from one European country to another, but British astronomers beneﬁt from vigorous stimulation by American science, for similar trans-Atlantic reasons. The avowed intention of the British Government is to spread money for research less widely and less thinly than before and this has led to a competitive atmosphere as universities draw into their departments the best researchers (as identiﬁed by the performance indicators speciﬁed by the 151

http://www.rae.ac.uk/ http://www.astro-opticon.org/ [See also the chapter by G. Gilmore in OSA 2 (Ed.)] 153 http://www.radionet-eu.org/ [See also the chapter by A.G. Gunn in this volume (Ed.)] 152

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Government). Two recent high-proﬁle examples have been the development of infrared astronomy at Cardiﬀ154 and of planetary science at the Open University155 when the competition caused whole groups to transfer from universities that failed to or chose not to hang on to them. The tempo of head hunting is said to have a peak every few years as the deadline in the next Research Assessment Exercise (RAE; the next and sixth is RAE 2008) comes near, by which the publications and reputation of an astronomer can be transferred with him or her to count for the new department. PPARC grants are, however, available to any university research group through an application that gains the approval of peer review, and is aﬀordable. The governance of PPARC is described in its website156 . In deciding the spread of the budget it receives from the Government and in awarding individual grants PPARC is advised by changing panels of university astronomers selected to be diverse in geographical location and scientiﬁc interest; some higher level panels of advisers, e.g. the top level Council of PPARC, contain representatives of non-scientiﬁc interests, e.g. industry. PPARC, like all the research councils, is led on the same model as a public company, with a full-time Chief Executive Oﬃcer (a scientist, since its foundation alternately an astronomer and a particle physicist) and a board of directors (the Council) under a part-time Chairman (selected as a matter of public interest and often an industrialist). The second funding route of focussed grants is the one by which a group with a good idea may progress its astronomical research. It consists of two kinds of grants. It sustains large groups with ‘rolling grants’ i.e. annual funding guaranteed at a certain level for a period of time. The university institutes are funded in this way – the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory, Jodrell Bank/MERLIN, various institutes of astronomy at Cambridge, Edinburgh, ... It also gives a succession of ﬁnite grants to smaller groups for distinct projects. This route augments the funding of smaller groups, who are principally sustained by teaching. Applications for access to the telescopes operated or funded by PPARC (and, with some limitations, to satellites operated by ESA) can be thought to lie in the same category, since time is awarded through peer review to the best proposals, and ﬁnance to use the telescopes follows the award of time. Again, this produces a highly competitive atmosphere. There is also, it is true, a certain amount of resistance by the scientists to the bureaucracy associated with these funding routes. For example, the RAE is an extensive, time consuming process. Grant applications have to forecast what will be found and an application will not succeed that 154

http://carina.astro.cf.ac.uk/groups/instrumentation/ http://pssri.open.ac.uk/ 156 http://www.pparc.ac.uk/Ap/intro.asp 155

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says only ‘my group and I are good people with a track record: back us and we will deliver’, although it is perhaps the most true to science that could be made. Judgement on such a case is regarded as appropriate for a university making a decision to oﬀer an astronomer a job, whether as a student, a fellow or a professor; the eﬀect of the RAE is another judgement of this kind. However, British astronomers have a reputation for being lean, hungry and well-prepared, and for pouncing quickly and successfully when funding opportunities are oﬀered by Government. For example, the VISTA telescope and the participation in SALT were funded in this way, under a special, central Government initiative to make up for the previous governments’ neglect of university science by providing new laboratory facilities, and this article has already referred to two projects funded under e-science initiatives. A related development presently just under way, about whose precise eﬀects no one seems sure, except that they will be dramatic, is the implementation starting late in 2005 of the principle that grants to universities will be paid with Full Economic Costing (FEC). This is to avoid the future issue of the under-funding of research infrastructure. Research grants will be paid with account taken for, essentially, all the costs associated with them. The FEC of a research project includes charges for the building, depreciation, renovation of infrastructure, the university’s central library, and university administration, not to mention the cost of terminating the project (e.g. redundancy pay, if staﬀ cannot be redeployed). This is intended to provide universities with a source of infrastructure funding which is directly linked to their research activity and to give grants that fully reward the research-active universities, rather than create a structural problem for them. Public interest in astronomy as a high-proﬁle, ﬂagship science remains strong and increasing and there is virtually daily coverage of astronomy in the UK’s newspapers and broadcast media, encouraged by press releases from individual astronomy groups, PPARC and the RAS. The RAS scans papers to be printed in MNRAS and contributions oﬀered to its annual National Astronomy Meeting for suitable press releases. PPARC releases information on and results from the facilities and groups that it ﬁnances, and provides a range of grants for public outreach activities. There is a considerable number of print and electronic media published in the UK, which is a centre for astronomical publishing as well as for broadcasting, e.g. the independent Pioneer Productions157 , which has made a number of successful astronomical programmes. Astronomy is well represented in British TV, including the long-running (50 years) BBC-TV programme Sky at Night 158 with Sir Patrick Moore, which attracts an audience of half a million monthly 157 158

http://www.pioneertv.com/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/spaceguide/skyatnight

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and has an associated magazine. Since London is a communications centre this ﬂow of astronomical information propagates globally. The number of astronomical knighthoods signiﬁes continuing public, establishment and royal support for astronomy. However, the core Government funding for astronomy has been static for a long time. There had been small but steady reduction in Governmentprovided purchasing power for astronomy for 15 years until recently, and a dramatic fall in the number of astronomers employed by the Government institutes. Up to now, PPARC has been responsible for administering the UK’s membership of the Science Programme of ESA and of ESO, as well as the international particle physics laboratory, CERN, from the same budget as used to ﬁnance telescopes, to award grants to university astronomers, and to fund postdoctoral researchers and PhD students in astronomy. The growth in the so-called international subscriptions has put pressure on the rest of the PPARC astronomy programme. However, the Labour Government (1997- ) is doubling its spending on science and, although the increase in core astronomy spending has not been so dramatic, there has been growth of about 10-20%, which has left astronomers feeling let down. There have been non-astronomical and non-governmental funding opportunities which the astronomers have seized. Thus British astronomy is in a constant state of ﬂux, some would say turmoil, in which the old is repeatedly replaced by the new – as in the recently announced re-organisation of PPARC159 . Astronomy started in Britain as elsewhere with individuals, and then, beginning 400 years ago, as in many European countries, with the establishment of scientiﬁc institutes. In the last ﬁfty years this structure of astronomy has seen a progressive shift of power dispersed away from institutes, particularly from Government ones towards smaller groups at universities. This has left British astronomy without a clear astronomical focus. There is PPARC, a bureaucracy with the inﬂuence of major resources and the authority of Government backing in dealing with overseas organisations, but headed half the time by a non-astronomer, obliged to consult a sometimes (often?) fragmented community and to seek the compromise of consensus over the length of time that this takes. And, although independent to make its detailed decisions, PPARC must, of course, take account of the Government’s strategy for science. There are the Astronomers Royal, very inﬂuential, independent, thoughtful, respected people, but with few or no resources at their disposal. Something similar could be said of the Royal Astronomical Society, its mandate to speak out for the community underused until recently. The university institutes are restrained by the pull to the average of the recommendations of peer review in assessing their rolling 159 http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/budget/budget 06/assoc docs/bud bud06 adscience.cfm

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grants and there are no clear equivalents of the big Max Planck Institutes with their directors appointed for life, the CNRS institutes, or the Space Telescope Science Institute. These institutes are characteristically led by an active scientist with a long term commitment to his institute, a considerable amount of freedom, and resources – people, equipment and money – to deploy quickly to lay the ground work for, to inﬂuence or to exploit the timely scientiﬁc direction. British astronomy looks weak because of this lack of institutional big hitters on the world scene, but correspondingly strong on individual players. In spite of this lack of central foci, or, some would say, because of it, British astronomy thrives. Astronomers at British institutes produce about 10% of the world’s output of astronomy, counted by number of refereed papers (about a quarter that of the USA, to whom the UK lies in second place, and about the same as France and Germany, but at considerably less cost, we are told by the British Government). Astronomy in Britain is international, dynamic, motivated and ﬂexible and, at the present time, in spite of all the diﬃculties, remarkably successful in continuing Britain’s 5000 yr old attempt to understand the universe. List of abbreviations AAE AAO AAT ALMA APM AR ARI ASI BAA BBC BGA BiSON BNSC BSS CCLRC CERN CNES CUTLASS

Association for Astronomy Education Anglo-Australian Observatory Anglo-Australian Telescope Atacama Large Millimetre Array Automatic Plate Measuring Machine Astronomer Royal Astrophysical Research Institute of Liverpool John Moores University Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (Italy) British Astronomical Association British Broadcasting Corporation British Geophysical Association Birmingham Solar Oscillations Network British National Space Centre British Sundial Society Council for the Central Laboratory for the Research Councils European Organization for Nuclear Research ´ Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (France) Collaborative UK Twin Located Auroral Sounding System

BRITISH ASTRONOMY

DAMTP DTI EISCAT EPSRC ESA ESO FAS FEC GDP GEO 600 HMNAO IAC IAU IfA INT IoA IPCS JCMT JHA LIGO LISA LJMU LT MERLIN MIST MNRAS MRAO MSSL NAM NASA NERC NHO NSC OPTICON OST PhD PPARC RADIONET RAE RAL

47

Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Cambridge Department of Trade and Industry European Incoherent Scatter Radar Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council European Space Agency European Southern Observatory Federation of Astronomical Societies Full Economic Costing Gross Domestic Product a 600 metre gravitational wave interferometer Her Majesty’s Nautical Almanac Oﬃce Instituto de Astrof´ısica de Canarias (Spain) International Astronomical Union Institute for Astronomy, Edinburgh Isaac Newton Telescope Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge Image Photon Counting System James Clerk Maxwell Telescope Journal of the History of Astronomy Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory Laser Interferometric Space Antenna Liverpool John Moores University Liverpool Telescope Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network Magnetosphere, Ionosphere and Solar-Terrestrial Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory Mullard Space Science Laboratory National Astronomy Meeting National Aeronautics and Space Administration (USA) Natural Environmental Research Council Northern Hemisphere Observatory National Space Centre Optical Infra-red Coordination Network Oﬃce of Science and Technology the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council Infrastructure and Cooperation Network in Radio Astronomy Research Assessment Exercise Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory

48 RAS RGO ROE SAAO SALT SCUBA SDSS SHA SKA SPA SSTL STRV SuperWASP TTL UKAFF UKIRT UKSEDS UKSKADS UKST VISTA VLBI WHT ZWO

PAUL MURDIN

Royal Astronomical Society Royal Greenwich Observatory Royal Observatory, Edinburgh South African Astronomical Observatory Southern Africa Large Telescope Sub-millimetre Common User Bolometric Array Sloan Digital Sky Survey Society for the History of Astronomy Square Kilometre Array Society for Popular Astronomy Surrey Satellite Technology Space Technology Research Vehicle Wide Angle Search for Planets (large version) Telescope Technologies Ltd UK Astrophysical Fluids Facility United Kingdom Infrared Telescope UK Students for the Exploration and Development of Space UK SKA Design Study UK Schmidt Telescope Visible and Infrared Telescope for Astronomy Very Long Baseline Interferometer William Herschel Telescope Organisatie voor ZuiverWetenschappelijk Onderzoek [Organisation for Pure Research (Netherlands)]

ASTRONOMY, ASTROPHYSICS AND SPACE PHYSICS IN GREECE

VASSILIS CHARMANDARIS

Department of Physics University of Crete P.O. Box 2208 GR-71003 Heraklion, Greece [email protected]

Abstract. In the present document I review the current organizational structure of Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Physics in Greece. I brieﬂy present the institutions where professional astronomers are pursuing research, along with some notes of their history, as well as the major astronomical facilities currently available within Greece. I touch upon topics related to graduate studies in Greece and present some statistics on the distribution of Greek astronomers. Even though every attempt is made to substantiate all issues mentioned, some of the views presented have inevitably a personal touch and thus should be treated as such.

1. Introduction The framework within which astronomers – a term that will be used rather loosely in the rest of the document to indicate individuals performing research in Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Physics (AA&SP) – have been functioning in Greece is not too diﬀerent from other European countries. As in most other countries in Europe, the educational and research activity in Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Physics in Greece has been fostered within public Universities and Research Institutes. Even though this may change in the near future currently no private academic or research institutions in AA&SP are operating in Greece. Thus the individuals who are employed full time to teach or do research in AA&SP are typically civil servants in permanent, tenure track, or ﬁxed-term research associate positions. Currently the majority of them (see Sect. 3 & Fig. 1) are in 49 A. Heck (ed.), Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, 49–69. © 2006 Springer.

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Universities and only a small fraction is associated with Research Institutes or Observatories. Up until the early 1980s the structure of the University system in Greece followed the German style. It was based on “Chairs” of Professors in speciﬁc research ﬁelds (i.e. Astronomy, Classical Mechanics, etc.). The few astronomy Professors, typically as numerous as the corresponding number of university departments pursuing research in the various areas of AA&SP, held their position until the age of retirement. They made all major administrative decisions related to both teaching priorities and research directions in their institutions. Several junior staﬀ members did support them in these activities but those members had only marginal control and rather limited independence to pursue their own research directions. The University system presently in place was put forward in 1983, (with a few minor modiﬁcations over the past ∼25 years) and has a structure similar to the current academic system of the United States. There are two ranks of tenure track positions: Lecturer and Assistant Professor, and two of tenured positions: Associate Professor and Full Professor. A minimum of three years is required on each rank before applying for promotion the next. Tenure is obtained upon successful evaluation after spending three years at the level of Assistant Professor. A university faculty can, in principle pursue his/her own research direction, teach courses, and supervise graduate students. However, when this change in the academic system took place in the early 1980’s, there was no provision on the age distribution of the faculty to be hired. As a result a large number of individuals who were already aﬃliated with the universities at the time in junior level – the so-called “assistant” – appointments, automatically obtained tenure at the rank of Lecturer upon the completion of their PhD. Others, who already had a PhD, were considered for tenure at higher ranks. The evaluation for this process though was often not very strict and with criteria based mostly on social reasons or giving a disproportional emphasis to the teaching responsibilities of the faculty, rather than mostly based on their research background and potential or relevance of the ﬁeld to the future direction of modern astrophysics. In addition, since most of the individuals who obtained these positions were past graduate students of the same universities, there was a disproportional hiring from “within”. This phenomenon, known as “academic inbreeding”, was more prevalent in the older institutions in Athens and Thessaloniki, which had the largest number of staﬀ at the time. Even today there are institutions in Greece where well over 70% of their permanent staﬀ members are past alumni who did their dissertation in the same institute and did not spend more than a couple of years away from their alma matter before obtaining permanent

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positions. It is beyond the scope of the present document to discuss this phenomenon and the serious negative consequences it has on both the quality of research performed and on the opening of new research horizons in academic institutions. We should note though that this phenomenon is not unique to Greece, as it also appears for example in the French academic system and in Korea1 , but it is practically absent in the United States. Greek universities in the periphery of the country did not suﬀer much from this problem for two reasons. Either they had not produced their own PhDs due to their youth as institutions, or their faculty made a conscious decision to have a broader perspective in their hiring process. For example, in the Department of Physics of the University of Crete, where the author is currently employed, only one out of the 33 faculty members obtained his PhD from this institution. All these political decisions had implications that continue to aﬀect the evolution of Greek astronomy, and academic system in general, well into the 21st century. Research Institutes in Greece have a similar structure to the Universities, with also four ranks, which are loosely indicated as Researcher-D, -C, -B and -A. Each researcher also has to remain in a given rank for a minimum of three years and tenure is obtained upon promotion from Researcher-C to Researcher-B. Research Institutes can not award academic degrees and as a result close collaboration with a University is needed in order for a researcher to be able to co-supervise students. Public funding for development of infrastructures, direct support of research in astronomy, or fellowships towards graduate studies in the ﬁeld, has been traditionally fairly limited. Such a low level support is not restricted to Greek astronomy but it is also the case in most disciplines. In 2004 Greece spent only 0.58% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in R&D, which brings Greece as a nation in the last place among the 15 EU countries in this category, a position it holds for the past ﬁve years. At over the same period the European Union (EU) average was 1.95%, more than three times higher2 . As a result the possibilities for Greek astronomers to join large international collaborative projects, or just to obtain support to attend scientiﬁc meetings outside Greece have been scarce. Even though the situation has recently improved over the past decade, and the possibilities – mostly via the ﬁnancial and organizational support of the European Union – are more numerous, the eﬀects of this low level national funding can be seen in most indices quantifying the overall astronomy scientiﬁc output from Greece. It is worth noting that Greece, which joined the European Union as the 10th member in 1981, is still not a member state of 1 2

See Science 282, no. 5397 (18 Dec 1998). Source EUROSTAT at http://europa.eu.int/comm/eurostat/

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the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and only joined the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2005. 2. Governing Bodies The policies that directly aﬀect issues related to AA&SP in Greece are determined by the Ministry of Development, in particular the General Secretariat for Research and Technology, and the Ministry of Education. The ﬁrst has administrative control over the research institutes and astronomy infrastructure and the latter controls the national university system. Greek astronomers can express their opinion or shape policies on issues related AA&SP via the Greek National Committee for Astronomy (GNCA) or the Hellenic Astronomical Society (Hel.A.S.). 2.1. THE GREEK NATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR ASTRONOMY (GNCA)

The Greek National Committee for Astronomy (GNCA3 ) was established, by Royal Decree, as the oﬃcial advisory committee to the Greek Government for all matters relevant to Astronomical and Astrophysical research, in 1957. It is the oﬃcial body, responsible for the promotion and coordination of Astronomy in Greece and for all matters related to international astronomical cooperation. The Minister of Development selects the members of GNCA and appoints them for a term of two years. Its oﬃcial seat is the National Observatory of Athens. Since 1995, GNCA does not have its own budget, but obtains its funding from the budget of the General Secretariat of Research and Technology (GSRT) of the Ministry of Development. The GNCA has the following principal objectives: • To co-ordinate and promote the various astronomical activities in Greece, including research and education. • To act as the link between the Greek astronomical community and the International Astronomical Union (IAU), oﬃcially representing Greece in the General Assembly of the IAU. • To facilitate the advancement of international collaboration between Greek and foreign astronomers and research groups. Besides the IAU, GNCA has taken responsibility for Greece’s representation to the Board of Directors of the journal “Astronomy and Astrophysics” (and its ﬁnancial contributions), to the European Joint Organization for Solar Observations (JOSO) and, recently, to the European Union FP6, I3, Network OPTICON (see Sect. 8). The board of GNCA consists of ﬁve ordinary and ﬁve substitute members. The current (2005-2007) ordinary members are P. Laskarides (Chair 3

http://www.astro.noa.gr/∼gnca

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– Univ. Athens), T. Krimigis (Vice Chair – Acad. Athens), I. Daglis (Nat. Obs. Athens), N. Kylaﬁs (Univ. Crete), and J.H. Seiradakis (Univ. Thessaloniki). The substitute members over the same period are: S. Avgoloupis (Univ. Thessaloniki), E. Dara (Acad. Athens), M. Kafatos (George Mason Univ., USA), A. Nindos (Univ. Ioannina), and J. Papamastorakis (Univ. Crete). 2.2. THE HELLENIC ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY (HEL.A.S.)

The Hellenic Astronomical Society (Hel.A.S.4 ) exists for nearly 15 years and it is the major association of professional astronomers in Greece. Its overall structure and operation is similar to other national societies such as the “American Astronomical Society” in the US, or the “Soci´et´e Fran¸caise d’Astronomie et d’Astrophysique” in France. Historically, the ﬁrst serious attempt to establish a Hellenic Astronomical Society was undertaken in 1982 during the XVIII General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union, which took place in Patras, Greece. There, during several meetings, a dozen astronomers gathered in order to put the foundations of the long sought Society. The following years progress was slow even though material necessary for setting up the framework for the Society was being collected. It was much later, in November 1991, when P. Laskarides (Univ. Athens) issued the ﬁrst announcement of the 1st Hellenic Astronomical Conference, that the idea of the establishment of an Astronomical Society was formally put forward again. With the help of several colleagues J.H. Seiradakis (Univ. Thessaloniki) drafted the ﬁrst Constitution for the Society. The ﬁnal version was presented to the participants of the 1st Hellenic Astronomical Conference, which was held in Athens in September 1992. During the Athens Conference, several astronomers became founding members of the Hellenic Astronomical Society. A few more founding members signed the Constitution during the next weeks bringing the total number of founding members to sixty six (66). Following the appropriate legal procedures, the Hellenic Astronomical Society (Hel.A.S.) was recognized by the Court of Justice in Athens on 25 May 1993. The appointed Council of Hel.A.S. became aware of the verdict of the Court of Justice in June 1993. The President of the Council, B. Barbanis (Univ. Thessaloniki), assisted by the members initiated the procedure for the ﬁrst elections of Hel.A.S. In the elections, which took place on 2 June 1994, participated 83% of the founding members. According to its Constitution the Governing Council of Hel.A.S. consists of a President, six members and three auditors. The Council is elected 4

http://www.astro.auth.gr/elaset

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for a two-year term and an individual cannot serve on it for more than two consecutive terms. The candidates for the Council must be members of Hel.A.S. who live and work permanently in Greece during the term of their candidacy and at least 42% of them should be aﬃliated with institutions outside the Athens metro area. The current Council, whose mandate ends in June 2006, consists of P. Laskarides (Univ. Athens) as the president and D. Hatzidimitriou (Univ. Crete), K. Tsinganos (Univ. Athens), V. Geroyannis (Univ. Patras), K. Kokkotas (Univ. Thessaloniki) and X. Moussas (Univ. Athens) as members. The auditors for the same period are E. Danezis (Univ. Athens), E. Mavromichalaki (Univ. Athens) and E. Xilouris (Nat. Obs. Athens). The Hellenic Astronomical Society has been very active and currently has 272 members, 27% of which live and work outside Greece. It has been recognized as an Aﬃliated Member of the European Astronomical Society (EAS) and has established links with other international astronomical societies. It has been organizing a major science meeting every two years and in the summer of 1997 organized the Joint European and National Astronomical Meeting (JENAM-97). 3. Academic Institutions 3.1. HUMAN RESOURCES IN ASTRONOMY, ASTROPHYSICS AND SPACE PHYSICS

As one would expect, since more than half of the population in Greece is concentrated in the Athens and Thessaloniki metro areas, most of the astronomers in Greece are also associated with institutes located in these two cities. This is depicted in Fig. 1 where the fraction of tenured and tenure track astronomy faculty in the major AA&SP institutions in Greece is presented. An additional issue, which aﬀects the current state and has direct implications to the future of Greek astronomy, is related to the age distribution of Greek professional astronomers. In Fig. 2, a histogram of 135 astronomers working in Greece is presented, using the database of the members of the Hellenic Astronomical Society, as well as ancillary information collected by the author. The study was limited to individuals over the age of 30, since this is typically the age when one is competitive for tenure track or long term research associate positions. Some individuals over the retirement age of 67, who are on an emeritus-type position and/or still active, were included in the analysis. The error on a single 5-year bin is of the order of 5% but it is very likely that the values of bins at ages greater than 55 are somewhat underestimated. This is due to the fact that there are a number of individuals who formally have a tenured astronomy positions but as they

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Figure 1. Distribution of tenured and tenure track astronomers in the major research institutes in Greece. The total number of astronomers included in this study is 107.

Figure 2. A histogram of the age distribution of astronomers in Greece in 2006. The vertical line indicates the 67th year of age which is the current compulsory retirement age for civil servants.

are no longer active they were not included in the database of Hel.A.S, on which analysis was based.

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Inspection of Fig. 2 clearly reveals that almost 30% of Greek astronomers are near or over the age of 60. This was a direct consequence of the legislative changes that took place in Greece in the early 1980s mentioned in Sect. 1. Furthermore, statistics over the last 10 years indicate that on average there were less than three new tenure track astronomy position openings per year in the country, including both universities and research institutions. The fraction of astronomers near the age of retirement is even larger if we were to consider only the two older universities of Athens and Thessaloniki. This implies that within the next 5 to 10 years a large number of their current faculty members will retire and they will have to be replaced in a very short time scale. This will be an interesting challenge for Greek astronomy. Will it be possible for these institutions to ﬁnd enough, well qualiﬁed, candidates from the available pool of post-docs and research associates for their needs? Will they be forced to lower their hiring standards in order to hire faculty for their teaching needs, or they will be able to hire with a lower pace, being selective and identifying the key scientiﬁc research areas they should be investing in? In 2016 we will know the answer to these questions! Another topic worth touching upon is gender diversity in Greek astronomy. At the time of writing this report 13% of the permanent or tenure track astronomy positions in Greece were held by women. This percentage is less than in France5 , which leads the way with ∼26%, or in Italy, Russia and Spain, all above 15%, but higher than the fraction of female astronomers in the United States which is ∼10%. We should note though, that only recently one female astronomer in Greece reached for the ﬁrst time the highest possible academic rank (Full Professor or Researcher A), a statistic that will hopefully improve very soon. 3.2. RESEARCH IN ASTRONOMY, ASTROPHYSICS AND SPACE PHYSICS

The latest organized eﬀort to map the research activity in AA&SP in the various institutes in Greece took place in 1998. E. Kontizas, as the president of GNCA at the time, appointed an international six-member committee, chaired by Y. Terzian (Cornell Univ., USA), to report on the status of astronomy in Greece and propose recommendations for the future. The report6 was presented during the workshop “Astronomy 2000+: Greek Prospects for the 21st Century” which took place at the National Observatory of Athens on November 1998. The description presented in 5 The percentages for the other countries mentioned are based on the 2003 report by Florence Durret (Inst. Astrophys. Paris, France) available at http://www2.iap.fr/sf2a/courrier.html 6 http://www.astro.noa.gr/gnca/NEWS/ca-report2000.htm

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the following paragraphs draws from material included in this report with some modiﬁcations mostly related to changes in the human resources of the institutes involved. There are eight institutions in Greece with Departments or Sections devoted to teaching and research in Astronomy and Astrophysics. Three are located in Athens: the largest is the Section within the Department of Physics of the National Kapodistrian University, followed by the National Observatory of Athens, and an astronomy Section of the National Academy of Athens. In Thessaloniki there is a very small group within the Faculty of Engineering (Polytechnic School) and a considerably larger one within the Department of Physics of the Aristotle University. In Crete there is a Section of Astrophysics and Space Physics in the Department of Physics in Heraklion, while the Universities of Patras and Ioannina each have small Astronomy groups within either their Physics or Engineering Departments. Some research activity in very speciﬁc areas (i.e. cosmology or general relativity) also exists in a few Departments of Mathematics but the numbers of permanent staﬀ are very small and there is no critical mass to be considered groups. The principal institutions devoted to research and technical development in space sciences is the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the “Democritus” University of Thrace (in particular the Laboratory of Space Electrodynamics in the Section of Telecommunications and Space Science) and the Institute for Space Applications and Remote Sensing of the National Observatory of Athens. Signiﬁcant research in ground-based ionospheric and atmospheric work is also a component of the overall Astrophysics and Space Science Section at the University of Crete. Activity relating to space science also exists in the Section of Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Mechanics of the University of Athens, and at the Research Center for Astronomy in the Academy of Athens. In the following subsections we present a brief description of the various institutes in Greece hosting research groups with active research in AA&SP. More detailed annual activity reports from most institutions and groups are being collected by the Greek National Committee for Astronomy and they are made available from its web site mentioned in Sect. 2.1. 3.2.1. University of Athens The “National & Kapodistrian” University of Athens was founded in 1837, soon after the independence of Greece. It was the ﬁrst University in Greece as well as in the Balkan Peninsula and the whole eastern Mediterranean region. The Department of Physics was created in 1904 and its current Section of Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Mechanics was formed in the mid 1980s by merging the previously independent Chairs indicated in its name.

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The Section is the largest in Greece and consists of 24 tenured or tenure tract faculty. Most of them have research interests in the area of Astronomy and Astrophysics, while Mechanics is a rather small constituent. The Department of Physics started a graduate school in 1994, within which the Section has its own Masters and PhD programs with 12 graduate courses. Since January 2000 the Section also operates a 40cm Cassegrain telescope within a 5m rotating dome located on the top of the Physics building. The telescope was constructed by DFM engineering (USA) has an f/3 focal ratio and it is mainly used for educational activities. In addition to the pursuit of astronomy, it should also be mentioned that the faculty of the Physics Department have been involved over many years in building a deep sea High Energy Neutrino telescope, known as NESTOR. Recently this eﬀort has been put under the auspices of the National Observatory of Athens as an independent institute for Astroparticle Physics (see Sect. 3.2.2). 3.2.2. National Observatory of Athens The National Observatory of Athens (NOA7 ) was founded in 1842 and is the oldest research institute in Greece. It currently consists of ﬁve institutes three of which, the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, the Institute for Space Applications and Remote Sensing and the Institute of Astroparticle Physics – Nestor, conduct research in AA&SP. The current director of NOA is C. Zerefos. The Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics has 11 permanent staﬀ scientists as well as research associates and support personnel. Their research interests include a variety of topics in extragalactic astronomy, observational cosmology, interstellar matter, X-ray astronomy, and binary stars. The Institute supports the Astronomical Observatory in Kryoneri as well as the new Chelmos Observatory where the new 2.3m “Aristarchos” telescope, the largest in Greece, is located (see Sect. 4.1 & 4.3). The institute is also very active in public outreach activities, among which are the operation of a Visitor Center and an annual summer school, which introduces basic concepts of modern astrophysics to high- school students since 1996. The current director of the Institute is C. Goudis. The Institute for Space Applications and Remote Sensing has 11 tenure or tenure track research staﬀ. The activities of the Institute encompass a wide area in Space Research and Applications. Its main objective is to carry out R&D projects in these ﬁelds, which include Remote Sensing, Telecommunications, Space and Ionospheric Physics. Additional activities include the systematic collection and processing of data derived from observations made either from the earth or space as well as the performance 7

http://www.noa.gr/

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of autonomous studies in other speciﬁc subjects of space research and applications. The Institute is equipped with satellite and ionospheric ground stations, various RF and electronic test and measurement equipment, as well as an advanced computing center connected to international networks. The current director of the Institute is I. Daglis. The Institute of Astroparticle Physics – NESTOR (Neutrino Extended Submarine Telescope with Oceanographic Research) became the ﬁfth institute of the national Observatory of Athens in 2003. The institute is leading the development of a deep-sea high energy neutrino telescope approximately 14km oﬀ the shore from the town of Pylos in Peloponnese, at water depth of 4000m. NESTOR will detect the Cherenkov radiation produced by muons traversing the water when their parent neutrinos emitted from astrophysical objects, such as X-ray binaries, black holes, or Active Galactic Nuclei, interact with water. The current director of the Institute is L. Resvanis. 3.2.3. Academy of Athens The Academy of Athens was formally founded in 1926. It currently has among its members two Academicians (G. Contopoulos and T. Krimigis) with a background and research interests in astronomy. One of the centers of the Academy, the Research Center for Astronomy and Applied Mathematics, consists of 11 permanent research staﬀ, and conducts research in solar and space physics, cosmology, particle physics and dynamical astronomy. 3.2.4. University of Thessaloniki The “Aristotle” University of Thessaloniki was the second university in Greece and it was founded in 1925. There are two units in the University with activity in Astronomy. The smallest, in the Polytechnic School, consists of two faculty members and their research is concentrated mainly on ﬂare stars. The largest is the Section of Astrophysics, Astronomy and Mechanics (AAM8 ) of the Department of Physics, with 17 faculty members, several research associates, graduate students, and support personnel. The Section was formed in the mid-80s when the administrative structure of the Laboratories of Astronomy (founded in 1943) and Mechanics changed (see Sect. 1). The staﬀ is active in many areas of theoretical and observational astrophysics, including an active theoretical group on gravitation and general relativity, as well as in education and public outreach. In addition to the Stephanion Observatory (see Sect. 4.4) the Section operates a 20cm refracting telescope (made by Secretan, Paris) in a rotating 6m-diameter dome, which is located within the University campus, and it is used for educational purposes. 8

http://www.astro.auth.gr/

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3.2.5. University of Crete The University of Crete was founded in 1973 but accepted its ﬁrst students in 1978. Its Department of Physics was founded in 1978 and is the youngest of similar Departments in Greece. The Section of Astrophysics and Space Physics9 has seven faculty members as well as several research staﬀ and graduate students. Two more tenured track astronomers, from the Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas and the Technical Education Institute of Heraklion, are actively collaborating with the members of the Section. Research at the University of Crete covers a broad range in theoretical and observational problems related to both galactic and extragalactic astrophysics. Signiﬁcant eﬀorts are being devoted to the operations of an Ionospheric Physics laboratory. Observations for several astronomical projects are also taken at the Skinakas Observatory (see Sect. 4.2) and others are performed using international ground and space born telescopes. The Department has a graduate program through which students can pursue their graduate studies in astrophysics. 3.2.6. University of Thrace The Laboratory of Space Electrodynamics (LSE) at Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the “Democritus” University of Thrace is the largest space physics group in Greece with extensive experience in hardware development. It consists of six faculty, several research associates, support personnel, and many graduate and undergraduate students. The scientists are co-investigators or associated scientists on several international spacecraft missions (e.g. Ulysses, Geotail, Cluster II, and others), successfully funded through European programs and bilateral collaborations with other countries, including the US. The LSE has designed, developed and successfully ﬂown particle experiments on a number of Russian spacecraft, as well as component systems to instruments involving data processing units and ASICs (Application Speciﬁc Integrated Circuits). Such high technology hardware capability in space instrumentation is rather unique within Greece. The LSE group has expanded their activities to antennae and propagation, satellite communications, and other related areas. 3.2.7. University of Patras The University of Patras has a Laboratory of Astronomy and a Section of Astronomy in the Division of Theoretical and Mathematical Physics in the Department of Physics. A total of nine tenured and tenure track faculty teach courses and conduct research in a few astronomy areas and there is an active theoretical group on celestial mechanics. 9

http://www.physics.uoc.gr/en/

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Figure 3. An optical satellite image of Greece, obtained in 2004, in which the locations of the major observatories hosting functioning optical telescopes with a primary miror diameter larger than 0.5m are indicated. (Courtesy: MODIS Rapid Response Project at NASA/GSFC)

3.2.8. University of Ioannina This is the smallest group of Astronomy in a Department of Physics in Greece. It has thee faculty members in the Section of Astrogeophysics, within the Department of Physics. The staﬀ performs research mostly in solar physics and in multiwavelength observations of ﬂare stars. 4. National Facilities The limited funding of the Greek government towards basic and applied research has had, as a result, the small investment in major infrastructures for astronomical facilities in Greece. This aﬀected the oldest observatories in Greece, such as Penteli, Kryoneri and Stephanion Observatory, which have diﬃculties keeping up-to-date with the modern developments in telescope design, aperture size of the telescope primary mirrors, as well as the instrumentation available. More recent facilities, such as Skinakas Observatory, which currently hosts the largest operational telescope in Greece which is 1.29m in diameter, are more modern and do provide high quality instru-

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ments to the observers. However, they also suﬀer from the limited national ﬁnancial support and they cannot function as facilities that can provide access to all Greek astronomers who may wish to use them. A major eﬀort in improving the current situation has been the ongoing construction of the 2.3m “Aristarchos” telescope by the National Observatory of Athens. The telescope had its ﬁrst light in the end of 2005 and when it becomes fully operational, before the end of 2007, will be the largest in Greece. 4.1. CHELMOS OBSERVATORY

The site selected for the new 2.3m telescope is located in Northern Peloponnese, on top of Chelmos mountain, near the small town of Kalavrita approximately 150km from Athens, with longitude: 22◦ 13 E, latitude: 37◦ 58 N and an elevation of 2340m. The total cost for the project is expected to be about 5 Million Euros and it was ﬁnanced mainly by the European Union, as well as by the General Secretariat for Research and Technology of the Ministry of Development. The telescope named “Aristarchos” is a Ritchey-Chr´etien with a focal ratio f/8 and a 10 ﬁeld of view as well an RC-corrected ﬁeld of view of 1◦ . The telescope and dome are constructed by Carl Zeiss (Germany). The image scale on the focal plane is 1 = 85µm and a 1024×1024 CCD camera was the ﬁrst light instrument. A medium resolution (2.5 ˚ A– 6˚ A) spectrometer covering the range between 4270 ˚ A and 7730 ˚ A as well as a 4096×4096 optical CCD will be the ﬁrst generation instruments of the telescope. These will be followed by an echelle spectrometer covering the range between 3900 ˚ A and 7500 ˚ A with a resolution of 6km/s, as well as other instruments. The supervision of the telescope construction as well as its operation are managed by the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics of the National Observatory of Athens10 . 4.2. SKINAKAS OBSERVATORY

The Skinakas Observatory11 operates as part of a scientiﬁc research collaboration between the University of Crete, the Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH) and the Max-Planck-Institut fr Extraterrestrische (MPE) Physik of Germany. The site of the Observatory (longitude: 24◦ 53 57 E, latitude: ◦ 35 12 43 N), chosen on scientiﬁc and functional grounds, is the Skinakas summit of Mount Ida (also known as Psiloritis), at an altitude of 1750m and a distance of 60km from Heraklion. The Observatory has two telescopes: 10 11

http://www.astro.noa.gr/ASC 2.3m/ngt main.htm http://skinakas.physics.uoc.gr/

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Figure 4. Left: A picture of the open dome at Chelmos with the 2.3m Aristarchos telescope appearing (Courtesy: N. Matsopoulos, Nati. Obs. Athens). Right: A photograph of the telescope at the Zeiss facilities in Germany, during its assembly and testing. (Courtesy: Carl Zeiss AG)

Figure 5. An aerial photograph of the Skinakas Observatory summit with the larger dome of the 1.29m telescope seen on the left, along with the smaller domes the guest house facilities. The 1.29m telescope inside its dome is seen in the right. (Courtesy: Physics Dept., Univ. Crete)

a Modiﬁed Ritchey-Chr´etien telescope with a 1.29m aperture (focal ratio f/7.6), which became operational in 1995, and a 30cm telescope (focal ratio f/3.2). The building for the small telescope was constructed in 1986, and observations started in 1987. The site is one of the best in Greece with weather conditions often permitting photometric sub -arcsecond seeing. It

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includes a modern guesthouse powered with solar arrays and an Internet connection. The optical system of the 1.29m telescope were manufactured by Carl Zeiss (Germany). The mechanical parts were built by DFM Engineering (USA). The instrumentation available includes a focal reducer, a number of optical CCD cameras, and a low resolution long slit spectrograph. A 1024×1024 near-IR camera and an echelle spectrograph will soon be available on site, along with OPTIMA, a fast photo-polarimeter with microsecond time resolution intended for observations of compact objects. Various research projects, both galactic and extragalactic, mostly led by members of the Department of Physics of the University of Crete or MPE astronomers have been ongoing since the facilities became operational. The close collaboration with the MPE group and the FORTH engineering support has helped the astrophysics group in Crete in keeping the telescope and the instruments in the forefront of technology, always taking into account the limitations in the budget. 4.3. KRYONERI OBSERVATORY

The Astronomical Station of Kryoneri12 was established in 1972. It is located in the Northern Peloponnese, on top of mountain Kilini at an elevation of 930m, near the small village Kryoneri 110km from Athens (longitude: 22◦ 37 E, latitude: 37◦ 58 N). The 1.2m Cassegrain Coude telescope of the Astronomical Station Kryoneri, made by Grubb Parsons Co., Newcastle, was installed in 1975. Its optical system consists of a paraboloidal primary mirror of 1.23m in diameter and f/3 focal ratio, and a hyperboloidal secondary mirror (31 cm). Both mirrors are made of Zerodur. The telescope focal ratio is f/13, its ﬁeld of view is about 40 and the image scale is 12.5 /mm. As with Chelmos Observatory, Kryoneri is operated by the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics of the National Observatory of Athens. 4.4. STEPHANION OBSERVATORY

The ﬁrst observations at the Stephanion Observatory, in eastern Peloponnese, were undertaken in March 1967 with a guest 38cm reﬂector and a UBV photometer that belonged to the Bergedorf Observatory of the University of Hamburg, Germany. Since then a large number of instruments have been hosted at the 800-m altitude observatory, which is located at longitute: 22◦ 49 45 E, latitude: 37◦ 45 9 N, including French telescopes, for monitoring satellites, and a 40cm reﬂector from the Utrecht Observa12

http://www.astro.noa.gr/ASK 1.2m/ask main.htm

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tory, Netherlands. In June 1971, the 30-inch (76cm) Cassegrain reﬂector of the University of Thessaloniki was installed at the Observatory. Until 1975, when the 1.23m Cassegrain Coude reﬂector at Kryoneri became operational, this was the largest telescope in Greece. The 30-inch reﬂector is mounted asymmetrically and its focal ratio is f/3 for the primary hyperbolic mirror and f/13.5 for the Cassegrain focus. It was constructed by Astro Mechanics, USA, a ﬁrm that has long ago discontinued making astronomical instruments. The majority of observations are carried out with a Johnson dual channel photoelectric photometer with an oﬀset guider unit mounted in the Cassegrain focus. It includes an RCA 1P21 and an RCA 7102 photo-multipliers, both of which are refrigerated by dry ice. Key photometric observations of variable stars (ﬂare stars, Cepheid variables, RS CVns, etc) have been undertaken in co-operation with large ground or space instruments. The international demand for co-operative and simultaneous observations at the Stephanion Observatory stems from the strict diﬀerential method used for obtaining absolute, above atmosphere, stellar magnitudes in the international UBV system. The error in the calibrated magnitudes obtained is usually better than 0.02 magnitudes. 4.5. PENTELI OBSERVATORY

The Astronomical Station on Penteli Mountain, just 15km from downtown Athens, was established in 1937 when it became apparent that it was necessary to move the telescopes from the grounds of the old National Observatory in the center of Athens. In 1955 the National Observatory of Athens accepted the donation oﬀered by the University of Cambridge, for a 62.5cm telescope designed by R.S. Newall, and constructed by the ﬁrm Thomas Cooke & Sons in 1868. Its big tube (about 9m in legth), the German-type equatorial mount and its weight of about nine tons, required careful dismounting, transportation and installation in a new dome that was built in Penteli. This telescope, no longer used for research, is still available on site today. 4.6. EUDOXOS EDUCATIONAL OBSERVATORY

The “Eudoxos” observatory is a web-accessible complex of optical and radio telescopes, founded in 1999, whose facilities are located 16km from Argostoli, in the Ionian island of Kefallinia at a plateau 600m below the peak of mount Ainos (1628m). It operates a 0.6m Cassegrain robotic telescope named after Andreas Michalitsianos, a Greek astrophysicist who was born in the island and had a successful career in NASA (USA) until his early passing away. The observatory was formed by a consortium of Greek insti-

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tutes involving the National Research Center of Physical Sciences “Democritus”, the Hellenic Naval Academy, the Ministry of Education and the Prefecture of Kefallinia and Ithaki. It is being operated by the same consortium with the addition of the University of Athens and has already received substantial support from the Hellenic Air Force and the Ministry of Education. The 0.6m telescope consists of a fully autonomous computerized optical tube assembly, automated enclosure, GPS smart antenna for time synchronization, a full set of meteorological sensors, a large format imaging CCD camera and UBVRI wheeled photometric ﬁlters, as well as a ﬂeet of peripheral instruments currently under construction or testing. All equipment is completely controlled by two supervisory computers, which communicate via the Internet to the majority of the participating secondary schools and institutions. 5. High School and Undergraduate Studies in Astronomy The Greek secondary education system does provide substantial training in physics and mathematics to the students who wish to follow university studies in sciences. Even though there is no compulsory astronomy course in high school (only an elective introductory astronomy course is available for high-school juniors) basic astronomy ideas related to the solar system, stars, galaxies, and the formation of the universe are presented in other courses. Since 1996 the “Society for Space and Astronomy” of Volos (see Sect. 7) has been organizing a very successful national astronomy competition in which students from all over Greece attending the last three years of high school (“Lyceum” in greek) can participate. The top students are awarded various prizes while the ﬁrst two are invited to attend an all-expenses-paid summer space-camp in the United States organized by NASA. This eﬀort, mainly supported by private funds and volunteer work, has helped substantially in popularizing astronomy among high school students. At the university level there is no Bachelors (BSc) degree in Astronomy or Space Science in Greece. Most individuals, who are now professionals in the ﬁeld of AA&SP and did their undergraduate studies in Greece, obtained their BSc degree in Physics following a four-year program. Some, mostly theorists, have obtained their undergraduate degrees in Mathematics or Engineering. Even in the various Departments of Physics in Greece though, the curriculum of the astronomy courses varies depending on the number and research background of the astronomy faculty. Most Physics majors in Greece have to follow at least one compulsory junior course in Astrophysics while some complementary topics on dynamical astronomy are typically covered on compulsory sophomore and junior level courses in classical mechanics and modern physics. Most Departments of Physics oﬀer

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the possibility of an astronomy specialization (or minor), even though this is not formally awarded as a degree. Within this framework, students, who are interested in astronomy, have the opportunity to attend typically ﬁve to ten junior and senior level courses in astrophysics, space physics and celestial mechanics, thus obtaining a fairly solid background if they wish to continue for graduate studies. The level of this University astronomy training is usually very good in the theoretical and encyclopedic part and the top students are competitive with international standards. What the students lack sometimes is the hands-on practical knowledge, which can only be obtained with access to engineering facilities or observatories. The organization of summer schools, such as the one taking place at the University of Crete for the past 17 years, addressed to undergraduates at junior and senior level, can often ﬁll this gap. There are also recent eﬀorts at various institutions, such as the University of Athens, to enhance the observational astrophysics courses with a more organized usage of small telescopes and new instruments. 6. Graduate Studies in Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Physics Graduate studies in Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Physics leading to a Masters or a PhD degree can now be completed in most Greek Universities. The ﬁrst well-organized physics graduate program in Greece with coursework, qualifying exams, and at least partial ﬁnancial support for students was developed in the University of Crete in 1984. This was soon to be followed by the University of Athens and other institutions. However, the system suﬀers from diﬃculties, which again stem from the limited national funding. Less than a handful of state fellowships for graduate studies in AA&SP are available each year. Providing ﬁnancial support for graduate studies via European Union or national research proposals in astronomy is very challenging both due to limited funds available in this ﬁeld as well as due to various bureaucratic and organizational diﬃculties. As a result graduate students in Greece have to either work, or rely on other means to support themselves during their studies. This sometimes aﬀects their ability to invest the amount of time necessary for research in order to complete a very high quality PhD project. These reasons have been pushing many of the Greek students to go abroad for their graduate studies. The most popular destinations are the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and The Netherlands. The improved facilities and competitive research environment in those countries do provide high quality training to the students but often decrease the likelihood of their return to work in Greece. Recently though,

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the opportunities made available by the European Union, mostly via the Human Capital as well as Training and Mobility programs, have ameliorated the situation. These new possibilities have provided the means to establish close links between Greek and other European institutions, which improves substantially the training of local students thus bringing direct scientiﬁc return to the home institution. 7. Amateur Astronomy in Greece Amateur astronomy has been ﬂourishing in Greece over the past decade. The availability of high quality and low cost small telescopes and the use of Internet to organize and advertise the activities of groups has greatly helped the development in the ﬁeld. Many amateur organizations exist all over Greece. In particular one should mention the “Hellenic Astronomical Union” which is the society of amateur astronomers in Athens, the “Group of friends of Astronomy” in Thessaloniki, the “Corfu Astronomical Society”, and the very active “Society for Space and Astronomy” in the city of Volos. Since 1999 the Greek amateur astronomers have been organizing a national meeting every two years where they present their results and discuss issues of common interest. 8. Greece and International Astronomy Organizations Greece joined the International Astronomical Union as a funding member in 1920. It also contributes to the support of the international refereed journal of Astronomy & Astrophysics, which allows Greek astronomers to publish their scientiﬁc results without page charges. Since 2004 Greece also participates in OPTICON, a 19.2 Million Euro 5-year European FP6 Infrastructure Network, which provides access to a number of medium size telescope facilities around the world. In early 2005 Greece joined the European Space Agency (ESA) contributing to the annual budget of ESA with ∼9 Million Euros. This opens new opportunities for Astrophysics and Space Physics both in terms of technology development as well as in science. Over the past year signiﬁcant organizational eﬀorts have been taking place in order to stimulate the Greek AA&SP community so that it will be able to capitalize on this investment and join the rest of the western European countries in the forefront of space technology. 9. Remarks I believe that it is appropriate to end this article on the status of Greek astronomy with an optimistic note on the many improvements we have

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all experienced over the past decade. As it can be seen from the material presented in the previous sections, the environment, both research and academic, for the current and next generation of Greek astronomers is considerably better than what our predecessors had experienced and worked through. I must also touch upon, a subject, which was mentioned earlier but only brieﬂy. Unfortunately Greece is still not a member of the European Southern Observatory, the major astronomical organization in Europe. As a result it has no access to the current European infrastructures of the Very Large Telescope (VLT), nor to the development of the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) nor to the design of the future ESO projects, such as the 100m OverWhelmingly Large telescope (OWL). I should stress that the report13 of the international expert committee chaired by Y. Terzian (Cornell Univ.) on the status of Greek Astronomy presented in 1998 during the workshop “Astronomy 2000+: Greek Prospects for the 21st Century” noted that joining ESO should be the ﬁrst astronomy priority for the nation. Current rough estimates indicate that the cost for Greece to join ESO would be a one-time ∼10 Million Euros entrance fee, similar to our annual contribution to ESA, and an annual membership fee of only ∼1 Million Euros. Thus, if following the recommendation of the international expert committee, ESO were to be our lofty astronomy goal for the present century, one can only hope that the whole Greek community will embrace it and with a joined eﬀort will convince the “powers that be” to turn the wheels and make it a reality before the end of the current decade. Acknowledgments This document used material from the online archives of the Hellenic Astronomical Society, the Greek National Committee for Astronomy, as well as from the annual reports of the various institutes that were available online. I would like to thank K. Kokkotas (Univ. Thessaloniki), N. Kylaﬁs (Univ. Crete), J.H. Seiradakis (Univ. Thessaloniki), K. Tsinganos (Univ. Athens), and E. Xilouris (Nat. Obs. Athens) for making suggestions that improved this article.

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ASTRONOMY IN UKRAINE

YA.V. PAVLENKO

Main Astronomical Observatory National Academy of Sciences 27 Zabolotnoho Kyiv-127 03680, Ukraine [email protected]

and Centre for Astrophysics Research University of Hertfordshire College Lane Hatﬁeld AL10 9AB, U.K. [email protected] I.B. VAVILOVA

Dobrov Center for Scientiﬁc-Technical Potential and History of Science Research National Academy of Sciences 60 T. Shevchenko Boulevard Kyiv 01032, Ukraine [email protected] AND T. KOSTIUK

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Code 693.1 Greenbelt MD 20771, U.S.A. [email protected]

Abstract. The current and prospective status of astronomical research in Ukraine is discussed. A brief history of astronomical research in Ukraine is presented and the system organizing scientiﬁc activity is described, including astronomy education, institutions and staﬀ, awarding higher degrees/titles, government involvement, budgetary investments and international cooperation. Individuals contributing signiﬁcantly to the ﬁeld of astronomy and their accomplishments are mentioned. Major astronomical facilities, their capabilities, and their instrumentation are described. In 71 A. Heck (ed.), Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, 71–96. © 2006 Springer.

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terms of the number of institutions and personnel engaged in astronomy, and of past accomplishments, Ukraine ranks among major nations of Europe. Current diﬃculties associated with political, economic and technological changes are addressed and goals for future research activities presented.

1. Introduction Since resuming its independence in 1991, Ukraine has been striving towards social democracy and a market-based economy. After the “Orange Revolution” of 2005, these goals as well as European integration became priorities of Ukraine’s policy. Science, and in particular astronomy, also has to adopt a model that matches the emerging market-based economy. Recently Ukrainian science has experienced complicated institutional and structural changes in the state-administered system formed during Soviet times. The basic principles of the reforms are: to match scientiﬁc endeavors to the economic capabilities of the nation; to form a mechanism to address legal and economic issues, including protection of intellectual rights and appropriate coordination and budgeting for eﬀective governing of the scientiﬁc and technological ﬁeld; to specify science and engineering development priorities; to radically improve the resource management and to address the eﬀects of aging and the shortage of personnel; to follow the principle of “openness” in science; and to promote wide international cooperation (Yatskiv & Vavilova 2003). 1.1. GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION

Ukraine is one of the largest countries on the European continent covering 603,700 sq km in area. Its territory stretches 1316 km east-west and 893 km north-south. Ukraine borders Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania in the west, Moldova in the southwest, Belarus in the north, and Russia in the northeast and east (Fig. 1). The southern frontiers of Ukraine are washed by the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov with a coastline equal to 2835 km. 1.2. POPULATION

Ukraine’s population on 1 October 2004 was 47 383 4861 . The population is ethnically diverse with 77.8% ethnic Ukrainian. The urban population is about 67.2% and the population density is about 80 inhabitants per sq km. 1

http://www.ukrcensus.gov.ua/results

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Figure 1.

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Astronomical sites in Ukraine.

1.3. POLITICAL SYSTEM AND GOVERNMENT

Ukraine has a presidential political system with a one house parliament (Verkhovna Rada). Some changes strengthening the parliament were introduced during the “Orange Revolution” and came into eﬀect in 2006. The capital is Kyiv [Kiev]2 with 2 611 000 inhabitants. The state administrative system consists of the Autonomic Republic of Crimea with its capital Simferopol, 24 regions (oblasts), 481 administrative-territorial districts. The cities of Kyiv and Sevastopol (Crimea) have a special administrative status. There are 451 cities, 893 towns, and 28 651 villages in the country. 1.4. EDUCATION

Ukraine is a highly-educated country where 28 900 000 citizens have received a secondary or higher education. In the age group of 18 years and older, 13 700 000 persons have some form of higher education3 . It also is important 2 For some of the city names, better-known English transcriptions which have been in use for a long time are given in square brackets. We will, however, use present-day names throughout the article. 3 http://www.ukrcensus.gov.ua/

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to note that the full legal age in Ukraine is 18 years and coincides with the age when a citizen completes his/her secondary education. At present, there are 48 000 educational institutions, where 10 million scholars and students are being trained by 1.5 million teachers and lecturers. Among the 10 million scholars, 2 700 000 (of which 54% are females) are students at 966 higher educational institutions, where 178 000 lecturers are engaged in the educational process. Of these, 44 500 have a candidate of science degree, 7 400 have a doctor of science degree, 31 600 have the academic status of assistant professor and 7 500 of professor (Nikolaenko 2004). Two hundred higher educational institutions have university status or national university status. At present, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (MESU), which is responsible for development of education, is working to improve the eﬃciency of this system in the framework of the Bologna process4 . This process aims at standardizing the various European higher education systems with the objective of creating a European Area of Higher Education and of promoting the European higher education system worldwide. On 19 May 2005, Ukraine joined the Bologna process. 1.5. SCIENCE

Three governmental structures are mostly responsible for development of science and technology (S&T): the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU), the Ministry of Industrial Policy, and the Ministry for Education and Science (MESU). Starting from 1991, the total expenditure (budgetary and oﬀ-budgetary) for research and development (R&D) has been reduced by a factor of 4, and amounts to 750 000 000 USD in 2004. The gross expenditure on R&D as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) also has been reduced by a factor of two. The total budgetary expenditure on S&T in 1991-2002 in relative terms of purchasing-power parity has also deteriorated by one-half, and amounts to 2 030 000 USD in 2002 (Yatskiv 2004). Science in Ukraine, including astronomical research, is now facing a diﬃcult time due to economic limitations of the nation and the need for upgrading the existing scientiﬁc infrastructure. The key problems are both the low GDP activities and the fact that even the low budgetary expenditures on science and technology have not been eﬀectively spent. In 2005, the adopted GDP is 20 400 000 000 USD, with 5% devoted to R&D. In 2004, about 173 000 employees were engaged in S&T activity: 54% of them worked in industry, 28% in national academies of science, and 18% in institutions of higher education. In this group of employees, 73 700 persons are candidates and doctors of science, as was mentioned above, 70% of 4

http://www.aic.lv/ace/ace disk/Bologna/index.htm

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them work in institutions of higher education. If one considers the number of researchers per 10 000 labor force, we see that Ukraine with 41 is at the level of countries such as Germany (58), Great Britain (54), and Austria (34). Beginning in 1991, there has been an increase in the number of postgraduate students (13 600 in 1991 and 24 500 in 2003). Although the total number of scientists has decreased during this period because of a “brain drain” both outside and inside Ukraine, the number of doctors and candidates of science has been slowly increasing. A greater fraction of those taking science and engineering degrees during this period were women: 54% of graduate students, 54% of candidates of science, 27% of doctors of science, and 10% of members of academies of sciences. 2. Brief History of Astronomical Research Astronomical culture and research have long-standing traditions in the country. The ﬁrst signs of astronomical knowledge were found in archaeological excavations and records. The most ancient ﬁnd (dated 15 000 BC) is a mammoth tusk with a fretwork image of a table of lunar phases found in the Poltava region. The so-called Trypillya culture (4 000-3 000 BC) produced numerous examples of ornaments on bowls, distaﬀs, wheels and other everyday articles with symbolic images of zodiac constellations, and vesselcalendars indicating the vernal/autumnal equinoxes and the motion of the Sun. Another unique historical record relates to the times of the powerful state of the Kievan Rus’ (10th − 13th centuries), when astronomical observations were conducted mainly in monasteries. For example, the authors of the Lavrentiev chronicle describe the solar eclipses of the years 1064, 1091, and 1115 AD and the lunar eclipse of 1161 AD. The ﬁrst book on astronomy written in the modern territory of Ukraine was by physician and astronomer Heorhii (Georgius) Drohobich in 1483, who later became rector of Bologna University5 . A graduate of the KyivMohyla Academy, Il’ya Kopievich (Kopiewicz), issued the ﬁrst star map in Slavic language in Amsterdam in 1699, and the basics of naval astronomy in 1701. The prominent Ukrainian-Russian philosopher, scientist and religious ﬁgure, Pheophan Prokopovich, who worked at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in 1705-1716 and was rector in 1711-1716, gave astronomical courses based on the theories of Copernicus and Galileo. He also developed the philosophical foundations of the unity of matter and motion, which were generalized later by Mikhail Lomonosov. 5

http://litopys.org.ua/human/hum47.htm

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The ﬁrst astronomical observatory on the territory of western Ukraine was founded in L’viv [Lvov] University in 1769. The ﬁrst astronomical observatory in Kyiv was founded in the library of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in 1783 and was equipped with modern instruments of those times. In 1821, the Naval Observatory was established in Mykolaiv [Nikolaev], which functioned in 1912-1991 as a department of the Pulkovo Observatory (St Petersburg, Russia). Later, university observatories were founded in Kyiv (1845), Odesa [Odessa] (1871), and Kharkiv [Kharkov] (1883). In 1909 a southern department of the Pulkovo observatory was established in Simeiz [Simeis] (Crimea). Besides being engaged in the educational process, these observatories conducted research in astrometry, theoretical astronomy, and astrophotometry. The Ukrainian Academy of Sciences was founded in 1918. This resulted in a new impetus for the development of science and technology, in particular, the establishment of new astronomical institutions and infrastructure. Among them are the Gravimetric Observatory in Poltava (1926), which is now a division of the Institute of Geophysics; the Main Astronomical Observatory, MAO, in Kyiv (1944); the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory, CrAO, in Naukove, Crimea (1945); the Radio Astronomical Observatory of the Institute of Radio Physics and Electronics in Grakovo (1958), which later became a division of the Institute of Radio Astronomy, IRA, in Kharkiv (1985); the High-Altitude Observatory at Peak Terskol, North Caucasus (1970s), which later became a division of the International Center for Astronomical and Medical-Ecological Research, ICAMER (1992). Currently, the astronomy section of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine is well-developed as compared to that at the universities. The turning points in the history of science are inseparably linked with outstanding personalities. Among them are the founders of modern astronomy in Ukraine who obtained world recognized achievements in the years 1920-1970: A.Y. Orlov and E.P. Fedorov (astrometry, complex research of the Earth’s rotation); N.P. Barabashov (photometry of planets, the ﬁrst catalogue of details of the lunar surface, developer of one of the ﬁrst spectrohelioscopes for research of the solar photosphere and chromosphere); G.A. Shajn (stellar evolution, kinematics and the magnetic ﬁeld of the Galaxy, solar corona, long-periodic variable stars, discovery and research of new emission nebulae); A.B. Severnyj (spectral research of solar ﬂares and other non-stationary processes on the Sun, magnetic ﬁelds of the Sun and stars, building of one of the largest solar telescopes, the Tower Solar Telescope, solar oscillations, helioseismology, the problem of solar deuterium, development of space-borne telescopes and research programs for space missions); V.P. Tsesevich (research of variable stars); A.Y. Yakovkin (research of the Moon); S.K. Vsehsvyatskij (cometary research, theories on volcanic

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activity on satellites and the existence of rings around Jupiter, independent discovery of the solar wind together with Ponomariov); S.A. Kaplan (general relativity theory, white dwarfs, gas-dynamical processes); S.Ya. Braude, one of the founders of decameter radio astronomy (developer/builder of the largest decameter telescope UTR-2 and the decameter VLBI URAN system, author of the ﬁrst catalogue of extragalactic objects in the decameter radio range). 3. The Current Status of Astronomical Research 3.1. SECONDARY AND HIGHER ASTRONOMICAL EDUCATION

3.1.1. Secondary Education Without exaggeration we can say that the system of education and its achievements at this level were the most extraordinary accomplishments of the former Soviet Union, in particular as it concerned education in astronomy. Astronomy was a basic course in secondary schools (34 academic hours in the last, 10th grade). For unknown reasons – although it is possible it was an echo of reform –, after Ukraine resumed its independence in 1991, astronomy was excluded from the secondary education basic curriculum from 1992 until 2000. As a result of persistent activity by the Ukrainian Astronomical Association (UAA) and numerous round-tables with representatives of ministry departments, this regrettable decision was corrected in 2000, and astronomy was reinstated into the current 12-year secondary education curriculum. The present-day status of astronomical education in secondary schools is as follows (Vavilova & Yatskiv 2003): Some elements of the astronomical discipline are included in the standard “Natural Science” curriculum of the 6th -11th grades. “Astronomy” is a required course in general (non-specialized) schools (17 academic hours in the last, 12th grade) and in lyceums of the natural sciences (34 academic hours in the 12th grade). “Astronomy” is studied in humanistic gymnasiums as an elective course. By comparing the status of secondary astronomical education in other countries (e.g., Russia, several countries of Europe) the UAA timely improved this situation in Ukraine by arguing that knowledge of astronomy will play a unique role in the twenty-ﬁrst century for generations to come. Our present-day problems in this improvement are how to increase the number of new textbooks and how to organize regular training of astronomy teachers. Several planetariums are open to the public. Two of them, in Kyiv and Kharkiv, are located in separate buildings. The Drahomanov Pedagogical University of Kyiv, the Pedagogical University of Mykolaiv, and

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the National University of Uzhgorod also train teachers of astronomy for secondary schools. 3.1.2. Higher Astronomical Education We list below the most important national universities, which have astronomy and space-related faculties: − − − − − − − − −

Shevchenko National University of Kyiv6 V.N. Karazin National University of Kharkiv7 I.I. Mechnikov National University of Odesa8 Ivan Franko National University of L’viv9 National Technical University “Kyiv Polytechnical Institute”10 National University of Dnipropetrovsk11 V.I. Vernadsky Taurian National University in Simferopol12 National University of Uzhgorod13 Zhukovsky National Aerospace University in Kharkiv14

All astronomical programs are structural divisions of the physics departments of universities. For this reason as well as for the fact that the Ukrainian system of university education in the natural sciences is similar to the German one, our astronomy students receive a good training in mathematics and physics. Every year a total of about 75 university freshmen are educated in astronomy. After four years, they obtain a bachelor diploma in physics and on graduating from the university they obtain either a diploma of specialist or a master’s degree in astrophysics/astronomy. They study the classical university courses (astrometry, celestial mechanics, planetary physics, solar physics, astrophysics, applied astrophysics, theoretical astrophysics, extragalactic astronomy etc.) as well as special courses on contemporary astronomical research, and have seminars and training in observational astronomy. Results of our monitoring show that 80% of the entering students ﬁnish their education in ﬁve years; 50% of students, who ﬁnished their education, continue to work in astronomy; 30% of holders of a specialist’s diploma or master’s degree defend a candidate thesis within 3-7 years after they graduate (Vavilova & Yatskiv 2003). 6

http://www.univ.kiev.ua/ http://www.univer.kharkov.ua/ 8 http://www.onu.edu.ua/ 9 http://www.franko.lviv.ua/ 10 http://www.ntu-kpi.kiev.ua/ 11 http://www.dsu.dp.ua/ 12 http://www.ccssu.crimea.ua/tnu 13 http://www.univ.uzhgorod.ua/ 14 http://www.xai.edu.ua/ 7

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Current problems in implementation of the astronomical education program are the following: − There are no required astronomical courses in the ﬁrst to third year of education in the bachelor programs (only classical courses for physicists) − Many textbooks need to be updated − There is a drop of the mean level in the ability of our students during the last few years and an indication of this problem is also evident in secondary education − There is a need to raise the prestige of the scientiﬁc profession irrespective of the low salaries for young scientists and engineers. 3.2. SCIENTIFIC DEGREES AND SCIENTIFIC CAREERS OF ASTRONOMERS

3.2.1. Scientiﬁc Degrees The system of bachelor and master’s degrees was initiated in 2002. For this reason we are not yet able to analyze how it works. The system of higher scientiﬁc degrees in Ukraine is inherited from the Soviet type system and consists of two levels: candidate of science, and doctor of science. During recent years the Ministry of Foreign Aﬀairs of Ukraine approved memorandums about compliance of diplomas of candidate of science and PhD with degrees of more than 100 countries of the world. Everybody with a degree up to the candidate of science diploma may obtain a certiﬁcate of compliance for work abroad. The ﬁrst level degree of candidate of sciences (Cand Sci) is the analogue of the degree of doctor of philosophy or doctor of medicine adopted in Europe and other countries. The Cand Sci degrees, unlike the PhD degrees, are classiﬁed by the related scientiﬁc ﬁelds (chemistry, biology, pedagogy, economy, politics etc.). The second level degree of doctor of science (Dr Sci) is also classiﬁed by related scientiﬁc ﬁelds. The Degrees of Cand Sci and Dr Sci for those who work in astronomy are related to such ﬁelds as the Physics-Mathematical Sciences and Technical Sciences. As a rule, the Cand Sci thesis in astronomy is a manuscript (90-120 pages) based on at least three papers published in refereed journals and resulting in a new achievement in astronomy. The Dr Sci thesis is a manuscript (220-260 pages) based on: (a) signiﬁcant scientiﬁc discovery in astronomy; (b) advanced results published in at least 20 papers in refereed journals; (c) an author’s monograph. The thesis of Cand Sci and Dr Sci is defended following a special procedure. The ﬁrst step is a report at a Scientiﬁc Council meeting of the institution where the thesis has been conducted. This Scientiﬁc Council

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recommends/does not recommend a thesis defense. The second step is a report at the meeting of the Special Council on Thesis Defense, which nominates/does not nominate the candidate for a Cand Sci or Dr Sci degree as well as decides whether the thesis satisﬁes the requirements of a Cand Sci or Dr Sci thesis. Candidates for a Cand Sci degree must also take examinations in philosophy, foreign language, and in their special ﬁeld before the defense. For defense of the Cand Sci thesis, the Special Council selects two reviewers, two Drs Sci, or one Dr Sci and one Cand Sci, who will study the manuscript in detail and prepare reports. For defense of the Dr Sci thesis, the Special Council selects three reviewers (three Dr Sci) with a backgroud in a ﬁeld relevant to the defended thesis. In both cases one astronomical institution in the relevant scientiﬁc ﬁeld is appointed to be an independent “Leading Referee Institution”. The signed reviews must be approved by the director of this institution. In the third step, the Supreme Attestation Commission of Ukraine approves/does not approve this thesis as well as awards/does not award the Cand Sci and Dr Sci degree. The Supreme Attestation Commission (SAC) of Ukraine15 is a government institution, which develops the general rules for processing thesis manuscripts, thesis defense and approval, and it also awards the scientiﬁc degrees. This institution also approves the membership of the Special Councils on Thesis Defense. The Special Expert Councils under SAC were established to consider possible conﬂict situations. Members of these special councils must have a Dr Sci degree in a specialty relevant to that of the defended thesis. Membership in these councils is renewed once every three years. In the current system, a positive defense at the Special Council meeting is possible even when a negative report is prepared by the reviewers. The Special Council may also decide that the Cand Sci thesis satisﬁes requirements for the Dr Sci thesis and can nominate the candidate for the higher Dr Sci degree. In case of a conﬂict situation, the SAC Expert Council has the right to reverse the decision of the Special Council on Thesis Defense following established procedures. It also is possibile to prepare and to defend a thesis in an interdisciplinary ﬁeld, e.g., astronomical instrumentation, which is more related to the SAC requirements for theses in technical sciences, history of astronomy or methodology of astronomy education. At present, the Special Council on Thesis Defense, which operates at the Main Astronomical Observatory of the NASU in Kyiv, nominates astronomers for Dr Sci and Cand Sci in physics and mathematics. It covers all the SAC adopted specialties for astronomers: “Heliophysics and 15

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Physics of Solar System”, “Astrophysics and Radio Astronomy”, “Astrometry and Celestial Mechanics”, and “Methods of Remote Sensing of the Earth”. The Special Council operated in I.I. Mechnikov National University of Odesa nominates for Cand Sci degree in the ﬁelds of: “Theoretical physics”, “Astrophysics and Radio Astromomy”. The Special Council of the V.N. Karazin National University of Kharkiv nominates for Dr Sci and Cand Sci degrees in “Astrophysics and Radio Astronomy”. Since 1992, about 140 astronomers were awarded higher scientiﬁc degrees (20% of them Dr Sci degree). Our present-day problem is a brain drain of young scientists: currently 50% of those who obtained a Cand Sci degree work outside of Ukraine. 3.2.2. Scientiﬁc Careers The nomenclature of scientiﬁc positions is the following: – Junior Staﬀ Scientist – holders of a master’s degree who are starting the scientiﬁc activity. – Research Staﬀ Scientist – scientists who defended Cand Sci thesis. – Senior Staﬀ Scientist – those who worked successfully for at least ﬁve years as Research Staﬀ Scientist. – Leading Staﬀ Scientist – scientists who defended Dr Sci thesis. – Principal Staﬀ Scientist – senior scientists who worked successfully in the position of Leading Staﬀ Scientist. The nomenclature of faculty positions in higher educational institutions is the same as in many countries: lecturer, senior lecturer, assistant professor, professor. Unfortunately, for the time being, the Soviet type system of long-term ﬁxed staﬀ positions has been preserved without substantial changes. There is little competition for permanent positions. In fact, any young scientist can get a position at an astronomical institution practically for the rest of his or her life. Post-doctoral positions are not part of the current structure of scientiﬁc positions. The following academic titles/status are used for scientists: – Senior Researcher: those who defended Cand Sci thesis and worked successfully at least two years at the position of Senior Staﬀ Scientist – Assistant Professor: those who defended Cand Sci thesis and worked at least three years at the position of assistant professor – Professor: Assistant professors who defended the Dr Sci thesis, and senior researchers who defended the Dr Sci thesis and were supervisors of at least ﬁve candidates of science – Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine: senior scientists

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– Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine: advanced senior scientists. 3.3. GOVERNMENT AND NON-GOVERNMENT ASTRONOMICAL INSTITUTIONS

3.3.1. Organization of Scientiﬁc Activity in Astronomical Institutions All questions and decisions concerning scientiﬁc activities (research programs, scientiﬁc careers of employees, nominations for academic status, ﬁnal reports for various projects, scientiﬁc theses research, structure and staﬀ of departments and laboratories etc.) must be considered and approved by the Scientiﬁc Council of an institution. The Council is formed by the director of the institution and consists of the senior, leading and principal staﬀ scientists. Membership in this council must be approved by a majority vote of scientists of the institution. Each member of the Council has one vote. A majority vote is suﬃcient to approve most decisions, however, nominations for staﬀ positions and scientiﬁc titles still require a 2/3 majority of total members. Research programs can be divided into two types, depending on the sources of funding: government budget programs and oﬀ-budget programs (see Sect. 3.6 & 4 for details). The director, heads of departments, and program managers form teams of scientists and engineers to conduct the research programs. The structure of these teams may not follow a formal distribution of staﬀ by departments or laboratories. Still, the project manager, principal investigator (PI) and the main department responsible for the project are always known. As a rule, government funded programs are scheduled for 3-5 years. After completing the project the team members write a ﬁnal report, which must be refereed by another institution. The ﬁnal report must then be presented and approved at a Scientiﬁc Council meeting. All decisions of the institution’s scientiﬁc council must be approved by the scientiﬁc council or scientiﬁc bureau of a higher governing body. The importance of the role of director, scientiﬁc council, heads of departments and project managers for scientiﬁc activity of the institution depends on many subjective and objective factors and may vary from institution to institution. Unfortunately, under current research budgetary conditions the principle “what is possible” often prevails over “what is more interesting”. The heads of departments and research project managers are only the formal owners of the project’s money. Due to practical reasons, to minimize possible problems and losses, usually one person (as a rule, the director of the institution) is responsible for resolving all ﬁnancial issues.

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3.3.2. Governmental Astronomical Institutions In general, 12 governmental institutions are engaged in astronomical scientiﬁc activity. They are governed by two diﬀerent higher government level organizations: the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU) and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (MESU). As mentioned in Sect. 2, the largest astronomical institutions are established within the structure of the NASU16 . NASU is a self-governing organization whose activity is aimed at S&T, social-economical, and cultural development of Ukraine. The Government of Ukraine17 decides on the NASU budget. In its own turn, the NASU Presidium, through relevant scientiﬁc NASU Divisions, prepares a budget of all subordinated institutions. The role of the NASU in the national basic and applied S&T policy is the same as the Max Planck Gesellschaft in Germany or the Centre National de la Recherche Scientiﬁque in France. The following four astronomical institutions are subordinated to the NASU: – Main Astronomical Observatory18 in Kyiv – Institute of Radio Astronomy19 in Kharkiv – Poltava Gravimetric Observatory20 of the Institute of Geophysics – International Center for Astronomical & Medical-Ecological Research (ICAMER21 ), in Terskol, North Caucasus, Russia. The ﬁrst two institutions are related to the NASU Division for Physics and Astronomy, the third one to the NASU Division for Earth Sciences. The bureaus of these divisions approve decisions of Scientiﬁc Councils of the mentioned astronomical institutions. The ICAMER is an interdivisional institution and its activity is regulated in the framework of a special memorandum signed by the NASU and the Russian Academy of Sciences and by the Governments of Ukraine and Russia. The Ministry of Education and Sciences of Ukraine22 governs seven institutions engaged in astronomical research. Two of them are directly subordinate to the MESU: – Scientiﬁc Research Institute, Crimean Astrophysical Observatory (CrAO)23 in Naukove, Crimea 16

http://www.nas.gov.ua/ http://www.kmu.gov.ua/ 18 http://www.mao.kiev.ua/ 19 http://www.ira.kharkov.ua/ 20 [email protected] 21 http://www.mao.kiev.ua/icamer or http://www.allthesky.com/observatories/terskol.html 22 http://www.mon.gov.ua/ 23 http://www.crao.crimea.ua/ 17

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– Research Institute “Mykolaiv Astronomical Observatory”24 in Mykolaiv. Three astronomical observatories function as research institutes at universities: – Scientiﬁc Research Institute “Astronomical Observatory” of the I.I. Mechnikov National University of Odesa25 – Institute of Astronomy of the Karazin National University of Kharkiv26 – Astronomical Observatory of the Ivan Franko National University of L’viv27 . Two small astronomical institutions function as departments of universities: – Space Research Laboratory, National University of Uzhgorod28 – N.I. Kalinenkov Astronomical Observatory, Pedagogical State University of Mykolaiv29 . These universities allocate the budgets of the observatories and maintain departments of astronomy for training students. The scientiﬁc councils of universities approve all decisions of the scientiﬁc councils of the observatories. The Shevchenko National University of Kyiv was a self-governing institution until 2006 and its budget was determined by the central government. Now the University is governed by the MES of Ukraine. The astronomical observatory functions as a research laboratory of the Department of Astronomy and Space Physics of the physics faculty30 . Information on staﬀ membership and research ﬁelds of larger astronomical institutions is presented in Table 1 (Vavilova & Yatskiv 2003). Taking into account quantitative factors, i.e. the number of scientists engaged in astronomical research per population, the number of astronomical institutions as well as astronomical infrastructure (see Sect. 3.4), we may consider Ukraine a large astronomical country in Europe. In total, more than twenty observatories and departments at various scientiﬁc institutions and universities are engaged in astronomical research. As to the qualitative factors, i.e. number of publications in world recognized journals, citation index etc., the situation is not so clear. As can be seen in Table 1, research at Ukrainian observatories covers a wide range of disciplines. In the case of observational programs, access to modern astronomical facilities is rather limited. As a result, in many cases theoretical 24

http://www.mao.nikolaev.ua/ [email protected] 26 http://www-astron.univer.kharkov.ua/ 27 http://www.astro.franko.lviv.ua/ 28 http://www.univ.uzhgorod.ua/nauka/zsurnal/Lab-space.html 29 [email protected] 30 http://www.observ.univ.kiev.ua/ 25

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TABLE 1. Staﬀ membership and research ﬁelds of larger astronomical institutions in Ukraine Institution

Total staﬀ/ Scientiﬁc staﬀ/ Cand and Dr Sci

Research ﬁelds

Main Astronomical Observatory of the NAS of Ukraine

213/90/69

Scientiﬁc Research Institute “Crimean Astrophysical Observatory” of the MES of Ukraine

358/92/58

Institute of Radio Astronomy of the NAS of Ukraine Astronomical Observatory of the Shevchenko National University of Kyiv

306/102/88

Astronomical Observatory of the Ivan Franko National University of L’viv

28/16/12

Scientiﬁc Research Institute “ Astronomical Observatory” of the I.I. Mechnikov National University of Odesa Institute of Astronomy of V. Karazin National University of Kharkiv

75/65/26

Mykolaiv Astronomical Observatory of the MES of Ukraine

75/19/10

Extragalactic astronomy Physics of stars & brown dwarfs Positional astronomy Solar system bodies Solar physics Space geodynamics Space plasma physics Extragalactic astronomy Ground-based and space-borne instrumentation Radio astronomy (mm, cm) High-energy astrophysics Physics of stars Solar system small bodies Solar physics, solar activity Radio astronomy (dm and mm) Astrometry General relativity Extragalactic astronomy Solar physics, solar activity Solar system small bodies Extragalactic astronomy Cosmology Satellite geodesy Solar physics, solar activity Physics of the solar system Small bodies Variable stars Physics of stars Ground-based instrumentation Physics of stars Solar activity Solar system small bodies Ground-based instrumentation Positional astronomy

64/35/26

83/43/20

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interpretations of observations conducted at other observatories still prevails. On the other hand, Ukraine has developed its own astronomical infrastructure (see Sect. 3.4). However, these astronomical facilities need to be upgraded rapidly to compete with leading observatories of the world. 3.3.3. Non-governmental Astronomical Institutions Since 1991, the Ukrainian Astronomical Association (UAA)31 has coordinated astronomical activity in Ukraine. The UAA consists of 16 institutional members and dozens of individual members, with a total membership of about 1500 astronomers. Since 1992, the UAA serves as the national committee of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), and as an aﬃliated society of the European Astronomical Society (EAS). 162 Ukrainian astronomers are IAU members, and 96 are EAS members. There are a few other non-governmental institutions related to astronomy. Two of them, Odesa Astronomical Society and the Ukrainian Society of Gravitation, Relativistic Astrophysics and Cosmology, are UAA Associate Members. Two years ago, the Ukrainian Society of Amateurs of Astronomy was founded under the patronage of professional astronomers. 3.4. INFRASTRUCTURE: LARGE, MODERATE, AND SMALL TELESCOPES AND TELESCOPE NETWORKS

Ukrainian astronomical institutions possess a wide range of telescopes. Many of them were constructed 30 and more years ago, but are still in use. The main problem is to upgrade these telescopes and to equip them with modern detectors and other devices for making observations and obtaining results of suﬃcient quality. 3.4.1. Largest Telescopes and Networks (see also Fig. 2) − The UTR-2, Ukrainian T-shape Radio telescope32 is the largest array in the world operated at decametric wavelengths, extremely low frequencies < 25 MHz. This telescope belongs to the Institute of Radio Astronomy (IRA) of the NASU. It is located near Grakovo village, about 80 km from Kharkiv (northeastern Ukraine). The eﬀective area of the UTR-2 (152 000 sq m) is more than the eﬀective area of all existing radio astronomical telescopes put together. The resolution is about of 40 × 40 at the mean frequency of 16.7 MHz. − A decametric Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) network URAN was built with the UTR-2 as the basis. Besides UTR-2, it consists of four additional radio telescopes with sizes 5 to 10 times less 31 32

http://www.observ.univ.kiev.ua/uaa http://www.ira.kharkov.ua/utr2

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Figure 2. From top to bottom: the 2m telescope of ICAMER (Peak Terskol, North Caucasus), the Acad. Shajn 2.6m telescope of CrAO (Naukove, Crimea), the Gamma c telescope GT-48 of CrAO, and the Decameter Radio Telescope UTR-2 (Kharkiv). 2003 Ukrainian Astronomical Association (1,3,4) and A.V. Terebizh (2).

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−

−

−

−

than that of UTR-2: URAN-1 near Kharkiv, URAN-2 near Poltava, URAN-3 near L’viv, and URAN-4 near Odesa. They are electrically phased steering arrays operating from 10 to 30 MHz. Baselines from 40 km to 900 km provide an angular resolution from several minutes to one second of arc. The angular resolution of 1 corresponds to the fundamental limit imposed by scattering at these frequencies in the interstellar medium. These network telescopes also belong to the Institute of Radio Astronomy. The 70m dish radio telescope RT-70 is a highly eﬃcient fully tracking instrument located near Evpatoria in Crimea. Its eﬀective area is of 2500 sq m and its beam width is 2.5 at the 5cm radio wave length. There are only 10 antennas of such size in the world. This telescope is being upgraded to provide astronomical research at wavelengths 92, 18.6, and 1.35cm for future work in the European VLBI network (EVN). This antenna belongs to the National Space Agency of Ukraine (NSAU). The RT-22 is a precise radio telescope operating at mm and cm radio wavelengths located in Simeiz, Crimea. It has a Cassegrain and prime focus feed system on an azimuth-elevation mount and its characteristics are: diameter 22m, surface tolerance (root mean square) 0.25mm, wavelength limit 2mm, and focal length 9.525m. RT-22 is included in VLBI astrophysiscal and geodetic projects with the European and USA networks. This instrument belongs to the Scientiﬁc Research Institute CrAO of the MESU. The Acad. Shajn 2.6m reﬂector is the largest optical telescope in Ukraine. The telescope was built in 1961. Its equatorial mount supports a 2.6m parabolic primary with several optical systems: primary (F/4 and with a focal reducer F/2.6), Cassegrain (f/16), Nasmyth (f/16), and two f/40 coud´e foci, direct and bent. 2m ZEISS telescope at Peak Terskol, North Caucasus, Russia33 . It belongs to the ICAMER.

3.4.2. Moderate-size Telescopes − AZT-11 (CrAO) is a 1.25m Ritchey-Chr´etien reﬂector, built in 1981. The focal length is 16m, available foci are main Cassegrain and auxiliary Cassegrain. An oﬀset photoelectric auto guider is provided for the main focus. A TV guider with a 30cm refractor and a 40 ﬁeld-ofview also is available. Objects brighter than 15 mag can be tracked. A computer based control system provides automated pointing with 15 precision and other services, i.e. ﬁne tracking of fast moving objects 33

http://www.allthesky.com/observatories/terskol.html

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−

−

−

− 34 35

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(comets, asteroids), access to object catalogues, and dome-telescope synchronization. The Tower Solar Telescope TST-1 (CrAO). A 1.20m coelostat and a 0.90m spherical primary mirror feed the telescope to provide f/56 or f/78 Cassegrain foci equipped with spectrographs. ACU-5 (Main Astronomical Observatory of the NASU34 ) consists of a 440mm coelostat and an additional mirror, a 440/17500mm main mirror and 200mm Cassegrain mirror system with a 60m equivalent focal length. The spectrograph camera and collimator mirrors are made out of one single block of glass of 500/7000mm, the grating has a ruled area of 140 × 150mm with 600 lines per mm. Solar ACU-26 telescope (MAO NASU)35 was constructed at Peak Terskol in 1989. The diameter of the main spherical mirror is 650mm with a focal length of 17.75m. The telescope is equipped with a 5-camera spectrograph permitting simultaneous observations in ﬁve spectral regions. The diameter of the collimator and cameras is 300mm, the focal length is 8m. The 250 × 200mm grating, 600 lines/mm, permits dispersion in fourth order of 21.9mm/nm at 395.0nm and 33.0 mm/nm at 650.0nm. SLR (MAO, NASU, Crimean Laser Observatory in Katsiveli, Crimea) is a 1m telescope with Ritchey-Chr´etien and coud´e systems on an English mounting. The equivalent focal length of the Ritchey-Chr´etien system is 13.3m and of the coud´e system is 36.5m. A CCD-camera with 256 × 256 pixels allows positional and photometric observations. A satellite ranging laser is mounted at the coud´e focus. The Crimean satellite laser ranging (SLR) station N1873 is a member of the SLR world network and participates in the majority of international programs for observing satellites. The gamma ray telescope GT-48 (CrAO) is designed for searching and investigating sources of very high energy (VHE) gamma radiation (> 1012 eV) by measuring Cherenkov ﬂashes in the Earth’s atmosphere on moonless nights. The installation GT-48 consists of two independent alt-azimuth arrays 20m apart. Each array consists of six 1.2m telescopes with a common focus. Three of them are designed for detection of short ultraviolet Cherenkov radiation initiated by cosmic radiation, gamma-rays as well as charged particles, and have solar blind photomultipliers in their focal planes. The other three telescopes image the ﬂashes with 37 photomultipliers (imaging camera). The 1.24m Ritchey-Chr´etien reﬂector (CrAO) on an English mounting (EM-2). The diameter of the secondary mirror is 0.35m and the focal

http://www.mao.kiev.ua/sol/sol w1.html http://www.mao.kiev.ua/sol/sol w2.html

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length is 14.5m. A synchronous driving gear is used with a quartz stabilizer for guiding. 3.4.3. Small Telescopes Small-size telescopes are listed in Table 2. 3.5. ASTRONOMICAL PUBLICATIONS

Ukrainian astronomers prefer to publish their work in international journals such as the Astrophysical Journal, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Astronomical Journal, Solar Physics, Icarus, etc. Indeed, such publications provide the opportunity to publicize their work to a world-wide astronomical community. A few refereed journals presenting original papers on astronomical research are published in Ukraine: − “Kinematics and Physics of Celestial Bodies” (in Russian and Ukrainian, since 1985, bimonthly) covers various ﬁelds of modern astronomy. An English version is available from the Allerton Press, New York. − “Space Science and Technology” (in Russian and Ukrainian, since 1995, issued quarterly) contains papers on space astronomy and physics. The journals “Kinematics and Physics of Celestial Bodies” and “Space Science and Technology” are published by the publishing department of the Main Astronomical Observatory of the NASU36 . − “Radio Physics and Radio Astronomy” (in Russian and Ukrainian, since 1995) is a quarterly journal published by the Institute of Radio Astronomy of the NASU. It covers various problems on formation, propagation and registration of radio waves in diﬀerent media. − “Bulletin of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory” has been published by CrAO since 1947. Ninety-nine volumes have already appeared. Starting with Vol. 57 (1977), the “Bulletin of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory” is translated into English and distributed by the Allerton Press, New York. − “Odessa Observatory Publications” (in English, two issues per year) contains publications of original astronomical research and papers presented at international conferences. − The annual “Bulletin of the Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Astronomy” contains results of research conducted by astronomers from the University Observatory. − The “Information Bulletin of the Ukrainian Astronomical Association” is published twice per year and contains information about current UAA activity as well as proceedings of UAA meetings. 36

http://www.mao.kiev.ua/eng/papers e.html

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TABLE 2. Small-size telescopes of Ukraine Main Astronomical Observatory, NAS of Ukraine

AZT-2 (80cm) GPS station (1m) Axial meridian circle Twin astrograph (0.7m) Two GPS stations (1m)

Crimean Astrophysical Observatory, MES of Ukraine

AZT(0.5m) MTM-500 (0.5m) AZT-8 (0.7m)

Astronomical Observatory, Shevchenko National University of Kyiv

AZT-8 (0.7m), AZT-14 (0.5m) Twin astrograph (0.4m) Horizontal solar telescope (0.8m)

Astronomical Observatory, I.I. Mechnikov National University of Odesa

1m and 0.6m telescopes two 0.8m telescopes two 0.5m telescopes

Institute of Astronomy, V.N. Karazin National University of Kharkiv

AZT-8 (0.7m)

Mykolaiv Astronomical Observatory, MES of Ukraine

Axial meridian circle Multi-channel telescope GPS station (1m)

Astronomical Observatory, I. Franko National University of L’viv

AZT-2 (0.8m)

Space Research Laboratory Uzhgorod National University

SPL-telescope (1m)

Narodna Observatory Andryushivka, Zhytomir region

60cm ZEISS telescope

Besides these scientiﬁc journals, the Main Astronomical Observatory has been publishing “The Astronomical Calendar” since 1996 (“The Short Astronomical Calendar” in 1948-1995), devoted to disseminating astronomical knowledge for amateurs and students. Another astronomical calender, “The Odessa Astronomical Calendar” is published by the Odesa Astronomical Society.

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Journals such as “Our Sky” (since 1998, Kyiv Republican Planetarium), “Universe: Space and Time” (since 2003, privately published), “Pulsar” (since 1998, Association of Trade Union Organizations of Students of Kyiv), as well as the Ukrainian version of “Scientiﬁc American” containing many papers for nonspecialists also circulate in the popular scientiﬁc media. 4. Current Investments in Astronomical Research Budgetary investments in astronomy are made by diﬀerent governmental agencies. The Government of Ukraine provides through the NASU and MESU (see Sect. 3.3) the main funding of astronomical institutions. It covers salaries of staﬀ scientists, engineers, and other personnel as well as overhead for maintenance work on government buildings in institutions. To a lesser degree it covers expenditures for equipment, travel, and supplies. About 30% of the funding is obtained by requests to the National Space Agency of Ukraine37 and from other government institutions, for example, the State Fund for Basic Research38 . Another 10% of total funding is from individual and collaborative international grants under research programs of NATO, INTAS, STCU, CRDF, UNESCO, USAID. Besides additional salaries for employees of such collaborative projects, these grants provide funding for equipment, travel, and system network development. Total expenditures of the largest observatories amount to at least 2 000 000 USD, smaller observatories spend about of 350 000 USD per year. 5. International Cooperation There are at least two forms of collaboration with foreign colleagues: Participation in international projects in the form of individual grants or projects, as collaborators. As a rule, coordinators or prinicipal investigators are foreign scientists. Ukrainian participants obtain some ﬁnancial support for short time periods (up to three months) and travel abroad. Collaborative projects are conducted within the framework of international research programs. A few of current projects are listed here: – Civilian Research and Development Foundation (CRDF) project: “Spectroscopic and photometric monitoring of selected active galactic nuclei objects with extreme properties” (B.M. Peterson, USA, and V.I. Pronik, CrAO, Ukraine); – International Association for the Promotion of Co-operation with Scientists from the New Independent States of the Former Soviet Union 37 38

http://www.nkau.gov.ua/nsau http://www.dffd.gov.ua/

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(INTAS) project: “The investigation of young stars with protoplanetary disks” (V.P. Grinin, CrAO); – CRDF project: “High-energy gamma quanta investigation with groundbased Cherenkov telescopes” (V.P. Fomin, CrAO); – INTAS project: VLBI – astrophysical and geodetic projects with European and USA Networks (A.E. Volvatch, CrAO); – Science and Technology Center of Ukraine (STCU) project: “Fundamental physics and astrophysics on-board the International Space Station: Theoretical basis for general relativity tests and astronomical support of the asteroid-hazard observational program” (I.B. Vavilova, UAA). Some scientists obtain international grants for long term work at foreign observatories or astronomical institutions. Due to internal rules and to protect staﬀ positions, the foreign tenure cannot be longer than ﬁve months. Several groups participate in joint projects with their own telescopes, hardware, know-how, ﬁnances and staﬀ. This form of international participation is the most challenging. In recent years signiﬁcant contributions to world astronomy were made by: Y. Izotov, N. Guseva, L. Pilyugin, and V. Karachentseva (extragalactic astronomy); Y. Shkuratov, D. Lupishko, and V. Rozenbush (physics of planets and solar system small bodies); L. Shulman and K. Churyumov (cometary physics); Y. Yatskiv (nutation and reference frames, member of the team awarded the Descartes Prize of the European Union in 2004); R. Kostyk, N. Shchukina, N. Stepanyan, and V. Kotov (solar physics and solar-terrestrial relationship); V. Pronik and I. Pronik (AGNs); R. Hershberg, L. Lyubimkov, V. Andrievsky, and I. Andronov (physics of variable stars); A. Konovalenko (decameter radio astronomy); N. Steshenko (astronomical instrumentation). Most of their prime results were obtained due to the tight international cooperation. 6. Scientiﬁc Investment and Priorities 6.1. SCIENTIFIC PRIORITIES

Though it is a very diﬃcult task to compose a realistic research planning document taking into account the economic situation in Ukraine, the scientiﬁc and investment priorities for Ukrainian astronomy were speciﬁed after discussions at the UAA Meeting in 2003: – Formation and evolution of galaxies; – Global characteristics of the Sun and Sun-like-stars; – Ground-based support of space missions; – Observational and theoretical cosmology;

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– Physics and kinematics of solar system bodies; – Solar-planetary interactions. Understanding astronomical phenomena requires high-quality data in all frequency ranges. The activity of Ukrainian astronomical institutions is concentrated on ground-based observations in optical, centimeter and decameter wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. Space mission data over a wide range of wavelengths are also used. It is useful to distinguish short-term and medium-term investment priorities of Ukrainian astronomy. 6.1.1. Short-term Investment Priorities Astronomical facilities, which are part of international networks or are involved in conducting international programs must be upgraded, in particular: − The RT-22 radio telescope of CrAO must be equipped with the new MARK4 or MARK5 recording systems and a new hydrogen frequency standard. − R&D for upgrading the UTR-2 decameter telescope of the Institute of Radio Astronomy must be ﬁnished and a new type of decameter antenna has to be tested. According to the decision of the NASU, this work has to be done in three years. In the future, Ukraine would like to be involved in the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project. − The optical 2.6m telescope of CrAO must be equipped with the same ´echelle-grating spectrometer as the 2m telescope at the high altitude observatory at Terskol Peak and with a multicolor photometerpolarimeter. − Optical telescopes which are used for observations of solar system small bodies, stars, and near Earth objects (NEOs) have to be equipped with new CCD-cameras and computer controlled systems. Investments will be also allocated for establishing ground-based networks of small-size and medium-size optical telescopes, which are or will be involved in international monitoring projects for studying gravitational microlensing; ultra-rapid variability of stellar brightness and polarization; multi-wave monitoring of red dwarf ﬂare stars and cataclysmic variable stars; magnetic activity of the Sun and solar-like stars; and pulsating stars as single objects vs components of multiple systems. 6.1.2. Medium-term Investment Priorities As to the medium-term priorities, attention will be paid to participation of Ukrainian astronomical institutions in space missions, e.g., Spectrum-Radio Astron (2006), Spectrum-UV (WSO) (2008); preparation of the Solar-Oriented Telescope (SOT) in the framework of the International Living with

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a Star Program; and a prospective lunar space mission. Some projects are envisaged for the International Heliophysical Year. Special attention will be paid to the development of the Ukrainian Virtual Observatory as a part of the International Virtual Observatory Alliance. For example, work concerning establishment of the Virtual X-ray and Gamma Observatory (VIRGO) as Ukrainian part of the INTEGRAL project started in 200539 . At the moment, new large ground-based astronomical facilities are not foreseen in Ukraine. 7. Conclusion Despite all problems, the future of Ukrainian astronomy can be considered promising. Traditionally, Ukraine is a country with a very high level of education and culture, and basic research remains an important part of science. Existing observational facilities provide unique opportunities for the study of astronomical objects in a wide range of spectral regions and new generations of astronomers can use these national facilities. Ukraine is one of a few counties developing its own space technologies, launch vehicles and programs. Most of these space projects are conducted with wider international cooperation. Globalization of science provides new opportunities for collaboration with astronomers of other countries. The main goal of Ukrainian astronomy is active participation in the development and use of large infrastructures of the international astronomical community. However, this can be achieved only if adequate support can be obtained from the government. Astronomy as well as any ﬁeld of scientiﬁc research is the innovative force of economic development. Astronomers are a unique tightly knit community of people dedicated to science, trying to understand the nature of the universe. Ukrainian astronomers are in the mainstream of world science and they have to maintain their place within it. Acknowledgments We thank our colleagues N. Shakovskaya (Crimea), M. Stodilka (L’viv), I. Andronov (Odesa) and V. Tsymbal (Simferopol) for their help and information. We thank Y. Yatskiv (Kyiv) for helpful remarks and enlightening discussions, and H.W. Duerbeck (Brussels) for a critical reading of the manuscript. YP’s studies were partially supported by PPARC, Royal Society, Leverhulme Trust. I.V. thanks the Oxford University for hospitality during the completion of the ﬁnal version of this paper. 39

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References 1. 2. 3. 4.

Nikolaenko, S.M. 2004, Education and Science: Legislative and Methodological Basics, Politechnika, pp. 1-280. Vavilova, I.B. & Yatskiv, Y.S. 2003, Astronomy Education in Ukraine: Status, Perspectives, and Activity of the Ukrainian Astronomical Association, Teaching of Astronomy in Asian-Paciﬁc Region Bulletin 19, 47-48. Yatskiv, Y.S. 2004, Scientiﬁc and Technological Sphere of Ukraine: Overall Performance, Scientiﬁc World 5, 8-13. Yatskiv, Y.S. & Vavilova, I.B. 2003, Astronomy in Ukraine: Overview of the Situation and Strategic Planning for 2004-2011, Kinematics and Physics of Celestial Bodies 19/6, 569-574.

FOCUSSING EUROPEAN ASTRONOMY – ESO’S ROLE IN THE ‘COMEBACK’ OF EUROPEAN ASTRONOMY

CATHERINE CESARSKY AND CLAUS MADSEN

European Southern Observatory Karl-Schwarzschild-Straße 2 D-85748 Garching, Germany [email protected] [email protected]

Abstract. ESO, the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, was born in 1962 as a response to the strong aspiration of European astronomers to regain leadership in their ﬁeld. With the advent of the Very Large Telescope in 1998, this dream was realised at last, in the best possible way. We recall the context in which ESO was created, how it developed, creating a network of excellence in Europe, and how it is now leading the way in astronomy with the VLT, VLTI, major projects such as ALMA and the European Extremely Large Telescope, and in European science in general within the EIROforum partnership.

1. Introduction This paper discusses the evolution of European collaboration in astronomy as it has happened over the last 40 years through ESO. It will ﬁrst place this development in a wider, historical context, both with respect to previous European achievements and the emergence of a strong scientiﬁc community in the United States of America. The paper will then examine the development of ESO, from its modest beginnings until today, dwelling on some of the major milestones. It will consider European astronomy in a wider social context – both as a benefactor of societal support and as a contributor to society and our culture. In the paper, we argue that the European dimension has always played a pivotal role in astronomy – both as a strong driver and as a basic requirement for progress. The growing pressure on resources needed to maintain 97 A. Heck (ed.), Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, 97–113. © 2006 Springer.

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and develop new research infrastructures have meant that European collaboration has focussed on this task. However, the process has exerted an organising and structuring eﬀect on the scientiﬁc community in Europe that goes far beyond the mere provision of a new research ‘machine’. European collaboration, manifested in ESO, has been critically important for Europe’s comeback in astronomy. This achievement has done justice to the sustained eﬀort by the member-states but it also constitutes an obligation towards the next generation of scientists: not to allow Europe to fall behind again. 2. The Golden Age for European Astronomy The natural sciences have a long history for ‘internationalism’. Nature knows of no national borders. Understanding it has always been a collective eﬀort by like-minded people spread across the lands of our planet. In this sense, astronomy is arguably the archetypal example, with evidence of celestial observations being carried out in most known cultures. Still, it was in Europe – infused by the thoughts of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment – that astronomy began to develop into the science we know today. And already from the beginning did it rest on cross-border collaboration. The paradigm shift initiated by Copernicus, Tycho and Kepler, leading to the acceptance of the heliocentric theory, provides an early example of the progress of European astronomy through collaboration and exchange of ideas across national borders. Tycho’s observatory at Hven, from where the crucial observations were made, however brought another important element in scientiﬁc progress to the fore: the importance of world-class research infrastructures, allowing accurate measurements to be made, but also attracting talented people from far-away. Less than a hundred years later, Europe saw the establishment of key observatories that were to drive the progress of astronomy in Europe until the end of the 19th century. A prominent example of this is, of course, the functioning of the Paris Observatory as a ‘centre of excellence’ (to use a modern term), attracting scientists from far beyond the borders of France, including great scientists like Cassini, its ﬁrst director – from Italy – and Rømer, hailing from Tycho’s country. The Paris Observatory became centre stage for the great controversy about the velocity of light, involving outstanding scientists like Cassini, Rømer, Picard, Huygens, Halley, Newton and others (Møller Pedersen 2002, Moore 1977). It is but one example in a long series of scientiﬁc questions that were tackled – and solved – through lively exchange among scientists across the continent. Indeed, it is not unreasonable to speak about a network of scientists and institutes, bound together by discoveries, ideas and

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critique, hypothesis and observations, agreement and dispute over their interpretations, etc., and involving great observatories such as the Paris Observatory, the Royal Greenwich Observatory, the observatories in Copenhagen, Helsinki, St Petersburg, and many others. The history of European astronomy abounds with evidence of intense contacts between some of the brightest minds of Europe in a collective struggle to unveil the mysteries of the sky! From the perspective of ESO it is interesting to note that European astronomers showed interest in southern hemisphere astronomy quite early. Thus, already in 1750, Lacaille observed the southern skies from the Cape of Good Hope, determining positions of nearly 10,000 stars. Clearly, European astronomy was vibrant during the 18th and the 19th centuries, tackling a diverse area of inquiry and the key scientiﬁc questions of the epoch: Distances in the Solar System and to the stars, the shape of the Milky Way, the nature of such varied objects and phenomena as nebulae, comets, sunspots etc., etc. as well as opening the way to determination of chemical elements by means of spectroscopy. 3. Clear Skies in America, ‘Clouds’ in Europe Yet for all its qualities, European astronomy was to be eclipsed by new initiatives across the Atlantic Ocean. Several factors contributed to the shift: The introduction of electrical light in the cities clearly caused deteriorating conditions for the observatories located there. Conversely, the ability of American scientists to raise funds, through philanthropy, to pay for bigger and more powerful research infrastructures and to place them at sites far away from cities gave American astronomers a competitive edge. The ﬁrst telescope, the 40-inch Yerkes refractor opened in 1897, to be followed by a 60-inch telescope at Mt Wilson in 1908, and then by the 100-inch Hooker reﬂector in 1917, the telescope with which Hubble observed ‘the nebulae’. The power of the new generation of telescopes also accelerated the transformation of the science of astronomy from positional astronomy and celestial mechanics towards astrophysics. This development, which was underpinned by advances in ‘atomic’ physics, gave birth to the idea of the expansion of the Universe, based on Hubble’s observations and the ‘Big Bang’ theory as proposed by Lemaˆıtre. Cosmology was born. On this side of the Atlantic, the disaster of the First World War dealt a serious blow to European science, even if disciplines such as physics and chemistry were to blossom again between the World Wars. European nationalistic hubris also played a role, albeit subtle, in the relative decline of European science. It seems fair to state that in the early years of the

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20th century, few people in Europe understood the tremendous strength – economical, technological, industrial, entrepreneurial and political – that the United States of America would be able to muster. The generous support given to science in the US enabled facilities such as Caltech and other great institutes to ﬂourish and the US leadership in observational astronomy was cemented by the 200-inch telescope on Mount Palomar. Commissioned in 1947 and working together with the famous Schmidt survey telescope on the same site, the Palomar Observatory became the benchmark facility for the world of astronomy for a long time, for a period together with the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. Working in the US became an indispensable part of the career for any promising European astronomer; staying there for good became the result for many. Since then, American astronomy has maintained its strong tradition for excellence, continuing to this very day both with great facilities such as the Hubble Space Telescope (with European participation), the Chandra X-ray satellite, the system of the twin Keck Telescopes, the Gemini telescopes (with worldwide participation), the Magellan telescope – and a very favourable system of research grants for their users. 4. Europe’s Post-WWII Recovery Conditions in Europe after the Second World War could hardly have been more diﬀerent. The Continent was on its heels and the challenge of rebuilding – in any meaning of the word – was daunting. Europe had experienced an exodus of talented scientists and this development was to continue for a long time. Luckily, at the time, the European elite, with some popular backing, realised that progress on our Continent could only be achieved through cooperation among the former adversaries. Strong political leadership, personiﬁed by Spinelli, Monnet, Schumann, Adenauer, and others set Western Europe on a path of cooperation, covering a wide range of policy areas and societal activities, including science. A key instrument of this development became the ‘international organisations’ that were established with rather speciﬁc remits. First, in 1949, the Council of Europe was founded ‘to protect democracy and human rights and to promote European unity by fostering cooperation on legal, cultural, and social issues’. In 1951, the six countries that founded the nucleus of the European Union established the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). In 1958, EURATOM was founded as an international organisation under the Treaties of Rome. EURATOM was to engage in research activities of its own through the so-called Joint Research Centre. Establishing a European organisation for astronomy, thus, seemed to ﬁt perfectly with the prevailing political trend in Europe.

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Four years earlier, in 1954, a group of 11 European countries established CERN, originally known as the Conseil Europ´een pour la Recherche Nucl´eaire, following a proposal from the ﬁfth General Conference of UNESCO in Florence. The creation of CERN was a seminal event for European science. It set in motion considerations of other European organisations to cover other areas of science and it became the operational model for several, including ESO. Looking at the establishment of organisations and facilities in Europe and in the United States, it is easy to draw the conclusion that while in the US this has followed a ‘bottom-up’ approach (to use contemporary terminology), Europeans chose a top-down approach. However, this fails to do complete justice to the reconstruction of ‘a scientiﬁc Europe’. ESO is a clear point in case. The idea of a joint European observatory emerged from within the scientiﬁc community, in discussions between Walter Baade (German, but working at the Mt Palomar and Mt Wilson Observatories) and his Dutch contemporary Jan Oort in 1953: the development of astronomy required the use of ever-bigger facilities. Only by pooling resources could European astronomers hope to obtain research facilities that would enable them to compete with their American counterparts. The idea was discussed among a group of European astronomers attending a conference in Groningen immediately thereafter, and on 26 January 1954, twelve leading astronomers from six European countries signed a statement expressing the wish to establish a joint observatory in the southern hemisphere. It said, quoting the original statement written in French: “Il n’y a pas de tˆ ache plus urgente pour les astronomes que d’installer dans l’h´emisph`ere Austral de puissants instruments” 1 . Alas, it would take almost a decade before the idea could be realized through an international convention, a period in which a dedicated and persistent eﬀort was called for by those scientists, who pushed the project forward. The success can undoubtedly also be attributed to the work of gifted and visionary ‘research administrators’ such as J.H. Bannier and G. Funke, from the Netherlands and Sweden respectively, and their colleagues in the other founding countries, many of whom were also involved in the other emerging European research organisations. As mentioned, Europe’s astronomers chose the southern hemisphere for their joint programme. The wish to study the centre of the Galaxy (which can be done ideally from the south) and the position in the southern sky of the twin near-by galaxies, the Magellanic Clouds, that themselves played a particular role in astronomy, provided strong reasoning for their decision. Furthermore, with all the existing large telescopes placed in the northern 1

There is no more urgent task for the astronomers than to install powerful instruments in the Southern hemisphere.

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hemisphere, the southern skies clearly provided for new ‘hunting grounds’ with great promise of exciting discoveries. When in 1962, the Convention establishing ESO was signed, the ﬁrst step had been taken in the race to catch up with the United States of America. It was to last for four decades. Before we discuss the evolution of ESO, however, we wish to stress that the new collaboration was driven by the wish to develop a competitive research infrastructure for the astronomers on our Continent. Establishing this facility proved to be an eﬀective catalyst for the formation and integration of a truly European research community within optical astronomy and laid the ground for a revival of our science in Europe. 5. The Learning Years In 1964, as the ESO Convention entered into force and an agreement was concluded with the Republic of Chile about the erection of an observatory in that country, Europe’s astronomers could turn their attention to the practical challenges of putting together an organisation and initiate a construction programme that would transform the bold idea into a potent scientiﬁc and technological collaboration programme. (In 1967, Denmark acceded to the Convention). It fell on Otto Heckmann, as ESO’s ﬁrst Director General to oversee the programme. Building up the organisation, developing an observing site at La Silla on the border of the Atacama desert and executing an ambitious R&D programme proved to be an enormous challenge for the young ESO, both for its staﬀ and its governing body, the ESO Council. The ﬂagship telescope, with a primary mirror of 3.6-m, was eﬀectively stalled for several years, as the tiny staﬀ pushed forward with too many parallel programmes at the same time. The second Director General, Adriaan Blaauw, realised that ESO was not making suﬃcient progress towards the realisation of the 3.6m project. Fortunately, CERN agreed to help out, leading to the formation of the ESO Telescope Project Division located on the CERN premises and with strong help by CERN engineers. In 1976, the 3.6-m telescope was completed, providing access for the member-state astronomers to a powerful telescope in the southern hemisphere. The 3.6-m telescope represented a milestone in ESO’s history. While its completion elicited great satisfaction and pride, it is fair to say that it was a classical telescope, no diﬀerent from other major telescopes of the epoch. In this sense, the ﬁrst 15, perhaps 20 years, of ESO can be characterized as the ‘learning years’. But what learning years! ESO had been pushed forward by a contagious spirit of enthusiasm and idealism, perhaps sometimes even a bit of na¨ıvit´e, but also pulled ahead by the outstanding professional skills of individuals – scientists, engineers

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Figure 1.

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ESO’s ﬁrst observatory at La Silla. (Courtesy ESO)

and administrators. Gradually, it had accumulated unique expertise and critical mass. And its leaders had a vision. A glimpse of this vision, of what ESO could become, became evident as the third Director General, Lodewijk Woltjer, organised a conference at CERN to discuss future large telescopes. To many, the idea of discussing telescopes with apertures signiﬁcantly bigger than the existing class of large telescopes, and that at a time when ESO’s new telescope had barely begun scientiﬁc operations, may have seen preposterous. Yet it ﬂagged ESO’s aspirations – and the ambitions of Europe’s astronomers – to play in the ‘champions’ league’ of science for a long time to come. But which path should ESO choose? A small, but important step towards realisation of this vision happened a few years later, when ESA decided to place its European Coordination Facility for the Space Telescope at ESO. Operated as a joint undertaking between ESA and ESO, this group was to play a pioneering role with respect to managing large data repositories and also led to intensiﬁed links between the two European organisations in general.

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6. Years of Experimentation In 1982, Italy and Switzerland joined the organisation. Importantly, Council decided to use the entry fees of these two new member-states to fund a technology-development programme, in the shape of a new, radically different telescope that was given the appropriate name the 3.5-m New Technology Telescope (NTT). With this telescope, novel technological concepts that would pave the way for the large telescopes could be tested under real observing conditions. These concepts included the idea of thin, computercontrolled mirrors (known as ‘Active Optics’), innovative enclosure design, and a telescope that would fully exploit the tremendous progress in control electronics, detectors and multi-purpose instrument design. These technologies were crucially important for the next generation of telescopes, while at the same time leading to substantial cost reductions over traditional telescope designs. The new telescope saw ‘First Light’ in March 1989 with spectacular ﬁrst results, not just proving that these new concepts were right, but also instilling a sense of self-conﬁdence among European astronomers. As Tamman (1997) pointed out, this is an equally important element of excellence as top equipment. The NTT was placed at La Silla, which at its peak hosted 15 operating telescopes in the optical, with apertures between 0.4-m and 3.6-m, and a 15-m submillimetre telescope, operated jointly with Sweden. This telescope was the ﬁrst of its kind in the southern hemisphere and also gave ESO preliminary experience in non-optical astronomy. However, even before the NTT could demonstrate its true potential, the ESO Council had taken the monumental decision to embark on the ESO Very Large Telescope project (VLT). With four identical 8.2-m Unit Telescopes, supplemented by several moveable 1.8-m Auxiliary Telescopes, the VLT would dwarf any existing optical observatory in the world. The future looked promising for ESO and European Astronomy. In 1990, the fourth Director General, Harry van der Laan, proposed to Council to site the VLT on Cerro Paranal, 600 km north of the existing observatory La Silla, in the driest part of the Atacama desert. The decision meant that a completely new infrastructure had to be established on virgin lands, under some of the harshest conditions that can be found on Earth. Again the Council was challenged to take a bold decision of great implications for ESO. And once more, Council demonstrated great courage and trust in ESO and agreed to the construction of this entirely new facility. Few weeks thereafter, blasting began to create a platform for the VLT atop the Paranal mountain. Yet, in spite of much enthusiasm, ESO was not beyond realities of life. The preparations for the VLT project proved to be a tough task for the

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Figure 2.

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Paranal, home of the Very Large Telescope. (Courtesy ESO)

organisation, putting great strain on its staﬀ and requiring more time than originally expected, even if the actual construction was very fast. At the same time, Californian astronomers had not remained inactive: With private funds, they had embarked on their own large telescope project, leading to the construction of the ﬁrst of the twin 10-m Keck Telescopes in Hawaii. ‘Keck One’ as it became known, saw ﬁrst light in 1993, when Paranal was still a construction site immersed in thick plumes of building dust, rather than in photons from distant celestial bodies. Three important aspects of the VLT project deserve particular mention here: Firstly, the strong involvement by European industry, often with political backing, has contributed to develop European know-how and – in some cases – leadership, e.g. in mirror technology (casting and polishing of large mirrors with in-situ control), Active Optics (and Adaptive Optics), alternative mirror materials (Beryllium), etc. Secondly, the introduction of methods which were new for ground-based astronomy: e.g. ‘end-to-end’ computer modelling, standard detector controllers, as well as new concepts for operations and data ﬂow. Thirdly, ESO’s decision to devolve its instrumentation programme for the VLT, seeking close partnership with research institutes in the memberstates. In this sense, ESO established a ‘network of excellence’ involving its

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user community in the project. To the importance of harnessing expertise wherever it might be in Europe, came the strong feeling of ownership that is felt by the scientiﬁc community. ESO may be ‘owned’ by its member-states, but it ‘belongs’ to their scientists. 7. A New Golden Age for European Astronomy In May 1998, the ﬁrst of the 8.2-m telescopes, the Antu, saw ‘First Light’ producing a string of stunning images that found their way to the frontpages of newspapers and into prime-time TV. With the rapid succession of ‘First Lights’ for the remaining three telescopes, the VLT Observatory soon became a fully functional observatory, although the completion of the project, the full implementation of the VLT Interferometer – so to speak as the ‘jewel in the crown’ – would take several more years. When a new telescope is brought into use, critical eyes will examine the quality of the images and scientists look forward to exploit the light grasp of the telescope. Yet one of the most remarkable features of the VLT is its extraordinarily high level of eﬃciency, exceeding anything that the astronomical world has ever seen. This is not an expression of magic, but the result of the fact that the complete VLT was planned and constructed as an integral observatory, whereas most other facilities have grown organically with time. Furthermore, an advanced operating concept, inspired by space operations and introduced by ESO’s ﬁfth Director General, Riccardo Giacconi, has ensured that the science output of the VLT outpaces any existing, otherwise comparable facility. The shining success of the VLT has opened the gate to a new golden age for European Astronomy, especially when considered with the recent string of European space missions, such as Hipparchos, ISO and now XMMNewton and Integral. The VLT Interferometer is – also literally – ‘on track’ and has already produced ﬁrst class scientiﬁc results. Today, seven years after science operations commenced with the VLT we can begin to assess its scientiﬁc impact as measured by the dramatic rise in numbers of articles in refereed journals, including the number of highly-cited papers based on research carried out with the VLT. These papers have covered the study of some of the oldest stars in the Universe, observations of distant galaxies and galaxy clusters, ultra-high resolution imaging of the centre of Milky Way, allowing for precise determination of the mass of the black hole that is found to reside in that location, detailed studies of star formation, ﬁrst direct imaging of an exoplanet, etc. Indeed, the VLT now ‘turns out’ one refereed paper a day, and the merged La Silla Paranal Observatory currently produces more scientiﬁc papers than any other observatory in the world.

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The VLT and the next projects have also led to an increase of memberstates, with Portugal, the United Kingdom, Finland and Spain joining in rapid succession, and several other countries pursuing negotiations to becoming members2 . Last, but not least, the particular operating concept for the VLT lends itself well to building up huge repositories of data, which can be made available to the astronomical community at large. Also including the collection of HST data, the ESO Science Archive now form a cornerstone of a much larger project to federate archives across Europe and even across the globe, colloquially known as a ‘virtual observatory’. This ﬁts perfectly with ideas from other areas of science about distributed computing (‘the Grid paradigm’) and also ties well into other eﬀorts in society towards achieving a highly networked knowledge society. 8. Moving into New Territory Even before the VLT First Light, ESO had begun to think about the future. The advances in optical astronomy had spurred new ideas and projects in non-optical wavelengths, some of which were speciﬁcally designed to complement the VLT in other spectral domains. This was the case for a project for an array of submm/mm wavelength ‘telescopes’, yielding a resolution similar to that of the VLT and VLTI, but, of course, in a nonoptical passband. Submillimetre/Millimetre astronomy is the astronomy of the ‘cold Universe’. It enables the study of the ﬁrst galaxies as well as studies of star and planet formation in the Milky Way. However, the ‘radio astronomy community’ found themselves without ‘their own’ strong organisation capable of carrying out infrastructure projects in the order of hundreds of millions of Euros. It was therefore natural for ESO to oﬀer its help and it became the focal point for the European engagement in the Atacama Large Millimeter Array Project (ALMA), carried out jointly with North America with probable participation by Japan. In 2002, the ESO Council agreed to ESO’s full participation in this project, endorsing ESO’s expansion into non-optical wavelengths and thus widening its role in European Astronomy, in full accordance with the ESO Convention, which simply assigns ESO with the task of ‘promoting and organising co-operation in astronomical research’. Clearly, this decision marked an important milestone in ESO’s development, 40 years after the signing of the Convention. The baseline ALMA project involves the installation of ﬁfty 12-m antennas on a high-altitude plateau in the Chilean Andes range. This is based on a European/North American partnership with equal participation, with 2

At the time of writing (Spring 2006), Spain is foreseen to join ESO by July this year.

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ESO representing Europe as funding agency, constructor and operator. On the North American side, the funding agencies are the US National Science Foundation and the Canadian NRC and the partner in construction and operations is the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO, managed by Associated Universities, Inc.). With Japanese and Taiwanese participation the enhanced ALMA project will contain an additional 16 antennas (although 12 will be ‘only’ 7-m antennas) and also enable an expansion of the wavelength domains that can be covered. 9. The Next Challenge Yet ESO would not remain true to its tradition, if it were not already be deeply engaged in future projects. ESO has recently concluded a conceptual study for an ‘ELT-class’ telescope (Extremely Large Telescope, with aperture size >25 meters). The study focussed on a telescope with a segmented mirror of 100-m diameter, held by a super-light moveable mechanical structure, and which could be built and operated in stages. Again, the design constituted a radical break with past ideas of how telescopes ‘should be made’, allowing for dramatic cost reductions by enabling mass production of its constituent elements. This way, the requirements for a high-precision, high-tech optical instrument are combined with the prospect of industrialtype manufacturing, thereby making the project attractive also to European industry. Woltjer (2006) describes the technological development that astronomy has undergone in the 20th century as a continuous attempt to increase sensitivity, angular resolution and wavelength coverage at an ever decreasing unit cost. The development of a 21st -century ELT would surely follow this tenet. By 2003, with the ALMA decision fully consolidated, the ESO Council was prepared to take a fresh look at the future. Following the discussion of a strategic overview paper which one of us (C.C.) presented to them in June, Council created a Science Strategy Working Group and derived from its conclusions a resolution which it issued in December 2004. This asks that “the construction of an ELT on a competitive time scale be addressed by radical strategic planning”. Taking into consideration Council expressed wish and ﬁnancial realities, ESO and its community are now actively involved in the deﬁnition of the European ELT, of a more modest size than OWL, the best aﬀordable ELT that can be built rapidly and with acceptable risks, with the intention of developing a Baseline Reference Design by the end of the year. Observations with an ELT will allow a wide range of scientiﬁc questions to be addressed in ways hitherto impossible, from long-term monitoring of Solar-System objects at resolutions comparable to those oﬀered by

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Figure 3.

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The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (artist’s view). (Courtesy ESO)

space probes, a study of the intricate processes underlying the formation of stellar and planetary systems, directly detecting extra-solar ‘terrestrial’ planets and determining the composition of their ‘atmospheres’. Together with ALMA, it will scan the boundaries of the observable Universe and witness the birth of the very ﬁrst stars and galaxies. It could revolutionize our perception of the Universe as much as Galileo’s telescope did. With its projects, ESO helps to provide an environment in which European science can ﬂourish, attract and retain scientiﬁc talent – in other words remain fully competitive with other developed regions of the world. Being competitive also means being able to collaborate internationally at the appropriate level, as is evident in the ALMA project. 10. ESO and the European Research Area The year 2000 saw new political initiatives to strengthen the European R&D sector and to foster stronger trans-national cooperation in science. In the face of the challenges posed by the eﬀects of globalisation, the so-called ‘Lisbon-declaration’, adopted by the heads of states and governments of the EU member countries emphasised the need of the European economies to

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change and become ‘knowledge-based’ (it is interesting to note that one of the key elements of globalisation is the ubiquitous use of the World-Wide Web, a tool that was in fact invented at CERN). The simultaneous proposal for creating a ‘European Research Area’ (ERA) as an ‘internal market’ for ideas and researchers came to be seen as the main instrument for trans-national cooperation. A well-recognised pillar of European research, acknowledged in many ERA related documents as “Europe’s success stories”, are the European Intergovernmental Organisations, the EIROs. With strong impulse from ESO, which was ﬁrst to hold the chair, seven EIROs assembled to form a partnership, the EIROforum, which is a useful interlocutor and collaborator of the European Commission3 . In 2002 there were, throughout Europe, strong political pledges of increased funding for research, pledges which however have not been met with suﬃcient action so far. EU’s primary tool for the implementation of the ERA was the 6th Framework Programme, which began in 2002. For astronomy, funding at the level of some tens of millions of Euros (over the four-year period of FP-6) became available for the so-called infrastructure networks, such as Opticon (for optical astronomy), Radionet (for radioastronomers) and Ilias (for the young discipline of astroparticle research). These networks oﬀer collaborative structures for astronomers also from non-ESO member-states, while at the same time bringing them into closer contact with ESO, itself a member of some of the networks; they give ESO enhanced opportunities for collaborative work on a number of subjects with community laboratories and with industry. The networks comprise a large number of activities, including some technology development, particularly in adaptive optics, virtual observatories and the development of science cases for the ELT and SKA projects. Furthermore FP-6 provided ﬁnancial support for design studies for new research infrastructures and some supplementary funding for their construction (at the 2 % level for ALMA). This, for example, enabled a major, currently on-going design study for ELTs, focussing on enabling technologies. The study comprises 25 partner institutes in Europe. ESO funds the lion’s share of the study, followed by the European Commission and a number of other partners. FP-6 also oﬀered the possibility for ‘funding agencies’ of the memberstates to coordinate their activities. This resulted in the Astronet, a collaboration of the main funders of astronomy in Europe, including ESO. The task of Astronet is to develop a strategic vision for the whole of European astronomy. 3

These are CERN, ESA,EFDA, EMBL, ESO, ESRF and ILL.

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In parallel with these new initiatives, ESO has continued, and in fact strengthened, its partnership with ESA. The European Coordination Facility for the Space Telescope (ST/ECF), already mentioned, play an important role, not just in terms of its formal tasks but also as an interface between the scientists in the two organisations. ESO and ESA have also established joint working groups to discuss research activities in which synergies between ground-based and space-borne observations are obvious. These areas include exo-planet research, cosmology and synergies between ALMA and the Herschel mission. Also, within the EIROforum partnership, ESO and ESA work closely together in a number of areas relating to science and society. 11. Beyond Frontline Astronomy ESO is often described in the context of its contribution to European science or the technology development associated with its activities. Clearly, the organisation derives its raison d’ˆetre from its achievements in these areas. But by virtue of its activities and inherent multi-cultural character, it not only plays an important role both in projecting Europe’s image and aspirations, as well as her scientiﬁc and technological competence, but also act as an interface between Europe and the wider world, in particular of course, the United States and Latin America. We also wish to mention the role of astronomy as a vehicle for attracting young people to science. Recent surveys (see for example Sjøberg 2002) show that astronomy-related topics score high on the list of subjects that interest young people in the western world. ESO has developed a dedicated long-term educational programme, in a very successful collaboration with ESA, the other organisations within the EIROforum and the European Commission. This way, ESO can help tackle one of the potentially most serious long-term threats to society: The shrinking recruitment base of R&D personnel in Europe. It should not be missed that introducing a European dimension also in this area provides another important perspective: giving young people an appreciation of a common European background and enabling them to enjoy a sense of pride and participation in a great, European scientiﬁc endeavour. Indeed, the notion of developing a knowledge-based society and economy that is a dominant element in the contemporary political debate in Europe, implies strong and multifaceted interaction between science and society on a scale never experienced before. ESO’s activities in the ﬁeld of public outreach are substantial and has a role to play in reinforcing Europe’s intellectual infrastructure.

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12. Conclusions We have reviewed the evolution of ESO as Europe’s primary astronomy organisation, a development that is accelerating these years as more countries decide to join, undoubtedly to beneﬁt from the ELT-era. We have seen the recurring element of competition with the US both as a stimulus for European astronomy and a requirement for participation in joint infrastructure projects at the appropriate level. Indeed the importance of competitive infrastructures to enable cutting-edge research, but also as a catalyst for structuring the research community and channelling its wishes and desires, becomes clear. We have also noted the long time and the huge eﬀorts needed for European science to regain lost ground, once it had fallen behind, and we have discussed the importance of collaboration within Europe to facilitate the recovery. Undoubtedly, Europe’s astronomers have beneﬁted enormously from the vision and resilience of the founding fathers of ESO – scientists, administrators and politicians. And the support by society at large. But what did we give back to society? The demonstration that European nations, if they get together in bona ﬁde towards a clear common goal, can achieve resounding success. As we have discussed transatlantic competition at length, it belongs to our story to acknowledge the encouragement given towards European collaboration by individuals and institutions in the United States. It fell on the US delegate Isidor I. Rabi to propose a resolution about a European collaboration in particle physics at the Unesco conference in 1950. ESO also enjoyed crucial support from beyond the Atlantic Ocean. Walter Baade, the German-American astronomer, clearly played a key role in formulating the very idea of a joint, European observatory. No less important was the donation of one million US dollars by the Ford Foundation given to the ﬂedgling observatory. As in 1959-60 the ESO project threatened to founder due to the withdrawal of the United Kingdom, the Ford grant (which constituted 20 % of what was initially estimated to be the required capital outlay) was pivotal in securing the continued support by the remaining ﬁve countries, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. Indeed, this grant was discussed at the highest levels, including Jean Monnet and presumably even President de Gaulle of France (Edmundson 1991). While ESO is now a research organisation of pan-European interest, on all generally accepted performance parameters, it has also become the benchmark institution for large areas of ground-based astronomical research worldwide. It embodies the best of Europe, yet it serves all of human civilization.

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References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Edmundson, F.K. 1991, The Ford Foundation and the European Southern Observatory, in ESO’s Early History, A. Blaauw, European Southern Obs., Garching, p. 255. Møller Pedersen, K. 2002, Ole Rømers opdagelse af lysets tøven, in Højdepunkter i dansk naturvidenskab, Ed. J. Teuber, Gads Forlag, 57-63. Moore, P. 1977, The Story of Astronomy, Macdonald, 66-88. Sjøberg, S. 2002, Science and Technology Education – Current Challenges and Possible Solutions, in Innovations in Science and Technology Education – Vol. VIII, Ed. E. Jenkins, UNESCO, Paris. Tammann, G. 1997, The Role of ESO in European Astronomy, in History of European Scientiﬁc and Technological Cooperation, Eds. J. Krige & L. Guzzetti, Oﬃce for Oﬃcial Publications of the European Communities, 120-133. Woltjer, L. 2006, Europe’s Quest for the Universe, EDP Sciences, Paris, 20-21.

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THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE SCIENCE INSTITUTE (ISSI) – AN INTERVIEW WITH ROGER M. BONNET

Abstract. In this interview, Roger M. Bonnet1 recalls the history and describes the activities of the “International Space Science Institute” (ISSI2 ) founded in 1995 and devoted to achieving a deeper understanding from space research missions, ground-based observations and laboratory experiments.

Editor (Ed.): Professor Bonnet, we should probably start with a bit of history and recall ISSI’s purpose? Roger M. Bonnet (RMB): ISSI was founded in 1995, under Swiss law as a not-for-proﬁt organization and with an initial endowment by the leading Swiss company Contraves Space AG. ISSI’s main task is to contribute to the achievement of a deeper understanding of the results of space research missions. Ed.: Could we say that ISSI is a research institution? RMB: Not exactly. The best deﬁnition for ISSI is that of an institute for advanced studies in space sciences where scientists from all over the world meet in a multi- and inter-disciplinary context. In other words, ISSI’s main function is to achieve a deeper understanding from diﬀerent space research missions, ground-based observations and laboratory experiments (Fig. 2). It adds value to those results in an atmosphere of international cooperation. It is a catalyzer of science. Ed.: How are you operating? 1 2

ISSI, 6 Hallerstrasse, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland ([email protected]). http://www.issi.unibe.ch/

115 A. Heck (ed.), Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, 115–124. © 2006 Springer.

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RMB: Three statutory bodies3 and a supporting association (cf. Fig. 3) interact regularly in matters of strategy, operations, ﬁnances and public relations. We also use to say that ISSI’s role is basically to be seen as recycling and accumulating knowledge and that more science is created and extracted with little additional expenditure. Ed.: In other words, you are not developing your own spacecraft, hardware, nor data collecting experiments? RMB: This is the point. ISSI is not operating instruments nor facilities. We are not fullﬁlling the rˆ ole of a space agency. We increase and amplify the scientiﬁc output from space missions through interdisciplinary analysis of the disparate datasets they provide (cf. Fig. 4). Ed.: This makes ISSI unique in the world. RMB: Exactly. ISSI’s approach could be characterized by a few keywords: – international, as, since its opening, ISSI has hosted scientists from all parts of the world featuring 36 countries with the two largest contributors (cf. Fig. 5) being Europe (56%) and the US (32%); – interdisciplinary approach, in the sense that ISSI is at best when bringing together people from communities that otherwise would not talk to each other, and when addressing themes that are not yet addressed through monodisciplinary analysis; – integrative policy, since ISSI provides fora for addressing and resolving controversies; – academic environment, via relative seclusion together with high-level state-of-the-art support in a continuously updated infrastructure; – quality label, as testiﬁed by ISSI’s publications recording the institution added value; – and again catalyzing and enabling science rather than just doing it. Ed.: Over ten years of activity, ISSI has grown from newborn to fully mature institution. What are the major trends you would retain? RMB: Originally the scientiﬁc programme was predominantly focussed on solar-system science: Sun, solar wind, solar-terrestrial physics, heliosphere, cosmic rays, terrestrial planets, including connections with astrophysics, cosmology and our planet Earth. More recently the Earth sciences as such, 3

http://www.issi.unibe.ch/bodies.html

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Figure 1.

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R.M. Bonnet. (Courtesy ISSI)

as well as astrobiology and space instrumentation have integrated the ﬁelds tackled. Ed.: The 2004-2005 Annual Report (ISSI 2005) has been released not so long ago. It is gathering together an impressive list of items. RMB: Our range of activities is quite varied: workshops, working groups, international teams, fora, ... Ed.: Could you please brieﬂy describe them for our readers? RMB: In our Workshops, up to ﬁfty invited scientists work during a week, possible two, on a speciﬁc theme that has been deﬁned by ISSI in consultation with the Science Committee that has an eﬀective approval rˆ ole; the outcome is published in ISSI’s refereed Space Sciences Series (Springer) and in Space Science Reviews; we have yearly three or four workshops. The Working Groups are of a smaller size (some 10 to 20 participants) and are

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devoted to more technical themes, also deﬁned by ISSI in consultation with the Science Committee; the working groups typically meet several times for about one week each; the output is published in ISSI’s Scientiﬁc Reports Series (ESA). The International Teams gather together from 3 to 15 participants with a ﬂexible schedule such as, for instance, two periods of one week separated by several months; their topics are proposed by the community following an open Announcement of Opportunity and are recommended by the Science Committee to ISSI for selection; the output goes into scientiﬁc journals; there were twenty such teams in 2005. Finally the Fora assemble up to 20 participants for a couple of days to debate or review science topics or science policy matters. Ed.: Is ISSI covering all the expenses? RMB: Largely so indeed. ISSI covers local expenses for all participants, beyond providing meeting and working facilities. Travel expenses are also covered in some cases: organizers, fora participants, ... Ed.: Actually, who in turn is funding ISSI? RMB: The European Space Agency (ESA) is the major contributor (some 60%) with 1 MEuros/year from the Science Programme Committee (SPC budget. Several Swiss sources contribute to the remaining 40%: the Swiss Confederation, the University of Bern and the Swiss National Science Foundation. There are/have been also contributions in “kind” from Contraves Space AG, from the University of Bern, as well as indirect ones from the major space agencies such as NASA and JAXA. Ed.: You had an interesting comment about the eﬀective rˆ ole of the Science Committee. Could you be more speciﬁc on this? RMB: The Science Committee’s responsibilities are: – to render scientiﬁc advice to the directorate, e.g. on the selection of future workshops; – to evaluate the proposals for scientiﬁc teams and to issue recommendations for selection; – to render scientiﬁc advice to the Board of Trustees, e.g. on the appointment of directors. Ed.: Who were ...

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Figure 2.

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The place of ISSI in recycling and accumulating knowledge. (Courtesy ISSI)

Figure 3.

The structure of ISSI. (Courtesy ISSI)

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RMB: Prof. Johannes Geiss was ISSI’s founding father, nominated Executive Director in 1995. He is Honorary Director since January 2003 when I succeeded him. Our directorate presently includes also Andr´e Balogh and Rudolf von Steiger as Directors. Ed.: Actually how large is your staﬀ ? RMB: Only a dozen people, from the managers to the supporting staﬀ via the discipline scientists, are handling the complexities of an annual programme which sees some 300 external scientists giving life to the activities just described. For instance a Workshop typically calls for one year and half of hard work from conception to end. Ed.: Can we give an estimate of the total number of external people who have been involved in ISSI’s activities to date? RMB: Roughly some 1400 people from 36 countries have participated in ISSI’s activities so far (cf. Fig. 5). Ed.: ISSI’s web site is quite informative and lists the various scientiﬁc themes. RMB: Three Workshops have been selected for 2006, on strategies for life detection, on Mercury, on comet science, and an additional one on NASA’s ACE mission, mostly funded by the US which want the ISSI label on the meeting. In 2005, our three Workshops were dealing with solar dynamics and its eﬀects on the heliosphere and the Earth, solar variability and planetary climates, as well as geology and habitability of terrestrial planets. There was also in 2005 a Working Group on the composition of comets in preparation for the Rosetta mission. A noticeable Forum has been devoted to the relationships between science and the media in March 2005. Ed.: Most of the International Teams have even their own homepages. RMB: The full list is available from ISSI’s web site, with indeed links to dedicated web pages. As examples, I would just mention the last themes selected for International Teams: impulsive solar energetic particles events, investigation of the Pioneer anomaly, observing the early universe, transiting extra-solar planets, etc. Ed.: ISSI publications were already mentioned earlier when you were talking of the various activities. Can we come back to them in more details?

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Figure 4.

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ISSI’s interdisciplinary approach. (Courtesy ISSI)

RMB: Certainly (cf. Fig. 6): – The Space Sciences Series of ISSI is made of topical volumes resulting from the Workshops, published by Springer as hard-cover books and as issues of Space Science Reviews. To date, twenty two volumes are available, and three are in press or in preparation. – The ISSI’s Scientiﬁc Reports gather together volumes of a more technical nature, published by ESA’s Publications Division. Two volumes are currently available and three are in preparation. – Spatium oﬀer popular articles, published by the Association Pro-ISSI. Thirteen issues are currently available. – Scientiﬁc papers, mostly by Teams and individual visitors, are issued in international, peer-reviewed journals, published together with ISSI aﬃliation or with acknowledgements to ISSI. Ed.: To wrap up this interview, what would you say about the future? RMB: As mentioned earlier, ISSI’s staﬀ is small, as are its facilities and

Figure 5. International participation in ISSI activities (∼1400 people from 36 countries). (Courtesy ISSI)

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Figure 6.

A sample of ISSI’s publications (see text). (Courtesy ISSI)

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budget, but its eﬃcency is at the level of the wide horizons tackled through an intricated network of activities. Following discussions held at the last ISSI Forum on Earth Sciences, it is envisaged to oﬀer to the Earth Sciences community a service similar to what we are oﬀering to space scientists. This is a new challenge and we are looking forward to implementing this new and important program. After ten years of existence, it is normal that we look at ourselves, critically analyzing what we have been good at and investigating which new tools should be developed to accomplish our mission. It is expected that the future rˆ ole of ISSI in the area of Earth Sciences will lead to major progress in a ﬁeld where the two most obvious assets of ISSI – internationalization and interdisciplinarity – are essential to permit that progress. References 1.

Geiss, J. & Hultqvist, B. (Eds.) 2005, The Solar System and Beyond – Ten Years of ISSI, ISSI Scientiﬁc Report SR-003, ISSI/ESA, Bern/Noordwijk, vi + 256 pp. (ISSN 1608-280x) ISSI 2004, International Space Science Institute Annual Report 2003-2004, Bern, 52 pp. ISSI 2005, International Space Science Institute Annual Report 2004-2005, Bern, 52 pp. ISSI Brochure4

2. 3. 4.

4

http://www.issi.unibe.ch/PDF-Files/ISSI Brochure.pdf

THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE UNIVERSITY (ISU)

WALTER PEETERS

International Space University Parc d’Innovation 1, rue Jean-Dominique Cassini F-67400 Illkirch-Graﬀenstaden, France [email protected]

Abstract. The International Space University (ISU) was created in 1986 with a cooperative vision on space activities, compared to the previous, competitive oriented space era. It started of with a Summer School Program and was housed since 2002 in its new campus in Strasbourg, France, housing the permanent master level programs. In all its programs ISU follows the same pedagogical principle, bringing an international group of students together and create this way an intercultural approach towards space activities. Moreover, all aspects of space are covered, as well scientiﬁc as technical ones, over business oriented to legal and even humanities related ones. This principle has been consequently baptized the ‘3I’ approach. Its approximately 2006 present alumni can thus be found in all aspects of space activities, both in agencies and governmental organisations, as well in industrial and entrepreneurial space ﬁelds. With the growing interest in space exploration, astronomy and planetary sciences are playing an increasingly important role in its curriculum, as will be further described in this chapter.

1. Introduction The International Space University, ISU, has been created in particular around the theme “Space”. Whereas on the one hand this represents a clean limitation from a topical point of view, on the other hand, the broadness is vested in the interdisciplinary character by joining all aspects related to space. Diversiﬁcation is obtained by selecting students and faculty on the so-called 3I-principle, which stands for: – International 125 A. Heck (ed.), Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, 125–153. © 2006 Springer.

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– Intercultural – Interdisciplinary. Indeed, a speciﬁc eﬀort is made to ensure participation of an international as possible group, whereby each group in the diﬀerent program is typically composed of 26-28 diﬀerent nationalities. The intercultural character aims to create a micro cosmos whereby the participants of the programs, even if they belong to highly competitive (space) nationalities, are working together during a period of time. Due to this intensive contact, reinforced by internet based networking tools such contacts remain forever and therefore, hopefully may contribute to a future society with higher cross-cultural tolerance. As far as one particular aspect is concerned, a better gender distribution in the future space world is targeted by steering towards a 30 percent female participation in the groups, which is far superior in comparison with the present gender distribution in the space sector. The interdisciplinary character is rather unique as an educational model. It is reﬂected in the distribution of participants, faculty and lectures over diﬀerent disciplines covered. All aspects related to space are covered in each program, varying from scientiﬁc and technical ones over life sciences and medicine, business and management, policy and law and even pure humanities related topics (philosophy, art ...). Students with a background in any discipline may be accepted for the program, on condition that they clearly demonstrate their interest in space activities to the admissions committee. The central ISU campus is located in Strasbourg, France (ISU 2006) but all programs and activities reﬂect this 3I principle, as will be described in the next chapters. We will ﬁrst recall the history of this unique university, which came as a reﬂection after the “Space Race” in order to represent a more visionary and global space society. In order to do so, a number of programs have been developed of diﬀerent durations. Description and content of these programs will be the subject of the next chapter. Although having a short existence, ISU has achieved already a remarkable success and its approximately 2600 alumni (status: 2006) constitute a strong network in the present space community. More detailed description of these results will be highlighted in a dedicated chapter. All space-related disciplines are, in various degrees, covered in ISU. Evidently, astronomy represents an important place in this curriculum and will be more detailed in the last chapter. 2. The History of ISU Three young space enthusiasts created in 1985 a foundation, called the Space Generation, dedicated to helping foster a sense of identity for those

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ISU Central Campus in Strasbourg. (Courtesy: ISU)

people born since the start of the Space Era (Hawley 1986). The founders were Peter Diamandis, a medical doctor with a PhD in aerospace engineering; Todd Hawley, a graduate from the famous Space Policy Institute at Georges Washington University, and Bob Richards, an engineer and physicist, and former assistant of the well-known astrophysicist Carl Sagan. They generated a series of novel ideas from which a ‘Space University’ was one of the best received ones. It got the support of a number of important personalities in the space ﬁeld such as U.R. Rao, President of the Indian Space Research Organization, Harrison Schmitt, an Apollo 17 astronaut and former senator, G.K. O’Neill from the Space Studies Institute, space pioneer H. Oberth and Arthur C. Clarke, the visionary writer along with many others.

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This initiative was further developed and presented to a broader audience (Diamandis & Sunshine 1986) and lead to a 3 days event at MIT (10-12 April 1987) with the formal creation of the International Space University. The date was evidently chosen to commemorate the ﬁrst human spaceﬂight of Yuri Gagarin (12 April 1961) and one of the strong ISU supporters, Arthur C. Clark, worded its creation as follows: “The ﬁrst universities helped to bring mankind out of the Dark Ages and into the Renaissance. They demonstrated a potential to unshackle the minds and spirits of the people of their time. In our day, there are few institutions which satisfy any higher individual aspirations or greater interests of humanity. The International Space University may well become an essential cornerstone in leading humanity ahead in space and on Earth in the century to come.”

Evidently, this new concept raised a lot of public interest in articles in inter alia The New York Times, The Australian and even The Pravda. The ﬁrst Summer Session Program was developed based upon this success, and with the help of major space agencies, and took place at MIT in the period 20 June 1988 – 20 August 1988. The artwork for the ﬁrst brochure was made by the well-known artist Pat Rawling. The resulting International Space University is an international institution of higher learning, dedicated to the development of outer space for peaceful purposes through international and multidisciplinary education and research programs (ISU Bylaws, Art 2.1). The International Space University (ISU), as a dynamic institution of higher education, is therefore dedicated to the creation, expansion, exchange and dissemination of knowledge and ideas related to Space and Space Activities. c 3 non-proﬁt educational organization It has been established as a 501 in the State of Massachusetts in the USA. Following an international competition for the establishment of its Central Campus, ISU moved in 1994 in the Urban Community of Strasbourg, France. It is presently a non-proﬁt educational institution registered in Alsace (France), and still registered in c 3 non-proﬁt educational organization. The members the USA as a 501 of ISU, called the “Governing Members”, are international organizations, industries, Space Agencies, Academic Institutions and individual members. ISU Headquarters are located at Illkirch-Graﬀenstaden in the Urban Community of Strasbourg in brand new facilities, specially built by the French Government, the Region Alsace, the Department of Bas-Rhin and the Urban Community of Strasbourg. It is part of a complex gathering parts of University Louis Pasteur, of University Robert Schuman and high-tech industries. Over the evolution, however, ISU’s mission and vision have remained unchanged:

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Figure 2. The three founders of ISU: (left to right) T. Hawley, B. Richards and P. Diamandis. (Courtesy: ISU)

“The International Space University is founded on the vision of a peaceful, prosperous and boundless future through the study, exploration and development of Space for the beneﬁt of all humanity. ISU is an institution dedicated to international cooperation, collaboration and open, scholarly pursuits related to outer space exploration and development. It is a place where students and faculty from all backgrounds are welcomed; where diversity of culture, philosophy, lifestyle, training and opinion are honored and nurtured” (ISU Credo, Par. 2 & 3, Peter Diamandis, Todd B. Hawley, Robert D. Richards, ISU Founders).

The vision of ISU is therefore: – to be the preeminent institution for interdisciplinary, international and intercultural space education and research that • develops and inspires future space leaders and professionals, in particular by delivering innovative programs, both on and oﬀ the Earth, • contributes to the creation, expansion, exchange and dissemination of knowledge and ideas; – to constitute a worldwide community that is a collaborative network of broadly educated and visionary space professionals;

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– to enable, with its community, the exploration, development and peaceful use of space for the improvement of life on Earth and the advancement of humanity into space. And the resulting mission of ISU: – to develop the future leaders of the world space community by providing interdisciplinary educational programs to students and space professionals in an international and intercultural environment. – to serve also as a neutral international forum for the exchange of knowledge and ideas about challenging issues related to space and applications. – to deliver programs that impart critical knowledge and skills essential to future space initiatives in the public and private sectors while they inspire enthusiasm, promote international understanding and cooperation, and foster an interactive global network of students, teachers and alumni; – to encourage the innovative development of space for peaceful purposes so as to improve life on Earth and enable the advancement of humanity into space. In order to meet these challenges and to keep in breath with the rapid changes in Space, ISU questioned the Space Sector on its evolving needs in Education. A survey on Space Training and Education was performed at the end of 1996: A questionnaire was sent to the Human Resource/Personnel/Training Departments within 158 organizations in spacerelated agencies or industries in 17 Countries worldwide. An international workshop was held in Strasbourg on 8-9 December 1996 on “Strategies for Training Space Professionals”. During this workshop, 40 participants from 9 countries answered the following questions: Given the trend in the environment, what are the three biggest training and development needs and challenges? What are the most viable options in training and development to meet these requirements? The participants coming from industry (about 1/3), government (about 1/3) and Academia (about 1/3), and representing small, medium and large organizations, could give signiﬁcant responses. A Space Education Questionnaire seeking input on how to proceed to improve higher education programs, professional development and Training Oﬀerings in the ﬁeld of Space, was circulated in January 1997 to Space Agencies, Space Industries, foundations and academic institutions. In order to digest al the information gathered, ISU and the Space Agency Forum organized at ISU in May 1997 a workshop on Space Education. It was followed the same year by an IAF/ISU workshop on education held during the IAF Congress at Turin in 1997. The year after, in cooperation with the Space and Education Committee of IAF and the SAF, ISU organized, during the International Astronautical Congress

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Brochure of the ﬁrst Summer Session (1988). (Courtesy: ISU)

at Melbourne in September 1998, a world workshop on education. This workshop allowed more than 60 participants to discuss what skill-sets and abilities are now required in the Space Sector, How are educational institutions responding to these needs, and what is the best balance between initial basic education and career-long educational renewal. The needs that emerged from all these inquiries reinforced the vision of ISU and provided the hints to better adjust its mission, its pedagogy and the goals and contents of its programs to these needs. The space world represents a rapid changing environment and, in order to comply with its needs, educational programs require regular adjustments. On the basis of a new inquiry in 2002, a new number of industry needs were expressed and evaluated. As these needs revealed a large number of

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TABLE 1. ISU major milestones. Date

Milestone

1987 1988 1993 1993 1994 1995 1996 2000 2002 2003 2004 2004

ISU Founding Conference and Incorporation in USA First Summer Session at MIT in Cambridge MA, USA Strasbourg Selected as Location for ISU Central Campus First Aﬃliate Conference in Huntsville AL, USA ISU Relocates to Strasbourg and Incorporates in Alsace First Master in Space Studies (MSS) Program based in Strasbourg First Short Programs (Symposium, Workshops and PDP) Groundbreaking for ISU Central Campus Building Oﬃcial Opening of ISU Central Campus Building First Introductory Space Course (ISC) held in Strasbourg Oﬃcial Accreditation by the French Ministry of Education First Master of Space Management (MSM) Program

new requirements for lectures and workshops, as well as more hands-on activities, two measures were taken: – Creation of two parallel streams, one more technical/scientiﬁc-oriented and one more management/policy-oriented. – The program was extended from eleven to twelve months. After detailed examination of the programs oﬀered, oﬃcial accreditation from the French Government was obtained in 2004 (decree MENS0400386A of 27 February 2004). In line with its increasing international recognition, the International University has permanent observer status, since 1998, with the Committee for Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) of the United Nations Oﬃce for Outer Space Aﬀairs. ISU was also granted full membership of the Space Agency Forum (SAF) in 1995 at the 3rd meeting of the Forum, held in Oslo. Furthermore, ISU is a member of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF). It has been invited to contribute to several other international activities. They include Asia-Paciﬁc Regional Space Agency Forum (APRSAF), IAF Specialists’ Symposium – “Bringing Space into Education”, World Space Workshop on Education, National Science Week Steering Committee, etc. The milestones of ISU’s – short – history are recapitulated in Table 1.

Figure 4.

A typical ISU MSS class. (Courtesy: ISU)

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3. The ISU Programs Committed to excellence in space education, ISU oﬀers, with the support of the world space community and within an international and intercultural environment, speciﬁc interdisciplinary post-graduate programs in Space Studies. These graduate programs prepare professionals of all sectors to meet the present and future challenges of international space cooperation, as well as the challenges implied by the restructuring of the Space Sector. Programs oﬀered by ISU (ISU 2006) are dedicated to the future career development of graduate students and professionals from all nations seeking advancement in space-related ﬁelds. Tailored to the needs of postgraduates and professionals in the Space sector or those who wish to work in this sector, ISU oﬀers two kinds of programs: – Programs delivered each year on a regular basis: • three graduate programs: a twelve-month Master in Science (MSc) of Space Studies (MSS), a twelve-month Master in Science (MSc) of Space Management (MSM) and a two-month Summer Session Program (SSP); • an Introductory Space Course: a one-week course providing a basic introduction to space topics; • two annual conferences, one of which being organized under the responsibility of the Alumni: The Alumni Conference and the ISU Annual Symposium. – Short programs (1 day to 2 weeks): Delivered on demand and/or to respond to a speciﬁc need, these programs include: Professional Development Programs, Workshops, Short courses, and Forums Participation in International Space University Programs is open to individuals and institutions of all nationalities. As an open academic forum, ISU welcome open and free discussions within its network respecting its Code of Conduct and Ethics. These programs are presented in more detail in the program handbooks, and the web site of ISU (ISU 2006). In order to meet the needs expressed by industry, the pedagogy aims at giving each ISU student – an understanding of the interactions between all the space-related disciplines, leading to a coherent view of the Space and Space related activities, understood as a complex system; – an appreciation of global perspective, and of the challenges presented by the international character of space activities and their applications, including the diﬀerences in method and logic which underlie

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planning and decisions, largely inﬂuenced by cultural and disciplinary backgrounds. In addition, the pedagogy reinforces active participation of the students, and hands-on exercises, in order to give them the ability: – to make appropriate decisions at the appropriate time, using critical thinking and foresight, – to understand the methods of working and of management in various countries, – to lead international teams and to manage international projects by taking care of the diﬀerent cultural approaches, the political and legal implications and the budgetary and ﬁnancial issues, – to communicate with the diﬀerent partners and the public, and to bridge industrial, governmental and academic perspectives. A short presentation of the respective programs is given hereafter. Master of Science Curriculum (MSS and MSM) MSS and MSM are graduate-level program degrees designed for individuals seeking professional development or further academic study. This advanced professional degree course entails twelve months of highly intensive graduate study, which include a three-month professional internship and several trips and visits of professional interest. The main elements of the programs are: – a balanced series of lectures covering all major disciplines related to space, with workshops and roundtables, – a series of lectures on contemporary space-related issues and events which as a whole provide an interdisciplinary and intercultural education, – Team Design Projects involving most, if not all, of those disciplines, – Individual Projects performed during the academic year and during an internship period, – Professional visits and participation to ISU Annual Symposium, – Skill training. This broad program is complemented by more detailed study in the area of the individual student’s main interest achieved through advanced lectures, specialized seminars, Individual Projects and through a Student Internship period for practical training at a chosen ISU partner. The course is divided into 5 modules, which can be taken over a period of up to 7 years. Students having successfully completed a Summer Session can join directly Module 2. The curriculum is structured in such a way as to build progressively upon the knowledge assimilated during each module, simultaneously broadening cross-disciplinary scope and acquiring more speciﬁc knowledge in each

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Figure 5.

Structure of the Master programs and interrelation with SSP.

ﬁeld. The program is delivered in such a way as to make sure students understand the relationships and interaction between the various components and disciplines related to space activities at each phase of a space program or space mission. The program also provides for the acquisition of necessary skills such as eﬃcient team-working, international project management, presentation and computer skills, and information retrieval. It provides experience of diﬀerent cultures and problem solving thanks to 3-I teams. The general structure of the Master programs and the interaction between both streams is given in Fig. 5. Summer Session Program (SSP) The ISU SSP is an intensive 9-weeks academic experience at the postgraduate level, dedicated to teaching the international, interdisciplinary and intercultural aspects of the exploration and development of space for peaceful purposes. It provides an overview of international space activities. The interdisciplinary curriculum opens the students to new perspectives on the world’s space activities, All the major space-related disciplines are studied through interaction with an international faculty, eminent in their respective ﬁelds. This, in combination with the team work of a Design Project, broadens the participants’ knowledge beyond that of their original specialization and gives them a greatly improved awareness and understanding of all space related activities.

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Figure 6.

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SSP structure.

The general structure of a SSP is given in Fig. 6. Presently, the SSP curriculum comprises: – a Core Lecture Series giving all the student a common fundamental knowledge on Space, Space programs and Space related activities; – theme days presenting keys/issues of Space with an interdisciplinary approach; – a Distinguished Lecture Series, giving the point of view or presenting the experience of persons who have made outstanding contributions to Space and/or space-related activities; – faculty/student workshops, giving students the opportunity to discuss with faculty problems of their interest or to have practical applications of the knowledge given in the lectures; – individual assignments performed under the supervision of the Faculty in the frame of a Department; – a Design Project, performed within an international team of students and giving each of them the opportunity to learn and practice teamworking and project management in the design of a phase A project; – experience in diﬀerent cultures and problem solving approach within departmental activities and Design Project Teams. The Introductory Space Course A need was identiﬁed, as the result of the questionnaires, to organize an introductory course covering synoptically space topics. The target group for this course is much diversiﬁed and comprises inter alia: – non-technical space managers from departments such as ﬁnance, legal aﬀairs, outreach ...

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Figure 7.

Example of an Introductory Space Course (ISC).

– technical specialists looking for a refresher course and an extension into other domains, such as space law and policy, – space enthusiasts in general, – policy makers from (inter) governmental organizations involved in space related applications. The course is organized during ﬁve days in ISU by the ISU faculty, experienced in transmitting the diﬀerent concepts to a broader audience. The course will be organized in 2006 for the third time with increasing success. A typical program is shown in Fig. 7. Human resources are key factors in the development and progress of space technology and its uses for the beneﬁt of humankind. How should we educate space professionals so that they are able to meet the needs and

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TABLE 2. Skill analysis resulting from inquiries. Providers

Users

All

Inter-disciplinary, Intercultural and Internat. approach of knowledge International & intercultural opening, Teamwork within internat., intercultural and interdisciplinary teams

Engineers & Scientists

• New skills to achieve faster, better, cheaper products • Understand users needs

Business Managmnt

• Respond to user needs • Become “intelligent” customer • Technology management • Able to develop business and marketing within complex political, cultural, administrative and commercial structures

Policy & Decision Making

• Appreciation of global perspectives and of the challenges of Space • Understand other cultures, other national ways & practices contracts, policy, risks/liability/control

• – – •

New skills to evaluate potentials of space use and sell space “products” Understand technical constraints

challenges of this evolving sector in a changing world? The question takes on added importance when it is appreciated that space programs worldwide are becoming increasingly inter- national and commercial in nature. In order to give an appropriate answer, the International Space University (ISU) was created to inspire, educate and train the future professionals of the emerging global space community. The main needs resulting from the changes in the space sector identiﬁed after the series of inquiries presented earlier are summed up in Table 2. In order to meet these needs, the ISU programs aim therefore at: – developing the creativity and the value of each ISU graduate and to inspire their enthusiasm on Space and Space related activities, encouraging independent thoughts and a spirit of initiative, – providing each ISU student with • a basic knowledge, both technical and non technical, in all spacerelated ﬁelds, covering scientiﬁc, technical, legal, commercial and social disciplines, • an understanding of the interactions between all these disciplines, leading to a coherent view of the Space Sector and space related activity

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• an appreciation of global perspective, and of the challenges presented by understood as a complex system, the international character of space activities and their applications, including the differences in method and logic which underlie planning and decisions, largely inﬂuenced by cultural and disciplinary backgrounds, – developing each ISU student’s skills in critical thinking, strategic planning and foresight, organization, management, team building and presentation, – giving each student the opportunity • to apply this knowledge and these skills in dealing with interdisciplinary and international issues and challenges , • to learn how to interact an work in an international and multicultural environment using English language • to participate in a multidisciplinary design study emphasizing new ideas, and developing team working and project management skills in an international environment, – making each ISU graduate part of a network of colleagues with a similar interest from around the world. To this end, ISU programs are taught by an international Teaching & Research Body of renowned individuals from Academia, Industry, and Space Agencies. Since ISU teachers come from diﬀerent organization, different cultures and diﬀerent nationalities, they give ISU Students the opportunity to approach the issues dealt with from diﬀerent points of views, diﬀerent culture and diﬀerent nationalities. By providing such a unique experience highly valued by the Alumni, the programs of ISU are an ideal forum for participants to forge relationships with each other and with distinguished space professionals and alumni from around the world. They introduce them into a very eﬃcient and dynamic professional network that includes leading ﬁgures from space-related industries, government, international organizations and universities around the world, paving their way for success. In order to fulﬁll its international commitments, ISU is an international “Network University” which is composed of an Institutional network, a professional network linked by an electronic network. This network comprises: – the Central Campus located at Illkirch, a city of the Strasbourg Urban Community in FRANCE, where the Headquarters are located; – ISU North American Oﬃce, located at Washington DC in the USA; – 21 Aﬃliate Campuses in diﬀerent countries across the ﬁve continents; – 18 Summer Session Host Institutions, spread out from continents;

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Figure 8.

141

The ISU network. (Courtesy: ISU)

– Internship Host Institutions also spread out in the four continents of the world; – National Liaisons and Foundations spread throughout the world; – ISU Faculty and Lecturers from around the world who form an invaluable international resource of knowledge and experience; – Sponsors and Partners (University and Research Institutes, Industries, Space Agencies); – ISU alumni, who form a vibrant and global network of 2600 highly dedicated professionals, grouped within diﬀerent Alumni Associations; – Governing members; – Members of the various ISU governing boards and councils. Thanks to this unique international network, ISU provides its students with an equally unique international and intercultural experience, giving them the opportunity to meet key members of the space community coming from all the parts of the world. It oﬀers them to be part of a very eﬃcient and active international network. 4. Achievements Being designed to meet the needs of the Space Community, the programs enhance the future career development of graduate students and profes-

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Figure 9.

ISU SSP locations. (Courtesy: ISU)

sionals from all nations and with all backgrounds seeking advancement in space-related ﬁelds and a widening of their perception of the sector. In order to do so, it is necessary to continuously adapt both initial and continuing education to the rapid evolution of techniques and utilization of space. That implies a need to update not only the curriculum of the programs An important contribution to this geographical spread are the summer session programs (SSP), which have been taking place all over the world, as we can note from Fig. 9 and Table 3. This geographical distribution of SSP locations is a deliberate choice for a number of reasons. The visionary character of ISU also wants to bring space closer to the overall worldwide community. Evidently, the emphasis is diﬀerent. Emerging development countries’ interests lay primarily in space applications. The ﬁrst need is related to communications. The risk of broadening the gap between developed and developing countries due to lacking access to (broadband) communications is recognized and called the ‘digital divide’. The use of communication satellites in such countries, where terrestrial lines are diﬃcult to install due to the considerable distances is diﬃcult, is therefore of paramount importance. Another important space application for these countries is remote sensing, which can be supportive for basic needs such as detection of water sources, planning of infrastructure, agricultural applications etc., all of them

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TABLE 3. SSP locations. Date

SSP Location

1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA Univ. Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France York University, Toronto, Canada ´ Ecole National de l’Aviation, Toulouse, France Kitakyushu Institute, Japan University of Alabama, Huntsville, AL, USA Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain Royal Inst. of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden Austrian Soc. for Aerospace Medicine, Vienna Rice University, Houston, TX, USA Cleveland State Univ., Ohio, USA Suranaree Univ. of Tech., Ratchasima, Thailand Univ. Tecnica FSM, Valparaiso, Chile University of Bremen, Germany Cal Poly Pomona, Los Angeles, CA, USA ISU Central Campus, Strasbourg, France University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia University of British Columbia, Canada

important for developing countries with such basic needs. This is a ﬁrst and essential reason for this geographical distribution, allowing young professionals from such countries to participate easier to these programs. A second reason is of an even more philosophical nature. Bringing space in such countries gives a strong outreach eﬀect for space activities in general. Many examples of this can be quoted whereby one of the more visual ones happened in Chili in 2000. Based upon a project executed by the students during the Summer Session, the basic texts for a Chilenean Space Agency were developed by the ISU participants. This impressed the government to the extent that indeed such Agency was created. The outreach eﬀect is equally strong in other countries. The international eﬀort has led to a gradual distribution of the 2600 ISU alumni, covering a considerable part of the world’s map as can be noted from Fig. 10. If we would express such map in density, the picture will evidently be very diﬀerent. Present space fairing nations, in particular the USA, Europe, Canada and Japan are representing the majority of participants to the ISU programmes. This balance is gradually shifting with an increasing participation of participants from India and, in particular, from China.

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Figure 10.

International ISU alumni network. (status 2006). (Courtesy: ISU)

Due tot the limited number of unrestricted scholarships, there is an under-representation of participants from Latin- America, South-East Asia and, in particular, Africa. There are topical exceptions, like the case of Nigeria where many of the middle management of the Nigerian Space Agency are ISU alumni, but these cases remain unfortunately exceptional. There is one other misbalance where ISU tries to take a remedial action: in order to restore the gender distribution in the space sector, the aim of ISU is to have at least 30% female participants in its programmes as well as in its teaching community. Also here, this target is gradually being achieved. The outreach eﬀect is also linked to the fact that ISU is more and more recognized as a forum where space activities can be discussed internationally, unconstrained by national or political conditions and unencumbered by any particular bias. As such, the yearly symposium is gaining more and more importance and attracts participants and decision makers from diﬀerent space organizations and companies. Many organizations have discovered this ‘independent platform’ function of ISU’s symposium and strongly support this activity. Speciﬁcally in cases where policy issues are concerned this function has been appreciated. This has been recently the case with Satellite navigation systems, in particular during the Galileo period and relevant discussions in 2003, where US and European experts openly discussed compatibility issues.

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Figure 11.

145

View of ISU symposium session. (Courtesy: ISU)

Similarly, in 2005, the exploration topic has been put as a topic. Here also, the theme of cooperation between the classical International Space Station partners and/or the leading role of the US in such an endeavour lead to interesting debates and exchanges of opinions, also thanks to the presence and interventions of Russian and Chinese space experts at the symposium. An overview of the symposia is shown in Table 4. Evidently achievements and results need to be consistently monitored and measured. The origin of SSP and MSS/MSM participants is basically diﬀerent. Whereas the ﬁrst category is a beneﬁcial mixture of graduates and professionals, the latter is mainly composed of recent graduates or professionals from other space sectors, interested in a “reconversion” to the space sector. Based upon this, the success of ISU as a provider of managers for the space sector is more representatively measured by the master program ﬂow. In 2004, extensive research was done in ISU to trace the transfer function of the MSS program in terms of which sectors students came from and where they went on to after they graduated. This was done by a questionnaire to the 3 last Master classes followed up by calls and contacts that provided data on some 104 past students from a total of 128 members of MSS02, MSS03 and MSS04 classes. The results are shown in Fig. 12.

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TABLE 4. ISU previous symposia. Date

Previous Symposia

2005 2004 2003 2002 2001

Space Exploration: Who, What, When, Where, Why? Civil, Commercial and Security Space: What Will Drive the Next Decade? Satellite Navigation Systems: Policy, Commercial and Technical Interaction Beyond the International Space Station: The Future of Human Spaceﬂight Smaller Satellites: Bigger Business? Concepts, Applications and Markets for Micro/Nanosatellites in a New Information World The Space Transportation Market: Evolution or Revolution? International Space Station: The Next Space Marketplace Space and the Global Village: Tele-services for the 21st Century New Space Markets Space of Service to Humanity: Preserving Earth and Improving Life

2000 1999 1998 1997 1996

Figure 12.

Transfer function of the ISU MSS program 2004. (Courtesy: ISU)

Expressed in percentages, participants in the MSS program either had previous working experience in the space sector (21%) or in the non-space sector (20%) or were fresh graduates (59%). Whereas the ones coming from the space sector – mainly from space agencies or other governmental organisations – returned to their working place, we note that a large portion (39%) of those without previous working experiencefound a job in the space

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sector. Also half of the participants from the non-space sector (20% incoming) found a job in the space sector (10%) bringing the overall percentage of new graduates entering directly the space workforce up to 70%. To this ﬁgure we should add those continuing their academic career by pursuing PhD programs and entering the space sector later, as well as the ones still looking for a job at the time the survey was made. These ﬁgures are important for the space sector due to an emerging problem: various studies have shown the concern about the ageing space workforce, especially in Western Countries. Built around a number of ambitious space programmes such as Apollo, many young engineers and scientists were attracted by space careers. A recession in the sector, combines with the emergence of other sectors (such as the IT boom) have strongly reversed this process with appealing shortages predicted (Peeters 2004). The ‘transfer function” of the ISU programmes is therefore of growing importance. Indeed, a longer term survey has shown that eventually 83% of the ISU alumni (i.e. all categories mixed, including SSP alumni) are pursuing a career in the space sector. As many of them are reaching more important management functions in this sector over time, it demonstrates the role of ISU as prime provider of future space leaders and professionals. 5. ISU and Astronomy It is clear at this point of the article that astronomy is one of the many disciplines covered in ISU, be it a very paramount one. Stars and planets, visual with the naked eye, have raved a natural curiosity of humans since centuries and will continue to do so. Space activities, as a complement of earth-based observations, have given scientists a set of additional tools and gave raise to important new discoveries. Space-based telescopes, such as Hubble, have supplemented earth-based observations and the projects will continue to foster the next few years. Together with deep space missions, they will lead to a continuous series of scientiﬁc space missions in which many ISU alumni will be involved with in diﬀerent capacities. Space missions do, however, also extend the observatory aspects by the activity to put landers on planets and other celestial bodies. Going on one step further, sample return missions, landing on a celestial body and returning samples to Earth, demand a combination of various scientiﬁc, technical and managerial skills to design, implement and manage such complex space missions. It is therefore very important to provide future space professionals with a solid background of the science covered by these missions as well as the technical boundary conditions to which scientiﬁc spacecraft need to be designed for. After the Apollo-ﬂights era, we note a strongly renewed interest

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Figure 13.

The Exploration Roadmap. (Courtesy: NASA)

in particular in Moon and Mars activities. The recent NASA vision expressed by US President G. Bush (Bush 2005) announces important plans for a new exploration era focused on Moon and Mars in the coming decennia. The growing importance for these activities cannot be better illustrated as in Fig. 13, reﬂecting NASA’s long-term priorities. Although ﬁnancial resources will not be deployed to the same extent as during the Apollo era, it can be expected that achievements will be fueled by an international competitive spirit. In particular, the arrival of China as a new and important player in the space sector is playing a considerable role in such plans. Also Europe is not planning to be an outsider in this endeavour and is developing its own exploratory program, called “Aurora” with important contributions towards Mars. With a declared aim to have permanently inhabited settlements on Moon and, eventually, on Mars, the quest for knowledge of both planets is constantly growing. Living conditions on both planets will require considerable support in the ﬁeld of life support systems and a better knowledge and techniques aiming to use local resources, so-called ISRU (In situ resource utilization) in order to obtain the necessary building blocks for sustaining colonies in terms of basic materials and e.g. propellants.

INTERNATIONAL SPACE UNIVERSITY

Figure 14.

149

Lunar Shack. (Courtesy: NASA)

Even besides the complexity to merge many disciplines in these projects, there is a need to take a broader view. Legal treaties like the “Moon Treaty” have attempted to regulate ownership and e.g. contamination issues and deserve to be taken into account. Even if they are not fully ratiﬁed, in particular by the main spaceforming sections, it is impossible to ignore the ethical aspects. Speciﬁcally in the case of “terraforming”, i.e. modifying other planets to conditions closer to the ones on Earth, human intervention will become very invasive. Many scientists, such as Carl Sagan, in his book “Cosmos” (Sagan 1980) have propagated the rights of potentially other life forms to be protected, but also have pointed out the considerate risk for humankind to remain on one spot in the Universe, also linked to threats like asteroid collisions. Even the threat of man-made catastrophes has lead known astrophysicist, such as Martin Rees (2004) to predict a 50% survival chance for humankind before the end of the century. Whereas one can contest the statistical value of the underlying calculations, there is no doubt that such considerations merit to have serious reﬂections on future colonies on other celestial bodies. Also the knowledge of other planets, and what happened with those, provides considerable information on the possible future of our planet. Hence the importance to be given to the design and results of exploratory space missions such as Huygens. Planetology in general is therefore an important topic in the ISU curriculum, as undoubtedly it will become an increasingly important element in future space mission design.

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TABLE 5. Examples of astronomy-related activities in ISU curriculum 2005. Module of ISU

Astronomy related lectures and activities

Module 1

• • • • • • • • •

Cosmology : origin and fate of the universe Origin of the solar system Our star, the Sun Legal regime of the Moon and other celestial bodies Space weather Plasma universe The life cycle of stars Spectroscopy workshop Astrobiology

Module 2

• • • • • •

Astronomy and astrophysics Earth-Moon system Sun-Earth physics Venus environment Space debris and mitigation Visit to Strasbourg Observatory

Module 3

• • • • •

Mars exploration Search for fossil life on Mars Missions to Jupiter and Europa NASA’s solar system and MARS exploration roadmaps Propulsion systems for interplanetary missions

When describing the ISU astronomy related curriculum one should remember the much diversiﬁed background of the students, varying from astrophysics, with a strong background in this ﬁeld, to e.g. legal and economically oriented disciplines, which basically had no formal education in this area. The modular ISU approach takes this into account as can be noted from Table 5. Team projects, both in MSS/MSM and SSP are probably the best way to illustrate the relation between a discipline (astronomy in this particular case) and the interdisciplinary approach of ISU. Some recent examples are described here. In the 2004 Master class, the challenging team of “Human Missions to Titan and Europa” has been analyzed (ISU 2004). Such a project requires a good knowledge of the speciﬁc environment (Europa and Titan) which is done on the basis of extensive literature reviews and targeted lectures. Creativity is a main ingredientof such a project

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Figure 15.

151

Example of Planetary Team Project. (Courtesy: ISU)

and, based upon the assumptions of a permafrost layer of several kilometers, an innovative drilling concept has been proposed by the participants, also to protect humans against the high radiation doses. This, again, has lead to broader ethical and legal considerations on the risks associated with human missions with known dangers. As a second example, during the SSP program in 2005, the threat of Near Earth Objects (NEO’s) has been studied by the participants (ISU 2005). Even if the probabilities associated with a considerable impact (objects > 10 Km) are largely debated, one cannot ignore that such an impact risks to threaten all life on Earth. Besides some modest funding for early detection, very limited research is performed in the ﬁeld of collision mitigation strategies. Cassandra was taken as a tangible example by the participants of the SSP Team Project and the various detection and warning systems have been outlined.

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Figure 16.

Cassandra, a NEO case Team Project. (Courtesy: ISU)

Whereas this aspect is studied worldwide, building further on previous Team Projects in this area also the challenging mitigation aspect has not been omitted. In particular, the use of nuclear detonations to change the trajectory of a threatening asteroid leads to complex legal and ethical considerations. These projects, together with many others on terraforming of Mars and ISRU’s, just to name a few, clearly underline the importance of astronomy and astrophysics in the ISU curriculum as, by extension, they result in very interdisciplinary considerations and works. 6. Conclusion Due to its interdisciplinary character it is clear that ISU is not only dedicated to astronomy and astrophysics in its curriculum. However, the present US vision, summarised as “via the Moon to Mars and Beyond” is clearly

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illustrating the importance of these disciplines in the careers of future space professionals. Future budgets for space exploration teach us that a considerable part of the ISU alumni will ﬁnd a job in that sector in the next decades to come and it is therefore of paramount importance to give all of them a solid background in these disciplines. Indeed, without having the ambition to become experts in this particular ﬁeld, it remains important to all space professionals to be aware of the boundary conditions associated with such missions. This is reﬂected in all disciplines from spacecraft design to orbital mechanics and, especially design of landers and sample return missions. In the case of human missions the eﬀect is even ampliﬁed due to extended knowledge of the risks associated with the diﬀerent celestial bodies. But also other considerations are important covering legal aspects (even if the “Moon Treaty” is not fully ratiﬁed, it will play undoubtedly a role in the various considerations on e.g. property rights). This will automatically lead to even ethical and philosophical considerations. ISU is preparing the next generations of space professionals to work in such interdisciplinary environment, at the same time operating in a new international context with new space partners. References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

Becker, F. 2002 (April), Approach of International Space University to Space Education: ISU’s Educational Model, ISU. Bush, G.W. 2005 (January), Public Statement. Diamandis, P. & Sunshine, K. 1986, Creating an International Space University, (AAS-86-324). Hawley, T. 1986, Space Generation, IAF Paper IAF-86-360 presented at IAF Congress, Innsbruck, 7 October 1986. ISU 2004, Human Missions to Titan and Europa, ISU MSS04 Team Project. ISU 2005, Cassandra, ISU SSP05 Team Project. ISU, http://www.isunet.edu/ , (ISU, 2006). Peeters, W. 2003, Space Commercialization Trends and Consequences for the Workforce, Acta Astronautica 53, 833-840. Peeters, W. & Farrow, J. 2004, Recent trends in Space Education at University Level, IAC Paper IAC-04-P.2.02 presented at IAC Congress, Vancouver, October 2004. Rees, M.J. 2003, Our Final Hour: A Scientist’s Warning: How Terror, Error, and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind’s Future in This Century–On Earth and Beyond, Basic Books, New York. (ISBN 0641645902) Sagan, C. 1980, Cosmos, Random House, New York, (ISBN 0345331354).

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EUROPLANET: EUROPEAN PLANETOLOGY NETWORK

M. BLANC & THE EUROPLANET COORDINATING TEAM

´ Centre d’Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements UMR 5187 CNRS/UPS 9 avenue du Colonel Roche Boˆıte Postale 24346 F-31028 Toulouse Cedex 4, France [email protected]

Abstract. Funded by the European Commission under the FP6, EuroPlaNet’s goal is to provide support to the European Planetology Community for maximizing the science produced by the international planetary missions with European involvement. Formed by an initial consortium composed of about sixty laboratories throughout 17 diﬀerent European member and candidate countries, EuroPlaNet started in January 2005 for a period of four years. The main objective of EuroPlaNet is to achieve a long-term integration of Planetary Sciences in Europe through the networking of the European research groups involved in this ﬁeld. EuroPlaNet will develop and coordinate synergies between space observations, Earth-based observations, laboratory research, numerical simulations and databases development through six networking activities. EuroPlaNet will also develop, through speciﬁc outreach activities, including a multi-lingual approach, science communication on planetary observation and exploration programmes for the beneﬁt of European citizens, especially children and young people.

1. What is EuroPlaNet? EuroPlaNet1 is a new initiative funded by the European Commission for the coordination of research activities in Planetary Sciences, which aims at a better integration of this discipline at the scale of Europe. It has several major objectives: 1

http://europlanet.cesr.fr/

155 A. Heck (ed.), Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, 155–170. © 2006 Springer.

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– to increase the science return from planetary projects with European investment, with emphasis on major planetary exploration missions; – to stimulate trans-national collaborations for the development of planetary studies throughout Europe; – to improve European scientiﬁc competitiveness, develop and spread expertise in this research area; – to develop the public understanding and support to planetary science and exploration. EuroPlaNet follows essentially two complementary approaches to achieve these objectives: – maximizing synergies between diﬀerent ﬁelds contributing to planetary sciences: space observations, Earth-based observations, laboratory studies, numerical simulations, database development; – designing and developing an Integrated and Distributed Information Service (IDIS) which will ultimately provide access to the full set of data sources produced by these complementary ﬁelds. EuroPlaNet was born from the initiative of a group of European scientists working on the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan, a very successful collaboration between Europe and the USA. The proponents, with full support from their US colleagues, realized that, in order for Europe to take all the beneﬁts from the investments in this mission, there was a need for the European Union to provide additional support to the European Planetary Sciences Community focusing on complementary areas. The purpose was to gather together more scientists from diﬀerent horizons and disciplines to join in producing more science from the mission, to network the separate national eﬀorts, and help to develop a more uniﬁed access to the data of all kinds (space, ground-based observations, laboratory and simulation results, ...) whose synergistic use can amplify the science return. The initial “core” of proponents was able to form a consortium of about sixty laboratories throughout 17 diﬀerent EU member and candidate countries, all interested in various ways in joining their skills and expertise in support to Cassini-Huygens. The list of these participants is given in Table 1. This consortium submitted the EuroPlaNet proposal to the European Commission in April 2003 as a “Coordination Action”, in response to a call for proposals issued by the “Support to Research Infrastructures” action of the 6th Framework Programme. It was ﬁnally selected for implementation on May 2004 and, following the successful completion of the negotiation between the Commission and the EuroPlaNet consortium, started operating on 1 January 2005. It received a 2 Million Euro budget for the four years of its existence under FP6. As all EU research networks, EuroPlaNet is the

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TABLE 1. Founding Institutes. Centre National de la Recherche Scientiﬁque, France Observatoire de Paris, France ´ Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, Paris, France Universit´e Paris Sud, Orsay, France The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK University of Leicester, Leceister, UK University of Oxford, UK University College London, London,UK Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, UK University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK Instituto Superior T´ecnico – Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal Faculdade de Engenharia – Universidade do Porto, Portugal Bayerische Julius-Maximilians-Universit¨ at W¨ urzburg, Germany Westf¨ alische-Wilhelms-Universit¨ at, M¨ unster, Germany Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, M¨ unchen, Germany Technische Universit¨ at M¨ unchen, Germany Institut f¨ ur Physik, Universit¨ at Potsdam, Germany Austrian Academy of Sciences, Space Research Institute, Graz, Austria Universit` a degli Studi di Trento, Italy Universit` a degli Studi di Padova, CISAS, Padova, Italy Universit` a degli Studi di Perugia, Italy Istituto Nazionale de Astroﬁsica, Roma, Italy Universit` a degli Studi di Napoli Parthenope, Italy Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, Roma, Italy International Research School of Planetary Sciences, Pescara, Italy University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece J. Heyrovsky Institute of Physical Chemistry, Prague, Czech Rep. Prague Observatory, Czech Republic Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Kiruna, Sweden Observatoire Royal de Belgique, Brussels, Belgium Instituto de Astrof´ısica de Andalucia, Granada, Spain Universit¨ at Basel, Switzerland KFKI Research Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics, Budapest, Hungary Astronomical Institute of the Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania Research and Scientiﬁc Support Department of the European Space Agency, ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe, Dwingeloo, The Netherlands Space Research Centre Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland Council for the Central Laboratories of the Research Councils, Oxfordshire, UK

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M. BLANC & THE EUROPLANET COORDINATING TEAM TABLE 2. EuroPlaNet activities, coordinators and lead institutes.

Activities

Coordinators

Lead institutes

N1: Management

M. Blanc, C. Guidice M. Dougherty, I. M¨ ullerWodarg, O. Witasse, G. Sciortino

CNRS (F) Imperial College London (UK) ESA-ESTEC (NL) ASI (I)

N2: Discipline Working Groups

N. Krupp, A.M. Harri

Max Planck Inst. (D) Finnish Meteorolog. Inst. (FIN)

N3: Coordination of Earth-Based and Space Observations

H.O. Rucker, S. Miller

Austrian Acad. of Sciences, Space Research Inst. Graz (A) Univ. College London (UK)

N4: Outreach Strategy

J. Zarnecki, J.P. Lebreton

Open University (UK) ESA-ESTEC (NL)

N5: Personnel Exchange

O. Dutuit, K. Szego

Universit´e Paris Sud (F) KFKI – Research Inst. for Particle and Nuclear Physics (H)

N6: Meetings, Conferences

R. Srama, M. Grande

Max Planck Inst. (D) CCLRC (UK)

N7: IDIS (Integrated and Distributed Information Service)

G. Chanteur, E. Flamini

CNRS (F) ASI (I)

result of a bottom-up process starting from the research laboratories and scientists themselves, who develop their project under contract with the Commission. 2. EuroPlaNet and the Cassini-Huygens Mission The start of EuroPlaNet nearly coincided with the safe landing of Huygens on Titan on 14 January 2005. This outstanding success of a European planetary mission (conducted in the framework of a major international collaboration) is a very nice example of the eﬃciency of synergies between space and Earth-based observations (Fig. 1). Long before its arrival at Titan, the Huygens mission was prepared by intense observation campaigns of Titan involving some of the major Earthbased telescopes, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, the CFH telescope

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Figure 1. The multi-scale structure of Titan landscapes, revealed by Earth telescopes, Cassini, and Huygens.

in Hawaii and the European Very large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, which were able to map the surface of Titan at low spatial resolution through several so-called “spectral windows” in Titan’s atmosphere. Stellar-occultation observations, in particular those conducted in 1989 and in 2003, provided essential and unique data on the structure of the upper atmosphere of Titan. Then, during the Huygens descent, the world-wide VLBI network, coordinated by the Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE) with the support of RadioNet, another EU-funded project, was able to acquire and track the faint signal from Huygens’ radio link (emitting the power of a mobile phone!) using its world-wide network of giant radio-telescopes. The two largest dishes of the VLBI network, equipped with highly sensitive radio receivers, also provided in real time the measurement of the Doppler shift of the Huygens signal. The breath-taking images returned by Huygens, complemented by Cassini visible, infrared and radar images, have revealed to us for the ﬁrst time the complex and multi-scale nature of Titan landscapes, from planetary scale to boulder scale, and the unique rˆ ole played by the methane cycle in its atmosphere and its surface erosion.

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EuroPlaNet takes full advantage of the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan to develop its initial activities. Since this mission will extend between 2004 and 2008, and very likely beyond, EuroPlaNet is ideally timed to coincide with its analysis phase. The considerable involvement of the European science community in this mission (about 50% of the scientists involved are from Europe), the broad diversity of its research objectives, its truly interdisciplinary aspect and the urgent need to achieve a balanced share of data analysis and scientiﬁc production with our American colleagues make Cassini-Huygens an ideal testbed for the development of activities and tools which will contribute to the optimal exploitation of subsequent planetary missions. 3. The Basic Concept and Activities of EuroPlaNet To achieve its over-arching goals, EuroPlaNet organizes and coordinates a set of six activities (named N2 to N7). The way they amplify the science return of space missions is illustrated in Fig. 2. Planetary missions stand in the innermost circle (in black in the ﬁgure). EuroPlaNet ﬁrst aim is to maximize the synergies between the diﬀerent types or research works contributing to planetary sciences, shown in the second (pink) circle: between space observations and Earth-based observations (this is the speciﬁc goal of Activity N3), and between data analysis, modelling, theory and laboratory measurements. Activity N2 contributes to it by setting-up discipline working groups to stimulate scientiﬁc discussions and collaborations. Activity N5 distributes grants for short-term visits between our participating laboratories, and Activity N6 organizes scientiﬁc meetings and conferences. In the next (blue) circle, Activity N7 works on the deﬁnition of an Integrated and Distributed Information Service (IDIS), which will facilitate access to all data and information in our scientiﬁc ﬁeld. Finally, in the outermost circle, Activity N4 is in charge of stimulating at the European scale the transfer of knowledge in planetary sciences towards the public and the education systems. These six activities are described in detail hereafter. 3.1. ACTIVITY N2: DISCIPLINE WORKING GROUPS.

The objective of this activity is to establish and operate discipline working groups in all main areas of planetary sciences. These working groups are intended to gather key experts in each ﬁeld, to identify the major scientiﬁc challenges and to stimulate a coherent and eﬃcient use of major research infrastructures (space missions, space and ground-based observatories, experimental laboratories, modelling work) to address these questions. They will act to maximize the science return from existing facilities, to prepare

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Figure 2.

161

Basic concept of EuroPlaNet.

the use of future facilities, and to identify the needs for new infrastructures on the basis of the key scientiﬁc questions of the ﬁeld. In 2005, the identiﬁcation and setup of the group members was performed. The Discipline Working Groups (DWG) initiated in 2005 were the following: • DWG1: atmospheres, ionospheres, exospheres • DWG2: planetary magnetospheres and plasmas • DWG3+5 : surface science + planetary moons • DWG4+9: small bodies and dust + solar-system formation • DWG6+7: exo/astrobiology + exoplanets • DWG8: planetary interior and composition The activities performed in 2005 included the identiﬁcation of leading experts (including experts from outside Europe) and the setup of discipline working groups among the EuroPlaNet participants. A cooperation between the EuroPlaNet N2 activity and the International Space Science Institute (ISSI) in Bern has been initiated.

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TABLE 3. List of major meetings during the reporting period (web site at http://europlanet.peaw.ac.at/). Date

Location

Number of attendees

1st Look at Ground-Based Observations in Support of the Cassini-Huygens Mission

IWF-OEAW Graz

20

11-12.11.05

1st Workshop on Comparative Meteor Studies on Terrestrial Planets

IWF-OEAW Graz

18

25-26.11.05

1st Workshop on Saturn’s Aurorae: Magnetospheric Generation and Energy Considerations

IWF-OEAW Graz

25

10-11.11.06

Workshop on Planetary Aurorae

09.03.05

Title/subject of meeting/workshop

University College London

3.2. ACTIVITY N3: COORDINATION OF EARTH-BASED AND SPACE OBSERVATIONS.

The objective of this activity is to develop synergies between space and ground-based observations of solar-system and planetary objects. It stimulates joint data analysis, contributes to the planning of observation campaigns, facilitates the access of planetary scientists to telescope observing time, and identiﬁes future needs for ground-based observations. This is one of the key actions to maximize the overall science return from space and ground research infrastructures in our ﬁeld. The networking tools comprise strategic workshops, teleconferences, EuroPlaNet N3 web page and dedicated publications. Examples of dedicated N3 workshops held in 2005 are listed in Table 3. 3.2.1. N3 Activities Related to the Cassini-Huygens Missions As with other EuroPlaNet activities, the Cassini-Huygens mission has been very much at the forefront of this part of the network. The ﬁrst general workshop, held in Graz in March 2005, gave participants an overview of the mission, and allowed discussion on how ground-based observations in a number of wavelength ranges – from radio, through infrared, out to ultraviolet – could be combined to enhance our understanding of Saturn and its major moon, Titan. It was extremely useful that colleagues from the computer modelling community were able to throw light on what was being observed, and to make suggestions for further observational campaigns.

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The following November, it was decided to focus the workshop – also held in Graz – on Saturn’s auroral behaviour. This was extremely timely, as a series of papers had recently been produced that correlated UV auroral images, made by the Hubble Space Telescope (which is considered “groundbased” for N3 purposes) to measurements of solar-wind and other plasma parameters, made in situ by Cassini itself. In November 2006, London will host a workshop that opens out the ﬁeld of study again, this time to include planetary aurorae from all of the planets (including Earth). Activity N3 provides a real opportunity for cross-disciplinary approaches to individual planets and individual processes to be developed, enormously enhancing the eﬀectiveness of European planetary scientists. 3.2.2. N3 Activities Related to Meteor Sciences The importance of meteor studies for understanding the nature of comets and the origin and early evolution of the solar system has been discussed. The 1st N3 workshop on “Comparative Meteor Studies on Terrestrial Planets” was held on 11-12 November 2005 at IWF-OEAW, Graz, Austria. 3.2.3. N3 Activities Related to Exoplanets (CoRoT and Ground-Based Follow-Up) The current number of 185 discovered exoplanets (30 March 2006) will be largely enhanced after the launch of the CNES-led European CoRoT space observatory in October 2006, which will use high-precision photometry for planet detection by the transit method. These newly detected exoplanets will lead to a better understanding on the evolution of close-in exoplanets, the evolution of early atmospheres of our own planets in the solar system and planetary formation scenarios in general. It is expected that the launch of CoRoT will revitalize the search with ground-based observatories. The EuroPlaNet N3 activity intends to play a signiﬁcant coordinating rˆ ole. Three strategic workshops are planned in 2006: on 2 April 2006, “Winds on Venus” (Mars, Titan); in April, a strategic workshop on “Smart-1 Crash on the Moon”; and, on 10-11 November 2006, a workshop on “Comparative Planetary Aurorae”. 3.3. ACTIVITY N4: OUTREACH

The purpose of the Outreach activity is to design and lead the communication activities of EuroPlaNet, between EuroPlaNet participants as well as towards the science community, the education systems and the public at large. Communication aims at promoting planetary sciences in Europe, improving public awareness of the major European achievements, and

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stimulating the use of planetary sciences for the promotion of scientiﬁc education and culture at large. Initiated with the development of several basic tools such as the design of the logo, a EuroPlaNet leaﬂet presenting the project and the implementation of the project web site2 , this activity started with the successful landing of Huygens on Titan surface on 14 January 2005. As most of the key players of this highly successful planetary mission are part of EuroPlaNet, the project has contributed to several outreach events all around Europe. A core-group of European Outreach Experts was gathered in Toulouse in March 2006, to deﬁne the overall outreach strategy of EuroPlaNet. One of the outcomes of this workshop will be the development of a speciﬁc web page for the general public. A multi-lingual approach for selected public material will be promoted to the extent feasible within the available resources. Another aim of this activity is also to promote the development of an outreach culture within the young scientiﬁc generation. A workshop will be held taking advantage of EuroPlaNet’s overlapping membership with the European Science Communication Workshop network (ESConet3 ). The main goal of the workshop is to educate selected young scientists in outreach techniques. 3.4. ACTIVITY N5: PERSONNEL EXCHANGE

The objective of this activity is to provide grants for short-term visits of scientists between laboratories and institutes of EuroPlaNet. By funding these visits, Activity N3 aims at initiating or consolidating longer-term collaborations, favouring the emergence of new projects, or at directly producing new publications. In 2005, Activity N5 distributed a total amount of 33 grants to 21 diﬀerent laboratories in 13 diﬀerent countries. Common publications are in preparation as well as common communications in conferences, meetings and workshops. A workshop on “Titan Atmospheric Chemistry” was organized in Orsay on 3 October 2005. The main objective was to discuss the modelling of Titan atmosphere/ionosphere chemistry and to deﬁne future laboratory experiments in order to improve our understanding of the complex chemical processes in this planetary atmosphere. The workshop gathered 47 participants from 17 diﬀerent laboratories.

2 3

http://europlanet.cesr.fr/ http://www.esconet.org/

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Figure 3.

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The IDIS architecture concept.

3.5. ACTIVITY N6: MEETINGS & CONFERENCES

The purpose of Activity N6 is to organize meetings and workshops involving all EuroPlaNet participants. The objective of this activity is to organize the scientiﬁc meetings and conferences involving all EuroPlaNet participants and the wider European planetary science community. Activity N6 also aims at fostering links with well-established scientiﬁc institutions, for example the International Space Science Institute and the European Geophysical Union (EGU). These meetings are essential for the scientiﬁc life of the network and for the promotion of planetary sciences on the European scene. The priority action of Activity N6 is to organize a major European scientiﬁc meeting for planetary sciences which, in association with the EGU, will provide a broad European forum on science and science policy issues of interest to the future of planetary research. The ﬁrst meeting of this kind, EuroPlaNet Congress Nr 1, is due to take place in Berlin from 18 to 22 September 2006. It is intended to provide a living and interactive forum to discuss scientiﬁc questions, propose new collaborative projects, exchange information, identify key scientiﬁc research subjects for the future and their needs in terms of tools, access to present and future telescopes, new space missions, laboratory measurements ...

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3.6. ACTIVITY N7: INTEGRATED AND DISTRIBUTED INFORMATION SERVICE (IDIS)

The N7 IDIS activity will design a common and integrated access to the data and information produced by the various research activities in planetary sciences. IDIS will be designed to respond to the needs of the Science community. IDIS is presently focused around disciplines represented in the Cassini-Huygens mission, but its scope, as well as the general scope of EuroPlaNet, will be later enlarged to other planetary missions with European involvement. IDIS is made of building blocks related to the other activities of EuroPlaNet: 1. Earth-based observations: ground and space telescopes, all spectral domains; 2. Space missions, remote and in-situ observations; 3. Planetary models, physical concepts and numerical simulations; 4. Laboratory experiments: fundamental processes and experimental simulations; 5. Databases and information systems dedicated to given sub-ﬁelds; 6. Public outreach eﬀort and educational products: including history of sciences The long-term objective of this activity is to coordinate the development of an Integrated and Distributed Information Service (IDIS) which will offer to the planetary science community a common and user-friendly access to the data and information produced by the various types of research activities in planetary sciences: Earth-based observations, space observations, modelling and theory, laboratory experiments. IDIS will also interface with existing Solar-System databases and will provide on-line products for public outreach and education. While EuroPlaNet, during the current 4-year Project ﬁnanced in the frame of FP6, will essentially study the structure and contents needed for IDIS, and will make an overview of existing information sources, we expect that IDIS will really be implemented in the frame of FP7. 4. An Example of Multi-Technique Synergy: Investigating Titan’s Internal Structure One of the key approaches of EuroPlaNet is to build on or to stimulate multi-technique synergies. Cassini-Huygens science oﬀers many examples of its eﬃciency. Here is one: to progress towards understanding the internal structure of Titan, the most adequate approach is to combine a diversity of techniques: laboratory studies, to measure the equations of state, phase transition

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Figure 4. An example of multi-technique approach to a complex problem: investigating the internal structure of Titan.

Figure 5.

European planetary missions, on-going and planned.

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diagrams, mechanical properties, opacities, etc., of planetary materials; in-situ measurements, to observe the planetary ﬁelds from orbit and to analyse surface samples; surface studies of the diﬀerent types of geological units; numerical modelling of the diﬀerent internal layers and their coupling processes. For each planetary object, this approach is basically the relevant one. 5. Perspectives for European Exploration of the Solar System Though EuroPlaNet was initially created to enhance the European scientiﬁc return from Cassini-Huygens, its activities can apply to all other planetary missions, and they already do for most of them. Fig. 5 shows a timeline of ESA’s planetary missions, as can be known in early 2006. A ﬁrst set of missions are in operation: Cassini-Huygens in the Saturn system, in collaboration with NASA; Mars-Express, Venus-Express, Smart-1 and Chandrayan (a collaboration with the Indian Space Agency) investigate the environments and surfaces of terrestrial planets. In the 2010 decade, Rosetta will reach its target, comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, orbit its nucleus and deliver a lander to its surface for in-situ analysis of the comet’s material. Bepi Colombo will leave the Earth to perform an interdisciplinary exploration of Mercury, its surface, internal structure, exosphere and magnetosphere, in collaboration with the Japanese Space Agency JAXA, thus completing a full survey of all terrestrial planets by Europe. In addition to the mandatory Scientiﬁc Programme, the Optional Aurora programme of ESA has received funds from member states to implement a ﬁrst European mission to Mars surface, Exomars, which will focus on exobiology and geosciences objectives. Further beyond, new missions are already under study for the follow-on to the present science programme, Cosmic Vision 2015-2025: for instance a sample return from a Near-Earth primitive asteroid, or an in-depth exploration of the Jovian system and its very exciting moon Europa, among other very interesting projects. 6. Coming Ahead: Great Opportunities for a Multi-Mission Approach The possibility of conducting joint analyses of data from several missions to diﬀerent planets opens new scientiﬁc perspectives in essentially all ﬁelds. One example, designed by the “Magnetospheres” Discipline Working Group of Activity N2, can illustrate this: studying the mechanisms and intensities of the electrodynamical coupling of planetary environments with the surrounding magnetized plasma ﬂows. This coupling depends on the intrinsic

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Figure 6. An example of a multi-object, multi-mission study of a planetary physics phenomenon. The importance of electromagnetic interactions between solar-system objects and the surrounding plasma ﬂow (solar wind for planets and small bodies, magnetospheric plasma ﬂow for giant planets satellites) can be plotted against the object’s magnetic moment to order the variety of processes at work and derive a “universal law”, potentially applicable to extra-solar planets and the possible detection of their radio emissions.

magnetic moment of a planet (or more generally its magnetization state), its internal plasma sources and its atmospheric characteristics, and the characteristics of the impinging ﬂow (the solar wind for planets, magnetospheric ﬂows for planetary moons). By looking at the variety of cases oﬀered by solar-system objects, one can expect to characterize the interaction processes and establish their scaling laws (as suggested by Fig. 6). Extrapolation to exoplanets, for instance, could then become possible, opening the way to predictions of the nonthermal radio emissions of these planets, and possibly to new detection techniques. Europe today can be proud of its achievements and perspectives in planetary exploration. Its suite of space missions to the planets – in operation, en route or in the planning phase – touches on all major science areas of planetary research and addresses major scientiﬁc questions. EuroPlaNet’s ambition is to best serve the growing European Planetary Science Community involved in this exciting planetary science programme in the coming decade. It will act to stimulate and disseminate the scientiﬁc

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use of the wealth of data returned by missions in operation today; it will help to prepare for the next generation of missions; and it hopes to share with every European citizen the unique excitement of the discovery and exploration of new worlds.

RADIONET: ADVANCED RADIO ASTRONOMY ACROSS EUROPE

ALASTAIR G. GUNN

Jodrell Bank Observatory Department of Physics and Astronomy University of Manchester Macclesﬁeld SK11 9DL, U.K. [email protected]

Abstract. RadioNet is an EC-funded programme that has pulled together all of Europe’s leading radio astronomy facilities to produce a focused, coherent and integrated project that will signiﬁcantly enhance the quality and quantity of science performed by European radio astronomers. RadioNet has 20 partners ranging from operators of radio telescope facilities to laboratories that specialise in micro-electronics, MMIC design and superconducting component fabrication. The programme includes incentives for increasing transnational usage of observing facilities, research and development in mm and sub-mm receiver technology, advanced software for interferometric applications and new technologies for phased array receivers, as well as numerous networking activities designed to enhance the coordination and co-operation of European radio astronomers.

1. The Radio Astronomy Revolution The history of astronomy shows that technological revolutions are accompanied by corresponding advances in understanding and discovery. The invention of the telescope, the bolometer, the CCD; all have resulted in unprecedented leaps in astronomical knowledge. Radio astronomy is in the midst of just such a revolution. As digital and telecommunications advances of the 1990s bear fruit in the 2000s, modern, high-performance technologies are steadily replacing the obsolete electronics that have been the cornerstone of the world’s most powerful radio telescopes for the last half-century. Large radio antennae are being linked by ﬁbre optic networks and equipped with innovative ‘focal-plane arrays’, oﬀering the radio astronomer unparalleled 171 A. Heck (ed.), Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, 171–180. © 2006 Springer.

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sensitivity, resolution and ﬂexibility. Soon, these enormous technological advances will be manifested in a suite of instruments, such as e-MERLIN, ALMA and the SKA, which will routinely generate up to 0.5 TBytes of fresh data per day, every day. One can only guess at the extraordinary objects and phenomena that await discovery in this next chapter of astronomical history. Although the capabilities of these instruments were undreamt of only a decade ago, radio astronomers are already well aware of the enormous challenge faced in implementing these new technologies. Merely handling the data rates will require radically new software and the use of modern parallel computing techniques. Radio astronomers are already involved in the development of the ‘grid’, the network of interconnected computers and instruments expected, one day, to spread across the entire globe. Even so, it has long been recognised that an eﬀective programme of research and development, faced with this daunting leap of capability, requires coordination and oversight, ensuring that inter-dependent activities are properly matched and that end users – the astronomers – play a major part in shaping the outcome. For the greater part of the last century, astronomical facilities were built to suit a research discipline comprised largely of national or bi-lateral eﬀorts. Today’s generation of astronomical facilities are multi-national in conception, requiring coordination and forward-thinking on a global scale, the kind of undertaking hitherto the preserve of elementary particle physics research. Radio astronomy has perhaps the greatest degree of such crossborder collaboration, since the VLBI interferometric technique regularly uses continent-spanning baselines. Hence, within the radio astronomy fraternity, there already exists a strong culture of coordination and collaboration, one that will be crucial as the technological revolution becomes a reality. Over recent years European radio astronomy has been the beneﬁciary of signiﬁcant funding from the European Commission (EC). The EC’s Sixth Framework Programme (FP6), now underway, broadened the scope of such support and created an instrument known as an Integrated Infrastructure Initiative (I3), designed to bring together a broad group of institutes to collaborate in a range of areas. European radio astronomers felt that this was an opportunity not to be missed and so put together a broad programme in a proposal called RadioNet, originally based on more than 25 years of co-operation within the European VLBI Network (EVN). RadioNet was rated ﬁrst amongst all astronomy proposals in FP6 and was funded for ﬁve years from 1st January 2004.

Figure 1. The RadioNet TNA programme supports 7 infrastructures (4 of which include interferometer arrays) giving a total of 25 radio antennas located throughout Europe, Asia and the US. (Courtesy A.G. Gunn, JBO)

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2. RadioNet The RadioNet I3 has pulled together all of Europe’s leading radio astronomy facilities to produce a focused, coherent and integrated project that will signiﬁcantly enhance the quality and quantity of science performed by European radio astronomers. This new vision for radio astronomy is already promoting a much greater level of cooperation and collaboration than existed before and it is hoped that astronomers will quickly see the beneﬁts of this in the shape of greater access to those telescopes with which they may not be familiar, in improvements to the instrumentation of those telescopes and in a more coherent approach to future challenges. The initiative will have a long-lasting integrating eﬀect on European radio astronomy. The close collaboration that will arise through networking and research activities will only be beneﬁcial, not just to science and scientists but also, ultimately, to European citizens. RadioNet includes a Transnational Access (TNA) programme to promote observing opportunities across Europe, three technology projects called Joint Research Activities (JRAs) and eight Networking Activities (NAs) covering a broad range of topics, from scientiﬁc workshops to radio spectrum management. RadioNet is funded at a level of 12.4M Euros by the European Commission. About 50% of the funding is aimed at supporting the TNA programme; 4.5M Euros is directed towards the JRAs and the remainder supports the NAs. RadioNet has twenty partners; they range from operators of radio telescope facilities to laboratories that specialize in micro-electronics, MMIC design and superconducting component fabrication. The general objective of RadioNet is to ensure that key developments in radio astronomy are supported on a European-wide basis, pooling together the broad range of skills, resources and expertise that exists within the RadioNet family. This provides a critical mass that will ensure that progress is not made slowly in isolation, but quickly and eﬃciently, via a broadbased, yet well-focused scientiﬁc and engineering collaboration. As a collective body, RadioNet provides the coordination and overview that is essential for catalysing the community into identifying those areas that must be invested in now, in order to maximise the performance of the existing radio telescope facilities throughout Europe. The various activities form an integrated, inter-dependent and focused plan that has several major objectives: – The provision of an integrated radio astronomy network that will provide European scientists with access to world-class facilities; – The provision of a research and development plan aimed at supporting and enhancing these facilities;

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– The development of a networking series which will ensure close collaboration in engineering, software development, user support and last, but not least, science; – The training of the next generation of users (both astronomers and engineers) of the RadioNet facilities; – The preparation and fostering of the European community for the next generation of European/global facilities such as ALMA and the SKA; – The strengthening of the entire European community through the development of close links with OPTICON, ILIAS and EuroPlaNet, the other partner astronomy FP6 programmes; – The promotion of European radio astronomy to professionals and the public through coordinated outreach programmes. 3. Transnational Access The RadioNet Transnational Access (TNA) programme includes seven facilities (four of which include interferometer arrays), giving a total of 25 radio/sub-mm antennas located throughout Europe, Asia and the US (Fig. 1). The facilities involved are the European VLBI Network (EVN), the Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (UK), IRAM (both the Plateau de Bure Interferometer in France and the Pico Veleta 30-m Telescope in Spain), the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (the Netherlands), the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (Hawaii), the Eﬀelsberg 100-m Telescope (Germany) and the Onsala 20-m Telescope (Sweden). This suite of mm- and cm-wave facilities (covering the frequency bands from ∼100 MHz to ∼1 THz) oﬀers a unique array of capabilities, unmatched anywhere in the world. The combined investment, in today’s prices, approaches 0.5 Billion Euros. The RadioNet TNA programme is aimed at enabling the European user community to have easy and transparent access to the entire range of radio facilities; and to oﬀer them an integrated, professional and consistent level of user support. RadioNet’s goal is, through the judicious use of EC funding, to simultaneously improve the data products delivered by these facilities and to extend the opportunities for access to a wide-range of EU and Associated State users. The number of user groups eligible for TNA is impressive and, in almost all cases, has exceeded the contracted minimum level by large factors. During the ﬁrst two years of RadioNet, the TNA programme delivered almost 8300 hours of access; almost a full year of continuous astronomical observation. This was delivered in 244 separate observing programmes and involved 297 individual principal investigators at the facilities (not including proposal co-Is). In addition, the user pop-

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ulation saw a signiﬁcant number of new users at the facilities (40%), a development which it is hoped will grow as RadioNet continues. Whilst scientiﬁc merit is the factor that determines the allocation of observing time, RadioNet is committed to widening access to the TNA facilities for young astronomers, those new to a facility, those from countries or institutions less able to aﬀord travel to the facilities, or those without access to similar infrastructures within their own countries. The RadioNet Outreach Programme is now active in promoting the TNA facilities to potential users. 4. Joint Research Activities The three JRAs are focused primarily on developing and signiﬁcantly improving the existing RadioNet facilities through enhanced performance of the equipment and capabilities of the telescopes. RadioNet runs three JRAs (ALBUS, AMSTAR and PHAROS) that cover three very diﬀerent technology areas. The European VLBI Network (EVN) brings together European radio telescopes to form potentially the most powerful radio telescope in the world (in terms of resolution times sensitivity). To realize its true potential, upgrades of the fragile data recorders and the output data rate of the correlator (at JIVE, Dwingeloo, the Netherlands) are underway. MERLIN is a network of seven telescopes connected by radio-links across the UK, providing sensitivity on spatial resolutions not available anywhere else in the world. The ongoing e-MERLIN eﬀort will boost the sensitivity of MERLIN by at least an order of magnitude. At the WSRT, in the Netherlands, new receivers and correlator upgrades are also being commissioned. In all these cases, the upgrades are aimed at maximizing the scientiﬁc capabilities of the instruments using the existing basic infrastructure, namely the radio telescopes themselves. However, these ten-fold improvements in sensitivity and ﬁeld-of-view necessarily involve an increase in raw data volumes delivered to the astronomers – by more than two orders of magnitude. To take advantage of these improvements and to allow astronomers to produce new scientiﬁc results from these unique European radio astronomy facilities, more quickly, more reliably and more creatively, innovative algorithms that provide better calibration and imaging capabilities are required. New approaches to handling the huge volumes of data are also needed. This RadioNet Joint Research Activity ALBUS (Advanced Long Baseline User Software) is investigating and implementing a number of speciﬁc new calibration methods. Furthermore, it is developing eﬃcient and scalable processing techniques for a number of imaging applications. To implement

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Figure 2. Superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) heterodyne receiver, with waveguide coupled photonic local oscillator, for the 150 GHz band, developed by RadioNet’s AMSTAR JRA. (Courtesy B. Lazareﬀ, IRAM/RAL)

these algorithms, an eﬀort will be made to contribute to the advancement of radio astronomy infrastructure software. The ability to modernize data reduction software is essential in enabling astronomers, both in Europe and worldwide, to take advantage of these next generation European radio astronomy research facilities. ALBUS has already made good progress towards developing eﬃcient and scaleable processing techniques for a number of imaging applications, in implementing a number of speciﬁc new calibration methods and in its investigations into vectorization and parallelization schemes. The JRA AMSTAR (Advanced Millimetre and Sub-millimetre Technology for Astronomical Research) brings together Europe’s foremost millimetre-wave engineering laboratories in a joint eﬀort to improve the performance and frequency range of high frequency receivers for radio astronomy. The ﬁelds of expertise of the AMSTAR participants extends from the design and fabrication of micron or sub-micron size superconducting devices (SIS junctions, HEB, continuum bolometers), of cryogenic mixers, of plane circuits, waveguide circuits or quasi-optical devices, of low noise local oscillators (LO) and of low-noise cm-wave ampliﬁers (LNA). Millimetre/sub-millimetre wavelength astronomy is a powerful tool for the study of the evolution of both stars and galaxies, enabling astronomers

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to see through the cold, dense dust clouds that populate interstellar space. Such dust clouds are the birthplaces of stars and their planets. The receivers prototyped in this JRA will be used on world-class European millimetre telescopes at observatories in France, Spain, Sweden and in Chile, as well as in space (Fig. 2). Two kinds of receivers are used for astronomy at mm/sub-mm wavelengths: (a) coherent heterodyne receivers that amplify the incoming signals before detection and (b) classical bolometers, where the radiant energy heats a thin metallic layer. AMSTAR is addressing technological solutions for improvements in the sensitivity of both types of receivers. These advances in instrumentation will extend the frequency range of millimetre astronomy to close the gap between radio and infrared wavelengths. Most other branches of observational astronomy require the building of new telescopes in order to achieve signiﬁcant improvements in observing capability. This contrasts with the situation in radio astronomy. Here the fast pace in worldwide technological developments has made new basic technologies available which in turn make new receiver concepts possible. As a result, one can now plan to greatly enhance the capabilities of existing radio telescopes without changing the basic infrastructure. However, to bring the new technologies to bear requires an appropriate level of speciﬁc development and this is the foundation of the JRA PHAROS (Phased Arrays for Reﬂector Observing Systems). The key objective of PHAROS is to produce aﬀordable, low-noise, phased receiver arrays to be installed at the foci of large radio telescopes (Fig. 3). In a phased array, the receivers are interconnected so that multiple beams (views of the sky) can be synthesised and steered electronically. By collecting and then manipulating the received signals, such arrays can simultaneously oﬀer improvements in the eﬃciency and eﬀectiveness of existing telescopes and open up the widest possible ﬁeld-of-view. 5. Networking Activities The RadioNet Networking Activities (NAs) are designed to enhance the coordination and co-operation of the RadioNet partners and of European radio astronomers as a whole. They also promote the science performed with the facilities, develop and train the next generation of astronomers and engineers and provide essential fora for engineering and technical aspects. The RadioNet engineering and software fora (activities N4 and N5) enable development engineers of all types (receivers, digital, mechanical and software) to discuss common problems and their solutions; innovative approaches to engineering problems; to present results on the projects at individual laboratories etc. Those who maintain, support and develop user

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Figure 3. A view of the Vivaldi antenna, used for the PHAROS JRA Focal Plane Array, received its name from a resemblance to the shapes of a cello or violin, instruments used by Antonio Vivaldi, the designers favourite composer. (Courtesy J.G. bij de Vaate, ASTRON)

facilities rarely have a chance to talk to colleagues at other institutes and to share ideas on best practice and common solutions. The Synergy activity (N2) oﬀers such people the opportunity to visit other facilities, to get to know their opposite numbers and to learn how problems, which arise at all facilities, are solved elsewhere. In a similar manner, the science workshops and training activities (N3, N6) enable the exchange of scientiﬁc results, ideas and innovation amongst the existing user community. It also fosters the next generation of users through the organization of annual science meetings for young astronomers and the running of schools designed to educate users in the techniques required for radio astronomy. RadioNet also considers the future. Activity N7 (Astronomy across Europe) is designed to enable radio astronomers to discuss and construct a view of what that future might look like. This will enable the exchange of ideas on the future largescale facilities for European astronomers and on the future of astronomy within the EU Framework programmes. Finally, radio frequency interference is always with us and a challenge is for radio astronomy to continue to thrive in the future. Activity N8 (Radio Frequency Management) enables a more eﬃcient, European-wide focus on the issues and the solutions.

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All of the NAs have had a signiﬁcant impact on radio astronomy over the ﬁrst two years of the RadioNet programme. The Synergy group has already produced a uniﬁed web-based Proposal Tool now in use for observing proposals for the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT), which will soon be expanded to cover all RadioNet TNA facilities. Through the various activities, RadioNet has funded or enabled 39 major workshops and meetings on a wide variety of topics from scientiﬁc discussions on the nature of the black holes that power active galactic nuclei, to meetings of engineers planning the next generation of digital hardware. The FP6 programme also has an active Outreach plan. The project has already made available to secondary schools throughout Europe, a research-equipped Internet-controlled radio telescope for online learning in the classroom. 6. Conclusions After two years, the RadioNet project has achieved and surpassed many of its original goals. The transnational access programme is enabling new, predominantly young astronomers to use the European facilities: 40% of the users so far have not previously used the telescopes. The JRAs are developing new software tools, new hardware and even understanding the physics of the exotic devices required for sub-mm observations. Finally, the networks are doing what they were planned to do, bring together Europe’s radio astronomers and engineers to discuss, develop, plan and inform on a scale not previously achieved. Further information on RadioNet can be obtained by contacting the RadioNet Outreach Oﬃcer ([email protected]) or on the RadioNet website1 .

1

http://www.radionet-eu.org/

SELECTING AND SCHEDULING OBSERVING PROPOSALS AT NRAO TELESCOPES

DAVID E. HOGG

National Radio Astronomy Observatory 520 Edgemont Road Charlottesville VA 22903-2475, U.S.A. [email protected]

Abstract. The process by which proposals for the use of the NRAO1 telescopes are selected is described. The demands of modern astronomical research have required new procedures to accommodate projects which require large amounts of observing time or which study transient phenomena, and to facilitate the coordination of programs with NRAO telescopes and telescopes at other observatories.

1. Introduction Together, the National Science Foundation and Associated Universities, Inc., the not-for-proﬁt corporation that manages the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, determine the objectives of the Observatory. The mission statement reads: “The mission of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is to design, build, and operate large radio telescopes for use by the scientiﬁc community; to develop the electronics, software, and other technology systems that enable new astronomical science; to support the reduction, analysis, and dissemination of the results of observations made by telescope users; to foster the user community; to support the development of a society that is both scientiﬁcally and technically literate through educational programs and public outreach; and to support a program of staﬀ scientiﬁc research that enables leadership and quality in all these areas.” 1 The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated by Associated Universities, Inc.

181 A. Heck (ed.), Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, 181–201. © 2006 Springer.

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Within this mandate, a paramount responsibility of the Observatory is selecting and scheduling the observing proposals. The success of this task may be the ultimate measure of the success of the Observatory itself. It determines the value of the Observatory to the astronomical community. This article describes the process. Although evolving over the ﬁfty-year history of the Observatory, the scheduling process involves several principles that have remained unchanged since the beginning. • The observatory selects proposals based on reviews by peers whose identities are neither disclosed to the proposer nor to each other. • Acceptance of a proposal is not conditional on the institutional aﬃliation of the proposer. A corollary of this is that the staﬀ of the NRAO does not receive preferential treatment of their proposals. Access to NRAO telescopes by foreign scientists with good observing programs has typically been judged in the same way as with US observers. AUI, NRAO, and the user community believe that this “open skies” policy beneﬁts science because the best proposals are scheduled. • There is no charge for the telescope time. The costs of building, operating, and upgrading the telescopes and associated instrumentation have been borne by the funding agency, the US National Science Foundation. In certain instances instrumentation has been provided by a university or another funding source, but such instrumentation typically is subsequently assigned to NRAO for use by the user community. • There is no tie between observing time and grants (or other funding). In fact, NRAO instituted procedures to partially support certain visitor travel and publication costs of the papers resulting from the observing sessions of US-based observers. 2. The Development of the Proposal Selection System The current system by which proposals are selected and scheduled resulted from a series of incremental changes made to the system used to handle the earliest telescopes in Green Bank, West Virginia. The ﬁrst two telescopes of interest to users were the Tatel 85-foot [26-meter] telescope (1958) and the 300-foot [91-meter] transit telescope (1962). Proposals for their use were received by the Director, and evaluated by him and his associates. With the advent of the 140-foot [43-meter] telescope in 1965 the volume of proposals required a more formal evaluation and selection system. Each proposal received a code number and was sent to a group of referees for evaluation. The proposals were ranked on the basis of the consensus evaluation, and those with the highest ranks were awarded telescope time. In the period November 1966 to January 2000, 5676 proposals were processed

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which asked for observing time on the 300-foot, the 140-foot, the Green Bank Interferometer (all sited at Green Bank, West Virginia) and the 36 foot/12-meter telescope at Kitt Peak, Arizona. A cardinal principle of the system is that the NRAO director or designee assumes the ultimate responsibility for scheduling, aided in the current practice by a formal Proposal Selection Committee (or Time Allocation Committee, TAC). The evaluations of the referees are important but advisory. During the period 1966 to 1974, W.E. Howard III of the Director’s Oﬃce managed the selection of the proposals and the scheduling of the telescopes. Howard developed many of the statistics describing the telescope usage; these are still compiled today. Eventually the responsibility for scheduling was shifted to the managers of the telescope sites who were more cognizant of the availability of the telescopes and the associated instrumentation. In the case of the telescopes occasional extended periods for upgrade or refurbishment had to be scheduled. In the case of the new instrumentation there had to be close coordination between the site manager and the electronics group supplying the new capability in order that suitable periods be available for commissioning in advance of the release to the general observers. The assignment of the responsibility to the site managers remains in eﬀect today. For a number of years, there were no proposal deadlines for the telescopes in Green Bank. Proposals could be submitted at any time, and the well-rated proposals would be scheduled as time permitted. Being more sensitive to atmospheric opacity, the millimeter-wave 36-foot telescope was much more dependent on the annual weather cycle, even though it was sited in the desert southwest, and thus the scheduling for it eventually came to be based on a trimester system. The fall and spring trimesters concentrated on frequencies at and below 115 GHz, while the winter trimester emphasized the higher frequencies. The short-lived 345 GHz system operated only in the winter trimester, but even then the opacity precluded any large amount of observing time. The telescope was shut down during the summer with its “monsoon” weather, because increased moisture in the air impaired useful observing at millimeter wavelengths. Fortunately, the shutdown period could be used to conduct maintenance and to install system upgrades, thereby avoiding the need to interrupt the schedule in the later months for these activities. Three proposal deadlines were introduced to support this scheduling system. The system of delegating the selection and the scheduling worked reasonably well for the early years. However, following the detection of CO and other interstellar molecules with the 36-foot telescope and others, the volume of proposals increased markedly, as did the vigor of the competi-

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tion for telescope time. (Later observers to the 36-foot were undoubtedly bemused to see the framed letter from the NRAO Director D.S. Heeschen to the proposer A. Penzias in which it was explained that only an initial allotment of four weeks of time would be made available, though the prospects for another four weeks were good). In view of this intense competition for observing time, the observatory decided to augment the proposal selection process by creating a small in-house committee to assist the site manager M.A. Gordon in the selection of the proposals. Gordon’s recent book (Gordon 2005) captures the ﬂavor of those exciting times. One of the more diﬃcult challenges facing the proposal selection process is that of striking a balance between protecting the program of an observer and aﬀording open access to the telescopes. The challenge was especially difﬁcult during the early days of the development of molecular line astronomy, because several diﬀerent observing teams would frequently submit proposals to detect and subsequently study the same molecule. In such cases one group typically would be selected, though occasionally competing proposals would be scheduled if the topic of study had high importance. Additionally, observers were constrained to the subject of the approved proposal. This restriction continues to be in force today, and observers can add to or amend their proposal only with the approval of the scheduler. In this way the Observatory attempts to protect an observer’s proprietary interest and minimize the likelihood that an observer using the telescope will stray into the area contained in another proposal. In 1967, interferometric observations were successfully conducted between antennas at such a great separation that they could not be connected in real time. There was naturally great interest in pursuing this technique (Very Long Baseline Interferometry, or VLBI) but such observations are challenging because of the great diﬀerences among the antennas and receiving systems. The ﬁrst observations had to be coordinated by the observers themselves. This was clumsy and time-consuming, and created a barrier against conducting synoptic programs which would be capable of measuring directly the changes in the distribution of the radio emission in variable objects such as stars, quasars, and active galactic nuclei (AGN). However, as the power of the technique became better appreciated a consortium of institutions was created to facilitate these coordinated observations. At the outset the arrangement was informal but eventually a memorandum of understanding was created between the institutions who managed radio telescopes of interest to the network. The development of VLBI and the Network Users Group (NUG) is described in the review by Kellermann and Cohen (1988). As a member of the VLBI consortium the NRAO agreed to make observing time available on the 140-foot telescope in Green Bank on a schedule set by the NUG,

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SELECTING AND SCHEDULING AT NRAO TABLE 1. The Number of Proposals Received for the Telescopes Now Closed. Telescope

Date of First Observation

Date of Last Observation

Number of Proposals Nov 1966 – Last Date

300-Foot Transit 140-Foot Equatorial 3-Element Interferometer 36-Foot/12-meter

Oct 1962 Oct 1965 Jul 1967 Jan 1968

Nov 1988 Jul 1999 Sep 1978 Jul 2000

566 1846 457 2883

with observing programs selected by the NUG after review by referees. By agreement the fraction of the time available to the consortium was capped at 20%. Although this process represented a delegation of its scheduling authority and autonomy the NRAO was satisﬁed that the quality of the proposals, and the openness and fairness of the selection, were fully equivalent to the standards which the users of the NRAO expected. The scheduling of consortium, or network, proposals began in March 1976 and continued until the VLBI network was superseded by the dedicated Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) in 1990. As a matter of historical interest, Table 1 shows the number of observing proposals processed since the inception of the numbering system in November 1966 through January 2000, when the last proposals for the 12-meter telescope were received. The telescopes are shown in Figs 1 and 2. 3. The Current Proposal Selection System With the advent in 1980 of the VLA changes had to be made to the scheduling system, because of the speed of the instrument and the consequent large increase in the number of proposals. Initially proposal selection was made by the VLA site manager and selected scientists on the NRAO staﬀ in Socorro, NM, since the proposals had to be carefully reviewed for consistency with the technical capabilities of the telescope. As time passed B.G. Clark created a software program which enabled the committee to enter all selected proposals into a draft schedule. With this tool the committee could identify periods in Local Sidereal Time for which there were too many proposals, or a dearth of proposals, and adjust the selections to better match the available time. A unique feature of the VLA is its ability to examine structure in radio sources over large angular scales but with lower angular resolution, or to have high angular resolution at the cost of sensitivity to features of low surface brightness. This is achieved by supporting four diﬀerent conﬁgurations

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of the VLA antennas. The A-conﬁguration has the longest baselines, of up to 36 km, and the D-conﬁguration is the most compact, with no baselines longer than 1 km. Fig. 3 gives a view of some of the VLA elements in the compact conﬁguration. There are two intermediate conﬁgurations B and C. In order to provide observing time on each of the conﬁgurations, with the additional constraint that the same conﬁguration not occur in the same season year after year, the schedule eventually adopted supports reconﬁguration of the antennas at intervals of approximately four months, so that the cycle of four conﬁgurations is completed in sixteen months. The scheduling of the VLA has slowly developed and has been reﬁned, but is in essence the same at the present time. The scheduling of the VLBA is very similar, and indeed the proposal selection is performed by the same TAC. The GBT is scheduled by a diﬀerent and unrelated TAC, but the process used is similar to that used for the VLA and VLBA. There are three proposal deadlines per year, 1 February, 1 June, and 1 October. These deadlines are announced in the NRAO Newsletter 2 , and in the AAS Newsletter. For the VLA the call is for proposals for speciﬁc conﬁgurations of the array. To submit a proposal to the VLA or VLBA, the scientist uses a cover sheet of standard form, and attaches a scientiﬁc justiﬁcation, illustrations, and the details of the request for time. To submit a proposal to the GBT, the prospective observer uses a “Proposal Submission Tool”, which enables the cover form to be ﬁlled out, the proposal is attached, and then the document is submitted on-line. The tool in use with the GBT is being used with the VLA on a trial basis, and will eventually be used for all NRAO telescopes. The proposal tool for the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) will be similar in an attempt to standardize the approach to proposal handling. For each instrument the goal is to have each proposal reviewed by four or more referees. Each referee is generally asked to evaluate no more than 20 to 25 proposals. The GBT has a pool of about 20 referees distributed over the specialty areas of Galactic, Extra-galactic, pulsar, astrochemistry, and solar system. The VLA and VLBA require about 65 or more referees, divided among 17 categories. The referees, selected by the site managers, the NRAO Deputy Director, and the Head of the Division of Science and Academic Aﬀairs, are anonymous to the proposers and to each other but are known to the scheduling committee. Typically the VLA receives approximately 150 proposals at each deadline, and the VLBA about 75. For the deadlines in June and October the GBT receives approximately 60 proposals, with the number falling to about 40 for the deadline in February, corresponding to observations during the summer. 2

The NRAO Newsletters beginning with Number 57, October 1993, are available at: http://www.nrao.edu/news/newsletters/archive.shtml

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Figure 1. The three historic telescopes at Green Bank, WV. The three 85-foot parabolas comprising the Green Bank Interferometer appear in the right side of the picture. The 140-foot equatorial telescope is at the extreme left, and the 300-foot transit telescope is in the center-left. (Image courtesy NRAO/AUI)

Figure 2. The 12-meter millimeter wavelength telescope in its dome at Kitt Peak, AZ. Originally built as a 36-foot dish of long focal length, it was upgraded in 1983 with the installation of a new surface of higher precision and shorter focal length (cf. Gordon 2005). (Image courtesy NRAO/AUI)

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For the GBT much of the proposal handling is automated by software written by C. Bignell for this purpose. Based on the science categories listed in the proposals, the software takes a ﬁrst cut at assigning proposals to referees of the given specialty area, evens out referee loads, etc. After the assignments have been checked manually hard copies of the proposals are mailed out to the referees and the members of the TAC. This is usually completed within 1 week of the proposal deadline. A similar procedure is followed for the proposals for the VLA and VLBA, but the assignments to the referees are made by one TAC member and double-checked by the scheduler, because of the larger number of science categories. The referees are usually given about 4-6 weeks to get their reports in; these are submitted by email. The referees are asked to base their evaluation on the originality, signiﬁcance, and quality of the proposed investigation. The referees are also requested to recommend a fraction of the requested time to be awarded, and to comment on the technical feasibility if they sense a possible problem. The reports and grades are collected into a database for automated handling described below. For all of the telescopes, a comprehensive summary of all proposals is distributed to the members of the TAC prior to each meeting. This summary contains a complete list of proposals received, weighted and unweighted sorted averages of the referees’ ratings, the proposals themselves, and the referee reports for each proposal. The database software looks for conﬂicts in source lists from the present batch and all other active proposals in the database and lists that information. The weighting scheme forces the grades for all proposals from a given referee to a common average. One of the continuing challenges for the TAC is to compare proposals from diﬀerent areas of astronomical research. For example, should a highly rated proposal for solar observations take precedence over similarly rated proposals to detect molecules in an interstellar cloud? The processes by which proposals are selected and scheduled for the VLA/VLBA and for the GBT proceed in slightly diﬀerent fashions. The GBT Selection Committee presently consists of six members: the Scheduler, the GBT Site Director, a scientist from the staﬀ in Socorro, a scientist from the staﬀ in Charlottesville, and two scientists from external institutions. The Selection Committee typically meets about nine weeks after the deadline. This is intended as a face-to-face meeting, although the external scientists sometimes attend by teleconference. At the outset of the meeting, the Scheduler and Site Director state the number of hours of observing time that can be assigned at this time. Starting from the highest ranked proposals, the Committee then considers each one by one, discusses the referee comments, special issues noted by the Committee, and the requested time. A decision is made on the fraction of time awarded.

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Figure 3. A view of some of the 25-meter elements of the VLA at the site on the Plains of San Augustin, NM. The array is comprised of 27 such elements, and can be arranged in four separate conﬁgurations along a ‘Y’-shaped track. (Image courtesy NRAO/AUI)

In the majority of cases the Committee follows the rankings and average time recommendations of referees, but does occasionally depart if signiﬁcant issues arise. When about two-thirds of the available time has been awarded, the Committee then scans the list of remaining proposals and exercises some judgment in ﬁlling the remaining time available. If grade diﬀerences are very close and therefore do not indicate a notable signiﬁcance of one proposal over another, then human judgment is required. As a feedback mechanism to proposers, the Committee assigns an A, B, or C letter grade to each proposal, in addition to the average numeric ranking of the referee. ‘A’ proposals are very highly rated and are guaranteed time. ‘B’ proposals are mid- range, and might be awarded time

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or not, depending on circumstances, detailed availability of time, and the judgment of the Committee as discussed above. Those proposals in the ‘B’ classiﬁcation will not be carried forward to another trimester if they were not scheduled. ‘C’ proposals are of lowest rank and were rejected by the TAC. Proposers are advised that a ‘C’ proposal will usually need signiﬁcant re-work to compete successfully in a future submittal. The VLA/VLBA TAC presently consists of seven members: two Schedulers, the Assistant Director for New Mexico Operations, one scientist from the Socorro staﬀ, two scientists from elsewhere in the NRAO, and a scientist from an external institution. The TAC typically meets about nine weeks after the deadline, and is generally a face-to-face meeting, although an external scientist sometimes attends by teleconference. The Committee then considers proposals one by one, discusses the referee comments, special issues noted by the Committee, and the requested time. Typically the proposals are reviewed within a particular referee category (solar, AGN, ISM-diﬀuse, etc) and a decision is made as to whether the proposal will be scheduled. In general the Committee follows the rankings and average time recommendations of referees, but does occasionally depart if signiﬁcant issues are uncovered. More details of the process are provided on the web3 . In all cases, for all telescopes, proposers are notiﬁed as to the disposition of each proposal, and the referee grades and comments are included as a guide for future submittal. Requests to use the GBT as part of the VLBA or other global networks are submitted to and administered by the VLBA scheduling committee. The VLA/VLBA scheduling committee meets at about the same time as the GBT committee. Prior to the VLA/VLBA meeting, the GBT Scheduler usually advises them how much time is available on the GBT for VLBI in the upcoming term. After the selections are made, the VLBA scheduler communicates the decisions to the GBT scheduler. Requests to use multiple NRAO telescopes, for example, the use of the GBT to make “zero-spacing” maps to complement VLA observations, are submitted to each telescope independently but are managed under the joint proposal policy described in the NRAO Newsletter, Number 102, January 2005. Figs. 4 and 5 show the VLBA and the GBT, respectively. The scientiﬁc programs conducted using the NRAO telescopes run the entire gamut from solar system objects to galaxies at very high redshift. As an example, the allocation of telescope time in the calendar year 2005 by scientiﬁc category is summarized in Table 2. The visitors who used the 3

http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/epo/ad/scheduling.shtml

Figure 4. A montage showing the ten 25-meter paraboloids which form the VLBA. The antennas are situated at ten sites spread between the US Virgin Islands and Hawaii. (Image courtesy NRAO/AUI – Earth image courtesy of the SeaWiFS Project NASA/GSFC and ORBIMAGE)

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DAVID E. HOGG

telescopes came from many institutions, as is shown in Table 3. All told, there were 1074 visitors, including 104 students, from 267 institutions. The arrays, and the VLA in particular, are very fast compared to the single dishes like the 300-foot telescope. Often a few hours of VLA time is suﬃcient to provide a map having enough detail and sensitivity to answer the scientiﬁc question. As a consequence, the number of proposals received for the currently active telescopes is quite large, as is shown in Table 4. The total for the VLBA does not include VSOP and Global VLBI proposals. 4. Responding to Changing Scientiﬁc Needs Modern astronomical research places emphasis on integrating observations over a wide range of wavelengths in order to elucidate the nature of, and physical conditions in the object of study. This changed approach manifests itself in two ways. Observers generally can not be cognizant of the instrumental details for every telescope which they use, so the managers of telescopes must strive to make the telescopes reliable and easy to use. There is increased interest in the use of archived data exempliﬁed by the eﬀorts now being devoted to the development of the National Virtual Observatory, and thus the managers of telescopes must ensure that the data from their instruments are archived and made available in a timely manner. The impact appears in the proposal management in two areas: there is increased interest in large survey programs, and there is an increase in the number of programs which seek coordinated observations on two or more telescopes. In response to these scientiﬁc challenges the NRAO has introduced a number of changes to its proposal management process. 4.1. PROPOSALS REQUIRING SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF OBSERVING TIME

Although proposals which required signiﬁcant amounts of time had occasionally been run on an NRAO telescope, often as a succession of proposals in which the later proposals reported on the progress of the investigation, there was no formal policy to guide prospective investigators in the submittal of this type of work. However, in 1993 two proposals to map the sky with the VLA at a wavelength of 21 cm were received. One proposal, Faint Images of the Sky at Twenty-centimeters (FIRST), planned to make a survey at high sensitivity and high resolution in the north galactic cap. The other, the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS), would map the sky north of -42 degrees with somewhat lower resolution and a sensitivity limit set by confusion. The advent of these proposals, and the expectation that there was growing interest in making major surveys of various types, prompted an examination of the issues surrounding large proposals.

Solar System – Sun, Planets, Satellites, and Comets

Stellar – Pulsars, X-ray Sources, Planetary Nebulae, Circumstellar Shells Supernovae Remnants, Masers, Novae, Supernovae, and Stars

Galactic – Galactic Structure, Galactic Center, Molecular Clouds HII Regions, Star Formation, Molecules, and Interstellar Medium

Extragalactic – Normal and Active Galaxies, Radio Galaxies Clusters, Quasars, Extragalactic Molecules, and Cosmology

I

II

III

IV

41%

43%

13%

2%

GBT

57%

20%

13%

10%

VLA

77%

8%

13%

2%

VLBA

TABLE 2. Distribution of Observing Hours in 2005 in Various Research Areas, by Percent.

58%

24%

13%

5%

Overall

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TABLE 3. The Number of Observers Using NRAO in 2005 by Telescope, and their Aﬃliation.

Number of Institutions Number of Visitors Number of Students Number of Research Associates at NRAO who observed Number of Permanent Staﬀ at NRAO who observed Total Observers

GBT

VLA

VLB

132 333 44 9 38 424

211 708 63 8 38 817

127 304 28 5 24 361

TABLE 4. The Number of Proposals Received for the Currently-Active Telescopes. Telescope

Date of First Proposals

Number Proposals To – 01 Feb 2006

VLA VLBA GBT

May 1975 May 1989 December 2000

11831 2452 744

In the NRAO Newsletter (Number 54, January 1993) announcement of the approval of the observing time for these proposals P. Vanden Bout and M. Goss note the “increasing importance of multiwavelength astronomy and large astronomical databases”, and envision that these surveys will “provide a resource to the entire astronomical community which can be used like the IRAS survey or the Palomar Sky Survey for a myriad of projects for years to come”. In recognition of the impact that the scheduling of these projects would visit on the more traditional observing programs, the NRAO set up an ad hoc oversight program intended to ensure that the observations would be reduced accurately and in a timely fashion, and that the results would be made available to the community on a speciﬁed schedule of releases. The expectations were fully achieved. The FIRST and NVSS surveys quickly became important research tools. The two primary FIRST papers and the primary NVSS paper have been cited 627 and 895 times, respectively, through 2005. The success of the FIRST and NVSS programs coupled with the continued interest in the multiwavelength approach to the study of astrophysical problems prompted proposals for other large scale surveys. The NRAO

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Figure 5. The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in Green Bank, WV. This telescope has a clear aperture of diameter 100 m, and has an active surface which supports observations at millimeter wavelengths. (Image courtesy NRAO/AUI)

created a committee which formulated and disseminated a series of principles under which such proposals would receive consideration for scheduling. The principles were described by P. Vanden Bout in an NRAO Newsletter (Number 83, April 2000). The salient points are that the proposals would be reviewed by a separate “skeptical review” committee, that the data products would be provided to the astronomical community in a timely manner, and that no more than 10-20 percent of the VLA or VLBA observing time will be made available to large projects. Since 2000 there have been four reviews of large proposals for the VLA, and three reviews for the VLBA. No large proposals for the GBT have yet been considered. The topics of the proposals span a wide range of interests: a complete listing of proposals and their associated web sites may be found at the web site4 for large proposals.

4

http://www.vla.nrao.edu/astro/prop/largeprop/

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4.2. COORDINATED OBSERVATIONS WITH OTHER MAJOR TELESCOPES

4.2.1. Very-Long-Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) As noted above, the scheduling of VLBI experiments by the NUG continued until the VLBI network was superseded by the dedicated VLBA in 1990. The VLBA was scheduled in the manner of the other NRAO telescopes, that is, proposals were solicited three times each year, and selected for scheduling on the basis of referee comments received from scientists primarily from outside the NRAO. The availability of the VLBA, a telescope dedicated to observations on an array having transcontinental baselines, satisﬁed many of the demands for high resolution radio astronomy. An important component was the capability of making synoptic observations with a synthesized beam which was similar at each of the epochs. However, the desirability of having higher sensitivity over shorter baselines led to the creation of the European VLBI Network (EVN) and eventually to the creation of a European institute to manage the processing of the EVN data (Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe, or JIVE). Inevitably there was pressure to expand the research with intercontinental arrays, and therefore an agreement was eventually forged between the VLBA and the EVN for the Global VLBI. Proposals for the global data are submitted to both EVN and VLBA, are independently reviewed, and are selected in a meeting of representatives from each institute. At the same meeting the decision is made about the amount of time and when the joint observation will occur. One of the important initiatives which required coordinated observations using the VLBA was that of the VLBI Space Observatory Programme (VSOP). Under an agreement negotiated through the Global VLBI Working Group formed under the auspices of URSI Commission J, the NRAO committed up to 30% of the observing time on the VLBA to perform observations in conjunction with the Japanese spacecraft HALCA. The spacecraft, launched in February1997, continued to be supported with VLBA observations through January 2002. The proposals for space VLBI were peer-reviewed by the VSOP Project, and the observation of the selected proposals were executed according to a schedule developed by the VSOP Project in coordination with the scheduling oﬃcers of the participating telescopes, including the VLBA. The NRAO did review samples of the proposals and determined that the VSOP science was of high quality, comparable with the VLBA science being conducted under the usual selection and scheduling procedure. VLBI research at millimeter wavelengths has developed over the past two decades. At the outset the principal investigators had to coordinate with the schedulers of each of the telescopes that were to be employed

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in the VLBI experiment. Eventually the US eﬀort was managed for several years by a loose consortium, the Coordinated Millimeter VLBI Array, headed by the group at the Haystack Observatory. Now, in recognition of the scientiﬁc potential which is aﬀorded by high resolution data at these wavelengths, a Memorandum of Understanding between the NRAO and the MPIfR was created in 2003 (NRAO Newsletter, Number 97, October 2003) under which blocks of observing time would be set aside at participating observatories to be used for 3 mm wavelength VLBI. At the outset the telescopes are the VLBA, and at Pico Veleta, Plateau de Bure, Eﬀelsberg, Onsala Space Observatory, and Metsahovi Radio Observatory. It is envisioned that there will be two such periods each year. Proposals for this system are submitted to both NRAO and MPIfR, are reviewed separately, and selected for scheduling in a meeting of the scheduling group. The VLBA itself achieves a sensitivity of approximately 100 microJy/beam at 10 GHz in one hour of integration. By adding several other large telescopes, speciﬁcally the GBT, the phased VLA, Arecibo, and Effelsberg, an increase of an order of magnitude in sensitivity can be realized. The organization of this eﬀort has been formalized by the creation of the High Sensitivity Array (HSA) as announced in 2004 (NRAO Newsletter, Number 99, April 2004). Proposals for observations with HSA are sent to NRAO, where they are reviewed and selected by the same group managing the VLBA proposals. Final time allocation takes place in a teleconference with representatives of Arecibo, Eﬀelsberg, and GBT; the two non-NRAO institutes have reviewed and assessed the proposals independently prior to that teleconference. 4.2.2. Coordination with the NASA Great Observatories In the decades prior to the program of space telescopes there were a number of programs which involved coordination between NRAO telescopes and telescopes operating at optical, infrared, or X-ray wavelengths. Examples are observations of the sun made simultaneously with rocket experiments; coordinated monitoring of variable objects such as BL Lac; and a symbiosis between radio and X-Ray observations of X-Ray binaries. Radio data were obtained using proposals submitted and selected in the normal process, with any constraints on the time at which the observations were to be scheduled arranged by agreement between the principal investigator and the telescope scheduler. The marked success of the Hubble Space Telescope has created considerable interest in acquiring correlative data at other wavelengths. However, in the radio case this did not result in any signiﬁcant demand for coordinated proposals. Thus, the radio counterpart image of the Hubble Deep Field was obtained with a standard (albeit challenging) VLA proposal.

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In contrast, there has been considerable interest in coordinated observations between Chandra and the VLA/VLBA. In response to this, an agreement was reached between NRAO and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Center (CXC) under which a proposer requiring both Chandra and VLA/VLBA observations of an object may submit a single proposal to the CXC. The proposal is reviewed by the CXC in the usual manner, with the additional constraint that the proposal must clearly justify the need for NRAO observing time. Proposals of this kind which have been selected by the CXC are then automatically eligible for time on the NRAO instrument. Up to 3% of VLA and VLBA time is available. This program began with the Chandra Cycle 5 in 2003 (see NRAO Newsletter, Number 94, January 2003) and has been continued through the current Cycle 8 Call for Proposals to be submitted in March 2006. In Cycle 5, 22 proposals were received, of which four were assigned 41 hours on the VLA.; about 10 joint proposals were allocated time in each of Cycles 6 and 7. A similar agreement between NRAO and the Spitzer Science Center was made in 2005, in time for the call for Cycle 2 (NRAO Newsletter, Number 102, January 2005) and envisions coordination with either the VLA or the GBT. As of this writing no time has yet been allocated under this program. One of the Large Proposals has been awarded time with the VLA to obtain data which complements Spitzer observations of a star-forming region. It is anticipated that other collaborative programs will be supported in the future, though probably not with formal agreements like those for Chandra and Spitzer. For example, a VLA Large Proposal of twenty hours per month will provide data on gamma ray events observed by the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission. 4.2.3. Rapid Response Science It has proved diﬃcult to accommodate proposals to observe unexpected transients, be they recently discovered comets, novae or supernovae, or the radio counterparts of X-Ray bursts or gamma-ray bursts. Part of the diﬃculty has arisen because of competition between equally-rated proposals which were received at essentially the same time, perhaps in response to an IAU telegram or circular. For example, the appearance in 1995/96 of two bright comets (C/1996 B2 Hyakutake and C/1995 O1 Hale-Bopp), each of which were apparently nearing the sun for the ﬁrst time, prompted a spate of proposals for molecular searches using the 12-meter. To sort everything out required the convening of a special panel of comet specialists who advised NRAO as to which of the proposals should receive observing time in order that the best interests of the science were served. A second problem is the scheduling of such proposals in a timely way, given that the telescopes have in general not been scheduled dynamically.

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Figure 6. An artist’s conception of ALMA, the millimeter array under construction at the Llano de Chajnantor plateau in northern Chile. The target for early science with the array is 2010. (Image courtesy NRAO/AUI/ESO)

For many years the scheduled observer had to be displaced if it could be done without completely vitiating that program, but it always was a clumsy and unsatisfactory situation. NRAO has now established three categories of proposals for Rapid Response Science, each of which is treated in a special way. The categories, details of which are given at the web site5 are: 1. Known Transient Phenomena. These proposals request time to observe phenomena that are predictable in general, but not in speciﬁc detail. 2. Exploratory Time. These proposals are for small amounts of time, typically a few hours or less, in response to a recent discovery, possibly to facilitate future submission of a larger proposal. 3. Target of Opportunity. These proposals are for true targets of opportunity such as supernovae or extreme X-ray ﬂares. As noted above, the VLBA is currently scheduled dynamically, so that it is straightforward to include a Target of Opportunity. The VLA schedule includes proposals of both higher priority and lower priority; where possible, 5

http://www.vla.nrao.edu/astro/prop/rapid/

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DAVID E. HOGG

a Target of Opportunity is scheduled by displacement of a portion of the time of a lower priority program. 5. Considerations in Scheduling NRAO Telescopes in the Future One of the major innovations expected in the future scheduling of telescopes will be dynamic scheduling. In this procedure the availability of the equipment and the suitability of the weather will be evaluated in real time in the assignment of a speciﬁc block of time to a particular proposal. The VLBA already does this to a considerable extent, by predicting weather and array conditions 1-2 days ahead. The GBT, the VLA, and the 12-meter before it, use a system of contingency scheduling in which proposals at low and high frequency are paired, and a decision is made (typically once per day) as to which proposal will actually be allocated the observing time. In the future the exploitation of the GBT at millimeter wavelengths will require dynamic scheduling. It is a requirement that both the Expanded Very Large Array (EVLA) and ALMA be dynamically scheduled. To accommodate ﬂexible scheduling, it is necessary to facilitate observing from home institutions, that is, not to require observers to be present at the telescope itself. The automated nature of VLA and VLBA is especially suitable for “remote” observing. But the 12-m millimeter-wave telescope employed for many years, and the present GBT can employ, remote observing as a standard observing technique implemented via internet connections. The selection of proposals for ALMA (Fig. 6) will have to be made in a diﬀerent manner than for the telescopes operated solely by NRAO, since ALMA is an international project. The details of the selection process, the allocation of time, and the coordination between the several time allocation committees are currently under discussion. At the present time there is discussion as to whether the fraction of time on NRAO telescopes which is devoted to large (“Heritage”) projects should be increased. As was described above there is a process for awarding time to large proposals on the VLA and VLBA, but it has not yet been extended to include the GBT. Moreover, the time is limited to between 10% and 20% on each of the VLA and VLBA. Were this fraction to be increased it might be necessary to modify the selection process for large proposals, since the impact on traditional proposals would be great. Acknowledgements I would like to thank M.A. Gordon, W.E. Howard III, P.R. Jewell, and J.S. Ulvestad for their comments and suggestions about this paper. I note

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that each of these scientists has played a critical role in the development and evolution of the system described here. References 1. 2.

Gordon, M.A. 2005, Recollections of “Tucson Operations”: The Millimeter-Wave Observatory of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Springer, Dordrecht, xvii + 221 pp. (ISBN 1-4020-3235-8 ) Kellermann, K.I. & Cohen, M.H. 1988, The Origin and Evolution of the NRAOCornell VLBI System, J. Roy. Astron. Soc. Canada 82, 248-265.

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SELECTING AND SCHEDULING OBSERVATIONS AT THE IRAM OBSERVATORIES

MICHAEL GREWING

Institut de Radioastronomie Millim´etrique 300 rue de la Piscine Domaine Universitaire de Grenoble F-38406 Saint-Martin d’H`eres Cedex, France [email protected]

Abstract. After a brief characterization of the IRAM Observatories on Pico Veleta in Spain, and the Plateau de Bure in France, the process by which observing proposals are selected is described. The observatories have initially been created in response to the scientiﬁc interests of a relatively small group if scientists aﬃliated with the Centre National de la Recherche Scientiﬁque (CNRS) in France, the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG) in Germany, and the Instituto Geogr´ aﬁco Nacional (IGN) in Spain. The CNRS, the MPG, and the IGN have paid for the initial investment and operations costs, and contribute at present 47%, 47%, and 6% to IRAMs budget, respectively. However, since the beginning IRAM has received observing time requests not only from scientists in France, Germany and Spain, but from all around the world. While this proves the strong interest in observations at millimeter wavelengths, and the important role that the IRAM Observatories are playing, it also leads to a number of questions in connection with future developments.

1. Introduction During the late 1960s, early 1970s a number of astronomers started to think about molecular line spectroscopy in the mm-wavelength range, exploiting the atmospheric windows at 3, 2 and 1 mm. What was known at the time about the physics and chemistry of cold interstellar clouds, and circumstellar envelopes was enough to predict that transitions between low lying rotational levels in diatomic and small poly-atomic molecules should produce a rich spectrum of emission lines from a large number of 203 A. Heck (ed.), Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, 203–225. © 2006 Springer.

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astrophysically important constituents. Observing these lines would provide a unique tool for deepening the understanding of fundamental questions like the formation of new stars and planets. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Radioastronomy in Germany, and from the Paris and Bordeaux observatories in France, managed to convince their respective funding agencies, the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG), and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientiﬁque (CNRS), to invest into this new ﬁeld of astronomy. While the astronomers at Bonn favored the construction of a large single dish telescope, building on the technology successfully developed for the 100m-telescope in Eﬀelsberg, which operates in the cm-wavelengths range, French astronomers favored the construction of an interferometer. In talking to each other, the two funding agencies decided to combine forces, and for some time it looked as if more European countries could join the project. In the end, the CNRS and the MPG decided to push ahead on their own by signing bi-lateral agreements amongst themselves, and also with Spain because, after several site selection campaigns and after seeking the advice from a “wise men committee”, it was decided to put a 30m-diameter single dish telescope at about 3000 m altitude in the Sierra Nevada in Spain, and to construct an interferometer with initially three 15m-diameter telescopes at an altitude of about 2500m on the Plateau de Bure in the French Alps. The construction of the 30m-telescope was ﬁnancially supported by the Volkswagen Foundation. Less then ﬁve years after the ﬁrst oﬃcial contacts between the CNRS and the MPG, IRAM started its life in 1979. It was created as a private French non-proﬁt company, registered at the Chamber of Commerce in Grenoble. In 1990, the Spanish Instituto Geogr´ aﬁco Nacional decided to join IRAM, and the bi-lateral agreement was replaced by a three-lateral agreement between the CNRS, the MPG, and the IGN who have committed themselves to contribute 47%, 47%, and 6%, respectively, to IRAMs annual operations and investment budgets. The current contract between the IRAM funding organizations runs until 2009. It was signed for a period of 30 years, starting in 1979. Recently, discussions have started to extend this period into the next decade. As a ﬁrst step, the contract could be prolonged by ﬁve years. The mandate given to IRAM included the construction of two observatories, their operation and maintenance, and the development of new techniques that would beneﬁt the respective scientiﬁc communities. The idea was that all this would happen in very close collaboration with the so called “home institutes” who initiated the creation of a joint institute for

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radioastronomy at mm-wavelengths (IRAM), while continuing their own technological developments in this ﬁeld. I think it is fair to say that because of this close relationship between IRAM and the “home institutes”, the IRAM facilities were initially beneﬁting primarily the scientiﬁc groups at these “home institutes” who had deﬁned the technical speciﬁcations of the IRAM facilities and were providing continuing technical support. IRAMs Statutes stipulate that the allocation of observing time at the IRAM observatories is decided by the IRAM Director on the basis of recommendations from a Program Committee. This committee has eight members, nominated by the three funding organizations and approved by the entire Council. Each funding organization has the right to propose two candidates, and two more, not working in France, Germany or Spain, are proposed jointly. The appointment is typically for three years. The names of the scientists are published e.g. in IRAMs Annual Reports. Details of the functioning of this committee are described below. The original shares of observing time as deﬁned in the Statutes were 45% and 45% for the CNRS and the MPG, respectively, and 10% for the IGN in exchange for the provision of the Pico Veleta site and oﬃce space in Granada. These numbers changed in 1990 to 42%, 42%, and 16% after the IGN became a regular member and started to contribute 6% to the IRAM budget. More recently, the shares were further modiﬁed to 40%, 40%, and 20% when the IGN made a special contribution to the costs of the 6th antenna of the PdB Interferometer. The oﬃcial time allocation process was started as soon as the instruments were successfully commissioned. The 30m-telescope on Pico Veleta began regular observations in 1985, and the Plateau de Bure Interferometer followed in 1990, at that time as a 3-element array. Since then three more telescopes have been added. Today the Plateau de Bure Interferometer operates as a 6-element array, oﬀering 15 simultaneous baselines in a single conﬁguration. For detailed structural studies of extended sources typically one or two conﬁguration changes are needed. The completion of such project can therefore take months. 2. The IRAM Facilities : The Pico Veleta 30m-Telescope, and the Plateau de Bure 6-Element Interferometer In this section the main characteristics of the two IRAM observatories are brieﬂy summarized. As mentioned above, both have been constructed at high altitude sites which oﬀer a rather dry atmosphere during a large fraction of time, but varying in the course of the year. The atmospheric transparency in the windows at 3, 2, 1 (and 0.8) mm depends crucially

206

MICHAEL GREWING TABLE 1. Receivers at the IRAM 30m-telescope.

Rx

Pol.

A100 B100 C150 D150 A230 B230 C270 D270 HERA

V H V H V H V H H,V

Rx combinations

Tuning Range (GHz)

T rec (K)

IF (GHz)

IF-BW (GHz)

g im (dB)

• •

80-115.5 81-115.5 130-183 130-183 197-266 197-266 241-281 241-281 215-272

60-80 60-85 70-125 80-125 85-150 95-160 125-250 150-250 110-380

1.5 1.5 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

0.5 0.5 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

>20 >20 15-25 08-17 12-17 12-17 10-20 09-13 ∼10

• • •

• • • •

• • • • • • •

on the remaining water vapor in the atmosphere above the telescope, and changing weather conditions are a limiting factor. Observations have to be stopped if the humidity is too high and/or of the wind becomes too strong. Figure 1 shows the 30m-diameter telescope in Spain during winter conditions. In order to maintain the high accuracy of the large primary mirror, and to avoid the accumulation of ice and snow on the surface, the entire structure is encapsulated and kept at constant temperature with the help of a powerful air-condition system. The telescope has been constructed according to the homology principle, i.e. the surface remains parabolic at all elevation angles despite the changes in gravity and wind forces. A large eﬀective aperture is necessary to collect the faint signals from cosmic sources. Equally important are extremely sensitive receivers, and Table 1 shows what is currently available at the 30m-telescope. These receivers cover the three atmospheric windows at 3, 2, and 1 mm with very good receiver noise temperatures. As indicated in the table, their instantaneous wavelength bands are, however, rather limited (0.5 and 1 GHz, respectively), i.e. an exact tuning within each window is required to observe a particular (set of) molecular transition(s). A number of spectroscopic backends is available for these receivers which are optimized for particular types of observations. In addition to spectroscopic studies, continuum observations have played an increasingly important role in recent years, especially since multielement bolometric cameras and multi-beam heterodyne arrays have become available.

207

SELECTING AND SCHEDULING AT IRAM

Figure 1.

The 30m-diameter telescope on Pico Veleta (2950m).

TABLE 2. Bolometric cameras at the 30m-telescope. Bolometer

Beam

λ

Pixels

Spacing between horns

rms after 10 min (normal bolom. conditions) with skynoise removal

MAMBO I MAMBO II

11 11

1.2 mm 1.2 mm

37 117

20 20

1.5 mJy 1.5 mJy

These bolometric cameras have been developed at the Max Planck Institute for Radio-astronomy in Bonn. They are installed at the IRAM telescope on a quasi-permanent basis but remain property of the MPIfR. Figure 2 shows the Plateau de Bure Interferometer which today comprises six 15m-diameter telescopes. Their high surface quality and stability is guaranteed by the use of carbon ﬁber structural elements, and initially also carbon ﬁber panels. In recent years a switch has been made to aluminum panels, but many carbon ﬁber are still in use, either with their

208

MICHAEL GREWING TABLE 3. The standard conﬁgurations oﬀered at the PdBI. Conf A B C D

Stations W27 W12 W12 W08

E68 W27 E10 E03

N46 N46 N17 N07

E24 E23 N11 N11

E04 E12 E04 N02

N29 N20 W09 W05

original aluminized Hostaﬂon surface, or painted with a conductive paint (and a protection layer). Each of these telescopes has a weight of about 130 tons. They are moveable on rails, i.e. their position can be changed (conﬁguration change), and they can be brought back into the hangar for maintenance and repair. These telescopes are currently equipped with heterodyne receivers for the 3 and 1 mm atmospheric windows, but will soon be outﬁtted with cryostats that can accommodate up to eight receiver units each, covering the 3, 2, and 1 mm atmospheric windows in dual polarisation. The maximum distance between the antennas in the array determines the best angular resolution that can be achieved. With a maximum baseline of almost 800 m, the Plateau de Bure interferometer achieves sub-arcsecond resolution and thereby matches the resolution of ground-based optical telescopes. Table 3 gives the standard conﬁgurations, with the stations indicated by their position on the tracks (N=north, E=east, W=west). The stations are separated by 8 m, counting from the crossing point of the eastwest and northern tracks. Table 4 gives the size of the synthesized beams (sizes and position angle) for these conﬁgurations and their diﬀerent combinations. The beams are calculated for a source at +45◦ declination and 8 hours of observations (around transit) per conﬁguration. There is no need to discuss in more detail the technical characteristics of the instruments oﬀered at the two IRAM observatories. It is, however, important for the discussion that follows to realize that both facilities oﬀer a large variety of observing modes: – a suite of diﬀerent receivers in the three atmospheric windows at 3, 2 and 1 mm at the 30m-telescope (and occasionally in a 4th window at 0.8 mm), and in two atmospheric windows (at 3 and 1 mm) at the Plateau de Bure interferometer (soon to be extended); – a choice of the center wavelength of the band to be observed within each window;

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Figure 2. The Plateau de Bure Interferometer. The building in the center is the hangar which has been used to assemble the telescopes. The central control room is also located in this building. During the summer months, the telescopes are systematically brought back into the hangar for maintenance and repair. If major interventions are needed at other times, the same procedure applies. The building further to the right are the living quarters with bedrooms and a cafeteria.

TABLE 4. PdBI. Conf

The beam characteristics of the Synthetized beam at 100 GHz New Current

A B C D

0.9 ×0.7 @38◦ 1.3 ×1.1 @68◦ 2.9 ×2.6 @61◦ 5.5 ×4.6 @103◦

1.4 ×1.3 2.0 ×1.6 2.6 ×2.1 6.1 ×4.1

@22◦ @63◦ @48◦ @90◦

AB BC CD

1.1 ×0.9 @45◦ 1.9 ×1.6 @59◦ 3.8 ×3.4 @82◦

1.6 ×1.4 @41◦ 2.3 ×1.9 @55◦ 3.8 ×3.0 @68◦

– a choice of the spectral resolution (correleated with the instantaneous bandwidth) for line observations, which is in practice the choice of the best suited backend; and – the possibility of mapping the continuum emission from sources or searching for point sources in extended ﬁelds; and ﬁnally, – in the case of the interferometer, the choice of the angular resolution, which is in practice the choice of one or more antenna conﬁgurations to be applied. Given this multiple choice scenario, a potential user of these facilities has

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MICHAEL GREWING

to justify in the request for observing time in some detail why a particular choice of settings is needed to reach a speciﬁc scientiﬁc goal, and he/she must make an estimate of the observing time that will be required to do so. A potential user can obviously only provide an optimized science case and all these details, if the necessary technical information is made available in advance. With each call for observing proposals, IRAM announces which instruments and settings will be available in the coming period, and where to ﬁnd the necessary documentation. Ideally, a lot of the required information can be found in user manuals, but technical progress is often faster then the time needed to update such documents. In such cases, individual technical reports can be and should be consulted. In addition, support from experienced astronomers has been oﬀered, e.g. when new observing modes have been introduced (example: “on-the-ﬂy” mapping). Special help is also oﬀered to “newcomers”, but this should not be a “last minute” request. An alternative for them is to join an existing team to gain experience before becoming Principal Investigators themselves. The multiple choice situation raises a lot of other questions, in particular when folding in the fact that the transparency of the atmosphere is neither perfect nor stable but strongly variable as a function of the weather conditions and the elevation of a source above the horizon (the transparency being best in the zenith direction). These eﬀects are more dramatic at the shorter wavelengths, implying that 1 mm observations should only be carried out in the best conditions whereas 3 mm observations can continue even during mediocre weather conditions. How to take this into account in the allocation of observing time? IRAM is taking two radically diﬀerent approaches to this question. At the 30m-telescope, the weather risk is completely left to the user of the telescope except for special observing projects to be discussed below. This means that a project gets scheduled during a certain window in time, and there is no automatic second chance. As a rule, a proposal has to be resubmitted for the next observing period if the allocated observing time has been wiped out (or reduced too much) by the weather conditions. At the Plateau de Bure Interferometer, an accepted project, once it has been started, is deﬁnitely taken to completion, i.e. scheduled and rescheduled if necessary, until the required data set has been secured. The reason for this diﬀerence in policy is that single dish observations are often useful even if only a fraction of the data has been gathered. An interferometric map can only be constructed and analyzed if a complete data set is available. Projects which are started but interrupted because of weather changes risk to be a complete waste of resources unless their completion is forced.

SELECTING AND SCHEDULING AT IRAM

Figure 3. 2005.

211

Percentage distribution of calendar time at the 30m-telescope in the year

Figure 4. Percentage of net-integration-time invested into astronomical observations in the last ten years with the Plateau de Bure Interferometer. In the May to October period, which coincides with the annual maintenance period, observations are in general made with a subset of the six-element array. Antenna 5 became operational in the summer 1996, Antenna 6 at the end of 2001. Note that in the year 2000 no observations have been carried out, following the cable car accident in July 1999, and a helicopter accident in December 1999.

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MICHAEL GREWING

3. Access to the IRAM Facilities According to the IRAM Statutes As stated in the introduction, the access rights to the IRAM facilities are deﬁned in the IRAM Statutes. They take into account the ﬁnancial contributions of the funding organizations to IRAMs annual operations and investment budgets, and the fact that the Spanish partner has made available the Pico Veleta site and a special ﬁnancial contribution in connection with the construction of the 6th antenna for the PdB Interferometer. This has led to the following access rights: 40 % for the CNRS, 40 % for the MPG, 20 % for the IGN. Several comments are needed when looking at these numbers. At the time when the percentages were ﬁrst decided, the number of groups who were active in the ﬁeld of mm-radioastronomy, was very small. The French, German, and Spanish groups engaged in this ﬁeld, were very well represented by the three funding agencies supporting IRAM. This is still true for France, but the situation has changed in Germany and in Spain where groups that are not aﬃliated to the MPG or the IGN, e.g. German and Spanish university groups, also want to gain access. Since the beginning, groups outside France, Germany, and Spain, have, of course, been interested to use the IRAM facilities, in particular groups in the United States. They soon started to apply for observing time even if they had no formal access rights. Such proposals were judged for their scientiﬁc merit together with all other proposals and generally granted time if rated highly. This approach was fully supported by the CNRS, the MPG and the IGN in view of the access that was granted to European astronomers at US observatories, e.g. those in Hawaii. The issue became more complex when the pressure on observing time increased due to the increasing number of astronomers working at IRAM, and an increasing number of requests from astronomers in other countries in Europe and elsewhere. IRAMs Executive Council closely monitored these developments and conﬁrmed every time when the matter was discussed that scientiﬁc quality should be the number one criterion for the selection of projects to be carried out at the two IRAM observatories without, however, reducing too much the overall return to the CNRS, MPG, and IGN supported communities. How this is handled in practice by the IRAM management is indicated below. A new element in this discussion came up with the decision of the European Commission (EC) to ﬁnancially support transnational access (TNA)

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to existing research infrastructure. Radioastronomers across Europe have joined their eﬀorts by submitting together a proposal for the FP6 funding period (“RadioNet”1 ), which includes the access to radioastronomical facilities in France (IRAM), Germany, Hawaii, the Netherlands, Spain (IRAM), Sweden, and the UK. On the basis of the hourly costs of the diﬀerent facilities, the EC agreed to reimburse the costs of up to 5% of the observing time if given to eligible proposers from countries other than those that support the facilities already. IRAM is participating in this scheme since 2004, and it is likely to continue during the next EC funding period (FP7), and the scheme may eventually even be expanded. However, no decision has been taken on this. 4. Calls for Proposals IRAM issues twice per year calls for proposals. Submission deadlines are currently at the beginning of March and September each year, the ﬁrst one for the summer (15 May – 15 November), and the second one for the winter (15 November – 15 May) scheduling periods. The calls together with all other relevant information are published on the IRAM websites (www.iram.fr and www.iram.es), and in the IRAM Newsletter, and references are included to background information that the proposer might ﬁnd useful. Proposals can be submitted by letter, fax, or electronically through the Electronic Proposal Submission Facility which is opened about two weeks before each deadline. They are registered by the Scientiﬁc Secretariat, and the Principal Investigator (PI) receives an acknowledgement of the receipt. The PI is the single point of contact for IRAM for all matters concerning a request for observing time. The format of the proposal is standardized, and there is a page limit in order to keep the incoming material manageable. On the cover page, the following information is requested: • Proposal title • Category of object(s) with sub-categories: ◦ Solar System: continuum, lines, other ◦ Galactic : continuum, lines, circumstellar envelopes, young stellar objects, cloud structure, chemistry, other ◦ Extragalactic: continuum, CO lines, other • Abstract • Information if resubmission/continuation of previous proposal 1

See the chapter by A.G. Gunn in this volume. (Ed.)

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MICHAEL GREWING

• • • • • •

Hours requested Special requirements if any Receivers to be used Frequencies to which the receivers must be tuned List of objects Name and coordinates of Principal Investigator who is the point of contact for IRAM • Name(s) and coordinates of Co-Investigator(s) On the following pages, the scientiﬁc case should be made, and details of the observing strategy and the observing time estimation described. For Plateau de Bure proposals, the requested array conﬁguration must also be justiﬁed. This information is treated as strictly conﬁdential, and IRAM relies on the referees to whom copies of all proposals are sent to act in the same manner. It nevertheless happens that proposers want to keep certain pieces of information for themselves until they get to the telescope. Examples are the search for new molecular species with transitions in the mm-wavelength range that have been measured in the laboratory but not yet made public, or high redshift objects for which the authors claim to have a precise but unpublished redshift. The borderline between the amount of protection given to the authors and the amount of information needed to correctly judge a proposal is a delicate matter and can only be established on a case by case basis. 5. Proposal Selection (Prioritizing Observations and Requested Observing Modes) IRAMs calls for proposals have always led to an oversubscription of the available observing time by at least a factor of two, and much more for some regions in the sky (e.g. nearby starforming regions or the Galactic center). Figure 5 illustrates the increase in the requests received over the years for the Plateau de Bure Interferometer. In the same ﬁgure, the number of proposals that was accepted and scheduled is given. The pressure factor is only one of the parameters that make the proposal selection a diﬃcult task. As already mentioned, it is a multi-parameter problem, not only because the sources that can be observed range from nearby solar system objects, i.e. planets, comets, asteroids and Kuiper belt objects, to the most distant objects in the Universe that have so far been discovered, i.e. QSOs with redshifts > 6, but also because of the many diﬀerent observing modes available: line versus continuum observations (including a

SELECTING AND SCHEDULING AT IRAM

215

Figure 5. The number of scientiﬁc proposals scheduled on the Plateau de Bure Interferometer from May 1990 to May 2005. The average pressure factor was 2.3 in 2005. The LST range covered by the Orion and Taurus regions is one of the most oversubscribed in the winter period.

polarimetric option), point sources versus the mapping of extended regions, and – for the interferometer – the choice of angular resolution and dynamic range. In judging the scientiﬁc merit of proposals, other factors that come into play are the international competition, and the balance between what looks like a guaranteed success on the basis of what is already known about a target, versus high risk proposals that aim at something completely new. To my knowledge no observatory has found a perfect solution how to handle such a multi-parameter situation. Decades ago, observatories simply granted a certain number of days/nights per month to their senior staﬀ members, and left it to them to decide what to do. Today, all major observatories operate on the basis of a peer review system that tries to establish scientiﬁc priorities which are then reﬂected in the allocation of observing time. But also in a peer review system, questions such as the following ones arise: • should it be a single time allocation committee dealing with everything or should expert groups be established for the diﬀerent subject areas (see above) ? • should the judgment be based exclusively on the scientiﬁc case as written down in the proposal, or should additional information be taken into account? • to what extent should the past record of the principal investigator (and his collaborators?) be taken into account (e.g. the quality and speed of publishing previous data) – Observatories have a legitimate interest

216

•

•

• •

•

MICHAEL GREWING

that the data that have been collected get published in the refereed literature! should small programs that can be completed in one or two observing sessions be favored over longer programs that have to be sustained over several years before signiﬁcant results will appear in the literature? – again, the “visibility” of an Observatory is directly concerned should certain types of observations be favored during certain periods of the year in view of the fact that observations at a wavelength of 1mm can only be carried out under good weather conditions which are more likely to occur during the “winter season”? should room be reserved for key programs, i.e. very demanding projects that are supported by many scientists who plan to establish a large data base of general and lasting interest (“legacy programs”)? last but not least, what should be done to encourage newcomers, especially young PhD students, who may have brilliant new ideas but lack experience in writing strong proposals that will impress the Program Committee? Summer Schools that IRAM has organized since several years turn out to be very useful to overcome this hurdle, ﬁnally, what fraction of the available observing time should be set aside as “discretionary time” that will be allocated by the Director for “targets of opportunity” observations or other special requests? Examples are follow-up observations for gamma-ray burst sources, or the observation of newly detected comets etc.

The IRAM Statutes foresee a single Program Committee that deals with all the requests. In deciding the composition of this team, the Executive Council tries to take into account the range of scientiﬁc topics that needs to be covered. But with a total of eight members (see above), these scientists have to cope with everything. And that is even optimistic. The large number of proposals that are received for the 30m-telescope, especially for the winter period, made it impractical that all referees look at all 150-200 proposals (PV and PdB together). While everybody remains invited to look at everything, in practice two subgroups have been formed, one dealing with solar system and galactic proposals, the other with all the extragalactic ones. Furthermore: the members of the Program Committee are active scientists themselves, i.e. they are sometimes personally involved in some of the proposals to be reviewed and therefore disqualiﬁed as referees. In cases where IRAM felt that the evaluation of a proposal could suﬀer from this conﬂict of interest situation, or because the scientiﬁc topic was very special, outside referees have been consulted from time to time. But this was the exception, and not the rule.

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Figure 6. The percentage distribution of observing time requested for a typical observing period per object category (blue= PV, red=PdB proposals). These distributions have changed with time, extragalactic observations now playing a very signiﬁcant role at both observatories (YSO=Young Stellar Objects, CSE=Circum-Stellar Envelopes). This would not have been possible without signiﬁcant improvements in the performance characteristics that have been achieved in recent years.

6. The Rating System All proposals that have been received by a certain deadline are copied to the members of the Program Committee. They are asked to assign a grade to each proposal on a scale from 0 (very bad) to 5 (very good), and to explain/justify this grade with a few lines of written text which will later be communicated to the Principal Investigator. As soon as the grades have been received by IRAM, ideally a few days before a meeting of the PC, the average of all grades that a referee has given is used to normalize the personal scales to each other before calculating an average grade and the rms-deviation for each proposal. Figure 7 shows the result of such an exercise (proposals submitted for the 30m-telescope for the winter 2005-20006 period). Two observations can be made immediately. No proposal was rated as “very bad”, and the vast majority of proposals got a grade between 3 and 4. This is exactly the range in which the cut-oﬀ has to be made because of the fact that the time requested exceeds by at least a factor of two the time that can be allocated.

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At this point it is interesting to consider the scatter between the individual ratings of each proposal. The result is shown in Fig. 8. Bearing in mind that these are small-number statistics because often < 8 referees will have evaluated a proposal (see above), it can nevertheless be stated that there are some cases (about 10%) were all referees agree that a proposal is very good or close to it, and there are only few cases where the referees disagree strongly about the quality of the proposal. The problem comes in between. For the large majority of proposals the scatter is between 0.35 and 0.75, and this range is crucial wrt to the cut-oﬀ criteria that need to be applied. In order to progress from here, the members of the IRAM PC are invited to discuss the individual proposals during a meeting that lasts 1.5 to 2 days (for PV and PdB together), especially those where the rating has been controversial. At the end of these discussions, the PC assigns to each proposal a category A or B or C, and the time that should be scheduled. This is given as an input to the IRAM Direction for a ﬁnal decision. The meaning of these categories is the following: A = the proposal should deﬁnitely be scheduled at the telescope; B = the proposal should be scheduled as long as time is available; C = the proposal should not go to the telescope. On occasions, sub-categories have been assigned. The most important of these is the category A+, meaning that such proposal should not only be scheduled at the 30m-telescope once, but that back-up time should be reserved in case the weather happens to be bad. The grade “A+” will typically be given to proposals which are considered as scientiﬁcally especially important, and urgent because of strong international competition. High priority is also given to “zero spacing” observations with the 30m-telescope if requested for approved and successfully scheduled PdB proposals. The grades that are ﬁnally decided, together with the brief written comments from the referees, are promptly communicated to the Principal Investigators. The grades are also published in the IRAM Newsletter (the projects being coded). While the members of the Program Committee are only concerned with the scientiﬁc merit of the proposals, IRAM has to analyze the results also with respect to the overall balance and return. Usually, all “A”-rated proposals will be executed exactly as recommended, the “B”-rated ones will, however, be subjected to a ﬁne-tuning process which takes into account the pressure on certain hour angle ranges and the geographical distribution of the observing time. The actual implementation of the programs is done by the IRAM Coordinators for the Pico Veleta and the Plateau de Bure Observatory. For the 30m-telescope, a large portion of the schedule is usually established for the

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Figure 7. The frequency distribution of the average grades assigned to the individual proposals on a scale from 0 (very bad) to 5 (very good). The data have been binned in intervals of 0.1.

Figure 8. This diagram shows the frequency distribution of the rms deviation of the individual ratings from the calculated mean. As before, the data are binned in intervals of 0.1.

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entire 6-months period very soon after a proposal selection round, and the Principal Investigators are informed accordingly. The the PdB Interferometer the scheduling must be much more dynamic for the reasons outlined above. The schedule is indeed permanently updated in close consultation between the “contact astronomer” and the Coordinator. The PIs are kept informed, ﬁrst by the Coordinator himself, and then by the “contact astronomer”. For 30m-telescope proposals, IRAM expects that the PI will come to the telescope to perform the observations, if needed with the assistance from an IRAM astronomer-on-duty. Exceptions from this rule are mentioned below. For PbB proposals, IRAM will assign a “contact astronomer” to each successful proposal who will prepare together with the Principal Investigator the detailed set-up of the observations and later on support the reduction of the data. The “contact astronomer” will also closely monitor the progress of the project and judge the quality of the data that have already been obtained. The observations themselves are carried out by the PdB operators and the astronomer on duty. The PI or some other member from the proposing team is expected to come to Grenoble for the data reduction. For scientists aﬃliated to the CNRS, the MPG, and the IGN, who have successfully obtained observing time, the travel necessary to carry out the observations at the 30m-telescope, or to reduce data from the PdBI in Grenoble, are paid by IRAM. 7. Special Observing Modes: Service Observing, Pool Observing, Remote Observing, VLBI If a program has been accepted for the 30m-telescope that requires only a small amount of observing time, say less than 8 hours, and a rather straightforward choice of observing frequencies and backends, IRAM offers the possibility of “service observing”, i.e. one of the staﬀ astronomers on duty at the telescope will try to execute the observations in close consultation with the PI during the time slot that has been allocated to the project. If the weather conditions happen to be bad, the same rules apply as explained above. The situation becomes radically diﬀerent, if astronomers decide to join a pool. This particular observing mode has been started at the 30m-telescope several years ago for bolometric observations but includes today also a certain number of observations with heterodyne receivers. Under this scheme, the participants volunteer to enter “their” observing time, which has been allocated to their proposals, into a “pool” that is centrally administered by a “pool manager”. He creates a ﬂexible observing schedule within the time window that is reserved for pool observations, typically several months per

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Figure 9. The percentage distribution of proposals co-authored by 1, 2 or more authors in 1995 (blue columns) and 2005 (red columns).

Figure 10. The percentage distribution of proposals involving scientists from 1, 2 or more institutes in 1995 (blue columns) and 2005 (red columns).

year, in order to make sure that each project is carried out under conditions that allow to meet the scientiﬁc goal. The observations are actually carried out by a small group of people but their quality is ultimately checked by the pool manager and the PIs who can follow the progress of the observations by accessing the pool data base through the internet.

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The internet also plays a signiﬁcant role for the “remote observing mode”. Several institutes in France, Germany and Spain have installed terminals that can be used by experienced astronomers to carry out their observations during the time window that has been allocated to them without going to the 30m-telescope. IRAM has developed this remote observing capability originally for its Granada oﬃce, to enable visiting astronomers to start or ﬁnish their observations before going up, or after coming down from the mountain, something that may be required for logistics reasons. Once the system had been debugged, and the internet connections became more reliable, is has been exported to Grenoble, Paris, Bonn and Madrid. Finally, a word should be said about very long baseline observations (VLBI) in which the IRAM telescopes observe together with other mmtelescopes in Europe, in the United States, and in Chile sources that show structure in the milli-arcsecond range and below. These observations require a special technical outﬁt (a high speed recording system and a very stable maser clock), and are carried out by experts. The MPIfR in Bonn and the OAN in Madrid have provided such expertise to IRAM since many years. VLBI-observations are still in an experimental state, especially observations at 2mm- and 1mm-wavelength. For the time being, IRAM has agreed to participate for a maximum of 14 days per year in such observations. Calls for proposals are issued for such observations but the review process diﬀers from what has been described above. Obviously, VLBI-observations require that all participating observatories agree on the scientiﬁc importance of the projects to be selected. 8. A Developing User Community Who is actually using the IRAM facilities? It has been described above that the number of institutes and scientists embarking on mm-wavelength radioastronomy has initially been rather small. That is no longer true, and both the number of institutes and the number of scientists are bound to increase still further with big projects like the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) under construction. But it is not only because of more and more powerful instruments coming on-line that the community is growing, it is also because of the trend towards larger and larger collaborations between astronomers working in diﬀerent parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. Rapid follow-up observations at mm-wavelengths of gamma-ray burst sources have already been mentioned as an example, but there are numerous others, e.g. follow-up observations of deep-ﬁeld observations at optical and near infrared wavelengths, the best known example being the Hubble Deep Field. Close

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Figure 11. The geographical distribution of scientists involved in PdBI proposals. The upper part shows the countries of origin of time requests. The lower part shows the time that has actually been scheduled in the period 2002/2003.

interactions between ground-based facilities and satellite observatories like ESAs Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) or NASAs Spitzer-Observatory are other examples that lead to a growing user community. In Figs. 9 & 10, we compare the situation in 2005 with the situation in 1995. The database comprises all proposals that have been received in these two years both for the summer and for the winter period. for the 30m-telescope. Not only are generally more scientists involved in each proposal, but they are also coming from a larger number of diﬀerent institutes as shown in Fig. 10. Figure 10 illustrates that some very large collaborations are forming with scientists from many diﬀerent institutes distributed around the globe. This is a phenomenon which is, of course, well known from other scien-

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tiﬁc disciplines, e.g. particle physics, which have gone much further in this direction. It has been stressed on several occasions before, that the IRAM facilities have been created in response to the scientiﬁc interests of a small number of groups of astronomers in France, Germany, and Spain. As soon as the instruments started functioning, proposals were received from scientists who did not belong to these “home institutes”. Today, requests are indeed coming from everywhere. This is illustrated in Fig. 11. Figure 11a shows that there is indeed a global scientiﬁc interest in using the IRAM facilities, and the quality of the proposals that are received is generally very high. From a purely scientiﬁc point of view, this is a very satisfactory development. It must, however, be remembered that almost all the funding for IRAM comes from three national research organizations, the CNRS, the MPG, and the IGN. This leads to obvious questions, especially in view of ambitious investment plans to further increase the capabilities of the existing facilities. In the longer term, programs like the European TNA program may provide a way out of this dilemma, but this will probably not solve all of the problems. 9. Proprietary Periods, and Open Access Archives While IRAM has systematically kept copies of the data that have been collected with the IRAM telescopes as safeguard against unintended data losses, the data were always considered as belonging to the teams that have submitted successful proposals. In its Annual Reports, IRAM actually lists the projects that have been accepted and scheduled at the telescopes each year. That is, however, not enough information to judge the amount and quality of the data that have been acquired on particular sources, nor does it tell anything about the state of the data reduction and analysis. The data become “visible” only when they are ﬁnally published by the “owners”. This usually takes at least one year, and often longer, and does not necessarily include all the data that exist. Publications resulting from observations carried out with the IRAM telescopes are also listed in the Annual Reports. The trend today is, of course, to enter the data from all major observatories into open access archives after certain proprietary periods have elapsed. The Virtual Observatory (VO) discussion has greatly ampliﬁed the pressure in this direction. The IRAM advisory and decision making bodies have started to analyze this issue and the implications. Aside from the ownership issue, there is the question of time and eﬀort needed to establish and guarantee the quality of an open access archive. This will not come for free!

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10. Conclusions The IRAM Observatories with the 30m-telescope on Pico Veleta in Spain, and the Plateau de Bure Interferometer with six 15m-diameter telescopes, and a suite of versatile instruments behind the telescopes, obviously attract a large international user community. As a consequence, the pressure on observing time is high. This is of course the same at many other major facilities, and over-pressure is actually a “MUST”. Something would be wrong if there would be no strong competition! At the same time, the rejection of roughly one out of two proposals, and for certain types of observations even much more than only every second proposal, leads to frustration in the community. The way to respond to this is to try to make the proposal selection process as transparent as possible, and to provide useful feedback to the proposers in order to improve their chances in the next selection round. These are goals that remain a challenge and that require a continuing learning process on all sides. Acknowledgements The datasets and some of the diagrams used in this contribution have kindly been provided to me by the Coordinators for the Plateau de Bure and Pico Veleta Observatories, Roberto Neri and Clemens Thum, and by the IRAM Station Manager in Granada, Rainer Mauersberger.

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SELECTING, SCHEDULING AND CARRYING OUT OBSERVING PROGRAMMES AT CFHT

CHRISTIAN VEILLET

Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope 65-1238 Mamalahoa Highway Kamuela HI 96743, U.S.A. [email protected]

Abstract. From paper proposals and photographic plate observations of the early days to today’s wide-ﬁeld digital cameras and web-based proposal submission, CFHT (Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope) went through many changes. However, a few basic features of the observatory did not change over the years, reﬂecting the very nature of an international collaboration deeply rooted in the concept of equal role and responsibilities of its two main partners, Canada and France. Nevertheless, the overall role of the observatory strongly evolved over the past years, as demonstrated by a more business-like management emphasizing the services rendered by the observatory to its customers, a move made possible by the Queues Service Observing mode. Together with a careful selection of its new generation of instruments, it allows the observatory to play a signiﬁcant role in today’s astronomy in spite of the relatively small size of its telescope.

1. The Administrative Framework Before detailing the steps through which an observing program will go from its submission to the data recovery by the Principal Investigator (PI), it is important to brieﬂy describe the speciﬁc nature of the Canada-FranceHawaii Telescope observatory and the communities it is operating for: the overall observing process developed as the result of the interaction between these communities. The Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) is a nonproﬁt corporation, incorporated in the State of Hawaii in 1975, following a tri-partite agreement for the establishment and operation of the observatory signed by the three CFHT partners: National Research Council of Canada 227 A. Heck (ed.), Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, 227–239. © 2006 Springer.

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(NRC), Centre National de la Recherche Scientiﬁque of France (CNRS), and Institute for Astronomy (IfA) at the University of Hawaii. Astronomers from the three partner’s communities have access to the telescope with a time share corresponding to their respective ﬁnancial contribution to the operating cost of the observatory, as determined in the early days of the Corporation: IfA gets 15% of the observing time, while NRC and CNRS equally share the rest, i.e. 42.5% each. For various historical reasons, this share of observing time did not change in spite of IfA currently providing only a little more than 10% of the Corporation annual budget. It should be noted that the two main shareholders, NRC and CNRS, have always been careful to maintain a similar contribution over the years. The time made available to the three communities is computed every semester, starting on 1 February and 1 August of each year. It is based on the number of nights in the semester, decreased by the amount of nights set aside for Director’s Discretionary time (D-time) and engineering purposes (E-time) like instrument on-sky testing or commissioning or telescope shutdown for major maintenance. E-time is generally between 15 to 18 nights per semester and D-time is set to 10 nights per semester. D-time is used by CFHT’s resident astronomers and, at the discretion of the Director, for external requests not coming necessarily from the three partner agencies. In the recent years, thanks to collaborations with Korea (K) and Taiwan (T) for the construction of the wide-ﬁeld infrared camera WIRCam, observing time has also been open to Korean and Taiwanese astronomers, for a maximum of 12 nights each per semester. These nights were considered in the same way as D- or E-time and deduced from the semester open time before determining the time allocation to NRC, CNRS or IfA. Over these past years, around 62 nights were therefore made available each semester to the two main partners, Canada (C) and France (F), with 22 oﬀered to Hawaii (H). 2. The Program Proposal Submission The proposal season opens in mid-February and mid-August, with a deadline set on the Wednesday of the week of the equinox, at 24:00 UTC. It is a convenient time in Hawaii (2pm local time), allowing the resident astronomers to be available for answering last minute questions. As usual on all telescopes, most of the proposals come within the last hours before the deadline. Since the second semester of 1999, proposals are submitted on-line using POOPSY1 (Phase One Observing Proposal System), developed at the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre (CADC) by David Bohlender with help 1

http://cadcwww.hia.nrc.ca/poopsy/

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from Daniel Durand. POOPSY generates a postscript version of the proposal based on scripts that retrieve information entered by the Principal Investigator (PI) on web pages and generate a latex ﬁle. The current template of the ﬁle is the result of the evolution of a latex template ﬁrst developed in the late eighties. Before POOPSY, this form used to be edited by the PI on local machines and paper copies (from 6 to 13 over the years for Canada, and 20 for France) were to be sent to the National Agencies. IfA kept a separate proposal system where astronomers are ﬁlling only one form for all their proposals on the diﬀerent telescopes of Mauna Kea. With France giving access to the telescope for a few nights a year to European nations through the OPTICON Access Program, POOPSY is now used by many countries, including Korea and Taiwan, in addition to Canada and France. 3. The Selection Process: A National Aﬀair Each of the partners and collaborators has its own Time Allocation Committee (TAC), functioning in its own way. NRC retrieves the proposals directly from POOPSY, while F, T and K retrieve them through an ftp site from CFHT. With the exception of IfA’s proposals, still sent on paper form, all proposals are automatically submitted to CFHT by POOPSY for technical evaluation by the resident astronomers. Each proposal is carefully read to check that the observations are indeed feasible and the performances of the various instruments have been well understood. The result of these technical evaluations is sent to the respective TACs and used in their evaluation process. The TACs rank the proposals according to their scientiﬁc merit and their adequacy with the telescope. For the ﬁrst twenty years of the observatory, bright time and dark time were separately allocated: dark time was actually considered as more precious, a correct statement based on the oversubscription (or pressure) indeed larger on dark time than on bright time. After realizing that communities used the telescope in a diﬀerent way, it was asked to the TACs to forget about the separation between dark and bright time and to provide a unique ranking based solely on scientiﬁc merit regardless of the age of the moon requested by the PIs. It led to semesters when Canada would get more bright time than France, and others with the opposite situation, but with a ﬁnal schedule closely following the respective ranking of the TACs. PIs have the opportunity to submit a joint proposal, i.e. a proposal submitted to two or more national TACs. Most of these joint proposals come from the two main partners, Canada and France. In the absence of a common TAC, the fate of such joint proposals has been very hard to

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predict and the results have been more than often very disappointing. It is indeed clear that two diﬀerent committees are unlikely to provide the same ranking when faced with high quality proposals. Even though attempts were made by the TACs to share some of their thoughts to insure a better handling of joint proposals, it has not been a very successful process and there are numerous examples of highly ranked proposals on one side being rejected on the other side. There were however a few successes, like the CFRS program (Lilly et al. 1995). It is interesting to note that the most ambitious program ever undertaken at CFHT, the CFHT Legacy Survey2 , is a 5-year 500-night program on Canadian and French time which did not go through TAC evaluation, but instead was decided by the two National Agencies after various calls to the national communities and the hard work an ad-hoc working group. Why did the CFHT partners never form a joint TAC? The parity between Canada and France has always been at the basis of the collaboration. It goes for funding the observatory as well as for the number of nights each community will get every semester. From practicalities (diﬃculty to bring together an international committee every semester) to potential national priorities given to scientiﬁc areas, many reasons were given over the years to maintain the status quo of separate national TACs. It is interesting to read3 that the Scientiﬁc Advisory Council (SAC) of the observatory made a recommendation for a joint Canadian-French TAC in May 1999 to the CFHT’s Board of Directors, but that the Agencies disagreed, putting an end to the idea. 4. Scheduling the Telescope Once each TAC has sent its ranking to the observatory, CFHT will try to build a schedule from a set of basic rules: – A facility instrument should be installed on the telescope for less than eight consecutive nights. This rule aims at minimizing the instrument changes, which are both a heavy load on the staﬀ and a risk for the equipment itself. – For visitor instruments, a comparable rule applies, but the minimal length of the instrument run is reduced to four consecutive nights. – Programs should be scheduled as close as possible to their ideal observing period according to the location of their target(s). – Programs should be scheduled as close as possible to the required conditions in term of dark/grey/bright time. 2 3

http://cfht.hawaii.edu/Science/CFHLS/ http://cfht.hawaii.edu/Science/SAC/May99/report.html

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Figure 1. March to May 2000 schedule, typical of the pre-QSO era, with an average of 14 observing runs per month and as many visiting observers.

– Each Agency should get its proper share of the observing time made available over the semester. There is some ﬂexibility here, but semester schedules are tuned to make sure that, over three consecutive years, the share is indeed close to the magic 42.5/42.5/15% ideal share. – Instrument changes on weekends or holidays should be minimized without compromising the science. – Scheduling should take into account, if possible, the date requirements of the PIs. To check that the scheduling was well done, a CFHT Time Allocation Committee (the name is a bit misleading) has been established in the early days of the Corporation. It is made of members of the Scientiﬁc Advisory Council (SAC). SAC meetings are scheduled at dates compatible with this review process, which has to be made a couple of months before the beginning of the coming semester. The CFHT TAC main task is to verify that the ranking has been followed well, that each Agency gets its fair share of telescope time and that programs are wisely scheduled. Making the telescope schedule was a diﬃcult task in the early days especially wit the many instruments oﬀered to the community. Spreadsheets and

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associated macros using the database automatically provided by POOPSY eased the process a great deal, though solving the various conﬂicts generated by the rules outlined above could be really challenging at times. Fig. 1 shows a semester typical of the era of many instruments and relatively short PI runs with PIS (or their collaborators) actually coming to make the observations (“visitor” mode): many instruments scheduled with a ballet of 60 to 80 teams visiting the telescope for the observa tions. 5. From Traveling Astronomers to Queued Service Observing Wide-ﬁeld imaging with good image quality was one of the observatory’s trademarks of the early 80s, thanks to large photographic plates and a good corrector at its prime focus. The arrival of CCDs in the mid-80s caused the demise of photography, even though the size of the detectors was small and ﬁeld of view therefore limited. With the development of large size CCDs only ten years later, wide-ﬁeld astronomy was again possible at CFHT and two cameras, UH8K and CFH12K4 , were successively hosted in the old prime focus cage used in the early days for large photographic plates. CFHT12K saw ﬁrst light in early 1999 and became rapidly a heavily used instrument for highly ranked programs, being of the very wide-ﬁeld cameras in operation at a good site on a relatively large telescope. CFHT12K generated a large volume of data for the time, with relatively complex data processing in need of high quality calibration frames that observers could not really acquire in a couple of nights. The idea of service observations was in the air in many observatories. CFH12K, a simple imager with only a few modes of observations and a heavy but easily automated data processing, was an ideal candidate for the implementation of a Queued Service Observing (QSO) mode extended to the delivery of pre-processed data, i.e. with the instrumental signature removed from the data (Martin et al. 2002). In QSO mode, all programs that are allocated time are put together in a single pool of observations and observations are carried on by the staﬀ: PIs are no longer involved in the observing process. Here were some of the many reasons to move into QSO mode: – Insure that the images would be acquired under the optimal conditions for a given program. – Pool all calibration data to build the best calibration frames, especially for the twilight ﬂat ﬁeld frames. – Allow the best possible (as seen by the TACs) programs to get observed ﬁrst by prioritizing the execution of the programs according to their ranking by the TACs. In “visitor” mode, the randomness of the 4

http://cfht.hawaii.edu/Instruments/Imaging/CFH12K/

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Figure 2. Clockwise from top left: the MegaCam CCD mosaic of 340 MPixels; the Rosette nebula seen on the 1×1 deg2 MegaCam ﬁeld of view; MegaCam being prepared for a two-week observing run; the telescope with MegaPrime, the prime-focus upper end housing MegaCam and its wide-ﬁeld corrector. (Courtesy: CFHT)

bad weather gives all programs the same chance to get clear weather, whatever their scientiﬁc merit as judged by the TACs can be. – Observe in a good and consistent way run after run. It increases the value of the archive, especially when pre-processed data are also made available through the archive. – Allow PIs to request for time-constrained observations: a typical example is the observation of the same ﬁeld for an hour every four nights over months to detect SuperNovae. One hardly imagines such observations being done in “visitor” mode. – Avoid unnecessary trips of PIs or their collaborators, often from far away. Though the advantages were clear on paper, QSO was not seen as a good idea by many PIs who thought that they were the best observers, more knowledgeable on what to do for their program or how to reduce

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their images. In retrospect, these legitimate fears were not really justiﬁed and QSO has proven itself to be a very eﬃcient way of handling observation at the telescope. The successful move to QSO-only mode for CFHT12K was applied to its successor, MegaPrime5 (Fig. 2), as well as to the new wide-ﬁeld infrared camera WIRCam6 , making scheduling an easy task. 2006A semester (Fig. 3) is a clear demonstration of that: the two cameras are the main instruments and they are regularly swapped on the telescope following the lunar phases. A couple of runs are devoted to a third instrument, ESPaDOnS (Fig. 4), a unique spectro-polarimeter competing ﬁercely with the large format cameras for observing time. 6. Queued Service Observing: An Overwhelming Success! The outcome of QSO is extremely good: the highest ranked programs get completed, and completion rate decreases with the ranking. Data are well processed, thanks to the good interaction between the most demanding users and the observatory. There are only a few downsides to QSO: – There is a clear disconnect of the scientists with the observing process. While it is not necessarily a big deal, less and less astronomers are exposed to instrumentation. It could cause diﬃculties in the training of a new generation of instrumentalists. – Seen from the Observatory, QSO is not cheap. More people are needed on staﬀ to take care of both observations and data processing for more than 300 nights a year. However, the overall observing process is more eﬃcient and, hopefully, the scientiﬁc production is better at the end. – Only a few teams come to the observatory for the runs still scheduled outside of the wide-ﬁeld imaging, limiting the direct contact of the scientiﬁc staﬀ at the observatory with its users. The PIs or their collaborators have one more step to take once their proposal is accepted. They must outline their observations with enough details to make them possible by the CFHT’s observers. This is the well known “Phase II” process, widely spread among the space or ground based observatories where observations are made in service mode (Savalle et al. 2002, Vermeulen et al. 2002). Is QSO the answer to perfect scheduling? Well, QSO obviously makes telescope scheduling easier: it comes down to adding all the WIRCam programs that make the bar in a single pool and ﬁguring how many runs should be scheduled, and same thing for MegaPrime! Potential problems in 5 6

http://cfht.hawaii.edu/Instruments/Imaging/MegaPrime/ http://cfht.hawaii.edu/Instruments/Imaging/WIRCam/

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Figure 3. Telescope scheduling from March to May 2006. But for a short 4-night run for a visitor instrument and 2 nights devoted to engineering on the adaptive optics, both in April, the schedule is made of long WIRCam and MegaPrime runs following the phases of the moon.

the various allocations are actually diﬀered to QSO. Here are two of them, which happened at some level with MegaPrime: – QSO allows, in principle, spreading the observations of a given ﬁeld over a wider interval than a classical observing run dedicated to that ﬁeld would. However, an extreme case where all TACs would allocate their observing time to the same RA demonstrates that QSO could be in disarray even though the highest ranked programs would still get their observing time. While it is fortunately never as bad as this, it happens that highly ranked programs using a large amount of time on a single RA are in the queue with a couple of weathered-out runs at the wrong time: QSO is in trouble, with too much to observe at the same time! Actually, it means that weather can still have a signiﬁcant impact even on highly ranked programs if attention is not paid by the TACs (1) to distribute their location on a wide range of RAs and (2) to avoid allocating a large number of hours to a very highly ranked program at a single location.

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– As already mentioned, QSO is good at handling time-constrains. However, too many time-constrains and QSO can face a nightmarish situation, worsen by the fact that a time-constrained program already started gets high priority to be complemented. To do otherwise would mean losing the data already acquired. CFHT’s experience so far has been that TACs have not always realized the importance of the location of the highly ranked programs, especially when they are large. It resulted in uneasy situations where balancing of the Agency time while still following the ranking was really diﬃcult. Fortunately, these occurrences have been so far relatively rare. They are likely to disappear with the better realization of the importance of a careful allocation process by the TACs. In spite of these few downsides, QSO has proven to be a much more eﬃcient way of handling observations on CFHT’s wide-ﬁeld imagers than “visitor” mode. The SNLS7 , the supernova component of the CFHT Legacy Survey, is a very nice illustration of the ability of QSO to handle complex observing patterns (Astier et al. 2006). 7. From Maintaining a Facility to Providing a Service Once the observations are taken by CFHT’s staﬀ in conditions close to those requested by the PIs, they are pre-processed and sent, either very quickly if needed or at the end of the semester by default, to the PIs over the Internet or through magnetic tapes, a data transmission which is less and less used. Customer service is available so that the PIs can ask for information on the data processing and on the ancillary data provided with their images. Warranty is implicit: if, for some reasons independent on the PI, the data delivered are not satisfactory (wrong target, ﬁlter or image quality), attempts will be made to correct the mistake. For two decades, the observatory had to insure that instruments were ready so that PIs coming from far away would observe in the best conditions on the technical side, weather being supposed to be the only imponderable. With QSO, the observatory morphed into a service providing mode of operation. From advertising the capabilities of the telescope and highlighting the unique features of its instrumentation, to insuring the timely delivery of high-quality products (the pre-processed data) in order to satisfy the PIs (treated as customers) and therefore entice them to reapply for more, all the steps are similar to the approach taken by a service providing company that wants to stay in business. While a for-proﬁt company would look at its proﬁts at the end of the year, the non-proﬁt observatory has many metrics enabling it to check its health: 7

http://cfht.hawaii.edu/SNLS/

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Figure 4. Clockwise from top left: the polarimetric module of the spectropolarimeter ESPaDOnS at the Cassegrain focus of the telescope; the ESPaDOnS spectrograph in the Coud´e room; the CFHT dome at sunset. (Courtesy: CFHT)

– Oversubscription rate shows the appeal of the instrumentation for new PIs/customers and the quality of the services for those who re-apply. – The evolution of the number of publications and associated indices like the number of citations or the life-time of the papers trace the relevance of the observations provided to the users. – A short telescope down-time due to technical problems demonstrates the eﬃciency of the observatory in maintaining the facility and quickly solving the problems inherent to the operation of complex machinery. Managing an observatory as one would manage a business has its merits, as long as one does not loose its raison d’ˆetre: serving the community for the advancement of our knowledge of the universe. Trying to minimize the operation costs without compromising the quality of the services is one of the constraints observatories are faced with, a diﬃcult issue in these days of heavy investments and scarce operating budget. For-proﬁt businesses are either proﬁtable, or they go bankrupted. For observatories, there are no

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clear criteria available that can help decide if the money is well spent. At CFHT, the operating cost amounts to around $22k per night oﬀered to the communities served by the observatory. With a minimum of 50 papers per year taken as the maximal cost of a paper, each publication is worth $140k in CFHT’s operating cost alone, a ﬁgure rarely mentioned and probably not realized by the authors themselves. One can argue that is indeed a lot of money! One should not forget that paying the salary of the authors themselves and the operating cost of their home institutions is likely to amount to a comparable number. A more precise analysis of the cost of a publication is beyond the scope of this paper, which aims mainly at describing the observing path, from proposal time to data delivery. From the analysis of the various metrics available, CFHT is in a very healthy situation, with an oversubscription of 3 to 4.5 in Canada and France for the 2005B/2006A semesters: it is more than for most, if not all, of the 8-m class telescopes available on the market to PIs shopping for observing. To be honest though, one should consider an important fact: most of the PIs don’t pay the bill, unlike the car owner who wants its engine ﬁxed and looks for a mechanics! Obviously, oﬀering services and “guaranteeing” them up to a certain point (an observatory cannot change the weather!) raise expectations. Meeting these expectations therefore becomes very important. Poor observing, approximate validation process, or sloppy data processing are all very detrimental to the observatory’s reputation and does not help in retaining customers. Again, the analogy with a service providing company is appropriate, though it lacks (fortunately, if one considers knowledge as priceless) the ultimate sanction of the business world: monetary proﬁt. 8. Conclusion Moving from a “large telescope” status in the early 80s to “best in the 4-m class” in the early years of the 21st Century, CFHT has adapted to a new environment where the quality of the instrumentation proposed, as well as the services provided, to the users is paramount to its existence. By oﬀering to the PIs easy means to propose their programs on appealing instruments, and to detail the proposed observations once allocated time, by observing and pre-processing the images in a good and timely fashion, CFHT is maintaining a broad base of eager and happy customers in Canada, France, Hawaii and Taiwan. By doing so, and in spite of the high cost of running an observatory on top of Mauna Kea and of providing all these services, CFHT can stay at the forefront of today’s astronomy while not being a “large” telescope anymore.

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References 1. 2. 3. 4.

5.

Astier, P. & 41 colleagues 2006, The Supernova Legacy Survey: Measurement of ΩM , ΩΛ and w from the ﬁrst year data set, Astron. Astrophys. 447, 31-48. Lilly, S.J., Le Fevre, O., Crampton, D., Hammer, F. & Tresse, L. 1995, The CanadaFrance Redshift Survey – I. Introduction to the Survey, Photometric Catalogs, and Surface Brightness Selection Eﬀects, Astrophys. J. 455, 50. Martin, P., Savalle, R., Vermeulen, T. & Shapiro, J. 2002, The Queued Service Observing Project at CFHT – Observatory Operations to Optimize Scientiﬁc Return III, in Proc. SPIE 4844, Ed. P.J. Quinn, 74-85. Savalle, R., Martin, P., Shapiro, J. & Vermeulen, T. 2002, Queued Service Observing (QSO) at CFHT I. Phase 2 Database and Observation Submission Tool, in Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XI, Eds. D.A. Bohlender, D. Durand & Th.H. Handley, Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc Conf. Series 281, 492. Vermeulen, T., Savalle, R., Martin, P. & Shapiro, J. 2002, Queued Service Observing (QSO) at CFHT II. Queue Preparation and Observation Tools, Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XI Eds. D.A. Bohlender, D. Durand & Th.H. Handley, Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc Conf. Series 281, 496.

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THE SCHOLARLY JOURNALS OF THE AMERICAN ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY

ROBERT W. MILKEY

American Astronomical Society 2000 Florida Avenue NW Suite 400 Washington DC 20009-1231, U.S.A. [email protected]

Abstract. The role of the AAS as a journal publisher is given a brief historical review and the current operations of the journals are brieﬂy described. The AAS approaches oversight and governance of its journal operations as an obligation to the astronomical research community and the processes followed is described. These include the ﬁnancial arrangements for the nonproﬁt operation of the journals. There are substantial challenges in the present publishing environment and these are touched on from the perspective of the AAS journal operations.

1. Introduction, or How the AAS Came to be a Journal Publisher The American Astronomical Society (AAS) was founded by a group of 114 charter members, about 50 of whom attended its ﬁrst meeting in September 1899 (Osterbrock 1999), a period of rapid development of American Astronomy. At that time the 40-inch refractor had just been installed at the Yerkes Observatory, George Ellery Hale had founded The Astrophysical Journal as a publication of the University of Chicago and was already beginning to think of bigger undertakings, which would ultimately ﬂourish in California’s drier air. The ﬂedgling AAS began to gain strength, primarily through the organization of conferences and professional recognition for astronomers. In the early years the Publications of the AAS provided a record of the activities of the Society, especially the meetings, but never really grew to serve the role of a true journal and ﬁnally vanished in the 1940s. At that time both The Astronomical Journal (AJ) and The Astrophysical Journal (ApJ) were being published independently of the Society. 241 A. Heck (ed.), Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, 241–261. © 2006 Springer.

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As early as 1909 the AAS approached the Editor of AJ to discuss possible relations with the AAS (DeVorkin 1999) however this overture does not appear to have borne any fruit. The AAS ﬁnally acquired its own publication with the Council of the AAS voting in September 1941 to accept the oﬀer by then editor Benjamin Boss to transfer ownership of The Astronomical Journal to the AAS. This journal had been founded in 1849 by Benjamin Gould but had suspended publication in 1861 at the beginning of the US Civil War and did not resume publication until 1886. The history of the journal has been nicely traced by Paul Hodge (1999) and we will not repeat this here, but will pickup the story in the modern era in a later section. The transfer of the AJ was preceded by a gift to the AAS from E.W. Brown for the Society to acquire a journal and the income from this was used to help with expenses in the early years. With the demise of The Publications of the American Astronomical Society, the AJ incorporated the abstracts of papers presented at AAS meetings and continued to do so until the appearance of The Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society (BAAS) in 1968. BAAS is primarily composed of abstracts of papers presented at meetings of the AAS and its ﬁve Divisions but has also contained reports of departments and observatories (discontinued in 2006), the annual report of the AAS, and a very small number of peer-reviewed papers on topics relating to the practice of astronomy, but not containing original astronomical research. The relationship between The Astrophysical Journal and the AAS began at approximately the same time with a communication from Otto Struve, then Director of Yerkes Observatory, recommending that the AAS “collaborate” with the University of Chicago in publishing ApJ (Abt 1999). This collaboration centered on the appointment of the editorial board for the journal, but did not involve actual ownership or ﬁnancial responsibility until 1972. At that time S. Chandrasekhar, then serving as Editor, completed the process of transferring the journal ownership from the University of Chicago to the AAS (Abt 1995). Along with the transfer of ownership came a signiﬁcant reserve fund which was transferred from the University of Chicago Press in 1974 and which formed the seed for the present journal reserves. By the time the AAS acquired ApJ the letters section had already been broken oﬀ into a separately bound section and had its own editor and editorial policies. The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series (ApJS) had begun publication in 1954 and was heavily concentrated toward lengthy articles frequently with extensive presentation of tabular material representing analyzed observations, laboratory data, or computational results.

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Figure 1. The web pages of (top to bottom) the Astrophysical Journal, the American Astronomical Society and the Astronomical Journal.

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As the era of space astronomy dawned the AAS found itself publisher of two of the most inﬂuential journals in astronomy worldwide and certainly the two premier journals in the United States. Until the end of the 1960’s, AJ was still mostly concentrated on topics of classical astronomy, while ApJ was at the forefront of modern astrophysics. As the subsequent years passed AJ broadened and published more and more papers on astrophysical topics, although with an emphasis on observational papers. From the time the AAS took over the journals until the early 1990’s very little had changed in the way of presentation of journal materials – they were still entirely based on the printed page. Many copies were printed and distributed to subscribing libraries and AAS members who chose to subscribe. In that way the accumulated knowledge contained in these journals was assured of reasonable preservation and continuing availability to the research community. 2. Electronic Publishing Technology – Opportunities and Challenges By the late 1980’s, the electronic revolution was making a great impact with the general availability of computers and new media for transfer of information. The most dramatic development from the point of view of publishers was the introduction of the Internet and the consequential opportunity to transfer large amounts of information worldwide with very little delay. This would clearly herald new opportunities to present information, lower costs, and present entirely new opportunities for presentation of scientiﬁc data and concepts. Well before the introduction of internet publishing the AAS journals began experimenting with the use of modern technology to present research information. In mid 1992, the ApJ introduced a VHS video tape supplement for authors to distribute video representations of either computational simulations or time variable observations; ﬁve such video supplements were issued, with the ﬁnal one in March of 1998. In 1993 the AAS began issuing an annual CD-ROM containing tabular material in machine readable format – this was the ﬁrst step in replacing the “camera-ready” tabular presentations that had appeared so frequently in the ApJS. These interim steps anticipated some of what would become possible when journal content could be delivered directly to the subscriber’s desktop using the internet. The CD-ROM series was discontinued at the end of 1997. In the early 1990’s the AAS, led by Peter Boyce, the Executive Oﬃcer, and encouraged by its Publications Board, then chaired by Catherine Pilachowski, formed a working group to plan for the move into full electronic publishing of its journals. This group had to decide on the proper delivery formats and plan the necessary development work to implement these. This

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especially talented group included Peter Boyce and Heather Dalterio from the AAS, Evan Owens from the University of Chicago Press, and consultants, Chris Biemesderfer, Archie Warnock, Jim Fullton, Jeanette Barnes and Lee Brotzman. The initiation of the program and its goals were ﬁrst described in a special supplement to the AAS Newsletter (1992) and later by Boyce & Dalterio (1996). As the AAS was planning its entry into the arena of electronic publishing, two other important developments were taking place. One was the development of preprint server sites and the other was the advent of online data centers which extend the versatility of traditional publishing, including notably NASA’s Astrophysics Data System (ADS) (Kurtz et al. 2000) which provides searchable abstracting services and the Centre de Donn´ees Astronomiques de Strasbourg (CDS) which provides catalog access, and a variety of other services. One of the ﬁrst steps toward graceful implementation of electronic publishing was the introduction in 1994 of the ability to submit computer generated ﬁles of manuscripts using the AASTeX variant of the LaTeX logical markup language. This also beneﬁted the preparation of the print journals in that it eliminated labor-intensive and somewhat error prone steps of keyboard entry of manuscripts. The publication process at the University of Chicago press was reengineered to take full advantage of author supplied computer ﬁles by converting these to the more general SGML language and then acting on those ﬁles throughout the manuscript preparation process, especially copyediting. AAS decided to use The Astrophysical Journal Letters (ApJL) as the prototype for development of a fully electronic journal. This development has been extensively documented elsewhere (Boyce & Dalterio 1996 and Boyce et al. 1997) and will not be recounted in detail here. The ﬁnal conﬁguration was a journal which could be delivered in three formats at the user’s discretion, and HTML representation with extensive internal and external linking, and PDF or postscript that would appear identical to the pages of the printed journal. ApJL began to appear in electronic format 1 July 1995 and was followed by ApJ and ApJS on 1 January 1996 and ﬁnally by AJ on 1 January 1998. From the outset the AAS Journals had extensive linking capability, both internal to the article and external to other resources, enabled. In the early incarnations reference linking was provided to the other AAS Journals and to the ADS records for the referenced materials. In 1994, ADS began to scan back issues of astronomical journals beginning with the ApJ Letters section. With AAS permission, these were placed on the web for use by anybody. Over the years the ADS collection of full journal articles has grown to include all AAS Journals not published elec-

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tronically and many others as well. AAS and most other publishers with signiﬁcant astronomical content routinely provide the ADS abstract service with the title, author, and abstract for current publications. This allows researchers to easily search the astronomical literature covering virtually all signiﬁcant publications. ADS has become a virtually inseparable partner with the journals in the realm of astronomical publication. In the years since debut of the electronic versions of the journals the AAS and The University of Chicago Press (UCP) have continued to enhance the journals, both in appearance and in the type of information that can be delivered to the reader. Recent additions to the journals capabilities have included: • 1998 – Placement of tables online in a format that can be downloaded and read directly by computer programs. These tables need not be in the print version of the article. • 1998 – Online only ﬁgures. These may either be color online and B/W in print or extended ﬁgure sets for which only a limited subset appear in print. • 1998 – Use of online video to represent time variation in data, whether resulting from observations or numerical simulations (Dohm-Palmer et.al. 1998) • 2003 – Use of the CROSSREF data base1 to provide referencing linking for citations to journals from other publishers. • 2004 – Linking articles to data sets in existing archives which contain the original observational data on which the article is based. • 2004 – Linking directly from the reference to an astronomical object in the article to that object’s record in the Simbad or NED data bases. All of these products are produced by AAS and UCP staﬀ and hosted with the journals on the UCP e-journals server. 3. AAS Governance and Oversight of Journals The AAS approaches its ownership of these journals as a trust to be carried out for the beneﬁt of the research community. The AAS itself is a not for proﬁt corporation incorporated in the District of Columbia, USA and is governed by its Council of 19 members, 18 of whom are elected from and by the AAS membership. The 19th is the AAS Executive Oﬃcer who is hired by the Council and is a voting ex oﬃcio member of the Council. All journal policies and ﬁnancial matters are subject to review and approval of the Council and all Editorial appointments are subject to approval by the AAS Council. 1

http://www.crossref.org/

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One of the AAS Council members elected by the AAS membership is the Chair of the AAS Publications Board. The other six members of this Board are nominated by the AAS Nominating Committee (itself elected by the members) and appointed by the Council. The Physics-AstronomyMathematics section of the Special Libraries Association names a library representative to the Publications Board and this individual participates in all open discussions of the Board. The AAS Publications Board Charter reads: “Regularly reviews the publication policies of each of the Society publications and shall, in consultation with the editors, report its ﬁndings and recommendations to the Council. This Board shall, when required, nominate for Council approval, Editors for each publication. This Board will be available to the Editors and act as an Editorial Board for each publication when called upon to do so.” The Publication Board gives advice about signiﬁcant issues such as intellectual property, processes for handling editorial disputes, and general ﬁnancial trends or goals for the AAS journals. Perhaps the most signiﬁcant duties of the Publications Board are organizing and conducting the search for the Editors of the journals and reviewing and forwarding for Council approval the recommendations of the Editors for their Associate Editors and for Scientiﬁc Editors of ApJ. Detailed budgets, including subscription rates and page charge rates, for the AAS Journals are developed by a group consisting of the AAS Treasurer, the AAS Executive Oﬃcer, the Editors and key management personnel from UCP. These budgets, the principles of which will be discussed in a later section, are then presented to the AAS Council at its spring meeting for approval. 4. Editorial Policies and Procedures The keystone for the quality of any journal is its Editorial Staﬀ and the processes it uses for selection of material to be published in that journal. Editors for the AAS Journals are chosen through an open search conducted by a search committee recommended by the AAS Publications Board. The membership of his committee and the procedures it will use are then submitted for approval by the AAS Council. This author has participated in three editorial searches in the past decade and although these have diﬀered in some details the overall process has been essentially the same: • The process begins with the announcement of the intended departure of the current Editor followed closely by release of advertisements for solicitation of candidates or suggestions from the community.

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• The search committee compiles a list of applications, nominations, and its own suggestions and from this develops a “short list” of candidates who are then interviewed. • At the end of the interviews the search committee prepares a recommendation which is forwarded to the Publications Board for recommendation to the AAS Council which takes the ﬁnal action on the appointment of the Editor. Once the editorial succession has been determined the Editor, the Editor-designate and the AAS Executive Oﬃcer work together to develop a transition plan to assure an orderly hand-over of editorial responsibilities. The transition period includes an overlap period to avoid interruption to the ﬂow of manuscripts being published. This has traditionally involved the establishment of the Editorial Oﬃce at the Editor-designee’s site sometime approximately six months before the ﬁnal hand over date and an overlap period during which the transition may be phased in. The AAS Editors exercise the ﬁnal determination of what material will be published in their respective journals. Each may nominate additional members of the editorial staﬀ to whom publication decisions may be delegated. Such nominations are then reviewed by the Publications Board and forwarded for ﬁnal approval to the AAS Council. The process for developing these nominations is left to the Editor, but must be described in the submission to the Publications Board. Hereafter, we will refer to any such designee with the non-capitalized term “editor”; where capitalized the term refers to either the Editor-in-Chief, Letters Editor, AJ Editor or one of the Associate Editors. Among the AAS Journals the ApJ is unique in the use of its distributed editorial staﬀ of Scientiﬁc Editors, and a few remarks on that system are in order (see also Abt 1999). When the AAS assumed stewardship of the ApJ the editorial tasks of the journal were performed by a single Editor, with aid from an Associate Editor. In late 1971 a separate editor was added to handle the letters section and this model continued until 1989 when Helmut Abt expanded the staﬀ with the addition of a small number of editorial positions originally named “Associate Editors” and later re-designated “Scientiﬁc Editors”. As the editorial demands of the journal grew and as astronomy became and increasingly specialized discipline the number of SE’s grew rapidly. At present ﬁfteen scientiﬁc editors permit a distributed workload and provide specialized expertise available to oversee the peer review of submitted articles. While the SE’s oversee the majority of the peer reviews, the Editor-in-Chief and Associate Editors each do an appropriate share of these. The Editor-in-Chief serves as the ﬁnal reviewing authority for all materials to be published in ApJ.

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The AAS requires a peer-review process for submitted manuscripts prior to acceptance. Upon submission the Editor determines that the material meets the minimum criteria of organization for peer review and then begins the peer review process. For the ApJ and ApJS the ﬁrst step is assignment to an editor who will manage the peer-review. For the other two journals either the Editor or Associate Editor will select the reviewer. This reviewer will remain anonymous unless anonymity is speciﬁcally waived. The reviewer’s report is then submitted to the editor as advice on the acceptability of the article. Under AAS practice an article may be accepted with a single review, but the editor has the discretion to request additional reviewers should he/she feel the need. The decision to publish rests with the editor and is based on the advice received from the referee. Where feasible the editor will take into consideration recommendations from the author on selection of referees, but is not bound by policy to do so. When necessary, appeals of editorial decisions proceed up the editorial chain to the highest ranking Editor of the journal in question. The ﬁnal decision on matters of judgment rests with this Editor. Upon request the AAS Publications Board may review matters of process or policy, but does not have the authority to overrule an editor’s decision to publish or not publish a particular article. There is no established “right to publish” in any journal. The review process is a human process and errors will be made (not frequently, one hopes). This is why it is so essential that there are multiple paths for editorial review of astronomical literature and why the AAS, by policy, maintains separate review processes for its journals. In general the approach of AAS Editors has been to allow authors considerable latitude in revising manuscripts to address the comments of referees. Only 2% of ApJ articles, for example are published without revision, while 47% undergo two or more revisions. 5. Intellectual Property and Journal Access The AAS requires that all authors who are legally able to do so assign the copyright to their articles to the AAS as a condition of publication. This assignment provides the AAS unambiguous right to use the material in any format it wishes at any time in the future and thus assures the availability of the article for the research community. Along with the copyright grant AAS authors warrant that the material being published is original to the author, has not been previously published elsewhere (posting on a preprint server such as AstroPh is not considered prior publication), and that any permission required for materials incorporated from other sources has been obtained by the author. It is not the policy of the AAS to restrict access to research for its own ﬁnancial beneﬁt and thus, in return for such assignment of copyright, the

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AAS grants an extensive set of rights to the author for the duration of the author’s lifetime: • The right to reproduce the article in whole or in part in any format chosen by the author. For example, authors are expressly permitted to post articles on preprint servers, their own web site, reprint them in compilations, including thesis submissions, without permission from AAS. • The right to control the use of material from the author by any third parties. All requests for permission to use excerpts from articles are referred to an author before permission is granted by AAS. These requests are most commonly for use of ﬁgures in review articles and conference proceedings and in the experience of this writer are almost universally granted. Possession of the copyright for articles in the AAS journals allowed the AAS to negotiate the agreement with ADS which resulted in the NASAfunded scanning of all the printed articles prior to 1996 and placement on the ADS for use by the entire community. AAS received no ﬁnancial beneﬁt from this permission, but was spared the investment of undertaking this project with AAS funds, for which AAS is extremely grateful. Copyright is also the vehicle for maintenance of the integrity of the literature. In the event some third party were to copy and alter materials from the AAS journals, action under the copyright law would be the instrument of enforcement. To the date of this writing, the AAS has never had to undertake such an action. While abstracts of articles in AAS journals are available to all readers, access to the full content of AAS journals is by license agreement, with two kinds of access supported. • Institutional license – which enables an entire internet domain or range of IP addresses. Any user within the enabled range may sign on to use the journals without any further authorization. These license agreements are administered by UCP. • AAS Member license – which requires a user name and password to sign on. Only a limited number of simultaneous authorizations are allowed under a single user name. These licenses are administered as part of a member’s record by the AAS Oﬃce. When the AAS entered the arena of electronic publishing it was decided that three years after the publication date of the issue in which an article appeared the requirement for license to access it would be dropped and the article would be available to all readers, licensed or not. At the beginning of 2006 the AAS Council accepted the recommendation of the Publications

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Board to shorten this period from three years to two years as soon as it could be implemented. 6. Journal Operations The operational structure is essentially identical for each of the AAS journals. An editorial oﬃce operates at the home institution of the editor. Editors and staﬀ members at these oﬃces are employees of that institution and are funded through a contract administered by the AAS Executive Oﬃce. Additional support is provided by UCP through operations of the WPR online manuscript and peer-review system under the master contract for publishing support between UCP and AAS. An astronomer who is an AAS contract employee in the editorial oﬃce of ApJ is available to aid authors for all AAS journals in preparation of special on- line content and features such as object and data set linking. He is also able to review the content to assure conformance to presentation standards established for the journal. Once manuscripts are accepted, the staﬀ of UCP takes over the copyediting, production scheduling, preparation of art work, management of publication agreements and other tasks required to prepare the manuscript for preparation. With the exception of ApJL, which is typeset at UCP, the typesetting, printing, binding and mailing is done under subcontracts managed by UCP. Since 1994, copyediting has been done in an online environment using the SGML ﬁle created from author submitted AASTeX manuscripts and a proprietary tool, Arbortext. This allows considerable eﬃciency in the process as well as facilitating the management of online content such as tags for linking or diﬀerentiation between content to be represented online only or in print. At the completion of the typesetting process the SGML version, as corrected by the typesetter, is returned to UCP where the online products, HTML and PDF versions, are generated and mounted on the UCP online journal server. Shortly thereafter the ﬁles are transmitted by UCP staﬀ to the European mirror site at CDS, Strasbourg. Access control for subscribers is enforced by UCP in accord with policies established by the AAS Council (see Sect. 5). The master business agreement between UCP and AAS originated with the transfer of the ownership of ApJ and ApJS from the University of Chicago to AAS, but has been subject to periodic renegotiation since that time. Under this arrangement UCP receives reimbursement for costs incurred in producing the AAS journals plus a fee which is negotiated in advance and which does not depend on costs. This contract arrangement has served the AAS quite well in that it has allows UCP managers to be aggressive in lowering costs and improving performance without impacting their net revenue. In return, the full risk of the journals’ ﬁnancial performance is borne by AAS.

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Since 2002, the UCP has been composed of a base ﬁxed-fee and an incentive portion which is determined at the end of the year based on criteria mutually agreed at the beginning of the year. These criteria can include average time for processing of manuscripts from acceptance to appearance, errors introduced during the UCP processing of manuscripts, timely delivery of circulation and ﬁnancial reports, and a number of other relevant factors. On the AAS side of this process is a panel consisting of the three Editors, the Executive Oﬃcer and the Treasurer. This panel negotiates the criteria with the relevant managers at UCP and then determines the award based on a performance report submitted by UCP at the end of the year. Prior to 1998, AJ was published through the American Institute of Physics, and this was perfectly satisfactory in the era of print-only publishing. The analysis of the steps necessary to transition AJ to an electronic format with fundamentally the same features at ApJ demonstrated the desirability of using common software and a common journal server for all the AAS journals. Thus it was decided to move the AJ publications to UCP commencing with the January 1998 issue. It was not feasible – at that time – to support similar developments in electronic presentation for the two journals while they were with diﬀerent publishing contractors. 7. Financing the Journals AAS Journals are operated by the Society as a service to the research community rather than as a source of revenue to support other programs. Revenue rates for AAS journals are developed on the basis of recovery of operating costs, including the maintenance of reserves required to assure the continued stability of these journals and the availability of the electronic archive. The Bylaws of the AAS require that the Society maintain a reserve fund of one-half of annual operating costs. This fund may not be drawn on for any purpose other than operations of the journals. In the event that the balance falls below the threshold, the deﬁciency must be made up within three years. To avoid this trigger in the event that the market value of the AAS investment pool drops, the AAS Council has set a goal for management to maintain the reserves in the rage from 55% to 65% of annual operating costs. The income from these reserve funds is used to oﬀset operating expenses for the journals. A separate reserve fund was established by the AAS Council to provide a source of funds for maintenance of the archive of electronic publishing products. Each journal contributes to this fund at a rate determined by the AAS Council and the investment income accumulates in this fund against some future need. The contribution rate for 2006 is $30,000 for ApJ and ApJS

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and $10,000 for AJ. At the end of 2004 this fund amounted to $321,000. No funds may be drawn from this reserve without approval of the AAS Council. The Society assesses an administrative fee of 5% of the costs for each journal and this pays for the costs of governance, contract and ﬁnancial administration, audits, investment management for the reserve funds, insurance, member subscription billings, etc. The percentage was approved by the AAS Council after justiﬁcation by an analysis of the costs of these services. A balance of revenue sources has always been a guiding principle for the AAS journals. The two main sources are author paid page charges (including those for color printing) and subscription fees, primarily those from institutional sources. In 2004, the last year for which the ﬁnancial statements are complete, page charges accounted for 60% of the journal revenue while subscriptions accounted for 33%, an additional 4% came from investment earnings while the remainder came from a mixture of reprint orders, single copy sales, licensing fees, and surcharges to authors for alterations after the proof stage. The overall features of this balance have been relatively constant since 1998 when all of the AAS journals were ﬁrst published in electronic format. The AAS Publication Board has given overall guidance to reduce costs and, where possible, reduce page charge rates while keeping subscription rates within a range to provide accessibility for a maximum range of subscribers. Still, this balanced revenue policy has allowed the AAS Journals to respond ﬂexibly to growth in submissions. ApJ just about doubled in content in the decade between 1985 and 1995 and AJ more than doubled in the same period. Since 1995 growth has been considerably slower, but the journals still experience growth spurts from time to time. A balance of revenues between readers and authors also encourages the liberal approach toward access described in Sect. 5. In 2005 the ApJ, Letters and Supplements together amounted to 27,406 pages and 2,740 articles, while AJ was 5,842 pages and 458 articles. New technology has steadily reduced the cost of almost every aspect of journal production, except possibly the cost of peer review. The average cost per page for producing the AAS journals was 8% lower in 2004 than it was in 1998; if corrected for inﬂation over that period this was a real decrease in the eﬀective cost of over 20%. Over this same period, page charges for ApJ have been reduced by 18% in actual dollars or 29% in inﬂation corrected dollars. Because AJ started this period with a lower page charge rate the reduction for that journal has only been 18% in inﬂation corrected dollars. Fig. 2 shows the history of the ApJ page charge rate and demonstrates that, when inﬂation is taken into account, these are at the lowest level at any time back to and including 1982. Much of the cost savings have been made

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possible by cooperation between the journal and its authors in utilizing the electronic manuscript submission and peer review systems so that it is appropriate that the beneﬁts of these savings be returned through lower author page charge rates. Institutional subscription electronic plus print rates for ApJ (Parts 1 and 2) are shown in Fig. 3, while those for AJ are shown in Fig. 4. Each chart has three lines, one the subscription rate in current year dollars, another in inﬂation corrected dollars, and the third in inﬂation corrected dollars corrected for the annual page count. When ApJ added the electronic products to the license the subscription rate received a one-time correction upward due to the inclusion of the ApJS in the base electronic content. AJ started with a slightly higher subscription rate per page and did not have such a supplemental product and thus an adjustment was not required when the electronic product was introduced. After the introduction of electronic access, there was a relatively rapid abandonment of duplicate-copy subscriptions by institutional subscribers. Over the past three or four years institutional subscriptions have experienced an average decline of about 2.5% to 4%, with only a slow shift of institutional subscriptions from electronic plus paper to electronic only. Since the introduction of electronic access, member’s subscriptions to the paper versions of the journals have declined by more than 60%. This decline was anticipated and because AAS’s long-standing pricing policy set member subscription costs only slightly more than the incremental cost of servicing that subscription this loss of revenue has been oﬀset by a decrease in cost and did not require increasing any other rates to oﬀset this loss. During this period there has also been a steady decline in revenues from reprint orders. In 2004 reprint revenues were only about one-third what they were in 1998. Although this is partly due to a reduction in rates charged for reprints, resulting from reduction in costs for reprint production as new printing technology came to the journal, it is mostly to be attributed to the loss of interest in purchasing reprints as no-cost electronic substitutes became available. 8. The Risks and Challenges of the Future The past decade has probably seen more changes in the publishing industry than at any time since the printing press was introduced. Although printing technology changed dramatically over the centuries following Gutenberg, the basic method of delivery to the reader was the same – print on paper. Electronic delivery has completely changed the landscape and these changes are by no means ﬁnished. The pattern of usage of astronomical literature has evolved in concert with the development of electronic journals,

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Figure 2. Page charges for ApJ Part 1 since 1982. This plot shows the rates in current year dollars as well as 1982 dollars with inﬂation taken from the US Consumer Price Index, all commodities.

ADS, AstroPh and other developments (Tenopir et al. 2003). Scientists are reading more, but browsing less as a result of relying on the search and linking capabilities provided by the electronic literature. Researchers have begun to use preprint servers, e.g. AstroPh, or archives, e.g. ADS, as sources of articles at a level that is beginning to rival the direct use of traditional journals. Use of the journals has also shifted with the use of print copies, whether from personal subscriptions or from copies held in libraries, shrinking dramatically and being replaced by direct assess to the electronic versions. The ease of navigation within and access to the literature provided by the features of the electronic publishing environment are clearly enabling factors for increased usage by researchers. Overall astronomical literature is evolving into the interconnected, multi-element, system originally dubbed “Urania” by Boyce (2000, 2002), see Fig. 5, and the AAS journals have embraced this transition. This concept melds naturally with the emergence of the virtual observatories (VO)

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Figure 3. Institutional subscription rates for ApJ Part 1 and Part 2 shown in real year dollars, 1982 dollars (same deﬁnition as in Fig. 2) and in constant 1982 dollars adjusted for page count. This latter approximates the information content per subscription dollar. Since 1997 this subscription cost has also included electronic access to the ApJS content as well.

internationally2 and, most signiﬁcantly for the AAS, in the US3 . The VO creates formalism for linking many various sources of data and standards that make this linking useful. Where previously the journals would only be able to provide data linking to data held by a limited number of data centers, the VO allows this to be extended many times. New capabilities for presentation of scientiﬁc information are enabled by the newly utilized electronic media. We have already indicated some use of these in the AAS journals (Sect. 2), but the future will bring many more options such as multi-dimensional data presentation (e.g. data cubes), manipulation of data within graphs (e.g. Scalable Vector Graphics) or applets with inline executable code (live math). Editors and authors will need to cooperate to determine the best use of these. Additionally, resource limitations may not allow the implementation of all such options within the 2 3

http://www.ivoa.net/ http://www.us-vo.org/index.cfm

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Figure 4. Institutional subscription rates for AJ shown in real year dollars, 1982 dollars (same deﬁnition as in Fig. 2) and in constant 1982 dollars adjusted for page count.

journals, so the assessment and prioritization of these will acquire increasing importance. Consideration of the above developments raises two important issues for the future, i) the future of the print edition as less and less of the content may be represented within the print version, and ii) development of a strategy for long-term, publisher-independent, preservation of the materials. These will be two of the most critical issues to be faced by journal publishers in the next decade, and the remainder of this article will record this author’s current perspective of these and an assessment of the challenges that may be presented by the economic environment in which the publications must develop. Through the present, the AAS approach to the print edition has been to be guided by the customers. While we have seen a dramatic decline in the number AAS members taking personal subscriptions, we have not yet seen a corresponding shift in thinking by institutional subscribers. This may be, in part, a result of the relatively low subscription/license charges for the AAS journals, but subscribers outside the US pay a signiﬁcant shipping surcharge. In addition, libraries have signiﬁcant costs associated with receiving

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and housing print copies (Schonfeld et al. 2004). If these factors gradually push subscribers away from print copies, it will be necessary to position the journals to not just avoid harm from this shift, but to actually beneﬁt from it. The AAS and UCP have already begun to consider whether the production process could be engineered for greater eﬃciency in the event that the requirement to produce a printed output was to vanish. For the entire foreseeable future, we expect to be required to produce a printable product which the user would access electronically. At present this product is the PDF version of the article, however, new technology, perhaps related to XML enabled browsers with enhanced capability to render mathematics, might alter the approach to this requirement. Still, elimination of the need for distribution and management of the physical product, as well as perhaps a simpliﬁed approach to preparation of the printable ﬁles, holds the promise of reduced costs which can be passed through to both authors and readers. We will have to pay careful attention to both the behavior of subscribers to AAS journals and to the industry-wide trends in this respect. A closely related issue is the development of a robust approach to the preservation of digital material. When print was the primary medium, distribution of many copies to various libraries gave reasonable assurance of the preservation of the literature for future generations. Anyone can pick up a printed page from one of these libraries and read the contents. With the shift to predominantly electronic distribution, the archival copies rest only on the publisher’s servers and the ability to access this material may depend on software at the reader’s site. For the AAS the publisher’s copies rest on the journal servers at UCP and on a mirror site at CDS. In addition backup copies of the archival SGML are stored oﬀsite to assure recoverability in the event of catastrophic loss of the individual servers. In addition, AAS has accepted the responsibility to migrate the content to provide accessibility for future generations of software. Still, these depend on the health and well-being of the AAS as an entity. In the print-only era, the products were held by a variety of libraries associated with quite diﬀerent institutions and this variety provided conﬁdence of the survivability of a signiﬁcant fraction of these copies for the long-term. At present the situation is intermediate, with the number of print copies providing assurance of the preservation of the content that can be represented in print, and the preservation of the non-print content dependent entirely on the AAS. As less and less of the content can be adequately rendered in print the print copies become increasingly irrelevant to preservation. It is necessary to develop a strategy that deposits the essential content with a number of trusted partners chosen from among organizations with diﬀerent funding sources. It is also necessary to develop strategies for formatting the material so deposited in such a way that it is not overly dependent on any current-generation soft-

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Figure 5. A schematic representation of the Urania information system as envisioned by Peter Boyce (2000). Used by permission.

ware to access it but is in a format that can be decoded by relatively simple translation by future generations. The choice of a markup language, be it SGML or XML, with a well-deﬁned markup speciﬁcation works very well for the kind of material that can be represented in print, whether currently printed or not. Similarly there are either bitmapped or vector speciﬁcation for most artwork that can be well speciﬁed and recovered as needed. Other types of material, such as video, or applets, are more challenging and the approach to these will need careful consideration. As part of its responsibility to its membership, authors, and readers, the AAS must in concert with its publishing partner, UCP, address this issue and aggressively seek a solution. Future developments in journal publishing must be undertaken with understanding of the economic factors governing publishing and dissemination of research. While the cost of publishing and archiving research results through the traditional journal publication process is a small fraction of the cost of doing the research itself, there will be continuing pressures to lower these costs and redirect the savings into support of new research. It is unlikely that either authors or readers will be able or willing to intro-

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duce major new funding into the publication process in the coming decade. New capabilities for journals will have to be ﬁnanced through increased eﬃciencies in the processing and distribution of information or through the curtailment of traditional services. In addition, restrictions on funds or new initiatives such as “open access” will add additional pressure on traditional funding models. It is a major strength of the society owned journal, whether those of the AAS or of other scholarly societies, that the author/reader community is engaged in the determination of priorities for the journals and their position within the overall scholarly enterprise. Acknowledgments I am grateful for the advice and assistance Rob Kennicutt, Julie Steﬀen, Mike A’Hearn, and Judy Johnson in the preparation of this manuscript. References 1.

Abt, H. 1995, Obituary – Chandrasekhar, Subrahmanyan 1910-1995 Managing Editor – 1952-1971, Astrophys. J. 454, 551. Abt, H. 1999, The American Astronomical Society and The Astrophysical Journal, in The American Astronomical Society’s First Century, Ed. D.H. DeVorkin, Amer. Astron. Soc. & Amer. Inst. Phys., Washington DC, 176-184. Boyce, P. (Ed.) 1992, Electronic Publishing in Astronomy: Projects and Plans of the AAS4 , Amer. Astron. Soc. Newsl. 62, Supplement. Boyce, P. 1996, A Successful Electronic Scholarly Journal from a Small Society5 , in Electronic Publishing in Science, Eds. D. Shaw & H. Moore, UNESCO & ICSU Press, Paris, 43-47. Boyce, P. 2000, What Does the Future Holds? Ask an Astronomer6 , NC Serials Conference (Chapel Hill, 16 March 2000). Boyce, P. 2002, Beyond Today’s Electronic Journals: What do we really Need?7 , First Nordic Conference on Scholarly Communication (Lund 22-23 October 2002). Boyce, P. & Dalterio, H. 1996, Electronic Publishing of Scientiﬁc Journals8 , Physics Today 49-1, 42-47. Boyce, P., Owens, E. & Biemesderfer, C. 1997, Electronic Publishing: Experience is Telling us Something9 , Serials Review 23-3, 1-9. DeVorkin, D. 1999, The Pickering Years, in The American Astronomical Society’s First Century, Ed. D.H. DeVorkin, Amer. Astron. Soc. & Amer. Inst. Phys., Washington DC, 20-36. Dohm-Palmer, R., Skillman, E., Saha, A., Tolstoy, E., Mateo, M., Gallagher, J., Hoessel, J. Chiosi, C. & Dufour, R.J. 1998, Addendum: The Dwarf Irregular Galaxy Sextans A. II. Recent Star Formation History [Astron. J. 114, 2527 (1997)]10 , Astron. J. 115, 152-153.

2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

4

http://www.aas.org/publications/nlarchive/nl62/epubsup.html http://www.aas.org/∼pboyce/epubs/icsu-art.html 6 http://www.aas.org/∼pboyce/epubs/NCSerials2000/NC2000.html 7 http://www.aas.org/∼pboyce/epubs/lund/index.html 8 http://www.aas.org/∼pboyce/epubs/pt-art.htm 9 http://www.aas.org/∼pboyce/epubs/sr-art.html 10 http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AJ/journal/issues/v115n1/970228/ 970228.html 5

JOURNALS OF THE AAS 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

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Hodge, P. 1999, A Brief History of the Astronomical Journal, in The American Astronomical Society’s First Century, Ed. D.H. DeVorkin, Amer. Astron. Soc. & Amer. Inst. Phys., Washington DC, 165-175. Kurtz, M., Eichhorn, G., Accomazzi, A., Grant, C., Murray, S. & Watson, J. 2000, The NASA Astrophysics Data System: Overview11 , Astron. Astrophys. Suppl. Ser 143, 41-59. Osterbrock, D.E. 1999, AAS Meetings before there was an AAS: The Pre-history of the Society, in The American Astronomical Society’s First Century, Ed. D.H. DeVorkin, Amer. Astron. Soc. & Amer. Inst. Phys., Washington DC, 3-19. Schonfeld, R.C., King, D.W., Okerson, A. & Fenton, E.G. 1004, The Nonsubscription Side of Periodicals12 , Research Report, Cncl Libr. Inform. Resources, Washington DC. Tenopir, C., King, D.W., Boyce, P., Grayson, M., Zhang, Y. & Ebuen, M. 2003, Patterns of Journal Use by Scientists through Three Evolutionary Phases13 , D-Lib Magazine 9(5).

http://www.edpsciences.org/articles/aas/abs/2000/07/ds1780/ds1780.html http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub127/contents.html 13 http://www.dlib.org/dlib/may03/king/05king.html 12

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MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY

PAUL MURDIN

Royal Astronomical Society Burlington House Piccadilly London W1J 0BQ, U.K. [email protected]

Abstract. Monthly Notices is one of the three largest general primary astronomical research publications. It is an international journal, published by the Royal Astronomical Society. This article1 describes its publication policy and practice.

1. Introduction The Royal Astronomical Society2 (the Society or RAS) is the UK’s leading professional body for astronomy and geophysics. It is a charity established under English law and governed by a board of trustees, who comprise the Council of the Society. It has over 3000 members, one third of whom live outside the UK. The primary activity of the RAS is the dissemination of research information that advances astronomy and geophysics, including through the journals and meetings. The RAS publishes three journals: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (most commonly abbreviated to Monthly Notices, MN, MNRAS or Mon Not R astr Soc), Geophysical Journal International (GJI) and Astronomy & Geophysics (A&G). The ﬁrst two are primary research journals in astronomy and geophysics, respectively, and the third is a news and reviews journal consisting of more general material. Established in 1827, Monthly Notices was originally monthly and notices. It included announcements and proceedings of RAS meetings, and 1 2

Paul Murdin is the Treasurer of the Royal Astronomical Society. http://www.ras.org.uk/

263 A. Heck (ed.), Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, 263–272. © 2006 Springer.

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prompt reports about astronomical phenomena (comets and asteroids, etc). It grew to contain an increasing proportion of articles written by fellows of the Society and refereed by the Council at its monthly meetings. Today, MN publishes only the results of original research in astronomy by anyone (fellows or not), including positional and dynamical astronomy, astrophysics, radio astronomy, cosmology, space research and the design of astronomical instruments – articles about research into virtually any kind of astronomy, at all wavelengths from gamma rays to radio waves and all scales from cosmic rays or dust grains to the Cosmic Microwave Background. MN also publishes fast-track articles or ‘Letters’ that are short, topical and signiﬁcant. Until recently these articles were published on pink paper, separately paginated in the printed version of MN. To expedite turnaround and in recognition of what has become the normal way of accessing current results, namely the preprint servers and NASA’s Astrophysical Data System (ADS3 ), this system was terminated in 2005. An entirely electronic editorial process and publication method was then implemented for MN Letters. In response to opinions expressed by some people, a paper archive volume is being made available on order to libraries at the end of each year to see whether there is really a market demand for it. To help make feasible a fast turnaround by referees and editors, Letters must be short (<5 pages of equivalent MN print issues). GJI is published jointly with the Deutsche Geophysikalische Gesellschaft (DGG4 ): it is the primary solid-earth geophysics journal based in Europe. The journals are published in paper and electronic form and sold primarily to libraries of research institutes and universities. The availability of MN has increased steadily. In 2004, MN was available in over 2,200 institutions. All subscribers have online access to the current and immediately preceding volume and most have full on-line access. About 20% of institutional subscribers receive the print edition. Up to 2002, the latter number had been progressively falling at the rate of 1 or 2% per year with increasing rationalisation of library acquisitions. No longer does a university typically buy separate paper subscriptions for the central library, the department library and the observatory. It buys an electronic edition accessed through ADS and a subscription that covers the university computer domain, including the libraries of all departments and the observatory, and it may buy one paper copy for archive purposes. This rationalisation process may now have reached its limits so the trend in subscription numbers has reached a plateau and even reversed upwards in 2004. The journals are also available to individuals. They are available electronically ‘free’ to RAS members. Paper copies are available on individual 3 4

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/ http://www.dpg-physik.de/

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subscription, at rates that are attractive to members of the RAS and DGG, and even more attractive to younger members. The number of such subscriptions has been withering, due to the availability of free electronic access, particularly through the subscriber’s home institute, due to the large and accelerating shelf space that the printed volumes demand and due to the cost. A&G is also distributed ‘free’ in print form to members of the RAS and is available outside the membership of the RAS at attractive rates. Given the subject matter of the Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy (OSA) series in which this article appears, I conﬁne myself in what follows to a discussion principally of MN, but GJI is run on similar lines. 2. Submission of Articles The astronomical community is at ease with computer processing, even at a relatively deep level, and computers have been used in the processing of articles submitted to MN for over ten years. The ﬁrst process implemented was that articles could be submitted to MN electronically by FTP. Last year 99% of articles were submitted this way. The RAS employs editorial assistants to handle the processing of an article from submission to acceptance, rejection or withdrawal. Up to now, they have been tracking articles through the decision-making process using a manuscript tracking system that was designed in-house using general purpose Microsoft Oﬃce software, such as Excel spreadsheets and Access database management. This system, while simple for authors and referees, has become outdated. Its ﬁle management structure is hand-processed and grew to be cumbersome, with too many opportunities to make mistakes. The maintenance of the system by in-house staﬀ has become problematic, because of the way the various software packages interlock. MN Letters (and GJI) has therefore converted to a commercial web-based article-submission and manuscript-tracking system, Manuscript Central by Scholar One. After further trialling, MN may follow. Manuscript Central is an integrated system that allows submission and tracking of articles by authors, as well as semi-automated management of the refereeing process. This oﬀers the prospect for the editorial staﬀ being able to supervise the refereeing process for greater speed. It also provides for greater ﬂexibility of location for editors and in particular editorial assistants, of whom there are four dedicated to MN. On the downside, it has proved to be a structure that is rigid and formulaic, within which submissions must be made. A minority of our notoriously independently-minded scientists do not like conforming to the electronic procedure or coping with the parts which they perceive as less relevant and which they have not, up to now, had to bother with. The present version of Manuscript Central is also not particularly friendly to the Unix operating system and associated

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software used by computers operated by many in the astronomical and physics community. In recognition of the minority of scientists who cannot use the electronic system, paper submissions remain possible (such cases are already exceptional – a few per year). 3. The Decision to Publish Articles are published if they qualify as original research in astronomy and if they reach the acceptable standard of scientiﬁc quality and presentation. There are no non-scientiﬁc ceilings, quotas or qualiﬁcations, and the authors’ status is irrelevant. The decision to publish the article is made on scientiﬁc grounds alone, by the editors alone, on the basis of advice from referees. In handling contributions from authors, the RAS journals attempt to follow a code of practice that is based on the ‘Guidelines on Good Publication Practice’ of the Committee on Publication Ethics5 . There are 12 editors on the MN Editorial Board and should be more. The Council of the RAS appoints them. Each is responsible for the articles submitted in a subset of the full spectrum of astronomical subject matter (with exceptions where there might be a conﬂict of interests). An editor might typically receive some 140 articles per year. This means that a busy editor might well expect there to be several new emails about an MN matter per day. This represents a considerable investment of high quality astronomical eﬀort, and the scientiﬁc success of the journal is utterly dependent on this altruistic contribution by the editors to the astronomical community. The editors and/or the editors’ home institutes are oﬀered a sum of money by the Society to compensate for the editors’ services, but the sum involved is somewhat symbolic. When an article is received at the MN oﬃce it is assessed initially as to suitability, completeness, subject matter, and in the case of a Letter, length. The oﬃce assigns the article to the most appropriate editor on the basis of subject matter, indicating any special requirements (such as reviewers the authors wish to avoid) and who has reviewed the author’s past, relevant articles. This editor chooses a referee (no longer conﬁning this choice to members of the RAS Council!) and, if applicable, may conﬁrm the status of ‘Letter’. The referee is asked to comment on the scientiﬁc and presentational standard and in the case of a Letter, whether the article merits rapid processing. Referees are not paid and their willingness to carry out the work on behalf of the community is another investment of high quality astronomical eﬀort that is essential for the scientiﬁc quality of the journal. 5

http://www.publicationethics.org.uk/

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If the ﬁrst referee recommends rejection, the opinion of a second referee might be sought. A decision to reject is made by the editor on the basis of the advice from the referees and in consultation with a second editor. Usually articles are accepted by the one editor following revisions by the author in response to one referee’s comments. This process of peer review, revision and validation is seen as the main value added by the RAS to the article. The RAS also takes responsibility to try to make the article available to as wide a readership as sensible, for as long as this remains possible. 4. Publication On acceptance by the editor, the ﬁnal version of the article is handed to the Society’s publisher, currently Blackwell Publishing Ltd (Blackwell’s). Blackwell’s is one of the leading publishers of the journals of learned societies. The contract between the RAS and Blackwell’s treats them as partners in the publication of the journal and gives all parties a say in policy and pricing issues (but the ﬁnal authority in most important issues is the RAS Council). Articles are carefully subedited, with special care given to articles by authors who are not native-English-speaking in a way intended to be helpful. Articles are typeset and published immediately on the WWW in a system within Blackwell’s called Synergy. The early publication is called On-Line Early, and the article is given a reference number called the Digital Object Identiﬁer (DOI), which will stay with the article forever, e.g. if the repository changes to another publisher. This process is contractually deﬁned between the RAS and Blackwell’s as taking place in less than 30 working days from receipt of the ﬁnal version of the article by the publisher. Paper publication of the article follows in the next available issue of the journal. Paper publication is identical in content to the on-line version, and neither may be changed (any revision will be newly referenced as an erratum or correction). Considerable eﬀort has been put in recent years into reducing the processing time for articles submitted to MN, both by managing the refereeing process and by improving the publication process. These changes are yet to be completed and not all have worked through the system. Their eﬀect is therefore on-going. The immediate results so far visible are that the median period from receipt of an article to a decision on acceptance has declined from 145 days in 1999 to 110 days in 2005, and for a Letter from 97 days to 44 days. The average period from acceptance to publication has declined from 128 days in 2002 to 30 days (electronic publication, including Letters) or 89 days (in paper) in 2005. What the author sees as

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the publication time (submission to ﬁrst appearance of the ﬁnal version) is thus 3-4 months for a mainstream article or 2-3 months for a Letter. 5. Volume The number of articles submitted to MN was quite constant at 540 per year in the 1980’s. In 1991 the number of articles submitted started a steep rise to 1,200 per year in 1998. It reached a plateau at this level until 2003 when it began to rise again and in 2005 reached 1,700 per year. The growth rate currently stands at 12% per year. The same fraction of submitted articles fails to reach publication as in historic times and it is believed that the scientiﬁc standard of what is published remains the same. In 2004, MN published 1,235 articles with 13,508 pages. MN is thus about half the size of The Astrophysical Journal (ApJ). The printed version of MN appeared three times per month in a total of 36 issues over the year, and the frequency is likely soon to have to increase to weekly. MN is an international journal. In 2004, 66% of its articles are submitted from outside the UK (judged by the address of the submitting author). About 12% were submitted from the USA, with Italy, Australia and Germany contributing a further 18% altogether. The remaining third were from more than 40 other countries. 6. Finance The ﬁnances of the three journals are seen as a whole and in association with the meetings of the Society. As a cost centre for the Society’s ﬁnances, the information dissemination activity provides a ﬁnancial surplus of about 15%, which supports other scientiﬁc activities of the Society. Because of the global authorship, there are no page charges for the Society’s journal. There is absolutely no subsidy to the ﬁnances of the journals from anywhere – no government or organisational grants, no free provision of infrastructure like accommodation, no donation of staﬀ time, except for part of the time of editors and the time of referees. Receipts from the journal subscriptions cover editorial costs, including six editorial assistants who currently work full-time at the Society’s premises in Burlington House, Piccadilly, the publishing costs, including printing and distribution costs, and the cost of making the articles available on the WWW. Authors are the key to any journal’s commercial success, because the top authors attract the most readers. Hence the eﬀort that MN has put into reducing processing times, increasing impact and maintaining the business model without page charges. The philosophy of putting the decision to support the journals in the hands of the readers forces the RAS to consider

J.-F. Claeskens et al.: Identification and redshift determination of quasi-stellar objects with medium-band photometry: application to Gaia Avery E. Broderick and Abraham Loeb: Imaging optically-thin hotspots near the black hole horizon of Sgr A* at radio and near-infrared wavelengths M. Jardine et al.: X-ray emission from T Tauri stars Jacco Vink et al. The X-ray properties of young radio-loud AGN

published for the ro yal astronomical www.blackwellpublishing.com/mnr/

continued on back cover

so ciet y by bl ac kwell publishing • issn 0035–8711

1083 C. R. Kaiser: The flat synchrotron spectra of partially self-absorbed jets revisited 1095 Domenico Tocchini-Valentini, Yehuda Hoffman and Joseph Silk: Non-parametric reconstruction of the primordial power spectrum at horizon scales from WMAP data

1072 M. E. Dieckmann, P. K. Shukla and L. O. C. Drury: Particle-in-cell simulation studies of the non-linear evolution of ultrarelativistic two-stream instabilities

1029 M. Sol Alonso et al.: Effects of galaxy interactions in different environments 1039 Geraint Harker et al.: A marked correlation function analysis of halo formation times in the Millennium Simulation 1050 J. Jones and W. Jones: Meteor radiant activity mapping using single-station radar observations 1057 Jonathan R. Pritchard and Steven R. Furlanetto: Descending from on high: Lyman-series cascades and spin-kinetic temperature coupling in the 21-cm line 1067 M. Bruno, G. Cremonese and S. Marchi: Neutral sodium atoms release from the surface of the Moon induced by meteoroid impacts

937 945

Q. D. Wang, F. J. Lu and E. V. Gotthelf: G359.95-0.04: an energetic pulsar candidate near Sgr A* Donald G. York et al.: Average extinction curves and relative abundances for quasi-stellar object absorption-line systems at 1 ≤ zabs < 2 979 Matthew Hansen and S. Peng Oh: Lyman α radiative transfer in a multiphase medium 1003 James Etherington and Witold Maciejewski: Can gas dynamics in centres of galaxies reveal orbiting massive black holes? 1011 Sébastien Peirani, Fabrice Durier and José A. de Freitas Pacheco: Evolution of the phase-space density of dark matter haloes and mixing effects in merger events 1017 A. E. Georgakakis et al.: Mining for normal galaxies in the first XMM–Newton Serendipitous Source Catalog

917 928

905

M. E. Dieckmann et al.: Electron surfing acceleration in oblique magnetic fields C. L. Dobbs and I. A. Bonnell: Spurs and feathering in spiral galaxies

879

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of the

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A recent issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. (Courtesy Blackwell’s)

0035-8711(200604)367:3;1-W

vo lu me 367 • number 3 • 11apri l 2006 • pages 865–1328

Figure 1.

Information on this journal can be accessed at www.blackwellpublishing.com/mnr/

Annual subscription (Europe) £3461.00 (the Americas $6394.00, rest of world £3806.00)

Printed in Singapore by C.O.S. Printers Pte Ltd

1297 Kanak Saha and Chanda J. Jog: Self-consistent response of a galactic disc to vertical perturbations 1308 S. V. Jeffers et al.: Hubble Space Telescope observations of SV Cam – II. First derivative light-curve modelling using PHOENIX and ATLAS model atmospheres 1317 C. Aerts et al.: High-speed colourimetry of the subdwarf B star SDSS J171722.08+58055.8 with ULTRACAM 1323 Lilia Ferrario and Dayal Wickramasinghe: Modelling of isolated radio pulsars and magnetars on the fossil field hypothesis

1217 Geraint F. Lewis and Rodrigo A. Ibata: Gravitational microlensing of quasar broad-line regions: the influence of fractal structures 1222 David E. Johnston: Measuring the galaxy–galaxy-mass three-point correlation function with weak gravitational lensing 1241 Masamune Oguri: The image separation distribution of strong lenses: halo versus subhalo populations 1251 Emma V. Ryan-Weber: Cross-correlation of Lyman α absorbers with gas-rich galaxies 1261 Simon L. Morris and Buell T. Jannuzi: The association between gas and galaxies – I. CFHT spectroscopy and pair analysis 1282 Jiˇrí Krtiˇcka: NLTE models of line-driven stellar winds – II. O stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud

1209 J. Liesenborgs, S. De Rijcke and H. Dejonghe: A genetic algorithm for the non-parametric inversion of strong lensing systems

Monthly Notices

1155 L. J. Silvers: On the choice of boundary conditions when studying the turbulent diffusion of magnetic fields 1163 Robert Cameron and David Galloway: High field strength modified ABC and rotor dynamos 1170 M. Scardia et al. Speckle observations with PISCO in Merate – II. Astrometric measurements of visual binaries in 2004 1181 T. Bensby and S. Feltzing: The origin and chemical evolution of carbon in the Galactic thin and thick discs 1194 George Saklatvala, Michael P. Hobson and Stafford Withington: Simulations of multimode bolometric interferometers 1201 M. Chernyakova et al.: XMM–Newton observations of PSR B1259–63 near the 2004 periastron passage

1121 Edward C. D. Pope et al.: Heating rate profiles in galaxy clusters 1132 O. González-Martín, A. C. Fabian and J. S. Sanders: The ultraluminous X-ray sources in the high-velocity system of NGC 1275 1139 Leonid S. Pilyugin, Trinh X. Thuan and José M. Vílchez: Oxygen abundances in the most oxygen-rich spiral galaxies 1147 Michael D. Audley et al.: ASCA observations of OAO 1657–415 and its dust-scattered X-ray halo

1103 B. Willems, U. Kolb and S. Justham: Eclipsing binaries in extrasolar planet transit surveys: the case of SuperWASP 1113 T. Belloni et al.: INTEGRAL/RXTE high-energy observation of a state transition of GX 339–4

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what buyers really need. It concentrates the Society’s mind on delivering a product driven by scientiﬁc quality that subscribers, hopefully, must buy in order to further their own research. At the same time the subscription cost is recognised as high. This is driven by the business model. Inﬂation in the publishing industry is manpower-cost driven and above inﬂation, even given the globalisation of typesetting and printing. The inevitable above-inﬂation rise in subscriptions as the journal increases in size at its recent rate pose a problem for subscribers and the Society. The overall policy of the RAS Council on subscription prices is to maintain any rise within the growth of size, while delivering more features and better quality for authors and readers, and without introducing page charges. As a corollary the Council has been shifting a greater proportion of the ﬁnancial burden of running the non-publication activities of the Society back to the fellows and other non-publication income, reducing the ﬁnancial margin taken from the journals. The business model for the RAS journals is kept under review. 7. Impact The RAS is a learned society and wants its activities to advance science. The articles that the RAS publishes are intended to make a diﬀerence. It is thus both altruistic and in the interests of our authors that their articles are read. This philosophy lies behind the decisions to open up potential readership and to develop online access. Readership of (at least part-) articles on-line in 2004 totalled over 800,000 (excludes non-customer access such as by search engines); nearly half these reads resulted in the download for printing of a complete article. The most downloaded article was accessed 1,144 times, the average article about 300 times. Large institutes typically access MN 5,000-10,000 times per year. For the advancement of science it is essential that articles may be readily found. MN cooperates fully with ADS to make this possible, and articles are indexed on ADS within a few days of publication on-line. The title and abstract are publicly readable and the article is click-through readable for those operating a computer in a domain that has a subscription. (The publisher relies on the subscribing librarian to manage the information technology, e.g. changes of domain names. If there is a problem with access by subscriber scientists, this is often the cause.) The full text of the article is available publicly through ADS after 3 years. In addition to individual subscribing libraries, subscriptions are available through consortia of libraries that make a bulk purchase of access. Members of the RAS get access through a password system; of course many of them have access through a university library but they carry their per-

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sonal subscription with them whether to home, or through an airport lounge to a non-subscribing observatory. Articles are publicly available three years after publication. An ‘impact factor’ is provided by ISI6 Journal Citation Reports as the number of citations appearing in year N that cite articles in a journal in years N-1 and N-2 divided by the number of articles published during year N-1 and N-2. Analysis of the results of the automated process used by ISI revealed that until recently ISI software was confusing or ignoring short abbreviations of journals in astronomy like ApJ, AJ 7 , A&A8 , MN, and MNRAS (see articles by Abt 2003 in OSA 4 and by Sandqvist 2004 in OSA 5). The most recently analysed data shows that the MN impact factor has increased progressively since 1999 and currently lies just behind ApJ and AJ, all three showing each article cited an average of between 5 and 6 times in the two years following publication. The most cited articles in MN over the past ﬁve years have been cited over 300 times, like those of ApJ, with the exception of the extraordinary article by Wendy Freedman et al. (2001), on the HST key project to determine H0 , which has been cited over twice as much. Modern aids to the communication of science include the use of colour in illustrations. Apart from aesthetic considerations, colour can help to explain more complicated science, and can increase scientiﬁc impact of the article on the readers. Colour is available free at the authors’ choice in the electronic version of the articles and for a single charge per article in the printed version (costs are usually receovered but waived in cases agreed as essential). Large amounts of data or video information are published online only and the author is asked to post the material on the CDS website9 . To promote the dissemination of the article the RAS encourages the use of the authors’ websites and pre-print servers (principally Astro-ph10 ) to host preliminary drafts of the article and its deﬁnitive version, asking that MN should be referenced. MN thus cooperates with an open access system in parallel to its conventional publications system. The latter remains the deﬁnitive one, the one which the RAS is committed to support indeﬁnitely. It is intended that articles in it will continue to be bibliographically referenced and locatable. To promote the legitimate dissemination of the work in the article, the RAS and the Publisher handle copyright protection in a way that is liberal to authors’ interest in making their work known. 6

Institute for Scientiﬁc Information (http://www.isinet.com/). For The Astronomical Journal. 8 For Astronomy and Astrophysics. 9 http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/CDS.html 10 http://xxx.lanl.gov/archive/astro-ph 7

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As a contribution to developing impact (but only at some remove does this inﬂuence the impact factor), the abstracts of articles in MN are routinely scanned by the RAS communications oﬃce for material of suﬃcient popular interest that might support a press release. If the authors agree, the RAS drafts the press release in conjunction with them. This produces a few press releases per year, which are widely taken up by the UK media. Authors may also be approached to present their article to one of the monthly A&G general meetings of the RAS. References 1. 2. 3.

Abt, H.A. 2003, The Institute for Scientiﬁc Information and the Science Citation Index, in Organisations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 4, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 197-204. Freedman, W. et al. 2001, Final results from the Hubble Space Telescope key project to measure the Hubble constant, Astrophys. J. 553 (1), 47-72. Sandqvist, AA. 2004, The A&A Experience with Impact Factors, in Organisations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 5, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 197-201.

ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS – A JOURNAL OF ASTRONOMERS FOR ASTRONOMERS

GEORGES MEYNET

Observatoire de Gen`eve Chemin des Maillettes 51 CH-1290 Sauverny, Switzerland [email protected]

Abstract. In the area of astrophysical research, a journal plays as important a role as a telescope. However, while the telescopes collect information and concentrate it to obtain high-quality images, a journal collects information, but diﬀuses it as widely as possible. The quality of a journal (as is that of a telescope) is proportional to its collecting power of high-quality papers and to its ability to bring the results to as wide as possible an astronomical community. We describe hereafter the eﬀorts made over the past years to allow Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A) fulﬁlling as well as possible these two quality criteria. After brieﬂy recalling the circumstances leading to the creation of the journal in Sect. 1, we present in Sect. 2 its general organization. The recent changes in the structure of the journal, made to meet the present-day requirements of a science journal, are described in Sect. 3. Some statistics about the journal activity are given in Sect. 4. The last section describes future perspectives.

1. History A very nice account of the creation of the journal has been written by S.R. Pottasch from Kapteyn Astronomical Institute1 . Pottasch, with J.L. Steinberg from Meudon Observatory, were the ﬁrst editors of “Astronomy & Astrophysics, A European Journal”. The ﬁrst issue of the journal appeared in January 1969. As expressed in the editorial by A. Blaauw, the ﬁrst chairman of the Board of Directors, “The creation of Astronomy and Astrophysics results from the conviction, shared by many astronomers of the 1

See Pottasch (1999) or http://www.aanda.org/aahistory.html

273 A. Heck (ed.), Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, 273–283. © 2006 Springer.

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countries involved, that henceforth astronomical research will beneﬁt from a joint medium for publication”. Indeed, at that time, European astronomers were publishing in many diﬀerent national journals and a large part of the community felt the need to merge these journals into an international wider-spread journal. Astronomy & Astrophysics arose from this need. It was founded by merging six journals from four European countries, namely from France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden: − − − −

Annales d’Astrophysique (France), founded in 1938; Arkiv f¨ or Astronomi (Sweden), founded in 1948; Bulletin Astronomique (France), founded in 1884; Bulletin of the Astronomical Institutes of the Netherlands, founded in 1921; − Journal des Observateurs (France), founded in 1915; and − Zeitschrift f¨ ur Astrophysik (Germany), founded in 1930.

Belgium and the other Nordic countries, Denmark, Finland and Norway, also participated. Very rapidly, ﬁve other western European nations, namely Austria, Greece, Italy, Spain and Switzerland (Norway later withdrew) joined the team of A&A-sponsoring countries (see Table ?? where the year of full membership is indicated for each country). Afterward, the expansion continued. As Aage Sandqvist (2004a), the Chairman of the Board of Directors at that time, pointed out in an Editorial: “In the early nineteen-nineties, A&A with great foresight took an important step – which the European Union would follow more than a decade later – by incorporating eastern European countries into its sponsoring membership: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and the Slovak Republic; Estonia became a full member in 1998. A&A was now truly “A European Journal”, as then stated on the front cover.”. The entry of the Czech Republic among the sponsoring countries added a new publication in the merging process, the Bulletin of the Astronomical Institutes of Czechoslovakia, founded in 1947. As will be seen below, in the section describing the recent developments, the expansion still continues today, indicating that the journal has remained very attractive. In the spirit of the founders, the journal was conceived as the property of the astronomers, not of a publisher. It was realized that the wishes and desires of the astronomers should not be subordinated to those imposed by a pure commercial logic. The astronomers were represented by the “Board of Directors”, who was responsible for choosing the Scientiﬁc Editors and for deciding on the editorial policy of the journal. Since the Board had no legal status to receive funds or sign a contract, it appeared desirable to involve ESO as one of the sponsors and for ESO to handle the ﬁnances and the legal side of the journal.

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This structure as we shall see below has not fundamentally changed, but has slightly evolved in the course of the years. Before describing this evolution, let us brieﬂy recall the general organization of the journal. 2. General Organization Three main bodies are presently constituting the journal organization: − The Board of Directors who is the governing body of the journal. It deﬁnes the long-term policies and appoints the Scientiﬁc Editors. The Board consists of senior astronomers or government representatives of the sponsoring countries. The updated list of sponsoring countries is given in Table ??. One notes that the number of sponsoring countries has grown from 7 in 1969 to 21 in 2006 (a total of 22 sponsors including ESO). − The Scientiﬁc Editors who are ultimately responsible for the contents of the journal. They manage the refereeing process and take the decision of publishing a paper or not. The editors plays the key role, since the attractivity of a journal is directly related to the quality of the information that can be found in it. − The publisher who is responsible for producing and distributing the journal. The publisher is also responsible for the technical quality of the journal and for its promotion and sales. From a ﬁnancial point of view, we can distinguish two separate accounts: one corresponding to the price of the scientiﬁc editing process, the other to the printing and distribution process. The scientiﬁc edition is mainly paid by the sponsoring organizations who contribute to the budget by amounts proportional to the average net national revenues. There is also a small income from the page charges of the authors residing in countries other than the sponsoring ones (apart from UK). The printing and the distribution is paid by the publisher who covers his expenses by selling the journal through subscriptions. The price of the subscription results from discussions between the Board and the publisher. 3. Some Recent Changes One important change occurred in 2001, when EDP Sciences became the publisher, replacing Springer. At the same time, the Supplement Series were merged with the Main Journal. In the following years, some upgrades in the journal organization were necessary. Two facts essentially triggered this: the increasing number of papers submitted, pushing the Board to increase the number of Associate

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Editors, and the increasing number of sponsoring countries, requiring a reorganization of the way the Board operates. In nearly forty years the number of published papers showed a strong increase. This is illustrated by the following numbers. The ﬁrst three volumes, published in 1969, oﬀered a total of 1471 pages. The following years saw a steady increase in number of pages of the Main Journal as well as of the Supplement Series. In 2004, 19,050 pages were published in 16 volumes. From these numbers, it is easy to understand why the Board decided to move from the long-standing system with two Editors-in-Chief and the Letters Editor to a more distributed system with one Editor-in-Chief, seven Associate Editors and the Letters Editor. The new editorial system became operative in January 2004. The extension of the scientiﬁc team not only helped alleviating the workload of the Editors but also allowed a more specialized treatment of the diﬀerent areas of research. In 2006, two new Associate Editors reinforced the team. In 2006 too, the Board decided to restructure the manner in which Letters were handled. The Letter-Editorin-Chief now forwards the Letters to the appropriate topical Associate Editor who organizes the reviewing process. In the same way as for the normal papers, this change permitted a more specialized treatment of Letters. Since, over the years, more and more papers from non-sponsoring countries have been published in A&A and since astronomy publishing had become truly international, the Board decided in 2001 to remove the words “A European Journal” from the front cover. Some of these non-European countries began approaching us with queries about potential membership in A&A and, in 2002, we admitted the ﬁrst such country, Argentina, with observer status. Argentina became a full member in 2005. The Board of Directors then admitted Brazil and Chile to full memberships in A&A, starting on 1 January 2006. This opening of the A&A community of sponsoring countries to non-European nations demonstrates the appeal of the journal outside its traditional borders. In 2006, Portugal also joined the team of European sponsoring countries. To retain an eﬃcient management, this expansion required restructuring the decision process within the Board. New Standing Rules and Bylaws were adopted on December 2005. These new rules give more power to a subset of the Board of Directors named the Executive Committee. The Board remains the governing body of the journal, but delegates its decision power for questions regarding short-term policy to the Executive Committee. These changes do not alter the spirit of the journal. The structure that was set up in 1969 remains fundamentally the same. These developments simply reﬂect the necessity to adapt the original structure to the growing number of paper submissions and of sponsoring countries.

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Figure 1.

Some recent issues of A&A.

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TABLE 1. List of sponsoring countries. The year of full membership of each country is indicated in parentheses. Sponsoring Countries

National Organizations

Austria (1981)

¨ Astronomische Kommission der Osterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften Asociaci´ on Argentina de Astronom´ıa Belgian National Committee for Astronomy Sociedade Brasileira de Astronomia Sociedad Chilena de Atronom´ıa Czech National Committee of the IAU Statens Naturvidenskabelige Forskningsr˚ ad Estonian National Committee for Astronomy National Committee for Astronomy Centre National de la Recherche Scientiﬁque Rat Deutscher Sternwarten Greek National Committee for Astronomy Hungarian Academy of Sciences Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche Nationaal Comit´e voor Astronomie Polish Academy of Sciences Sociedade Portuguesa de Astronomia Slovak National Committee of the IAU Secretaria General de Pol´ıtica Cient´ıﬁca y Tecnol´ ogica Vetenskapsr˚ adet Swiss Academy of Sciences European Southern Observatory

Argentina (2005) Belgium (1969) Brazil (2006) Chile (2006) Czech Republic (1992) Denmark (1969) Estonia (1998) Finland (1969) France (1969) Germany (1969) Greece (1974) Hungary (1994) Italy (1972) The Netherlands (1969) Poland (1993) Portugal (2006) Slovak Republic (1992) Spain (1988) Sweden (1969) Switzerland (1970) ESO (1969)

4. Some Numbers for 2004 Details of the peer-review and editorial procedures can be found in an Editorial by Claude Bertout and Peter Schneider (2004), at the time Editor-inChief and Letter Editor respectively. We shall present hereafter interesting numbers drawn from the 2004 report of the Scientiﬁc Editors. These ﬁgures give an idea of the activity both at the editorial and publishing oﬃces, and thus somewhat reﬂect the life of the journal. 4.1. NORMAL PAPERS

In 2004, which was the ﬁrst year with the new editorial structure (see above), the eight A&A Editors handled the peer-reviewing process for 19,050 published pages, i.e. about 2380 published pages per Editor. In-

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terestingly, for the same year, the ﬁfteen Astrophysical Journal (ApJ) Associate Editors oversaw the peer-reviewing of 20,702 published pages, corresponding to 1380 pages per Editor. 2163 papers from 64 countries were submitted to A&A, 75% of which originated from the A&A community. Submissions from UK and USA represented about one half of the papers received from non-sponsoring countries. A signiﬁcant number of papers were also received from China, the Russian Federation, and India. The number of “extragalactic” submissions (Sect. 3 & 4 of the Journal) represented 25% of all submissions while the number of “stellar” submission (Sect. 5, 7 & 8) represented 31%. About 17% of the submitted papers are ultimately rejected. Let us emphasize here that the criterion for paper acceptance is scientiﬁc excellence and not the country of origin. Also, the referees are from all over the world and not restricted to the sponsoring countries. For instance, about 40% of the referees are from North America. The time elapsed since the reception of a paper at the editorial oﬃce and its publication in the journal can be split in two parts 1. The time required by the scientiﬁc editing process, i.e. the time from registration of a new submission to its acceptance by the Editor in charge of the paper. It comprises the time for refereeing the paper, for the authors to submit a new version and, in most of the cases, for a second submission to the referee. In 2004, half of the papers were accepted in less than 82 days, 25% of all papers were accepted within 54 days, and 75% within 123 days. Most of this time is used by the referee to produce his/her report(s) and by the authors to take into account the remarks by the referee. 2. The average processing time at the publisher (i.e. the time from acceptance to publication) was 3.6 months (including a backlog of one and a half month), 21 days of which are on average spent at the editorial oﬃce for ﬁnal acceptance procedures and language editing. Note that, presently, accepted papers are available, if the authors agree, as preprints on the publisher’s site a few days after the ﬁnal version is received. These preprints will soon be referenced in ADS, thus ensuring their availability in the community. 4.2. LETTERS

In 2004, 314 letter manuscripts were received and 180 were accepted (57%). The rest were either rejected (17%) or forwarded (18%) to the Main Journal or withdrawn. The median refereeing time (time between sending the manuscript to the referee and the reception of the report) is 7 days. 80% (90%) of all reports arrive in less than 16 (21) days. The acceptance time is

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the time between receiving a manuscript at the oﬃce and the time the acceptance notice is sent out to the authors and publishers. The median time of acceptance is 40 days, 25% of all accepted letters are accepted within four weeks and 75% are accepted within 68 days. 5. Recent Editorial Improvements A few improvements were made in the editing process over the last years, such as: − Language editing: One of the diﬃculties faced by a journal like A&A is the large proportion of papers written by non-native English speakers. Also the large number of nations and cultures that sponsor the journal makes it diﬃcult to produce a homogeneously readable and stylistically pleasant journal. The introduction of language editing as well as a detailed copy editing at the publisher has signiﬁcantly improved the situation in that respect. − Structured abstracts: Due to their wide availability, abstracts have become the most important part of any astrophysical paper and thus great care must be taken in their preparation. The concept of structured abstract is a tool to help authors to improve the readability and the information content of the abstract. Illustrative examples and more details on structured abstracts can be found in an Editorial by Bertout & Schneider (2005). − Attractivity of the publication: Many features have been implemented to make the journal more attractive such as the promotion of A&A papers via press releases or the possibility for an author to have one of his/her ﬁgures chosen for the front cover of an issue. − Increase of audience: Full-text articles and references in HTML of the two most recent issues of A&A are available free of charge on registration for non-subscribers to the journal. Since 2005, institutions have the possibility to subscribe to the electronic version only. The journal will continue to improve many aspects of its operation, such as homogenising the web pages, polishing the electronic submission and editorial process, or the interaction with readers and authors. Furthermore, by improving these various aspects and maintaining a high standard for the journal, we strive to improve the impact factor of papers published in A&A. One technical aspect has been solved in relation to impact factors. As explained by Sandqvist (2004), the published poor impact factor of A&A was due to a serious ﬂaw in the method used by the ISI Web of Knowledge to determine it.

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6. Future Perspectives The world of scientiﬁc publication is rapidly changing, mostly because of the possibility, through the web, to make a paper immediately available to the whole community. For this, there is no need to go through a refereeing process or to pay charges (at least for the moment). Thus one can legitimately wonder whether scientiﬁc journals still have a role to play. Certainly, what distinguishes a paper simply put on the web from a paper accepted for publication in a reviewed journal is that the published paper has gone through a refereeing process. One could say of course that ultimately the paper simply put on the web will also receive some implicit or explicit critics from the community since its results will be used or not by subsequent works. This is true but, in the still increasing number of papers appearing each day, one needs some quality ﬁlter that will discard the non useful papers and possibly retain those that are worth reading. The refereeing system is such a ﬁlter. It is of course not perfect and suﬀers from its own drawbacks. I feel however that the refereeing process will remain an invariant in the process of scientiﬁc communication. The importance of the refereeing process is well illustrated by the fact that the number of “refereed papers” is a criterion for search committees trying to ﬁll in positions. This said, one can still wonder if a publisher is still needed or, in other words, could journals be reduced to a structure organizing the refereeing process and that’s all? Also here, I am not convinced that this will be the case. To put properly a paper into an electronic form, with, for instance, efﬁcient search engines and active links and to maintain high-quality archives that will guarantee perpetual access to scientiﬁc information, needs a high degree of professionalism and, whatever the system chosen, will have some price. It is not obvious for instance that a system operated by universities would be less expensive than the one provided by a publishing company. A publishing company, like now EDP Sciences for A&A, has the required professionalism to undertake the tasks indicated above in the best way possible. Provided the journal remains in the hands of the astronomers, this option probably remains the best one. In the future however, it might be necessary to think about the way the journal is ﬁnanced. As explained above, the expenses for publishing the articles (both the printed and electronic version) are paid by the subscriptions. The subscription price is proportional to the number of published pages. Thus we face two opposite forces. On the one hand, the journal would like to increase the number of published pages to reﬂect the growing activity in the ﬁeld, and, on the other hand, more published pages mean an increase in the subscription price and therefore the risk of decreasing the circulation of the journal. Indeed the higher the subscription price, the

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smaller will be the number of institutes that will subscribe. Thus we must chose between the expansion of the journal and the preservation of a wide circulation. Ideally, one would like to have both. The diﬀusion will be the widest if the journal becomes electronically available for free. In that case, one needs another source of funding. Whatever the payment mechanism, ultimately, the funding will come from national organizations. Already now, the national organizations give the funding for the subscriptions of the libraries. Thus in the future, it may be to the advantage of the sponsoring countries to directly pay the whole price of the electronic version of the journal and make this version freely available. Of course a signiﬁcant number of subscriptions are paid by non-sponsoring countries, and thus it might be that the ﬁnancial load on the sponsoring countries would be too heavy. On the other hand, compared to the investments for hiring researchers, for building still more sophisticated instruments, telescopes, satellites or computers, the price for diﬀusing the results remains extremely modest. This part of the whole research process is however essential since it constitutes a necessary condition for scientiﬁc progress and for the national institutions to obtain returns upon investments. Thus it might be worthwhile to explore new ﬁnancial structures which would allow both the legitimate growth of the journal and its very large audience. The above proposal only represents one among many others that the Board of Directors will have to study in the following years. It is expected that, in the future, A&A will broaden its expertise. At present, A&A is mainly known as a reference journal in research areas dealing with the local universe, mainly in solar and stellar physics, interstellar medium, and galactic-structure studies. Now, thanks to the driving role of ESO’s VLT in European astronomy and to several extremely successful European space and ground-based observatories from X-ray to millimeter wavelengths, A&A receives ever more high impact papers in several new domains, from planetary system physics to cosmology. We hope very much that such a trend will continue in the future, since it will contribute to maintain and increase the audience of the journal. Such an evolution will beneﬁt to the whole community.

Acknowledgements I would like to express my deep thanks to Claude Bertout, Klaas de Boer, Andr´e Maeder, Jean-Marc Quilb´e, Aage Sandqvist, and Malcolm Walmsley for their very useful comments. I thank also very much Andr´e Heck for the careful editing of the present paper.

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References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Bertout, Cl. & Schneider, P. 2004, Editorial, Astron. Astrophys. 420/3, E1-E15. Bertout, Cl. & Schneider, P. 2005, Editorial, Astron. Astrophys. 441, E3. Pottasch, S.R. 1999, The History of the Creation of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Astron. Astrophys. 352, 349-353. Sandqvist, Aa. 2004a, Editorial, Astron. Astrophys. 426, E15. Sandqvist, Aa. 2004b, The A&A Experience with Impact Factors, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 5, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 197-201.

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LISA – THE LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICES IN ASTRONOMY CONFERENCES

BRENDA G. CORBIN

US Naval Observatory 3450 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington DC 20392-5420, U.S.A. [email protected] AND UTA GROTHKOPF

European Southern Observatory Karl-Schwarzschild-Straße 2 D-85748 Garching, Germany [email protected]

Abstract. In this chapter, we give an overview of the history of LISA meetings and describe their logistics. The topics covered by the conferences and how they have changed over time are reviewed, and we investigate how LISA inﬂuences the professional life of astronomy librarians.

1. Introduction The world of astronomy is small. Given the fact that astronomy is dealing with the universe, its structure and composition, this may sound like an incongruous statement. But the number of observatories worldwide is actually much lower than, for instance, that of biological research centers or chemistry labs. Likewise, the community of astronomy librarians is suﬃciently small in number to know colleagues at other institutions by name. If we need advice in our daily work or want to exchange experience regarding latest tools and resources, we contact these fellow librarians. In the course of time a remarkable network has been developed that is unknown in most other subject areas. There is one drawback though: geographic isolation. As observatories are often remotely located and the number of astronomy institutes per 285 A. Heck (ed.), Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, 285–306. © 2006 Springer.

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country is very low, our closest colleagues are typically far away so that we cannot meet them personally on a regular basis. Professional meetings are, therefore, essential in order to stay abreast of the changes that occur in our work. LISA conferences provide such an opportunity. This conference series on “Library and Information Services in Astronomy” is important because it oﬀers a forum for astronomy librarians to discuss common problems and possible solutions, to share experience and knowledge with colleagues from all over the world, and to learn from invited experts the direction in which the information profession is moving. LISA conferences are tailored to the professional situation of astronomy librarians; they help us fulﬁll the information needs of our library users. 2. History – How LISA Began The ﬁrst Library and Information Services in Astronomy (LISA) conference was held in Washington, DC in 1988 and was also the ﬁrst meeting speciﬁcally organized as an international gathering of astronomy librarians. A history of how this LISA conference actually happened is perhaps of interest. When Brenda Corbin, US Naval Observatory (USNO) librarian, attended the XVIIIth IAU General Assembly in Patras in 1982 as a guest, she asked permission to present to Commission 5 a brief overview of projects of interest to astronomy librarians. In this overview, it was proposed that an international meeting of astronomy librarians, planned and sponsored by the Commission, be taken under consideration. The Commission members in attendance decided to support the idea of a meeting, and the author continued to discuss such a meeting with other astronomy librarians and with Gart Westerhout, then Scientiﬁc Director of the US Naval Observatory and also a member of Commission 5. At the XIXth IAU General Assembly in Delhi in 1985, Westerhout continued to discuss the possible conference with the Commission. As Brenda Corbin was not present in Delhi, Robyn Shobbrook, then librarian at the Anglo-Australian Observatory and present at the GA, represented astronomy libraries, adding her support to such an international meeting. On his return from Delhi, Westerhout reported that Commission 5 warmly welcomed plans for such a meeting and would ask for ﬁnancial support from the IAU. He also volunteered the USNO as host for the conference and volunteered Brenda Corbin to arrange the planning. She had never been involved with conference planning, but with help from many colleagues, especially Sarah Stevens-Rayburn, Space Telescope Science Institute (ST ScI), Ellen Bouton, National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), Adelaide del Frate, Coordinator of NASA libraries, George Wilkins, Royal Green-

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wich Observatory (RGO), and Gart Westerhout and other staﬀ members at the USNO, a conference was planned. In fact it was George Wilkins who suggested the name of the conference: Library and Information Services in Astronomy. The ﬁrst LISA conference was held in Washington, DC in the summer of 1988, just before the XXth IAU General Assembly in Baltimore, MD. The IAU provided part of the ﬁnancial support, and the meeting was designated as IAU Colloquium 110. It was a very successful conference with 120 librarians and astronomers in attendance from all over the world. It was an exciting time as librarians met face to face for the ﬁrst time with colleagues they had corresponded with for many years. Close contacts among astronomy librarians had always existed, but the contacts became more formalized with the LISA meeting. In this age of instant communication, it is perhaps diﬃcult to think back to the earlier days when most international communication was by airmail letters. The idea that astronomy librarians could actually travel from all parts of the globe and meet in person was an incredible thought. The excitement generated at the meeting by astronomy librarians just being together as a group was impressive and is still remembered vividly by all those who attended. Unfortunately, there was no group photograph taken as some of the conference planners were so new at planning meetings they did not realize there should be a group photo. The proceedings, published by the USNO, were edited by the CoChairs of the SOC, George Wilkins and Sarah Stevens-Rayburn (Wilkins & Stevens-Rayburn 1989). Gart Westerhout was very supportive of the conference and paid for the proceedings to be published with US Naval Observatory funds. Copies were given to every participant and also sent to most Observatory libraries throughout the world. In addition, copies were sent to most major US universities and all library and information science schools, making the LISA I proceedings the most widely distributed of any LISA conference. WorldCat shows that 107 libraries have copies of these proceedings. Much credit must be given overall to Gart Westerhout, for without his support for this meeting, and also the ﬁnancial support he provided from the USNO, the meeting would not have taken place. When LISA I was held, there was no plan at the time to have another meeting, or make the conference a series of meetings. However, after ﬁve or six years had passed, we began to discuss the possibility of another meeting as the ﬁrst had been so successful. LISA II was held in Garching, Germany in 1995, sponsored by the European Southern Observatory; LISA III in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain in 1998, hosted by the Instituto de Astroﬁsica de Canarias; and LISA IV in Prague, Czech Republic in 2002, sponsored by the Astronomical Institute of the Charles Univer-

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sity, Prague, and the Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. LISA V, currently planned for June 2006, will be held in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and will be co-hosted by the HarvardSmithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Libraries. The proceedings of all LISA conferences including the one planned for LISA V (Graves, Birdie & Ricketts, in preparation) are listed in the Bibliography at the end of this chapter. Information about past and future LISA conferences as well as a link to the LISA Manual, a guidebook compiled by previous meeting organizers, can be found on the web1 . 3. Conference Logistics As the idea for a special workshop for astronomy librarians was initially developed during discussions at an IAU General Assembly, LISA conferences traditionally have had a close cooperation between astronomers and librarians. Unlike other librarians’ conferences, scientists have always been actively involved as organizers and as participants. Convincing the authorities who control travel funds of the value of meeting other professionals in the same subject area has not always been easy, and the support of astronomers interested in libraries was and still is invaluable in conveying this idea. Other typical attendees are publishers, representatives from journal agencies and computer scientists, especially those involved with astronomical data centers. The main target audience of LISA conferences, however, is astronomy librarians. Participants represent a large variety of organizations, from observatories with a ‘solo librarian’ who runs the library alone to university librarians, aﬃliated with large library systems. The time and site of LISA I were excellently chosen to assure attendance by a large number of participants. With the XXth IAU General Assembly being held immediately afterwards, LISA I achieved the remarkably high number of 120 registrants (see Table 1). LISA II, held in 1995, did not take place jointly with any other major event. However, even seven years after the ﬁrst meeting, the momentum of the initial meeting could be easily revitalized, and the second LISA conference welcomed 121 participants, this time with many more attendees from Europe. At the end of the meeting, the general consensus was that the interval between meetings should be three to four years, and when LISA III came along in 1998, potential participants had already been waiting for it to happen. The conference had 101 participants. The number of attendees rose to 106 at LISA IV in 2002. 1

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TABLE 1. Numbers of participants, talks, posters, other presentations and countries represented at LISA conferences. LISA I Washington DC USA 1988

LISA II Garching Germany 1995

LISA III Puerto de la Cruz Tenerife Spain, 1998

LISA IV Prague Czech Rep. 2002

Participants

120

121

101

106

Talks

55

22

36

37

Posters

8

30

20

30

Special interest groups

Tutorials, Panel discussions, BOF sessions

Open forum

Panel discussions, poster reviews

26

26

23

25

Other presentations

Countries

An important aspect of LISA conferences has always been the internationality of their attendees (see Table 2). All conferences welcomed participants from more than 20 countries, and the number of languages spoken at the Opening Receptions is impressive. The Scientiﬁc Organizing Committee (SOC) is typically composed of members from a wide geographical distribution to broaden the scope of the topics covered. All participants proﬁt immensely from this unbiased exchange of experiences, and the conference becomes richer and more diverse than national meetings. However, the large international diversity requires special attention as it brings additional problems for organizers and participants. While even attendees from Western countries have diﬃculty obtaining the ﬁnancial support to attend, this problem is even more severe for participants from developing countries. In order to help mitigate the situation, the Friends of LISA (FOL) committee was founded before LISA II. This support group is unique in the ﬁeld of astronomy and will be dealt with in more detail below. Organizers are also more often confronted with visa-related questions from potential attendees, but the largest problem is the conference language. At international meetings, English is widely accepted as the common language. However, participants who do not travel regularly often fear they will not be able to understand speakers or to express their own opinion adequately in a language other than their mother tongue. LISA organizers therefore encourage speakers to use presentation software to prepare slides and handouts which help non-native speakers follow their talks, and

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TABLE 2. Nationalities of LISA participants.

Argentina Austria Australia Belgium Brazil Canada Chile China Czech Rep. Denmark Finland France Germany Hungary India Indonesia Israel Italy Japan Korea Malaysia Mexico Netherlands N. Irealand Poland Russia South Africa Spain Sweden Switzerland Ukraine United Kingsom USA Total

LISA I

LISA II

LISA III

LISA IV

2

1 2 2 1

2

2

1

2

1 2

2 2 2 10 1 1 15 7 4 6

2 1 1 1 1 5 2

6 6 1 3 1 1 2 3

1 1 3 3 14 22 3 1

3 3 1 8 11 1

12 3 2

10

6 1

4 2 1 3 4 1 11 1 1 2 8 20

3 2

5 65

2 3 1 3 5 1 1 1 1 3 6 23

2 4 1 2 1 1 2 3 24

120

121

101

106

1 2 3 2 1 1 1 1

the constant reminders to “Please speak slowly!” have almost become a trademark of LISA conferences. Some problems require more sophisticated solutions than only visual aids. When a hearing-impaired colleague participated who could not pos-

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sibly understand the oral presentations, volunteers were recruited to take turns making detailed notes of the talks for her on a PC installed in the auditorium. Sitting side by side, she could read on screen what was being typed. Speed was important, typos were not. No matter how many mistakes entered the manuscript, it was still a good way to follow the presentation. As a side-eﬀect, many of the volunteers learned through this exercise how to distinguish good from bad presentations. When one has to take notes, one becomes aware that some speakers structure their talks such that they are easy to summarize while others seem to talk to themselves rather than to the audience. Volunteer work has always played a crucial role at LISA conferences. The more limited the ﬁnancial underpinnings of a conference are, the more the organization depends on the willingness of individuals to spend their private time, energy and often money on the project. No organizer has ever been able to stick to normal working hours during the months before the conference. The universe seems to circle around this single event, and the to-do list somehow never gets any shorter, no matter how many tasks have already been accomplished. For the organizers, it is impressive to see how many diﬀerent questions can be asked by registrants, what kinds of problems need to be solved and which logistical issues have to be dealt with before the event. When it ﬁnally takes place, the organizers only rarely have a chance to listen to talks because they are kept busy dealing with organizational matters while participants enjoy themselves at the presentations or during coﬀee breaks. Sometimes the ﬁnal stages of conference preparation coincide with important private endeavors. Monique G´ omez, our LISA III host, had given birth to a girl merely four months before the conference. Despite her many obligations as a young mother, she mastered fabulously all challenges that came with the conference organization. The child, by the way, was very appropriately called Elisa. Many librarians had never been to a professional conference before LISA I. Some did not expect to receive permission to attend and hence were reluctant to even apply. Luckily, the network of astronomy librarians has always been very close, and many colleagues needed just a little personal encouragement to believe that their institutes’ authorities would actually support them. Now, after four LISA conferences have taken place and the ﬁfth is in preparation, recognition of the importance of LISA conferences has become widespread and many observatory directors are aware of the value of these meetings. However, despite this change of attitude, librarians (and many astronomers too) are again facing diﬃculties in getting funding as budgets are shrinking and travel costs become unbearable for many institutions.

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Funding for LISA conferences is achieved in various ways. Unlike some large scientiﬁc conferences, the registration fee cannot be set arbitrarily high as otherwise no librarian would ﬁnd the money to attend. On the other hand, the registration fee often is the predominant income to cover meeting costs unless one organization is willing to bear all or a major fraction of the costs. Thanks to the excellent work of the LISA I organizers, this meeting was accepted as an IAU Colloquium (no. 110) and was thus funded by the IAU. LISA II, an IAU Technical Workshop, still received some IAU support, but the bulk of costs was born by the hosting institution, ESO. Subsequent conferences were no longer eligible for funding as it is the IAU’s policy to not support series of meetings. LISA III organizers worked miracles when they achieved funding through the European Union. The meeting was a Euroconference and was partially funded by the European Commission under their TMR (Training and Mobility of Researchers) program. For LISA IV, Marek Wolf obtained generous funding from Sun Microsystems. Donations are a crucial part of the funding of LISA meetings, both from commercial and private sponsors. Publishers, journal agents, learned societies, and librarians’ professional organizations are contacted during the planning phase of a conference, hoping that they might be willing to support the meeting. In its eﬀorts to acquire ﬁnancial support, the Local Organizing Committee can ﬁnd itself in competition with the Friends of LISA Committee which also tries to collect funds. In contrast to the LOC, FOL also contacts private sponsors who are happy to see that their personal contributions enable participation of colleagues who would not have been able to attend without ﬁnancial support. Private donations to FOL are yet another sign of how much LISA participants appreciate the conferences’ internationality. Thoughtful selection of the conference dates can help increase the number of participants. The best example is LISA I which was held immediately before the IAU General Assembly. LISA V has been scheduled to follow a large conference of librarians, the Annual Conference of the Special Libraries Association, which also will be held on the east coast of the US. It is hoped that SLA attendees interested in astronomy, in particular those traveling from the western US or beyond, will use the opportunity to remain on the east coast and participate also in LISA V. At the time of writing, a formal procedure for choosing LISA conference sites is not yet in place. Since the second meeting, a group of librarians that had been actively involved in previous conferences (sometimes referred to as the Preliminary Organizing Committee, or POC) has suggested the next host. For LISA II to V, the POC consisted of Ellen Bouton (NRAO), Brenda Corbin (USNO), Marlene Cummins (Univ. Toronto) and Sarah Stevens-Rayburn (STScI). Uta Grothkopf (ESO) joined after LISA II. Selections have been based on various factors: ﬁrst and foremost, enthusiasm

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and dedication of the hosting organization are essential. Without administrative, ﬁnancial and logistical support from their institutions, librarians will not be able to organize and carry out a LISA meeting. In addition, the conference site should be accessible at reasonable airfares from many parts of the world and must provide good infrastructure at the hosting institution (meeting rooms, technical equipment, means of communication) as well as in the neighborhood (moderately priced accommodation, public transportation). All previous LISA sites fulﬁlled these requirements. While the site selections of LISA I, II and III were almost exclusively based on the willingness of the local librarians to take on the organization, the Preliminary Organizing Committee was very happy to receive applications from four sites for LISA IV. A survey among potential participants revealed the strengths and weaknesses of the individual candidate sites and helped to select the most viable location. With the fourth conference held, LISA had taken place once in the US and three times in Europe. For LISA V, it was felt that the conference should return to the United States. The Wolbach Library at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the Libraries of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, volunteered to co-host the meeting in June 2006. When the time comes for LISA VI, it might be appropriate to ﬁnd a host outside of the US and Europe. By then it is hoped to have a proper “LISA Steering Committee” in place that takes care of all issues in conjunction with site selection and pre-conference organization. A small group of librarians has been instrumental in the scientiﬁc organization of all or almost all LISA conferences that have taken place up to now. The local organizers, however, have changed from one meeting to the next. In order to avoid repeating mistakes that other organizers have made before, the so-called “LISA Manual” was put together by the POC. It contains “lessons learned” – sometimes through mistakes, sometimes through success – and guidelines for future organizers. Some examples of “lessons learned” include: starting registration procedures earlier so that foreign attendees have enough time to obtain the documents needed; giving additional instructions before the conference to speakers whose ﬁrst language is not English; not scheduling too many speakers in a session so that ample time is available for discussion of the issues raised (it is quite easy to assume every session will be on time and speakers will always stay on schedule – organizers learned quite early that this is not the case); allowing ample time for viewing the posters and speaking with the authors. The Manual also summarizes the tasks of the various committees (Preliminary Organizing Committee (POC), Scientiﬁc Organizing Committee (SOC), Local Organizing Committee (LOC), Friends of LISA (FOL)), con-

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tains information about essential issues organizers need to consider, and provides checklists and sample documents. The Manual is available on the web2 . It should be expanded after each LISA meeting with the experiences gathered by the recent organizers so that perhaps, one day, unnecessary mistakes, bad timing, and disadvantageous decisions can be avoided altogether. 4. Friends of LISA The Friends of LISA Committee (FOL) was established before LISA II in order to assist astronomy librarians in resource-poor countries to attend the conference by collecting suﬃcient funds from donors to cover housing, a small per diem, and, in some cases travel expenses and registration. FOL also tries to ﬁnd reasonable accommodation at the venues such as dormitories and hostels in order to hold down costs for the grantees. Although there was no oﬃcial Friends of LISA Committee for LISA I, the IAU provided some funds to assist librarians from developing countries in attending the meeting as it was designated an IAU Colloquium. However, the FOL became a formal entity when planning began for LISA II and has functioned for all LISA meetings since that time. The FOL Committee consisted of Ellen Bouton (NRAO), Brenda Corbin (USNO) and Marlene Cummins (Univ. Toronto) for LISA II, and added Ron Enders (Ellen’s husband) as treasurer of FOL for LISA III and IV. For LISA V the FOL Committee is still Bouton, Corbin and Enders, but members Jessica Moy (NOAO) and Liz Bryson (CFHT) have now joined the Committee. FOL solicits funding from publishers, astronomical institutions, and other organizations, and asks for individual donations from librarians and interested astronomers. Some publishers and institutions have been supporting the conferences with ﬁnancial donations since LISA II. They realize the importance of the exchange of information among astronomy librarians and astronomers, and wish to be part of promoting diverse attendance. Another donor for LISAs I-IV was The Special Libraries Association (SLA), a professional organization to which many US and Canadian astronomy librarians belong. SLA recognized the signiﬁcance of this international gathering of librarians in a specialized subject ﬁeld and was very interested in supporting these conferences. Some donors helped only once, but in a signiﬁcant way. For example, the Soros Foundation supported travel and per diem expense speciﬁcally for several Eastern European librarians to attend LISA II. Individual donations were at a particular high for LISA IV as the proceedings were to be dedicated to Joyce Rey Watson, who had passed away in 2001, and the donations were in her memory. Organizations such 2

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Figure 1. Friends of LISA IV Committee: Brenda Corbin, Ellen Bouton, Ron Enders, Marlene Cummins pictured at LISA IV (2002).

as the AAS, AUI and ESO have been steady supporters, again realizing the importance of a truly international conference. To show the scope of the fundraising necessary, the total amounts raised in US dollars are: LISA II – $9,822; LISA III – $17,850; LISA IV – $18,275; LISA V – $21,091. Even with the substantial amounts collected, the funds were still not suﬃcient to cover all requests for assistance, and some applicants had to be turned down. Each meeting has been enriched by the attendance of librarians from developing countries who provide the meeting with diverse viewpoints relating to the world of astronomy libraries. The FOL Committee feels that helping colleagues keep pace with the latest trends enables them to return as leaders and experts to their institutions and to their local and national library communities. This beneﬁts both the librarians who would not otherwise be able to attend without ﬁnancial assistance, but also the other attendees who reap the rewards of a richer and more diverse conference. FOL grantees are enthusiastic participants in the conference and many contribute papers, both oral and poster presentations. Librarians thus assisted are both grateful and enriched by the conference experience and upon their return home have been able to share their newly acquired knowledge with other colleagues. Table 3 shows the number of FOL grantees and countries represented for LISAs II-V.

296

BRENDA G. CORBIN AND UTA GROTHKOPF TABLE 3. FOL Grantees. Meeting

FOL Grantees

Countries represented

LISA II LISA III LISA IV LISA V

23 21 29 18

10 10 12 11

5. Subject Matter Covered by LISA Conferences During the past two decades, vast changes have taken place in astronomy libraries, and especially in the dissemination of astronomical information. The LISA conferences, spanning 1988 to the present provide an excellent survey of the developments that occurred during this period. Due to the comparatively small number of core journals and databases, coupled with generous funding from space agencies and non-proﬁt organizations, astronomy has often been a leader in pursuing evolving technologies earlier than other subject areas. More than once, astronomy librarians were already applying technologies in their day-to-day work with which colleagues in other disciplines were just becoming acquainted. A few examples from the early days: e-mail arrived at the US Naval Observatory as early as 1987, just in time to assist with the planning of LISA I; project STELAR (STudy of Electronic Literature for Astronomical Research) was launched in March 1991 and developed later into the NASA/ADS Abstracts Service; the ﬁrst webpages of the ESO, NRAO, and ST ScI libraries were made available in 1994; and the electronic edition of a scientiﬁc journal in astronomy (ApJ Letters) appeared in July 1995. More recent LISA meetings discussed networked databases, digitization projects, open access projects in astronomy libraries, digital data creation and preservation, as well as experimental navigation and knowledge discovery tools. Not only has technology developed rapidly, but also the professional role of librarians has changed considerably. While the library’s mission remains the same – to fulﬁll the information needs of our users by selecting, collecting, preserving, and providing access to relevant information resources – the library’s function in accomplishing this mission has become increasingly invisible to the user. Interconnected databases and seamless access among resources are often taken for granted and not attributed to libraries. An important topic of LISA conferences has therefore been the quest to clarify the librarians’ role in a changing environment. Emerging ﬁelds of activity

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for librarians are becoming increasingly a focus during meetings, and each conference has provided examples of new areas of work. Several other topics have been with us throughout all LISA conferences: collection development, information retrieval and delivery, and the organization and management of books, journals, and other materials provided by astronomy libraries; the so-called journal crisis with ever-rising subscription costs; and the establishment, maintenance and development of bibliographic and full text databases in astronomy, to name just a few. For all of these areas, LISA conferences provide a forum that allows us to see how technology has changed both the material we handle (paper, non-print material, online publications) and the way these tasks are accomplished. Special attention has always been given to two topics: historical documents, including their preservation and archiving, and collaborative projects. As the network of astronomy librarians is very tight, with many personal contacts among colleagues from all over the world, improving collaboration has traditionally been of considerable interest to attendees. A variety of projects has been initiated from ideas originally developed at LISA conferences, often arising from the concern that access to information is not the same for everyone, as the gap between those with easy access to information resources and those without is becoming larger and more severe. Awareness of the situation in various countries has regularly been discussed at LISA meetings. Table 4 and Fig. 2 give a schematic overview of topics covered during LISA conferences. Assigning a talk or poster to a speciﬁc group is not always unambiguous, but we believe that the table nevertheless reveals some trends regarding LISA subject areas. Explanations of the groups are given below the table. In the following, we look more closely at topics discussed during LISA I to IV. LISA I: When the ﬁrst LISA conference was planned, it was the organizers’ principal aim to provide an opportunity for astronomy librarians to discuss common problems and to facilitate cooperation among colleagues from diﬀerent countries. Representatives from other professions concerned with providing astronomical information were invited also, which guaranteed lively discussions on a wide range of topics. Special attention was given to new developments in the use of computers and telecommunication networks without overlooking the needs of librarians and astronomers who did not have easy access to such facilities (see Wilkins & Stevens-Rayburn 1989, Preface). In all, 63 presentations were made and organized in the conference proceedings in seven sections. Publication and Acquisition of Books and Journals dealt with printed literature in libraries, in particular the diﬃculties in

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TABLE 4. Topics covered at LISA conferences. Total numbers do not necessarily coincide with totals mentioned elsewhere in this chapter; they are based on the papers published in the proceedings. LISA II information is based on the program. LISA I

LISA II

LISA III

LISA IV

Information maintenance1 E-journals/future of publishing2 Information retrieval prints tools3 Information retrieval nonprint tools4 Information delivery5 Historical documents/ historical records6 Preservation/digitization7 Archives, data centers, VO8 Bibliometrics9 Collaborative projects10 Role of librarians11

22 1 9 5

7 6 10 18

4 8 3 10

7 8 2 10

6 5

2 6

1 5

2 6

1 6 0 7 1

1 9 1 1 1

2 1 3 5 5

6 5 9 3 13

Total

63

62

47

71

1

Organization and management of books, journals, and other items; acquisition incl. journal costs; handling of preprints, observatory publications, non-print material etc. 2 including ADS, e-journals consortia 3 Directories, keywords, astronomy thesaurus. Since LISA II, ‘print tools’ typically had at least an electronic equivalent (see 4 ) 4 Similar to 3 but electronic complement, bibliographic and full text databases incl. SIMBAD bibliographic data; experimental knowledge discovery 5 Tools and technologies: e-mail, online library catalogs, libraries’ webpages 6 including maintaining the historical record 7 including historical literature in ADS 8 including SIMBAD astronomical data and archive projects 9 including publications in speciﬁc countries 10 Resource sharing, document delivery, collaborative projects 11 Library of the future, creative librarian, user assistance

obtaining material published in foreign countries. Searching for Astronomical Information gave an overview of retrieval aids including updates on the astronomy section of the Universal Decimal Classiﬁcation and a report on the IAU Astronomy Thesaurus which was published in 1993 by Robyn and Robert Shobbrook (Shobbrook & Shobbrook 1993). At the time of LISA I, the “T-Rex” was still an ongoing project and envisioned only in paper format. Finding aids like the Astronomy & Astrophysics Abstracts, astronomical directories and the Union List of Astronomy Serials (Lola 1983), all in paper format, were explained, as well as some databases and online information systems (e.g., PHYS, European Space Information System).

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Figure 2.

299

Illustration of Table 4, in percentage.

The section on Handling and Use of Special-Format Materials gathered papers that described use and management of preprints, observatory publications and other non-book materials in astronomy libraries. A session entitled Astronomical Data Centers provided an overview of archive projects, including two papers with detailed descriptions of the SIMBAD database and its wealth of astronomical and bibliographic information. Care and handling of historical documents as well as the importance of maintaining the historical record were discussed in the section Conservation and Archiving. Finally, a wide range of Other Library Activities was presented, ranging from the use of computers in small libraries to resource sharing among national and international astronomy libraries. Two presentations were outstanding as they anticipated developments that occurred during the following years. In The Future of Astronomical Literature, Helmut Abt outlined how publishing of scientiﬁc journals would evolve; he foresaw speedier publication through electronic submission and reviewing of manuscripts, placement of papers in a “central memory bank”, and greatly improved information retrieval through enhanced search facilities (Abt 1989). Pat Molholt’s description of The Astronomical Library of the Future is equally memorable. She described libraries as “technologyintensive environments” where technology will go “far beyond allowing librarians simply to do things faster”, and where networked resources will be

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developed to fulﬁll the information requests of users whenever and wherever they need it (Molholt 1989). LISA II: LISA II had two major aims: “(1) to provide the opportunity for librarians of astronomical observatories and institutes to meet to discuss common problems and ways of stimulating greater cooperation between libraries and their services; and (2) to raise discussion about the interface areas between astronomical libraries and the wide range of online and other astronomical computer-based services which are becoming ever more widespread” (Murtagh et al. 1995, Foreword). Formal presentations were preceded by one day of “hands-on” tutorials which were meant to introduce participants to some of the important new tools and techniques in astronomical information retrieval. The tutorials were entitled The Internet for Librarians; The World Wide Web: a Web even a Fly would Love; Astronomical Data; SIMBAD for Librarians; The Preprint Perplex in the Electronic Age; and Starcat, Previewing Data. The Keynote was given by Jos´e-Marie Griﬃths, Director of the School of Information Sciences at the University of Tennessee, who discussed The Changing Role of Librarians. Increasingly, astronomy librarians became aware of the large changes aﬀecting the profession and were eager to ﬁnd their niche in the developing scenario. Organizers experimented with new formats. In addition to formal presentations, LISA II featured 30 posters, a panel discussion on Astronomy Libraries in Economically Less-Favored Countries, three Birds of a Feather (BoF) sessions (following the example of ADASS conferences) on Digitization of the Library, Main Site/Remote Site Library Operations, and the Universal Decimal Classiﬁcation (UDC) 52, as well as an open discussion entitled The Astronomical Library and the Internet. The conference program reﬂected how much information retrieval and delivery had shifted from print to electronic resources. The use of databases and networked systems was strongly represented among the oral presentations, while information retrieval using print resources was discussed almost exclusively in poster papers. Handling of historical documents was dealt with mostly in the context of digitization projects and the concern about reliable preservation of e-documents. Electronic information retrieval, the internet and databases, had moved to the center of attention. As a consequence, after the conference someone (not a librarian) suggested renaming LISA “Library and Information Systems (instead of Services) in Astronomy”. This change, however, was prevented by insisting that “the human factor”, manifested in service, still remained an integral part of the work of librarians, even in the digital age, and the original name was retained.

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LISA II group photo. (Courtesy: ESO)

LISA III: Starting with the third meeting, LISA conferences were assigned a motto chosen by the POC. The LISA III theme was Managing Change Gracefully. It drew attention to “the vast changes librarians and other information professionals are facing today, both in methods of information delivery and the kinds of information being delivered” (Grothkopf et al. 1998, Preface).

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Astronomy librarians were (and still are) working in a changing environment in which we must redeﬁne our role. Astronomers have become used to interconnected resources being available from anywhere, at any time, through the Internet, and they often bypass the library in their search for information. LISA III emphasized the librarians’ role as a mediator between users and information providers by investigating the distinct needs of library users. The organizers were delighted to welcome M.A. Hoskin, Editor of the Journal for the History of Astronomy, as a speaker during the session on historical documents. Other talks in this session provided insight into the scientiﬁc use of archives and rare books applied in education. The impact of electronic information resources was discussed in the Keynote address by Ann Okerson from Yale University. Her talk, entitled In Today’s E-information Marketplace: Am I a Swan or Ungainly Duckling? (Greeting Change Gracefully), illustrated how the internet has changed not only the librarian’s work environment, but also access to information at large. Scientiﬁc electronic journals had become widespread, and consortia were established as a new business model among libraries. Fewer preprints were arriving in our libraries on paper, but they were posted more and more often on the astro-ph (arXiv) preprint server. astro-ph identiﬁers had become valid references and were quoted in scientiﬁc papers, just like articles published in journals. The question was arising about how to include such references in the citation counting of bibliometric studies. The panel discussion with representatives from publishers and database providers focused on Linking References and Citations: Secondary Services Facilitate Interoperability of Electronic Resources. Information resources were becoming increasingly networked. Along with the ease of access to documents came the danger of forgetting that guaranteeing their retrieval and integrity over time had become an urgent duty of librarians, publishers, and oﬃcial organizations. Accordingly, several talks discussed the problems intrinsic in licensing, disseminating, and archiving electronic journals. At the time of LISA III, the electronic age was well upon us, and information resources which were not available on the internet were increasingly being marginalized. In their enlightening talk “If it’s not on the Web, it doesnt exist at all”: Electronic Information Resources – Myth and Reality, Sarah Stevens-Rayburn and Ellen Bouton (Stevens-Rayburn & Bouton 1998) reviewed the status of astronomical research via electronic means, and pointed out the potential danger of relying exclusively on online resources. LISA IV: The LISA IV conference motto was Emerging and Preserving – Providing Astronomical Information in the Digital Age. It stressed the importance that technology had gained in the professional lives of librarians. In the

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preface of the conference proceedings, the editors described this rapid evolution as follows: “Whereas, on the one hand, we librarians agreed that we are living in the most exciting time ever for information retrieval and dissemination, we are, on the other hand, sensitive to a fragile coexistence with current technologies and the communities we serve” (Corbin et al. 2003, Preface). Accordingly, the changing role of librarians was the focus of several talks which documented the eﬀorts of astronomy librarians to establish their role in the 21st century. One session was dedicated to Virtual Observatory Projects, another to Trends, Collaborations and Models in Electronic Publications where evolving models for electronic documents were discussed. The topics Preservation and the History of Astronomy were strongly represented, showcasing digitization projects and other attempts to preserve the legacy of historical literature. In astronomy, as in most other sciences, numbers of publications and citations had become essential in the evaluation of individual scientists, telescope instruments and entire institutions. In many observatories librarians were involved in preparing such statistics; hence citation analysis had gained importance in the work of astronomy librarians. Several talks presented bibliometric studies, often carried out using the NASA ADS abstracts service which had become the predominant tool for retrieval of astronomical literature. Finally, the session on New Tools in Knowledge Discovery demonstrated interconnections among astronomical information resources and the increasingly seamless navigation from observations to publications and back to the astronomical data from which these publications resulted. LISA IV featured three panels on Physical vs. Electronic Libraries, Developing Countries, and Astronomy Users that provided excellent opportunities for discussion. Poster reviews were a newly introduced format that drew (well-deserved) attention to 30 excellent posters presented on a large variety of topics. 6. Beneﬁts of the LISA Meetings In the ﬁrst discussions of an international astronomy librarians’ meeting at the IAU GA in 1982, Commission 5 attendees and the invited guest Brenda Corbin (USNO) were very much in agreement that astronomers should be involved in this meeting. Also, the idea that astronomers and librarians should interact and cooperate in general was accepted. Perhaps this idea of collaboration was an idea whose time had not yet fully come to reality, but would certainly develop during the ﬁrst and later LISA conferences. It was fortunate that Commission 5 member George Wilkins (RGO) agreed to

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become Co-Chair of the SOC for the ﬁrst LISA, as he had long been a strong supporter of the role of astronomy librarians and the value they brought to the ﬁeld. Of the 120 attendees at the ﬁrst LISA, 23 were astronomers, and 17 of the papers were given by astronomers. Astronomy librarians sometimes fall into two groups. One group is those whose institutions value them and their work, and look to them as active partners in the research projects of the institution. The other group, through absolutely no fault of the librarian, is one where the institutional leaders think of the library as more of a clerical entity, merely ordering books and journals and putting them on the shelves. It is diﬃcult to know why institutional directors have two such diverse attitudes. However, with the LISA meetings, some change has been fostered as now many directors see that a true professional conference is being held, astronomers are participating, and librarians are giving relevant and interesting professional papers. Librarians who receive grants from an outside funding source to attend an international meeting certainly help institutional directors take notice, and therefore raise the librarian’s stature and worth in the eyes of the institution. LISA meetings make it clear that librarians should be considered vital and valued partners in their institutions’ research. Attitudes have been changed, and one hopes attitudes will continue to be changed in the way the librarian is viewed. The LISA meetings reﬂect the ﬂow of librarians coming into and leaving the ﬁeld. It has long been customary that astronomy librarians tend to stay in their positions most of their careers, accumulating corporate knowledge in the ﬁeld that made them especially valuable in their positions. A few examples are Joyce Rey Watson (CfA and ADS), Robyn Shobbrook (AAO), Helen Knudsen (CalTech), Cathy Van Atta (NOAO) and Marlene Cummins (Univ. Toronto). Some of the librarians who were very active in planning LISA I have retired, but some are still working. As new librarians come into the ﬁeld, there are several ways in which they immediately become a part of the community. They are added to ASTROLIB, the internet announcement list which was an outgrowth of LISA I. Ellen Bouton (NRAO), formed and managed the list until her retirement in 2003. Marsha Bishop, current NRAO librarian, now manages the list. Librarians send messages to Ms. Bishop, which are then sent to astronomy librarians worldwide. ASTROLIB has proven to be a very successful means of communication among all astronomy librarians. Another way to introduce new librarians to their colleagues is via the list of all astronomy librarians and their contact information which is on the ESO website. Uta Grothkopf (ESO), initiated and maintains this list. An outgrowth of LISA II, this online source makes it possible to locate colleagues all over the world. This is especially helpful if one is looking

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for publications from a certain observatory. As most astronomy librarians are always willing to assist their colleagues, new librarians in the ﬁeld ﬁnd immediate cooperation and a friendly greeting via this route. It is easy for one to feel a part of a community almost immediately for these and other reasons. Meeting these colleagues in person for the ﬁrst time at a LISA conference strengthens the relationship and the sense of close community. The LISA meetings not only bring librarians into contact with other librarians, but also with scientists from other institutions. Before LISA, librarians certainly had contacts with scientists at their own observatories, and perhaps from neighboring institutions, but not from a broad range of institutions. LISA provides cross-pollination and allows these two groups face to face contacts. One result is that librarians now collaborate with other librarians and also astronomers in international projects. Many of the papers at LISA IV discussed the necessity for linked databases, especially in large projects such as the virtual observatory, and librarians are certainly involved in these databases. These meetings also provide an opportunity for librarians and astronomers to share their ideas and discuss future projects. One example of this collaboration is that two librarians have become full members of the IAU, and three others are expected to become members at the upcoming XXVIth General Assembly. The publishing and distribution of books and journals and the disseminating of research data and results continue to change dramatically and to evolve at dizzying speed. Libraries and library services in astronomy are required to keep pace. Traditional collections and services are constantly supplemented, modiﬁed, and even eclipsed by a variety of electronic materials and their corresponding services and platforms. Astronomy librarians constantly try to keep up with these and other changes, and they work hard to learn the new skills and techniques needed for new models of service. LISA meetings from the beginning have assisted librarians and data providers in their eﬀorts. The LISA conferences have been very successful, and it is hoped that future meetings will continue to foster even more cooperation and resulting beneﬁts. LONG LIVE LISA! Acknowledgements We would like to thank the following colleagues for their careful reading of the manuscript and suggestions for the improvement of this chapter: Ellen Bouton (NRAO), Thomas E. Corbin (USNO, retired) and Sarah StevensRayburn (STScI).

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References Abt, H.A. 1989, The future of astronomical literature, in Library and Information Services in Astronomy, Eds. G.A. Wilkins & S. Stevens-Rayburn, US Naval Obs., Washington DC, 37-44. Corbin, B.G., Bryson, E.P. & Wolf, M. (Eds.) 2003, Library and Information Services in Astronomy IV (LISA IV3 ), US Naval Obs., Washington DC. Graves, W., Birdie, C. & Ricketts, S. (Eds.) 2006 (est.), Library and Information Services in Astronomy V (LISA V). Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc Conf. Series, San Francisco CA, in preparation. Grothkopf, U., Andernach, H., Stevens-Rayburn, A. & Gom´ez, M. (Eds.) 1998, Library and Information Services in Astronomy III (LISA III4 ), Astron. Soc, Paciﬁc Conf. Ser. 153, San Francisco CA. Lola, J.A. 1983, Union List of Astronomy Serials5 , Special Libraries Association, Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics Division. Molholt, P. 1989, The Astronomical Library of the Future, in Library and Information Services in Astronomy, Eds. G.A. Wilkins & S. Stevens-Rayburn, US Naval Obs., Washington DC, 203-208. Murtagh, F., Grothkopf, U. & Albrecht, M. (Eds.) 1995, Library and Information Services in Astronomy II (LISA II6 ), Vistas Astron. 39, 287-379. Shobbrook, R.M. & Shobbrook, R.R. 1993, The Astronomy Thesaurus7 , AngloAustralian Obs., Epping. Stevens-Rayburn, S. & Bouton, E. 1998, “If it’s not on the web, it doesn’t exist at all”: Electronic Information Resources – Myth and Reality8 , in Library and Information Services in Astronomy III (LISA III), Eds. U. Grothkopf et al., Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc Conf. Series 153, 195-203. Wilkins, G.A. & Stevens-Rayburn, S. (Eds.) 1989, Library and Information Services in Astronomy9 , US Naval Obs., Washington DC.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

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http://www.eso.org/libraries/lisa4/ http://www.eso.org/libraries/lisa3/ 5 http://sesame.stsci.edu/lib/union.html 6 http://www.eso.org/libraries/lisa-ii/lisaii-prog.html 7 http://msowww.anu.edu.au/library/thesaurus/ 8 http://www.eso.org/libraries/lisa3/reprints/stevens-rayburns.pdf 9 Full text available from ADS with bibcode 1989lisa.conf 4

THE ADS SUCCESS STORY ¨ EICHHORN – AN INTERVIEW WITH GUNTHER

Abstract. In this interview, G¨ unther Eichhorn1 recalls the history and describes the activities of the “Astrophysics Data System” (ADS2 ) that has become the central facility of bibliographic research in astronomy, from the initial concept of a system that allows access to NASA data, through the ﬁrst implementation of a proprietary software system, the move to the World Wide Web, to the current implementation of a comprehensive Digital Library with extensive links to other on-line information.

Editor (Ed.): Dr. Eichhorn, we should probably start with a bit of history to introduce the Astrophysics Data System (ADS)? G¨ unther Eichhorn (GE): The decision by NASA to set up an Astrophysics Data System (ADS) goes back to 1987-1988. The roots of the current infrastructure were laid in the late 1980’s from a comprehensive communitybased review, led by Gael Squibb. The review was spurred by a crisis in the management of NASA’s astrophysics data holdings. Many important data sets gathered in the 1970’s and early 1980’s were not being maintained at a level that would ensure their usability for coming generations3 . Ed.: Then representing the Strasbourg Data Center (CDS), I was myself part of that exercise4 and I remember especially a seminal and decisive meeting in Annapolis in August 1987.

1 Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, MS-67, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge MA 02138, USA ([email protected]). 2 http://adsabs.harvard.edu/ 3 For more, see for instance Sect. 2 (Historical perspective) of ADCCC (2001). 4 Cf. the chapter by A. Heck in this volume.

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GE: An outcome of the “Squibb report” was to recommend that the archive centers be accessed via a common user interface across networks. This was prior to the development of the World-Wide Web. That idea proved to be several years ahead of its time. The Astrophysics Data System (ADS) was thus originally conceived as a distributed system allowing to access, at various data centers, NASA data in the ﬁelds of astronomy and astrophysics. The bibliographical part was added later. Ed.: This was after you joined yourself the project? GE: In 1992, I was hired as Project Scientist, coming from the Space Telescope Science Institute and after a number of positions following a PhD obtained at the University of Heidelberg in 1974. Ed.: The ﬁrst years saw many changes. GE: At the very beginning, the software used was a proprietary one (Murray et al. 1992). It oﬀered many possibilities (plotting, etc.), but it was a bit cumbersome. Users had to sign in, to be registered. There were export authorizations to be secured. In late 1992, this system was made available both to USA and non-US users. An abstract service was added in 1993 (Kurtz et al. 1993) and became quickly popular. By the Summer of 1993, a connection had also been made with the CDS database Simbad allowing queries from object identiﬁers. This client/server browser had many capabilities that only now become available in modern browsers, but because of sign-up restrictions it never really took oﬀ. Ed.: I noticed (Kurtz et al. 2000) that the beginnings of the abstract service were dated back to the “Astronomy from Large Databases” conference that we had organized in Garching (Murtagh & Heck 1988). So many things saw light in that year 1993. This was also the time when the ﬁrst web browser became available. GE: The NCSA Mosaic browser was indeed released in 1993. By February 1994, we had an adapted web forms software interfacing both data and abstracts (Eichhorn et al. 1995a&b) with about a thousand users within weeks. But later the same year, because of funding restrictions, it was decided to limit our activities to the most used part of the ADS, that is the abstract service. Ed.: Another major improvement was the availability of scanned journal articles.

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G. Eichhorn on the wing of a Stearman biplane. (Courtesy G. Eichhorn)

GE: This was initiated at about the same time too. The ﬁrst full-text images, those of articles from the Astrophysical Journal Letters, went on line in December 1994. By the following Summer, the scans were current and complete going back ten years. Today we are scanning on the order of 5000 pages per week with more than three millions pages already scanned. Ed.: Let’s go on for a while with numbers and statistics. GE: We regularly publish them as the ﬁgures increase continually. The evolution can be followed in the successive presentations published in the literature (see the bibliographical section). To date (February 2006), some 200 000 users made 4.5 million queries and received some 50 million bibliographic references, 460 000 full-text articles and 6 million abstracts, as well as citation histories, links to data, and links to other data centers, in-

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cluding your own database StarHeads (Heck 1995). In terms of disk space, we currently use about 500Gb. About 50% of the full-text articles accessed through the ADS were via pointers to electronic journals. If we speak of pages, about 75% of the 2 million pages downloaded were sent directly to a printer, 22% were displayed on a computer screen and 2% were saved into ﬁles. Viewing thumbnail images makes up the rest. Ed.: What about the geographical coverage? GE: Users are evenly distributed between the US, Europe and the rest of the world for roughly one third each. Ed.: ADS has also mirror sites throughout the world. GE: There are quite a few of them indeed beyond our own operating center at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, USA: at Strasbourg astronomical Data Center in France; the European Southern Observatory in Garching, Germany; the National Astronomical Observatory in Tokyo, Japan; the Pontiﬁcia Universidad Cat´ olica in Santiago de Chile; the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom; Beijing Astronomical Observatory in PR China; the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Pune, India; the Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, Russia; the Observat´orio Nacional in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; the Korea Astronomy Observatory in Seoul, South Korea; and the latest at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia. Ed.: The sixth volume of the current series “Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy” (OSA 6) included several contributions on science metrics commenting very favorably those based on ADS citation counts. GE: Because of the very nearly complete coverage of the astronomical literature and the large number of reference lists in the ADS, we are able to determine fairly complete citations information for a large number of records in the ADS. This allows studies of citation rates for various articles. For instance we found that the citation rate of articles that are published in the arXiv e-print archive is higher than for non-preprinted articles (cf. Kurtz et al. 2005c). Ed.: What would you say on the theme of “lessons learned” from the ADS venture so far?

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Histogram of ADS usage. (Courtesy ADS)

GE: The main thing is that it is extremely important to establish excellent collaborations with people and to make sure that everyone, including professional societies and publishers, is happy with the work done. The fact that astronomy is a small ﬁeld without or with little commercial interest probably helped us to get abstracts for free from all publishers, but again one must play nice with everybody, maintaining personal links and good relationships. Ed.: Appreciation to ADS was actually shown by recognition and awards, starting to yourself. GE: I was awarded the 2001 “Physics, Astronomy and Mathematics Division Award” by the Special Libraries Association while Michael Kurtz received the 2001 “van Biesbroeck Prize” of the American Astronomical Society. Elogious recognitions were expressed not only by the 2002 Visiting Committee of our host here, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, but also by the US National Academy of Science in the recommendations for the New Millennium as well as by the United Nations General Assembly through a meeting of its COPUOS branch in 2004 in Beijing. Ed. To wrap up this interview, what would you say about the future, for instance on the so-called virtual observatories?

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GE: The ADS is watching the VO eﬀorts. We will be ready to participate once concrete steps are taken. We already have implemented VO-like elements, for instance links from the literature to on-line data. Ed.: On electronic journals? GE: The ADS includes any published material, whether on-line or paper. We do not publish ourselves. We fully support electronic publishing and will link to any on-line literature, whether published by societies, commercial publishers, preprints, or new open archive non-traditional publishers. Ed.: Any ﬁnal comments? GE: The ADS is by now an indispensable part of astronomy research. It is currently funded completely by NASA. NASA is very satisﬁed with the success of the ADS and intends to continue funding it. The ADS is recognized by the societies as well as the commercial publishers as an integral part of the astronomical community. Informal discussions have happened with the astronomical societies about the continuity of a freely available archive of older publications. While there is no written agreement in place, there is a general understanding that the societies will assure continued access to the archive of the scanned older journals. We plan to continue scanning any literature that is not yet in the ADS (as long as we can get permission from the copyright holder). We will also scan older literature that is out of copyright, or never was copyrighted (like US Government publications, for instance NASA Reports). We have arrangements with most publishers to receive their abstracts in a timely manner. This will keep the ADS search system up-to-date. Adding new literature is one of the main eﬀorts that takes up a signiﬁcant part of the ADS resources. We will continue to follow the rapidly developing technology of the WWW and will implement any new capabilities that are relevant for our users. In the long term, when the technology has matured, the ADS will probably evolve into a more library oriented project, but this will take at least a decade, maybe more, since the whole publishing system is still very much in ﬂux. This means that currently and in the foreseeable future, the ADS will remain a development and innovation oriented project. References 1.

ADCCC 2001, Report from the Astrophysics Data Centers Coordination Council on the Status and Future of NASA’s Astrophysics Data & Information System, 21 May 2001.

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Figure 3. Part of the ADS team: (back, left to right) Carolyn Stern Grant, Michael J. Kurtz, Elizabeth Bohlen, (front left) Guenther Eichhorn, (front right) Alberto Accomazzi. (Courtesy ADS)

2. 3. 4. 5.

6. 7. 8. 9.

Eichhorn, G. 1994, An Overview of the Astrophysics Data System, Experimental Astron. 5, 205-220. Eichhorn, G. 2004, Ten Years of the Astrophysics Data System, Astron. & Geophys. 45, 3.7-3.9. Eichhorn, G., Accomazzi, A., Grant, C.S., Kurtz, M.J. & Murray, S.S. 1995a, Access to the Astrophysics Science Information and Abstract System, Vistas in Astron. 39, 217-225. Eichhorn, G., Murray, S.S., Kurtz, M.J., Accomazzi, A. & Grant, C.S. 1995b The New Astrophysics Data System, in Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems IV, Eds. R.A. Shaw, H.E. Payne & J.J.E. Hayes, Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc Conf. Series 77, 28-31. Eichhorn, G., Accomazzi, A., Grant, C.S., Kurtz, M.J. & Murray, S.S. 2003a, The NASA Astrophysics Data System: Free Access to the Astronomical Literature Online and through E-mail, African Skies/Cieux Africains 8, 7-26. Eichhorn, G., Accomazzi, A., Grant, C.S., Kurtz, M.J. & Murray, S.S. 2003b, The Development of the Astronomy Digital Library, in Information Handling in Astronomy – Historical Vistas, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 157-182. Heck, A. 1995, StarHeads – A Database of Personal WWW Pages of Professional Astronomers and Related Space Scientists, Astron. Astrophys. Suppl. 109, 265. http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/starheads.html Kurtz, M.J., Karakashian, T., Grant, C.S., Eichhorn, G., Murray, S.S., Watson, J.M., Ossorio, P.G. & Stoner, J.L. 1993, Intelligent Text Retrieval in the NASA Astrophysics Data System in Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems II, Eds. R.J. Hanisch, R.J.V. Brissenden & J. Barnes, Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc Conf. Series 52, 132-136.

314 10.

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THE ADS SUCCESS STORY Kurtz, M.J., Eichhorn, G., Accomazzi, A., Grant, C.S., Murray, S.S. & Watson, J.M. 2000, The NASA Astrophysics Data System: Overview, Astron. Astrophys. Suppl. 143 41-59. Kurtz, M.J., Eichhorn, G., Accomazzi, A., Grant, C.S., Demleitner, M. & Murray, S.S. 2005a, Worlwide Use and Impact of the NASA Astrophysics Data System Digital Library, J. Amer. Soc. Inform. Sc. Technol. 56, 36-45. Kurtz, M.J., Eichhorn, G., Accomazzi, A., Grant, C.S., Demleitner, M., Murray, S.S., Martimbeau, N. & Elwell, B. 2005b, The Bibliometric Properties of Article Readership Information, J. Amer. Soc. Inform. Sc. Technol. 56, 111-128. Kurtz, M.J., Eichhorn, G., Accomazzi, A., Grant, C.S., Demleitner, M., Henneken, E. & Murray, S.S. 2005c, The Eﬀect of Use and Access on Citations, Information Processing and Management 41, 1395-1402. Murray, S.S., Brugel, E.W., Eichhorn, G., Ferris, A., Good, J.C., Kurtz, M.J., Nousek, J.A. & Stoner, J.L. 1992, Astrophysics Data System (ADS), in Astronomy from Large Databases II, Eds. A. Heck & F. Murtagh, ESO Conf. & Workshop Proc. 43, 387-391. Murtagh, F. & Heck, A. (Eds.) 1988, Astronomy from Large Databases, ESO Conf. & Workshop Proc. 28, xiv + 512 pp. (ISBN 3-923524-28-5)

THE PROGRESSIVE WORLD PENETRATION OF THE STRASBOURG ASTRONOMICAL DATA CENTER (1970-1990)

´ HECK ANDRE

Observatoire Astronomique 11, rue de l’Universit´e F-67000 Strasbourg, France [email protected]

Abstract. Over roughly two decades, Strasbourg astronomical Data Center (CDS) managed to be recognized as an excellence center for stellar and non-stellar data (solar-system excluded) on a world-wide scale. After brieﬂy recalling the CDS genesis, this chapter 1 details the progressive international penetration of that small structure, ahead of the networking of the planet. Among the aspects reviewed are: the international membership of CDS Council, the participating observatories, the CDS international agreements, the geographical coverage of users, the international meetings, the publications, the staﬀ, and, last but not least, the critical ventures with the space agencies without which CDS would not have remained on the international scene. Some tentative explanations of CDS’ international acceptance are put forward, such as its genial basic idea (table of correspondence between catalog identiﬁcations) and more generally its excellent home-made products; right decisions taken at the right time by the initial managers; perceptiveness in terms of future needs; adequate response to the expectations of space agencies; and so on.

1. Introduction The genesis of Strasbourg astronomical Data Center (CDS) has been detailed in an earlier paper (Heck 2005b). The context of the time was the advent of astronomical data centers world-wide, together with an increas1 To be published in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 7 (Ed. A. Heck) c 2006 Springer.

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ing recognition of data-centered activities at the level of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). After recalling the major milestones of the pre-CDS years, the present paper will be devoted to the two ﬁrst decades of the center’s existence. They correspond roughly to the period covered by the two ﬁrst CDS Directors (Fig. 1), Jean Jung (1972-1975) and Carlos Jaschek (1975-1990), keeping in mind that CDS was already active before its oﬃcial founding in 1972 (for instance, people operational in Strasbourg well before, two Information Bulletins published in 1971, etc.). In line with the philosophy of the OSA volumes, we shall focus this paper on a speciﬁc theme: the progressive international recognition of the center through a number of facets. For the period under consideration, the evolution of CDS’ technical activities and development (products, tools, support, staﬀ, computer equipment, etc.) can be found in Issues 1 to 38 of its Information Bulletin, in progress reports regularly presented at conferences, as well as in the annual reports of the CDS Director. Historical details on Strasbourg Observatory (hosting the center, cf. Fig. 2) can be found in a recent edited book (Heck 2005a). Interested readers can also refer to two other chapters of this OSA 7 volume: the genesis and early history of the IAU Working Group on Astronomical Data by G.A. Wilkins, and the interview of G. Eichhorn on the Astrophysics Data System (ADS). 2. The CDS Genesis Towards the end of the 1960s, the idea of data centers (conceptually in the continuation of cataloguing) had been popping up here and there among astronomers, together with individual initiatives setting up what would be seen today as embryonic materializations. The 14th General Assembly (GA) of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), held in August 1970 in Brighton (UK), remains in history as the ﬁrst one where the issue of astronomy-related data centers was ofﬁcially debated at speciﬁc meetings. Refer to Heck (2005b) for details on the preparatory steps. Thus the proceedings of this 14th IAU GA, a compendium dated 1970 but published in 1971, contain the ﬁrst appearance, at the IAU level, of the Strasbourg Data Center that would however exist oﬃcially only from 1972 onwards, and next to the name of Jung who was going to be its ﬁrst Director (IAU Trans 1971, p. 247). P. Lacroute, Director of Strasbourg Observatory for the period 19461976, stated in a few notes he put together (Lacroute 1980) that the need for an organization able to collect and to disseminate stellar information

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Figure 1. The two ﬁrst CDS Directors: Jean Jung (left) served from 1972 to 1975 and Carlos Jaschek, from 1975 to 1990. (Photographs: J. Jung & A. Heck)

was every day increasingly more urgent as data were piling up. He listed A. Blaauw, R. Cayrel and J. Delhaye among the European astronomers pushing, in the late 1960s, for such a structure. The oldest trace we could ﬁnd on the establishment of a stellar data center in Strasbourg goes back to the minutes of a meeting held in Strasbourg on 8 January 1969 with only six attendees from Paris and Strasbourg. Refer to Table 1 for the pre-CDS chronology and to Heck (2005b) for details and quotations. At a CDS meeting held in Geneva on 27 November 1970, it was decided to publish an Information Bulletin (hereafter sometimes referred to as CDSIB) in English with a circulation of 600 copies (soon after brought up to 700) directed at astronomical institutions as well as at interested individuals. The ﬁrst issue (May 1971) presented the Center’s activities, reported on the then “participating observatories” (Marseilles, Lausanne-Geneva, Heidelberg, La Plata) and included a couple of papers listing catalogs recently published. A second issue appeared in December 1971. Lacroute (1980) recalls that CDS started de facto to operate under the leadership of Jung at the end of 1970. As to the personnel, there was the active collaboration of the “participating observatories” (cf. Sect. 3.2) already mentioned and, in Strasbourg, the contribution from some members of the Observatory personnel. Some funding was received from the Institut National d’Astronomie et de G´eophysique (INAG); some card-punching of catalogs was carried out on remaining funds from a local astrometric project, but most money was injected by Strasbourg Observatory.

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After several administrative delays, the by-laws regulating CDS were approved at the beginning of 1972 and issued as INAG Decision 1/72/D0. Here is the ﬁrst article specifying aims and goals: “L’INAG cr´ee un Centre de Donn´ees Stellaires (CDS). Ce centre a pour buts, en vue d’´etudes sur la Galaxie: 1. de rassembler les donn´ees les plus importantes sur les ´etoiles: positions, mouvements propres, magnitudes, spectres, parallaxes, etc.; 2. d’am´eliorer les donn´ees existantes grˆ ace `a leur confrontation; 3. de sugg´erer aux observateurs les observations les plus utiles pour compl´eter eﬃcacement les informations disponibles; 4. de diﬀuser aussi largement que possible les r´esultats de ces travaux `a la communaut´e astronomique; 5. d’eﬀectuer des recherches sur la Galaxie `a partir des donn´ees rassembl´ees.” [INAG creates a Stellar Data Center (CDS). This center has the following goals, in view of studying the Galaxy: 1. to collect the most important stellar data: positions, proper motions, magnitudes, spectra, parallaxes, and so on; 2. to improve the existing data by comparing them; 3. to suggest to observers the most useful observations to eﬃciently complete the available information; 4. to disseminate as widely as possible the results of those works to the astronomical community; 5. to undertake investigations on the Galaxy from the gathered data.]

The by-laws were completed by INAG decision 2/72/D0 nominating the ﬁrst CDS Scientiﬁc Council made of six French and six foreign astronomers: A. Bijaoui (Nice Obs.), A. Blaauw (European Southern Obs.), J. Boulon (Paris Obs.), G. Cayrel de Strobel (Meudon Obs.), J. Delhaye (Paris Obs.), Ch. Fehrenbach (Haute Provence Obs.), W. Fricke (Astron. Rechen-Inst. Heidelberg), B. Hauck (Lausanne Inst. Astron.), C. Jaschek (La Plata Obs.), J. Jung (Strasbourg Obs.), G. Larsson-Leander (Lund Obs.), and C.A. Murray (Royal Greenwich Obs.) for a term of three years starting on 1 May 19722 . Their mission was speciﬁed in Article 5 of the by-laws: “Le Conseil Scientiﬁque: – propose a` l’INAG le Directeur du CDS; – oriente les travaux du CDS; – examine les projets de budget du CDS; – examine, en vue de leur transmission a` l’INAG ou a` d’autres organismes, les demandes de moyens pr´esent´ees par le CDS; – approuve les rapports annuels du CDS.” 2

See Sect. 3.1 and Table 2 for the successive CDS Councils in the period 1972-1990.

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Figure 2. The Big Dome, the most emblematic of Strasbourg Observatory’s buildings. This institution is hosting Strasbourg astronomical Data Center since its foundation in the early 1970s. (Photograph: Strasbourg Obs.)

[The Scientiﬁc Council: – proposes to INAG the CDS Director; – orients the CDS activities; – examines the CDS budget projects; – examines, in view of transmitting them to INAG or to other organizations, the requests for means presented by the CDS; – approves the CDS annual activity reports.]

And ﬁnally INAG Decision 3/72/D0 dated 31 May 1972 was installing Jung as the ﬁrst CDS Director. CDS was then oﬃcially and totally in business. The inaugural Council meeting took place on 25-26 May 1972. The following excerpt of the meeting minutes is of interest here:

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“J. Delhaye ouvre la s´eance en remerciant les membres d’avoir r´epondu a` sa convocation, puis rappelle l’origine du projet de cr´eation d’un centre de donn´ees stellaires. Vieux projet, dont la paternit´e revient en partie a` lui-mˆeme, mais aussi `a A. Blaauw et `a R. Cayrel, son ex´ecution a ´et´e retard´ee pour des raisons administratives. Dans un souci de d´ecentralisation, Strasbourg a ﬁnalement ´et´e choisi comme si`ege de ce CDS. Raisons de ce choix: – l’activit´e de P. Lacroute qui collaborait d´ej`a avec W. Dieckvoss de Hambourg, – comp´etences du personnel. L’INAG, qui ne peut avoir de laboratoire propre, est l’agence qui d´eﬁnit la politique scientiﬁque. Le CDS est une partie de l’Observatoire, mais a une ouverture internationale: aussi 50% des membres du Conseil Scientiﬁque sontils des membres ´etrangers. Pour ´eviter d’en faire un centre uniquement rh´enan, l’INAG a tenu a` la participation de MM. Murray (Grande-Bretagne), LarssonLeander (Su`ede) et Jaschek (Argentine).” (Jung 1972) [J. Delhaye opens the session and thanks the [Council] members for having come to this meeting. He then recalls the origin of the project to set up a stellar data center. An old project indeed – the fatherhood of which is partly due to him, but also to A. Blaauw and R. Cayrel – the materialization of which has been delayed for administrative reasons. In a decentralization move, Strasbourg has ﬁnally been chosen as the CDS location. Reasons for that choice: – P. Lacroute’s activity as he already collaborated with W. Dieckvoss from Hamburg, – the personnel’s competence. INAG cannot have its own laboratories and is the agency that deﬁnes the scientiﬁc policies. CDS is part of [Strasbourg] Observatory, but has an international opening: therefore 50% of the CDS Scientiﬁc Council members are foreigners. To avoid making of CDS a Rhenish-only center, INAG wished the membership of Messrs. Murray (Great Britain), Larsson-Leander (Sweden) and Jaschek (Argentina).]

By the time of the CDS oﬃcial existence, two issues of the Information Bulletin (May and December 1971) had already been published, with a third one scheduled for July 1972. The Bulletin would be published at an average rate of two per year until its discontinuation after Issue 48 (March 1996). The pre-CDS chronology is summarized in Table 1. See also Jung (2005). 3. From the Start, an International Vision The international visibility of an institution is not quite a measurable quantity. A number of its facets are however identiﬁable such as, in the case of CDS, the geographical coverage of its international agreements, the number of its users world-wide, the size of the international attendance at the meetings it organized, the circulation of its publications, and so on.

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TABLE 1. Chronology of steps leading to the creation of the Stellar Data Center (CDS). (from Heck 2005b) 1969

1970

1971

1972

Meeting on future CDS (Strasbourg, 8 Jan 1969) (Lacroute 1969a) IAU 32 Doc 11. on urgency to coordinate actions on astronomical data (Perek 1969) Meeting on future CDS (Strasbourg, 21-22 Oct 1969) (Lacroute 1969b) Letter from Lacroute to IAU announcing a report on CDS at the upcoming IAU GA in Brighton (Lacroute 1970a) Meeting on future CDS (Strasbourg, 4 Jul 1970) (Lacroute 1970b, Jung & Lacroute 1970) 14th IAU General Assembly (Brighton, 18-27 Aug 1970) Letter from CNFA Chairman to INAG Director (Pecker 1970) CDS Meeting (Geneva, 27 Nov 1970) (Jung 1970) CDS Information Bulletin 1 (Ed. Jung, May 1971) Meeting of INAG’s Conseil de Direction (Paris, 12 May 1971) (Aubert & Charvin 1971) Meeting of INAG’s Scientiﬁc Council (Paris, 26 May 1971) (Boulon 1971) CDS Meeting (Strasbourg, 25 Nov 1971) (Jung 1971) CDS Information Bulletin 2 (Ed. Jung, December 1971) MoU project between INAG and Strasbourg Observatory on CDS approved by Observatory Council (10 Dec 1971) INAG Decision 1/72/D0 creating CDS INAG Decision 2/72/D0 nominating the ﬁrst CDS Council Inaugural Council meeting (25-26 May 1972) (Jung 1972) INAG Decision 3/72/D0 nominating J. Jung as ﬁrst CDS Director (31 May 1972)

As explained in the previous section, CDS was conceived from the start as an international venture. Events preparing CDS were already largely international, such as the meeting held on 21-22 October 1969 with ﬁfteen invited astronomers coming from institutions in Geneva, Heidelberg, Marseilles, Paris and Strasbourg (Lacroute 1969b). The minutes of a subsequent meeting (Strasbourg, 4 July 1970) conﬁrmed such an approach:

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Figure 3. CDS Council meeting of December 1982 (cf. Table 2): (left to right) J.Cl. Mermilliod (Lausanne), G. Westerhout (USNO), D. Macchetto (STScI), F. Ochsenbein (CDS staﬀ), M. Cr´ez´e (Besan¸con), T. Lederle (ARI), O. Dluzhnevskaya (Moscow), Ch. Bruneau (CDS Secretary), G. Paturel (Lyons), C. Turon (Paris), L. Houziaux (Mons), C. Jaschek (CDS Director), J. Delhaye (Paris) and D. Carnochan (invited Starlink representative). (Photograph: Strasbourg Obs.)

“Le Centre coordonnera en eﬀet les activit´es d’Observatoires fran¸cais et ´etrangers qui acceptent de participer a` des travaux du type envisag´e. D`es maintenant, une collaboration est ´etablie entre les Observatoires de Lausanne (6 personnes), Marseille (1), Paris (3), Strasbourg (5); Heidelberg ayant donn´e son accord de principe. D’autres collaborations seront sollicit´ees.” (Jung & Lacroute 1970) [The Center will coordinate the activities of French and foreign Observatories that will accept to take part with contributions of the considered proﬁle. As for now, a collaboration has been established with the Observatories of Lausanne (6 people), Marseilles (1), Paris (3), Strasbourg (5); Heidelberg has agreed in principle. Other collaborations will be sought for.]

3.1. COUNCIL MEMBERSHIP

As mentioned above, six foreign astronomers are statutorily among the CDS Council members. Table 2 details the Council membership for the two decades under consideration here. The international membership somehow

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TABLE 2. CDS Councils in the period 1972-1990 featuring 50% of internationally-based members (in italics). (from Bruneau & Heck 2005) 1972-1975 Blaauw, A. (ESO) Bijaoui, A. (Nice Obs.) Boulon, J. (Paris Obs.) Cayrel de Strobel, G. (Meudon Obs.) Delhaye, J. (Paris Obs.) Fehrenbach, Ch. (Haute Provence Obs.)

Fricke, W. (ARI) Hauck, B. (Lausanne Univ.) Jung, J. (CDS) Jaschek, C. (La Plata Obs.) Larsson-Leander, G. (Lund Obs.) Murray, C.A. (Greenwich Obs.)

1976-1978 Blaauw, A. (ESO) Delhaye, J. (Paris Obs.) Duncombe, R.L. (Texas Univ., Austin) Foy, R. (Meudon Obs.) Hack, M. (Trieste Obs.) Hauck, B. (Lausanne Univ.)

Jung, J. (French Sc. Mission, Washington) Lederle, T. (ARI) Meyer, Cl. (CERGA) Monnet, G. (Lyons Obs.) Spite, Fr. (Meudon Obs.)

1979-1981 Bijaoui, A. (Nice Obs.) Cr´ez´e, M. (Besan¸con Obs.) Dluzhnevskaya, O. (USSR Astron. Cl) Foy, R. (Meudon Obs.) Hauck, B. (Lausanne Univ.) Heidmann, J. (Paris Obs.)

Houziaux, L. (Mons Univ.) Lederle, T. (ARI) Lortet, M.C. (IAP) Macchetto, F.D. (STScI) Turon, C. (Meudon Obs.) Westerhout, G. (US Naval Obs.)

1982-1984 Bijaoui, A. (Nice Obs.) Cr´ez´e, M. (Besan¸con Obs.) Delhaye, J. (Paris Obs.) Dluzhnevskaya, O. (USSR Astron. Cl) Houziaux, L. (Mons Univ.) Lederle, T. (ARI)

Macchetto, F.D. (STScI) Mermilliod, J.Cl. (Lausanne Univ.) Monsonego, G. (CCSC) Paturel, G. (Lyons Obs.) Turon, C. (Meudon Obs.) Westerhout, G. (US Naval Obs.)

1985-1987 Abalakin, V.K. (USSR Astron. Cl) Andersen, J. (Copenhagen Obs.) Andrillat, Y. (Haute Provence Obs.) Benvenuti, P. (ST-ECF) Delhaye, J. (Paris Obs.) Gaillard, Cl. (CCSC)

Jahreiss, H. (ARI) Mathez, G. (Toulouse Obs.) Mead, J. (NASA/GSFC) Mermilliod, J.Cl. (Lausanne Univ.) Ochsenbein, Fr. (CDS) Requi`eme, Y. (Bordeaux Obs.)

1988-1990 Alecian, G. (Meudon Obs.) Delhaye, J. (Paris Obs.) Gaillard, Cl. (CCSC) Golay, M. (Geneva Obs.) Grosbøl, P. (ESO) Jahreiss, H. (ARI)

Kunth, D. (IAP) Mathez, G. (Toulouse Obs.) Mead, J. (NASA/GSFC) Perault, M. (ENS) Piskunov, A.E. (USSR Astron. Cl) Wesselius, P. (SRON)

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Figure 4. CDS Council meeting of November 1985 (cf. Table 2): (left to right) J. Andersen (Copenhagen), J.Cl. Mermilliod (Lausanne), Cl. Gaillard (CCSC), C. Jaschek (CDS Director), Ch. Bruneau (CDS Secretary), Y. Andrillat (Haute Provence), J. Delhaye (Paris), H. Jahreiss (ARI), G. Mathez (Toulouse), Y. Requi`eme (Bordeaux), P. Benvenuti (ST-ECF), A. Florsch (Strasbourg Obs. Director), J. Mead (GSFC), F. Ochsenbein (CDS staﬀ), and J.Cl. Ribes (INSU representative). (Photograph: Strasbourg Obs.)

reﬂected the “participating observatories” (cf. Sect. 3.2) and the international agreements (cf. Sect. 3.5). 3.2. PARTICIPATING OBSERVATORIES

As seen above, “participating observatories” were part of the CDS venture even before the oﬃcial existence of the center. Their rˆole was de facto to provide an international ﬂavor to the project, but also (and mainly) to bring in manpower and to contribute with their expertise in speciﬁc ﬁelds. The ﬁrst issue of the CDS Information Bulletin (CDSIB 1, May 1971) provides a list of those involved at the time (Table 3), together with their representatives (“corresponding members”). It is interesting to note that the two ﬁrst CDS Directors (Jung & Jaschek) are then listed as corresponding members for their respective observatories (Paris & La Plata). After CDS’ oﬃcial foundation and Jung’s nomination as ﬁrst Director, F. Spite took over as Paris Observatory representative (CDSIB 3, July

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TABLE 3. First List of Participating Observatories and Corresponding Members (from CDS Information Bulletin 1, May 1971) • • • • • •

Institut d’Astronomie de Lausanne et Observatoire de Gen`eve Astronomisches Rechen-Institut Heidelberg Observatorio Astron´ omico, La Plata Observatoire de Paris Observatoire de Marseille Observatoire de Strasbourg

Switzerland

B. Hauck

Germany Argentina France France France

T. Lederle C. Jaschek J. Jung M. Barbier P. Lacroute

TABLE 4. Participating Observatories and Associated Institutes (time range from the back covers of the CDS Information Bulletins – CDSIBs) Place

First issue

Last issue

“Participating Observatories” Bordeaux Heidelberg (ARI) La Plata Lausanne/Geneva Lyons Marseilles Paris (IAP) Paris (Obs.) Potsdam-Babelsberg Strasbourg

CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB

28 (Mar 1985) 1 (May 1971) 1 (May 1971) 1 (May 1971) 26 (Mar 1984) 1 (May 1971) 25 (Oct 1983) 1 (May 1971) 5 (Jul 1973) 1 (May 1971)

CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB

39 (1991) 39 (1991) 9 (Dec 1975) 39 (1991) 39 (1991) 39 (1991) 39 (1991) 39 (1991) 24 (Mar 1983) 24 (Mar 1983)

CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB

39 39 39 39 39 39 38 39

“Associated Institutes” Beijing Ganeshkhind Greenbelt (ADC) Moscow Pasadena Porto Alegre Potsdam-Babelsberg Tokyo

CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB

36 39 26 26 39 39 26 39

(Jun 1989) (1991) (Mar 1984) (Mar 1984) (1991) (1991) (Mar 1984) (1991)

(1991) (1991) (1991) (1991) (1991) (1991) (Dec 1990) (1991)

1972). Corresponding members were no more listed in CDSIB 5 (July 1973) where a new participating institution appeared: Potsdam-Babelsberg Zen-

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tralinstitut f¨ ur Astrophysik (GDR). In CDSIB 10 (January 1976), La Plata Observatory disappeared from the list (Jaschek had meanwhile become the second CDS Director). In October 1983 (CDSIB 25), Potsdam-Babelsberg and Strasbourg were removed from the list, but Paris Institute of Astrophysics had entered it. In the next issue (CDSIB 26, March 1984), Lyons Observatory was included in the list of participating observatories, and Potsdam-Babelsberg reappeared, but in a new category of “Associated Institutes” together with NASA’s ADC (Greenbelt MD, USA) and the Data Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences (Moscow, USSR). In CDSIB 28 (March 1985), entered Bordeaux Observatory as participating institution while CDSIB 32 (May 1987) mentioned for the ﬁrst time the membership in the Federation of Astronomical and Geophysical Services (FAGS). CDSIB 36 (June 1989) listed the Academia Sinica (Beijing, PRC) as Associated Institute. New Associated Institutes were mentioned in CDSIB 39 (1991): – the Astronomical Data Analysis Center (ADAC, Tokyo, Japan); – the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA, Ganeshkhind, India); – the Instituto de Fisica, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (Porto Alegre, Brasil); and – the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC, Pasadena CA, USA). Potsdam-Babelsberg (now in reunited Germany) had disappeared. Note also that Moscow was by then the capital of Russia since the URSS had been dismembered. No list of participating nor associated institutions has been included from CDSIB 40 (January 1992) on. A new Editorship was then producing the Bulletin. All the above is summarized in Table 4. 3.3. MEETINGS

The agenda of the CDS twice-yearly meetings always included a scientiﬁc session where data-related issues were presented, sometimes in a kind of medley covering CDS broad ﬁelds, but otherwise focussed on dedicated themes (cf. Table 5). CDS Meetings were traditionally taking place in Strasbourg in November and elsewhere in May. Given the then CDS limited available funding for such events, the attendance was generally restricted to the Council members, plus a few invited guests. Organizing colloquia with a larger attendance – often in collaboration with other institutions – was also a good way to gain international visibility. Table 6 gathers together the main international colloquia initiated during the period covered by this paper. Note that some meetings were

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TABLE 5. Identiﬁed thematic scientiﬁc sessions held at the same time as CDS Councils meetings in the period 1972-1990. Mar 1978 Apr 1979 May 1984 Nov 1984 May 1985 Nov 1985 May 1986 May 1987 May 1988 May 1989 May 1990

Strasbourg Strasbourg Grasse Strasbourg Bordeaux Strasbourg Montpellier Toulouse Grenoble Geneva Lyons

Astrometry Bibliography Astrometry Radial Velocities Solar System Astronomical Data Network (Fig. 9) Archiving of Astronomical Data Calibration of Magnitudes Data & Catalogs in Radioastronomy Digitized Optical Sky Surveys Extragalactic Data

CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB CDSIB

15, 17, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 33, 35, 37, 38,

51-82 2-20 3-56 3-40 3-16 3-54 3-54 3-61 3-34 3-92 1-12

formally organized by Strasbourg Observatory for internal political reasons, with an obviously heavy CDS involvement and fully within the CDS scope. Many of those gatherings were discussing pioneering methodologies and data/information handling aspects. It is of course out of the scope of this paper to list the meetings attended round the world by individual CDS staﬀ members (and it would probably be impossible to compile such a list). 3.4. PUBLICATIONS

Publications are another outlet ensuring international coverage. CDS Information Bulletins (CDSIBs) were produced as early as May 1971 (see Table 1) and until March 1996 (CDSIB 48). The successive issues have been gathering together data-related communications and reports from meetings, as well as regular features on catalogs, development of resources, and related issues. In other words, the CDSIB has been an information vector not only on CDS itself, but also on other data centers, on data, on their archiving, and on their scientiﬁc exploitation. CDSIB issues have included the newsletters of the IAU Working Group of Astronomical Data (WGAD – cf. Wilkins 2006 – this volume): – Nr 1 in CDSIB 30 (1986) 187-190, – Nr 2 in CDSIB 33 (1987) 157-162, – Nr 3 in CDSIB 35 (1988) 167-188, – Nr 4 in CDSIB 37 (1989) 183-204. as well as the newsletters of the informal Working Group on Modern Astronomical Methodology (WGMAM):

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TABLE 6. Main international colloquia (co-)organized by CDS in the period 1972-1992 (see text). The successive lines of each entry list the title; the place, dates and possible co-organizers, as well as the bibliographical reference of the proceedings. See the appendix for the explanations of acronyms. • Compilation, Critical Evaluation, and Distribution of Stellar Data (*) (Strasbourg, 19-21 August 1976, with IAU) (Jaschek & Wilkins 1977) • Automated Data Retrieval in Astronomy (Fig. 5) (Strasbourg, 7-10 July 1981, with IAU) (Jaschek & Heintz 1982) • The Scientiﬁc Aspects of the Hipparcos Space Astrometry Mission (Strasbourg, 22-23 February 1982, with ESA) (Perryman & Guyenne 1982) • Statistical Methods in Astronomy (Fig. 6) (Strasbourg, 12-16 September 1983, with ESA, INAG, and ULP) (Rolfe 1983) • L’Avenir des Donn´ees Non-Stellaires (Strasbourg, 6 March 1984) (Egret & Guibert 1984) • Sky Surveys (Schloß Ringberg, 21-23 November 1984) (CDSIB 1985a) • Second Meeting on Astronomical Data Networks (Strasbourg, 29-30 May 1986) (CDSIB 1986a) • The Coordination of Observational Projects in Astronomy (Strasbourg, 23-26 November 1987, with CNES and INSU) (Jaschek & Sterken 1988) • Impact des Surveys du Visible sur notre Connaissance de la Galaxie (Strasbourg, 18 March 1987) (Fresneau & Hamm 1987) • Astronomy from Large Databases (Garching, 12-14 October 1987, with ESA/ESO’s ST-ECF) (Murtagh & Heck 1988) ´ • D´etection et Classiﬁcation des Etoiles Variables (Strasbourg, 21 April 1988) (Halbwachs et al. 1988) • Artiﬁcial Intelligence Techniques for Astronomy (Strasbourg, 4 April 1989) (Heck 1989) • Errors, Bias and Uncertainties in Astronomy (Strasbourg, 11-14 September 1989) (Jaschek & Murtagh 1990) • Fractals in Astronomy (Strasbourg, 26 June 1990) (Heck 1990) • Desktop Publishing in Astronomy (Strasbourg, 1-3 October 1991) (Heck 1992) • Astronomy from Large Databases II (**) (Haguenau, 14-16 September 1992, with ESA/ESO’s ST-ECF) (Heck & Murtagh 1992) (*) See Fig. 1 in Wilkins (2006 – this volume). (**) Initially intended in Strasbourg and moved out for lack of accommodations.

– Nr 2 in CDSIB 30 (1986) 165-183, – Nr 3 in CDSIB 31 (1986) 201-215, – Nr 4 in CDSIB 32 (1987) 87-109,

Figure 5. Group photograph of the 64th IAU Colloquium on Automated Data Retrieval in Astronomy held in Strasbourg from 7 to 10 July 1981 (Jaschek & Heintz 1982). (Photograph: Strasbourg Obs.)

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Figure 6. Group photograph of the ESA-INAG-ULP International Colloquium on Statistical Methods in Astronomy held in Strasbourg from 12 to 16 September 1983 (Rolfe 1983). (Photograph: Strasbourg Obs.)

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331

– – – –

Nr 5 in CDSIB 33 (1987) 147-156, Nr 6 in CDSIB 34 (1988) 215-238, Nr 7 in CDSIB 35 (1988) 187-212, Nr 8 in CDSIB 36 (1989) 183-223. Librarians might note that CDSIB carried diﬀerent titles over the years: – from Issue 1 (January 1971) to Issue 12 (January 1977), it was known as Centre de Donn´ees Stellaires – Information Bulletin, while – from Issue 13 (July 1977) onwards, that title switched to Bulletin d’Information du CDS with the ISSN 0242-6536. ¿From Issue 40 (January 1992) onwards, that ISSN became 1169-8837 as the new CDS explanation (Centre de Donn´ees astronomiques de Strasbourg3 ) appeared on the cover. CDS also produced a collection of some 33 Special Publications. For a complete list, see Vonﬂie & Heck (2005). Please refer to Table 6 for the proceedings of the (co-)organized international conferences. 3.5. THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS

The available archives are very poor on the steps leading to the ﬁrst CDS international agreements, as well as on their materialization. The following is extracted from sketchy minutes of the CDS Council meetings, as well as from the Director’s annual reports (when recorded) and from announcements published in the CDSIBs. The CDS Council, meeting on 14 April 1974 at Haute Provence Observatory under the chairmanship of G. Larsson-Leander, “... approuve le projet pr´esent´e par M. Jung de la cr´eation a` Potsdam d’un souscentre facilitant l’´echange des donn´ees avec les pays socialistes, et engage le Directeur du CDS a` poursuivre les discussions dans ce sens avec les organismes responsables de la RDA.” [... approves the project presented by Mr Jung to create in Potsdam a subcenter facilitating the exchange of data with the socialist countries and invites the CDS Director to continue discussing in that direction with the GDR responsible organizations.]

This seems to be the ﬁrst recorded mention of formal steps towards an international agreement, then with an institution of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and in the context of the Cold War. Was this going to be successful? Three years later, at a meeting held on 22 April 1977 at Strasbourg under the chairmanship of A. Blaauw (and C. Jaschek being now CDS Director), the issue is brought up again. The following excerpt 3

Proposed by the author in the mid-1980s to take into account the inclusion, from then on, of non-stellar data in the center’s holdings, the new label had the advantage to retain the CDS acronym. It entered quickly everyday usage, but took much more time to be integrated in oﬃcial documents.

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deserves to be reproduced in extenso as it illustrates to which diplomatic complications were leading international agreements at the time: “L’´echange con¸cu avec Potsdam n’est pas concluant. M. et Mme Jaschek ont re¸cu une invitation a` se rendre en URSS en juillet aﬁn de discuter d’un accord entre le CDS et l’Acad´emie des Sciences. M. Delhaye pr´ecise que cet accord doit se faire dans le cadre des accords d´ej` a existants entre le CNRS et l’Acad´emie des Sciences de l’URSS, vu que le CDS n’a pas de statut international. La proposition d’accord sera donc transmise a` M. Delhaye. De plus, une entrevue avec M. Mustel sera possible le 10 mai, ce dernier ´etant actuellement de passage en France. M. Blaauw remarque que l’existence d’accords entre le CDS et la NASA d’une part, et l’Acad´emie des Sciences de l’URSS d’autre part, implique dans les faits un ´echange d’informations entre les USA et l’URSS. M. Duncombe propose d’´evoquer ce probl`eme `a la NASA, par l’interm´ediaire de Mme Mead.” [The exchange conceived with Potsdam is not conclusive. Mr and Mrs Jaschek received an invitation to go to the USSR in July in order to discuss an agreement between the CDS and the USSR Academy of Sciences. Mr Delhaye precises that such an agreement must be reached in the framework of agreements already existing between the CNRS and the USSR Academy of Sciences, as CDS has no international status. The agreement proposal will then be transmitted to Mr Delhaye [INAG Director]. Moreover, an interview with Mr Mustel [Chairman of the Astronomical Council of the USSR Academy of Sciences] will be possible on 10 May, as he is currently visiting France. Mr Blaauw points out that the existence of agreements between CDS and NASA, on one hand, and, on the other hand, with the USSR Academy of Sciences, implies de facto an exchange of information between the USA and the USSR. Mr Duncombe proposes to raise this issue with NASA, by means of Mrs Mead.]

Was then some agreement already existing with NASA? Something was probably under way as CDSIB 14 (January 1978) carried the following announcement: “Cooperation between NASA and CDS An agreement has been reached for mutual cooperation between the NASA, through the Goddard Space Flight Center (data bank), and the CDS. The scope of this agreement is to facilitate the exchanges and to establish a coordination of eﬀorts. We hope that this agreement, and others to follow in a near future, will possibilitate (sic) an easy access of the whole astronomical community to all machine-readable data.”

The next CDSIB 15 issue (July 1978) replicated with an announcement of cooperation with the USSR (note the quasi-identical wording):

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TABLE 7. Synthesis of international agreements in the period 1972-1991. 1977 1978 1979 1980? 1982? 1988 1989 1989? 1990 1990 1991

NASA’s Astronomical Data Center (ADC), Greenbelt, USA-MD Astronomical Council, Moscow, USSR ESA’s IUE Observatory, Vilspa, Spain Faculdad Ciencias Astron. Geof´ıs. Univ. La Plata, Argentina Zentralinstitut f¨ ur Astrophysik, Potsdam, GDR Inst. Fis. Univ. Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil NASA Extragalactic Database, Pasadena, USA-CA Academia Sinica, Beijing, PR China Inter-University Centre Astron. Astrophys., Ganeshkhind, India Astron. Data Analysis Ctr, Univ. Tokyo, Japan ESA’s European Space Information System, Frascati, Italy

Note: A disclaimer on this table is in order as CDS archives are sketchy and some international agreements somehow amateurishly put together. It is indeed not always clear whether some projects or MoUs got conﬁrmed into eﬀective oﬃcial agreements. Other papers are signed or stamped, but amazingly not dated. In one instance at least (PR China), the agreement reached seemed to have been invalidated (for some obscure reason) by some central CNRS oﬃce. But this table has the merit to give an idea of the various oﬃcial contacts established – which, in any case, meant ongoing working relationships between the institutions. See the appendix for explanations and acronyms.

“Cooperation between the Astronomical Council of the USSR Academy of Sciences and the CDS An agreement has been reached for mutual cooperation between the Astronomical Council of the USSR Academy of Sciences and the CDS. The scope of this agreement is to facilitate the exchanges and to establish a coordination of eﬀorts. We hope that this agreement, as the one with NASA, will make possible easy access of the whole astronomical community to all machine-readable data.”

As the last words of each announcement let it understand, the agreements were essentially dealing with catalog exchanges, in machine-readable format. Networks were still quite a few stone throws away and, as reminded in each CDSIB (see e.g. Ochsenbein 1978), data were made available ‘only’ via magnetic tapes, microﬁches, punched cards, computer printout or plots, as well as telex messages. The master CDS products of the time were, – on one hand, its Catalog of Stellar Identiﬁcations (CSI), a huge table of correspondences between identiﬁcations of a growing number of stellar catalogs, and,

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– on the other hand, the Bibliographical Star Index (BSI), an objectoriented bibliographical database linked to CSI. See for instance Ochsenbein et al. (1977) for a situation report of the time. As we shall see in the following sections, the situation would quickly evolve as a result of several factors: the needs generated upstream and downstream by space experiments, the development of the CDS database SIMBAD, and the progressive networking of our planet Earth. CDS would develop other international agreements (cf. Table 7), but the CDS resources would ﬁrst gain operational dimensions, then a formidable boost in terms of international visibility, with the IUE spacecraft. 3.6. IUE-VILSPA, THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL SIMBAD TERMINAL

The International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE 4 ), launched on 26 January 1978, has been the ﬁrst space-borne instrument welcoming visiting astronomers in real time, just like most ground-based observatories – with the diﬀerence that the telescope was not in an adjacent dome, but in a geosynchronous orbit over the Atlantic Ocean. It was shut down on 30 September 1996 after 18.7 successful years of operations (while its expected lifetime was three years), having become by then the longest astronomy space mission with more than 100 000 observations of celestial objects of all kinds, ten dedicated international symposia and more than 3 500 scientiﬁc papers at the time it was turned oﬀ. A fantastic achievement for a 45cm telescope. In many respects, IUE has been the precursor of modern astronomical observing5 . Among other issues, the space agencies operating IUE (NASA, ESA & SERC) agreed on eﬀective data policies which inspired modern astronomical archives avoiding, as had happened too often in the past, data disappearing forever on the shelves or in the drawers of the original observers – if they were logged at all. An IUE policy was to declare the data publicly available one year after the corresponding observations had been conducted. This meant too that an ad hoc service had to be set up by the agencies, providing access to the data archived. This, in turn, involved not only reprocessing sometimes large amounts of data or transfering data to new media as the technology evolved, but also having a well-deﬁned, understandable and consistent policy in terms of objects identiﬁers. This de facto outlawed some secrecy practices that were taking place here and there round the world, with astronomers 4 For details on IUE, see for instance the eight post-commissioning papers published in Nature 275 (5 October 1978) and the commemoration volume edited by Kondo et al. (1987). See also Stickland (1996) and the IUE chapter in Wilson (2001). 5 See for instance OSA 4’s Editorial and the references quoted therein.

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Figure 7. The European IUE Observatory referred to CDS resources as of the launch of the satellite (see text). The initial team of astronomers is pictured here in front of the IUE downlink antenna at Villafranca Satellite Tracking Station (Vilspa) in December 1978: (left to right) A. Heck, A. Cassatella, M.V. Penston, P. Selvelli, J. Clavel, P. Benvenuti, Fr. Beeckmans, and D.J. Stickland. Not on this picture, D. Macchetto was the IUE European Observatory Controller at the time of the launch in January 1978 and became a CDS Council Member (cf. Fig. 3). In January 1981, Vilspa became operationally the ﬁrst foreign station connected to the CDS database SIMBAD. The bottom picture reproduces a historical sticker featuring the old logos of the three operating space agencies and the two ground observatories, in Greenbelt (USA-MD) for NASA and in Vilspa (Spain) for ESA (formerly ESRO) and the SERC (formerly SRC). (Top photograph: A. Heck)

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using sometimes personal identiﬁers (“my star 27”) by fear that subsequent observers could guess what they were after just by looking at the objects studied if these had been logged under common names. Another critical issue was the operational safety of the spacecraft as its attitude had to be updated at each pointing by uploading the precise coordinates of the target before the next slew. Loosing attitude meant wasting a lot of expensive and otherwise useful time, plus potential hazard for the spacecraft instrumentation in case of accidental proximity to overbright objects. Initiated in 1970 with J. Jung at Paris Observatory before he became the ﬁrst CDS Director, my PhD work made of me the ﬁrst CDS scientiﬁc user, even before the center’s oﬃcial existence, and converted me into a kind of expert in cataloguing subtleties. This was certainly one of the reasons, together with an extensive observing experience, for my appointment in mid-1977 within the founding team of the IUE European Observatory in Vilspa, Spain (Fig. 7) and of my assignment as being in charge of scientiﬁc operations. Duccio Macchetto, at that time still the ESA IUE Observatory Controller before being fully absorbed by the Space Telescope project, was very attentive to what could be called the ‘CDS culture’, advocating it towards the other partners/space agencies. As explained in Heck (1978), the US IUE Observatory at NASA/GSFC used then a CSI-based software package. At Vilspa, during an introductory phase called “training” with each ESA or SERC observer, the coordinates of his/her targets and guiding objects were checked against the CSI if they were stars or against other speciﬁc catalogs provided by CDS if they were non-stellar objects. Strong recommendations urged priority usage (in proposals, operations, and logs) of the most prominent identiﬁers when available (HD numbers for stars and NGC identiﬁers for non-stellar objects), leading de facto to a homogenization of IDs in the various project procedures and documents. Spacecraft safety was paramount. Whoever has been called into a control room because a multimillion-dollar bird up there has lost its pointing attitude knows what it means to rely on a consistent set of celestial coordinates in such circumstances. The worried faces – and voices on the lines – of people representing three space agencies, a couple of shadows keeping low proﬁle in a corner because feeling responsible for the mishap, the silent interrogations of visiting astronomers ticking the time passing, otherwise authoritative spacecraft controllers hanging on your lips for the recovery maneuvers that you have no right to miss – all this builds up a unique atmosphere, as well as memories for the rest of your life. And I dedicate the bottles of champagne won that way to those wonderful teams, but also to the many hours spent in ground-based observing implying countless

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ﬁeld identiﬁcations and total reliance on the coordinate sets at hand. The cumbersome ‘jig’ machine using Palomar Sky Survey plates proved to be no match to well-trained and well-supported brainware and was actually removed from the observatory room. The collaboration with CDS would quickly go one step further as indicated by the following excerpt: “At the end of August 1978, a collaboration between the Villafranca Station and the Stellar Data Center was set up for stellar observers. At the end of their run, they receive from the CDS all measurements and the bibliography available for the stars they have observed with the IUE. This service will be provided free of charge until the end of the ﬁrst block of observations (March 1979). Because of budget restrictions, the CDS will have to assess handling costs for all future services. However, it should be said that studies are already well under way to make available at Villafranca a terminal connected with the CDS. Apart from the obvious advantages of this direct link, this improvement should help astronomers not only in the discussion of their data, but also in the preparation of their observations.” (Heck et al. 1979)

This already gave a formidable international visibility to CDS through the IUE users who, at the time, were a kind of astronomical avant-garde, a pre-space-telescope generation. In those years, things were also evolving rapidly not only in Strasbourg with the development of the database SIMBAD6 integrating the facilities of both the CSI and BSI, but also in the national telecom oﬃces ﬁnalizing pioneering X25 networks, such as Transpac in France and Datapac in Spain. Involving these into setting up an at ﬁrst stammering international link between Vilspa near Madrid and the CNRS computer in Cronenbourg near Strasbourg was the natural consequence mentioned in the above excerpt. The link became oﬃcial in January 1981 (Heck 1981a,b): “This new link has also an important operational rˆ ole for Vilspa since the Resident Astronomers have now a permanent access to a unique, crosschecked and constantly updated set of stellar positions and magnitudes.” (Heck 1981b)

The IUE-CDS collaboration was supported by the successive European Observatory Controllers and their management. Quite naturally then, when based in Strasbourg a few years later, I had no diﬃculty to convince both parties to agree that CDS would carry out the homogenization of the IUE log of observations (Wamsteker 1985), one of the cornerstones on which is built the IUE Uniform Low-Dispersion Archive (ULDA, see Wamsteker et al. 1989). 6

See various reports published in the CDSIBs to follow the developments of SIMBAD, starting with the ﬁrst announcement in CDSIB 20 (Wenger 1981).

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TABLE 8. Statistics of nodes connected to CDS. Year

French

Foreign

Source

1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988

2 6 15 19 24 28 32 44

1 1 3 16 27 37 71 91

(Jaschek 1982) (Jaschek 1983) (Jaschek 1985a) (Jaschek 1985b) (CDSIB 1985b) (CDSIB 1986b) (CDSIB 1987) (CDSIB 1988)

4. Spreading User Network With the growing international proﬁle of CDS and the progressive networking of the planet (still remember SPAN and Bitnet?), the number of people with a connection to SIMBAD increased steadily. It is however not possible to take a census of the actual users over time: a userid could hide an indeﬁnite number of people and those userids were assigned inhomogeneously (in the sense that one whole institution would sometimes get only one userid while others would get several). Therefore there is some confusion in the CDS reports and papers behind the term “user” and we prefer speaking here of “nodes” or “stations” connected to CDS. The evolution is outlined by Table 8 and illustrated geographically by the maps reproduced in Figs. 8, 10 and 11. CDS did not just collect registrations from users, but also organized speciﬁc meetings on network problematics, such as the scientiﬁc session at a CDS Council Meeting in November 1985 (cf. Table 5 and Fig. 9) and a follow-up one in May 1986. Both of these gatherings were co-hosted by the European Science Foundation (ESF), also based in Strasbourg. It became also obvious that a more assertive policy had to be followed, and in the ﬁrst place towards North America where networks were then more developed. Thus the ﬁrst historical demonstration of the database SIMBAD in that part of the world took place at the 169th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society held in January 1987 in Pasadena (Fig. 12). In spite of lines plagued with interferences in the local convention center (this was still the very beginning of the public-network era), the success was smashing with excited attendees getting overnight their userids thanks to the time diﬀerence between California and Europe. My personal connections in the space communities worked marvels and dedicated demonstrations impressed key NASA and NSF managers, something that would

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Figure 8.

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Map of CDS user stations published in a 1986 CDS leaﬂet.

result in an invitation to attend a subsequent workshop in Annapolis (August 1987) centered on the foundation of the Astrophysics Data System (see Sect. 5.2). As evidenced by Table 8, the show in Pasadena doubled the number of foreign nodes during the ﬁrst half of 1987 and induced the following opening statements in the CDS Director’s report for that year: “The year 1987 was characterized by a very rapid growth of the number of users of the CDS, which passed from 80 to 120, and includes now a large number of American Observatories. This rapidly growing number constitutes the best comment of the feelings of the international community toward the CDS.” [...] “The CDS was presented by A. Heck at the meeting of the American Astronomical Society. This presentation was partially responsible for the large increase in the number of American users.” (Jaschek 1988)

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Figure 9. International attendance to the ﬁrst CDS meeting on data networks in astronomy (Strasbourg, November 1985). In the ﬁrst row (left to right): J. Andersen (Copenhagen Obs.), P. Bartholdi (Geneva Obs.), Ph. Crane (ESO) and R. Albrecht (ST-ECF). (Photograph: Strasbourg Obs.)

5. The Space Agencies Get Organized As seen earlier (Table 2), some representatives from space agencies had served as CDS Council members since the end of the 1970s (Macchetto 1979-1984, Benvenuti 1985-1987, Mead 1985-1990); some agreements had been reached (NASA, IUE) as discussed in Sect. 3.5 and 3.6; but more was to come as the agencies realized that the accumulation of space data had to be cared of in some more eﬃcient way that had been in practice so far. In the mid-1980s, this triggered initiatives in which it became crucial to position properly CDS for the future, and for its own future, as the agencies were contemplating – and had the means – to set up competitive services able to wipe CDS oﬀ the world map. 5.1. ESA’S ESIS

On 7-8 March 1985, ESA’s Space Science Department (SSD) convened at ESRIN (Frascati, Italy) a Spacenet Advisory Panel made of a mixture of astro- and geophysicists to decide what would be best to do with the data already collected and to be gathered in the future by space experiments – and this, on the background of a return for Italy within ESA’s policies (in other words, if a center or service was going to be created, it had to be located at ESRIN).

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Figure 10.

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Map of CDS user stations published in Heck & Egret (1987).

Figure 11. Map of CDS user stations published in a 1988 CDS leaﬂet. (Courtesy CDS)

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It quickly appeared that the problematics for geophysical and astronomical data were quite diﬀerent. As far as the latter ones were concerned, I managed to get SIMBAD, and more generally CDS, to be recognized as an excellence center to be linked to any structure set up by ESA. The following month (18-19 April 1985), another meeting was held at ESTEC (Noordwijk, Netherlands) where all this was conﬁrmed, which led me to issue the following memorandum directed to the CDS Director (20 April 1985): “Une des importantes conclusions de la derni`ere r´eunion du “European Space Science Data Center Study Panel” de l’Agence Spatiale Europ´eenne est qu’un logiciel con¸cu essentiellement pour une gestion bibliographique (comme celui de l’IRS a` l’ESRIN) n’est pas du tout adapt´e `a la gestion d’une base de donn´ees du type spatiales ou astronomiques. Cette conclusion acquise apr`es les ´etudes et tests appropri´es par des personnes comp´etentes `a l’´echelle europ´eenne devrait certainement ˆetre prise s´erieusement en consid´eration par ceux qui voudraient imposer au CDS un logiciel inappropri´e `a ses buts et fonctions. L’operating system recommand´e a ´et´e l’un de ceux d´eriv´es d’Unix. Enﬁn, la reconnaissance de l’importance du CDS en soi a ´et´e conﬁrm´ee, SIMBAD ´etant repris dans les exemples de connexions de centres d’excellence nationaux.” [One of the important conclusions of the last meeting of the “European Space Science Data Center Study Panel” of the European Space Agency is that a software package designed essentially for bibliographic handling (such as the IRS one at ESRIN) is not at all suitable for the management of space or astronomical data. This conclusion from ad hoc studies and tests by competent people at the European level should deﬁnitely be seriously considered by those who would like to impose to CDS a software package inadapted to its aims and functions. The recommended operating system has been a Unix-derived one. Finally, the recognition of CDS’ intrinsic importance has been conﬁrmed, SIMBAD being retained in the examples of connections to national centers of excellence.]

Of an apparently innocuous internal nature, this memorandum was intended to be used by Jaschek to overcome, with a gentle touch of bluﬀ and barely pushed European blessing, the last Parisian resistances regarding database conversion (attempts to impose commercial packages) and computer hosting on speciﬁc machines (while the Unix-based ones were reaching general acceptance within the astronomy community). That strategy proved to be successful. A green light was given for the development of home-made software and grounds were laid for the acquisition by CDS of its own computers – a couple of critical milestones from which CDS’ success would later depend on.

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As to Spacenet, it was to be renamed the European Space Information System (ESIS). As stated for instance in ESA’s Space Science Newsletter 4 (February 1986), p. 2, its main features were outlined as follows7 : “1. the design and development of a space information network system – based on standard PTT-supported lines; 2. to carry out pilot studies on the scope of the network by using it to access existing and future project-related data bases, such as those associated with IUE, EXOSAT, ST, etc.; 3. to consider the relative advantages of project-related data bases or specialised data bases at host institutes, or at a single institute, for longer term archiving; 4. the development of central directory and data catalog facilities at ESRIN.”

CDS was of course plugging in at Point 3 and its involvement, politically acquired at the Spacenet gatherings, was later conﬁrmed by various agreements coming out of a number of meetings, such as a memorable one at Logica headquarters in Cobham on 20 March 1986. ESA/ESIS staﬀ would also be assigned to Strasbourg Observatory (ESA 1991), the managers of which would use this in turn to emphasize the international recognition of the place by an organization such as ESA. 5.2. NASA’S ADS

The January 1987 CDS presence at the 169th AAS Meeting in Pasadena (cf. Sect. 4) has undoubtedly been a gateway for being invited to the NASA Astrophysics Data System Workshop convened in Annapolis on 18-20 August 1987. The purpose of this gathering was stated in the letter dated 10 August 1987 received from Gael F. Squibb (Acting Manager, NASA Observatories Operations Branch, Astrophysics Division): “The purpose of this Workshop is to study the needs for accessing spaceacquired astrophysics data sets. The focus of the Workshop will be on the scientiﬁc requirements, the data which will be available, and the technology which will be in common usage in the mid-1990’s. The panels will consider the needs of the scientist with access to signiﬁcant processing and analysis capabilities, as well as the scientist with very limited resources.”

What seemed at ﬁrst to be one of those standard meetings where to present CDS and SIMBAD turned out quickly of unusual importance with the presence of major project leaders8 as well as that of Charles J. Pellerin, then NASA’s Director of Astrophysics. With a talk scheduled in the 7 8

Remember that World-Wide Web browsers were still quite a few years away (1993). Including Al Boggess who had been leading the overall IUE project for years.

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late afternoon, it became a real ﬁght with jetlag to re-tailor in real time the presentation of SIMBAD emphasizing the diﬀerences with the individual papers on space logs and catalogs ﬁlling in the agenda, insisting on the integrated-database character, and clearing any possible suspicion of chauvinism by praising, as a Belgian, that French-based jewel. Believe it or not, the subsequent questions and comments showed that this had made an impact! The next morning, with typical American eﬃciency, NASA Headquarters’ Anthony J. Villasenor shook hands in an elevator of the Annapolis Hotel and, between the ground and third ﬂoors, declared he was going to support a link between CDS and the Astrophysics Data System (ADS) being set up, as well as to likely complete the arrangements by installing a machine at Strasbourg Observatory and even possibly putting at our disposal a couple of yearly grants. This excellent contact with Tony paved the way to a soft subsequent materialization of the agreement. From then on indeed again, the political decision having been acquired, the story became essentially technical. A speciﬁc resolution on SIMBAD was issued at the end of the Workshop: “SIMBAD SIMBAD is recognized as the most comprehensive astronomical database in the world. It is run by the Strasbourg Data Center (CDS) and provides basic data and bibliography on stellar, galactic and extragalactic objects. It has proven to be an enormous asset in planning observations and interpreting data; however, communication costs are inhibiting its use by US-based astronomers. We recommend that NASA implement a plan to provide no-cost access to SIMBAD for all US-based astronomers by: 1. covering communication costs 2. paying a lump sum to cover SIMBAD charges. We recommend also that NASA assist CDS in incorporating into SIMBAD catalogs from all available space experiments (as IUE merged log, Einstein, Exosat, IRAS point source catalogs, etc.) in order to link the astronomical observations made from space with the corresponding data and bibliography already available in SIMBAD.”

All this not only opened the door to intensiﬁed access from the US community to SIMBAD, but also laid grounds for a strong collaboration with ADS9 . The Annapolis meeting saw also the initial discussions of what was to become a fruitful collaboration with the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) in Pasadena for their NASA Extragalactic Database (NED), formalized by an oﬃcial agreement proposed by NASA on 13 March 1989 and approved by INSU on 28 April 1989. 9

On this, see also the interview of G¨ unther Eichhorn in this volume (Heck 2006a).

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Figure 12. Several key ﬁgures for CDS in North America, photographed at the 169th American Astronomical Society Meeting in Pasadena (January 1987): left, Joyce Watson (CfA) with Wayne Warren (NASA/ADC); top right, Gart Westerhout (USNO) together with the author; lower right, Wayne Warren overlooking the author busy demonstrating SIMBAD at the historically ﬁrst demontration booth for the CDS database in North America. Wayne had already been for almost a decade the ADC interface for catalogs and other CDS products. Joyce was to become the “face” of SIMBAD in the US for quite a number of years. Gart has been one of the long-time US supporters of CDS and a member of the CDS Council (cf. Fig. 3), as was the case for Jaylee Mead (NASA/GSFC – cf. Fig. 4). (Photographs: A. Heck)

5.3. HIPPARCOS

A section devoted to CDS’ involvement in space projects would not be complete without a few words on the astrometric Hipparcos project, the genesis of which took place essentially at Strasbourg Observatory (see e.g. Kovalevsky 2005).

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Accepted as a program by the European Space Agency in 1980, the Hipparcos satellite was launched on 8 August 1989. Its operational life ended on 15 August 1993. The data collected led to very numerous investigations, a ﬁrst ﬂavour of which was given by an impressive colloquium organized in Venice in 1997 (Perryman & Bernacca 1997). Hipparcos – a project with a strong French component – contributed perhaps more to the CDS notoriety within France than abroad. It has been indeed often commented that, until then, CDS was better known internationally than nationally. More generally, it is certainly appropriate to include here the following excerpt from the CDS Director’s 1982 annual report, emphasizing the importance of the collaboration10 : “Probably the most important [development] is the extensive link with the Hipparcos project – as somebody put it: If the CDS had not existed, it would have to be created for Hipparcos. Similar but less extensive cooperations exist for IRAS, ANS and EXOSAT.” (Jaschek 1983)

6. CDS’ International Success Story CDS’ success story has already been commented elsewhere (Heck 2000, 2002). Over three decades now, CDS moved from a ﬁle holder to an impressive information hub. It is recognized world-wide for the excellence of its work and its products, something also acknowledged through the collaborations established with CDS by the other astronomical data centers created subsequently. CDS has been an evolving structure, taking advantage of new media and often pioneering their usage before they became popular world-wide. In an epoch when it has become common that new managers tend to believe the history of their organization begins with themselves, a few basic points should probably be reminded, starting with the fact that seemingly modest decisions by courageous and clear-sighted people initially in charge of ﬂedging structures lead often to far-reaching fruitful consequences, without which subsequent development would not be possible (and those later managers disregarding history would not even enjoy their positions). A second step is certainly to refer to Schumpeter’s cycles in organizations’ life where brilliant phases of creativity, inventiveness, and expansion are followed by less glamorous periods generally characterized by prevalence of administrative aspects. A third point is to recall what was CDS at the time in terms of very limited means and manpower – a context quite diﬀerent of what is experienced today with all those Virtual Observatory projects. An illustration 10

Refer also to the Hipparcos colloquium hosted in February 1982 (cf. Table 6).

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TABLE 9. CDS personnel and responsibilities in November 1986. (Jaschek 1986) a) Researchers – P. Dubois – D. Egret – A. Fresneau – J.L. Halbwachs – A. Heck – M. Jaschek – C. Jasckek

SIMBAD maintenance (bibliography, galaxies) relationships with users, Hipparcos astrometry integration of catalogs, exploitation for research international relationships, directories, IUE log, statistical methodologies orders of spectroscopic nature director

b) Technicians – Ch. Bruneau – R. Messmer – M.J. Wagner – M. Wenger

secretariat (Bulletin, publications, mail, orders, accounts, etc.) handling of orders (printing shop, varia) data keying, monitoring work of temporary auxiliaries SIMBAD software development

[Note that F. Ochsenbein, one of the CDS kingpins (see e.g. Ochsenbein 1981), was then on leave (1985-1990) at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Garching.]

is given by Table 9 extracted from the Director’s report at a CDS Council meeting towards the end of the period under consideration in this paper. That reduced staﬀ had sometimes to go through unsecured phases, with unclear future and rumors of removal to some other city, with complications generated by a central Parisian administration, for instance at the level of material support, machines, software packages to be used to handle the database, and so on. Until towards the end of the 1980s, CDS had no proper machine and its activities had to be hosted in remote big computers, with real pressure to use French-manufactured equipment. An idea of the stress generated at a speciﬁc time can be given by the fact that the CDS Director received phone calls from a wife anxious to know how long that unpleasant situation would last. As alluded in Sect. 5.3, CDS did not always receive appropriate support from the French community, being occasionally labeled as an astrogrocery with its utility not well perceived and questioned. In terms of international notoriety, which is the focus of this paper, Jaschek11 has deﬁnitely to be credited for an acute perceptiveness12 : he felt it necessary to associate to the center someone with numerous connections in the space communities in Europe and in the US (at a time when 11

By birth a non-French citizen with an ample international career (Heck 2006b). This clearsightedness is also evident in his seminal paper (Jaschek 1968) that triggered the initial IAU steps in matters of astronomical data (see Heck 2005b). 12

348

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astronomy space-related experiments were taking full momentum and generating data in amounts unknown earlier), and with a proﬁle completed by an extensive experience in ground-based observing and data handling methodologies. I felt deeply honored by his conﬁdence and very much appreciated to be put in charge of the CDS international relationships upon my arrival in Strasbourg (1983), with virtually total freedom, since I could also apply my training in communication, advertizing and marketing. Some of the successes achieved have been described in the previous sections. But one of the basic principles in advertizing/marketing is that only good products can be ‘sold’ sensibly and sustainably. CDS’ basic idea was a genial one: creating a huge table of identiﬁcation synonyms giving access to all individual data from the integrated catalogs, all of this being completed by an object-oriented bibliography linked to the database. And CDS provided ﬁrst-class services in a dedicated niche. By the end of the 1980s, CDS was thus set on the world-wide international scene. Its challenges would now be of another nature: whether it would keep up with the evolution of technology and the requirements from astronomical research. 7. Personal Epilogue Initiated in 1970 with J. Jung as my PhD supervisor at Paris Observatory where I became de facto the ﬁrst CDS scientiﬁc user even before its oﬃcial existence, my own association and deep involvement with CDS – especially as its “international salesman” in the 1980s – ceased oﬃcially towards the end of that decade with my reorientation towards other activities (Duerbeck 2006) and my election as Strasbourg Observatory Director. A number of tensions internal to the institution had to be cleared up and some oﬃcial neutrality was needed with respect to the various components of the house in order to put an end to recurrent managerial conﬂicts. The CDS key rˆ ole was nevertheless reaﬃrmed as shown by the following excerpt from the minutes of the Observatory Council meeting held on 2 May 1988 and electing me as Observatory Director: “Il consid`ere dans sa majorit´e que le d´eveloppement du CDS et des th`emes scientiﬁques orient´es vers l’utilisation de la banque de donn´ees doit ˆetre prioritaire. L’accent devrait ˆetre mis sur les m´ethodes de traitement statistiques de donn´ees, si possible en collaboration avec d’autres d´epartements de l’Universit´e. C’est en eﬀet le domaine de comp´etence de choix de l’Observatoire, domaine qui va se d´evelopper naturellement dans les prochaines ann´ees, lors de l’arriv´ee des donn´ees en provenance des exp´eriences spatiales.” [The Observatory Council in its majority considers that the development of CDS and of scientiﬁc themes oriented towards usage of the database must have priority. The emphasis should be put on the methodologies of statistical

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handling of data, if possible in collaboration with other University departments. It is indeed the prime ﬁeld of competence of this observatory, a domain that will quite naturally be developed in the upcoming years with the arrival of data from the space missions.]

Many data handling methodologies had already been investigated, catalyzed and even initiated, through the various international encounters organized (cf. Tables 5 & 6). However, if most of the goals set by the CDS founders have been reached, at least one of them did not really come through: astrophysical research directly geared to the center. This is worth stressing since such an ambition was explicitly written in the statutes (see Sect. 2). And this can probably be blamed onto the networks allowing astronomers to stay at their home institutions rather than coming to CDS – the other face of the coin. As far as international visibility is concerned, there is no golden rule as each situation is a speciﬁc one. Beyond keypoints mentioned in the course of this paper – developing and maintaining excellent international contacts, relying on ﬁrst-class products, fostering conﬁdence from people, lobbying persistently, helping luck with gentle touches of bluﬀ, developing ﬂexibility to foreign cultures, exercising (away from both arrogance and toadyism) top-level respectful diplomacy helped by well-trained acute intuitions – trust and credibility are certainly the essential and complementary virtues. And it makes no harm to exercise all this in a cosy context. If the city of Strasbourg and its region Alsace oﬀer gorgeous surroundings in terms, for instance, of eating places where some of the achievements above have been secured, this aspect is however totally ignored by civil-service regulations in terms of funding! Trahit sua quemque voluptas. Acknowledgments I am grateful to Chantal Bruneau and Fran¸cois Ochsenbein for their help in getting hold of some archives and in precising a couple of recollections, as well as to Philippe Vonﬂie for retrieving some material and to Hilmar Duerbeck for his critical reading of this paper. References 1. 2. 3. 4.

Aubert, G. & Charvin, P. 1971, Minutes of INAG’s Conseil de Direction Meeting held in Paris on 12 May 1971. Boulon, J. 1971, Minutes of INAG’s Scientiﬁc Council Meeting held in Paris on 26 May 1971. Bruneau, Ch. & Heck, A. 2005, CDS Council Members, in The Multinational History of Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory, Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht, 271-276. CDSIB 1985a, Workshop on Sky Surveys – Himmelsdurchmusterungen, Inform. Bull. Strasbourg Stellar Data Center 29, 39-94.

350 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.

15. 16. 17. 18.

19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27.

´ HECK ANDRE CDSIB 1985b, List of Institutes having Access to SIMBAD – September 1985, Inform. Bull. Strasbourg Stellar Data Center 29, 109. CDSIB 1986a, Deuxi`eme R´eunion sur les R´eseaux Astronomiques de Donn´ees – Second Meeting on Astronomical Data Networks, Inform. Bull. Strasbourg Stellar Data Center 31, 55-88. CDSIB 1986b, List of Institutes having Access to SIMBAD – November 1986, Inform. Bull. Strasbourg Stellar Data Center 31, 231. CDSIB 1987, List of Institutes having Access to SIMBAD – November 1987, Inform. Bull. Strasbourg Stellar Data Center 33, 179-180. CDSIB 1988, List of Institutes having Access to SIMBAD – December 1988, Inform. Bull. Strasbourg Stellar Data Center 25, 223-224. Duerbeck, H.W. 2006, Heck, Andr´e, Nouveau Dictionnaire de la Biographie Alsacienne 45, 4668-4669. Egret, D. & Guibert, J. (Eds.) 1984, L’Avenir des Donn´ees Non-Stellaires (VIe Journ´ee de Strasbourg), Obs. Strasbourg, 103 pp. ESA 1991, Agreement between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Centre de Donn´ees Stellaires de Strasbourg (CDS) on the ESIS Pilot Project (16 January 1991). Fresneau, A. & Hamm, M. 1987, Impacts des Surveys du Visible sur notre Connaissance de la Galaxie. (IXe Journ´ee de Strasbourg), Obs. Astron. Strasbourg, 138 pp. (ISBN 2-906361-01-1) Halbwachs, J.L., Jasniewicz, G. & Egret, D. 1988, D´etection et Classiﬁcation des ´ Etoiles Variables, (Xe Journ´ee de Strasbourg), Obs. Astron. Strasbourg, 100 pp. (ISBN 2-906361-02-X) Heck, A. 1978, The Needs for Space Astronomy in Ground-Based Data, Inform. Bull. Strasbourg Stellar Data Center 14, 74-76. Heck, A. 1981a, Stellar Data Center Terminal at Vilspa, IUE ESA Newsl. 10, 5-6. Heck, A. 1981b, Data Link between CDS and ESA IUE Observatory, Inform. Bull. Strasbourg Stellar Data Center 21, 45. Heck, A. (Ed.) 1989, Artiﬁcial Intelligence Techniques for Astronomy – Techniques d’Intelligence Artiﬁcielle pour l’Astronomie (XIe Journ´ee de Strasbourg – XIth Strasbourg Astronomical Day), Obs. Astron. Strasbourg, viii + 82 pp. (ISBN 2906361-04-6) Heck, A. (Ed.) 1990, Fractals in Astronomy – Fractales en Astronomie, (XIIe Journ´ee de Strasbourg – XIIth Strasbourg Astronomical Day), Vistas in Astron. 33, 245-424. Heck, A. (Ed.) 1992, Desktop Publishing in Astronomy and Space Sciences, World Scientiﬁc, Singapore, xii + 240 pp. (ISBN 981-02-0915-0) Heck, A. 2000, ¿From Data Files to Information Hubs: Beyond Technologies and Methodologies, in Information Handling in Astronomy, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht (2000) 223-242. Heck, A. 2002, The Impact of New Media on 20th-Century Astronomy, Astron. Nachr. 323 (2002) 542-547. Heck, A. (Ed.) 2005a, The Multinational History of Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory, Springer, Dordrecht, viii + 310 pp. (ISBN 1-4020-3643-4) Heck, A. 2005b, Vistas into the CDS Genesis, in The Multinational History of Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory, Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht, 191-209. Heck, A. 2006a, The ADS Success Story – An Interview with G¨ unther Eichhorn, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 7 (OSA 7), Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht (this volume). Heck, A. 2006b, Jaschek, Carlos, Nouveau Dictionnaire de la Biographie Alsacienne 45, 4713-4714. Heck, A. et al. 1979, A collaboration between the Stellar Data Center and the European Space Agency ‘International Ultraviolet Explorer’ Observatory, Inform. Bull. Strasbourg Stellar Data Center 16, 90-91.

THE CDS WORLD PENETRATION 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55.

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Heck, A. & Egret, D. 1987, SIMBAD – The CDS Database, The Messenger 48, 22-24. Heck, A. & Murtagh, F. (Eds.) 1992, Astronomy from Large Databases II, ESO Conf. & Workshop Proc. 43, x + 534 pp. (ISBN 3-923524-47-1) IAU Trans 1971, Transactions of the International Astronomical Union XIVB, Proceedings of the Fourteenth General Assembly Brighton 1970, Eds. C. de Jager & A. Jappel, D. Reidel Publ. Co., Dordrecht. Jaschek, C. 1968, Information Problems in Astrophysics, Publ. Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc 80, 654. Jaschek, C. 1982, CDS Annual Report of the Director for 1981, Inform. Bull. Strasbourg Stellar Data Center 23, 81-83. Jaschek, C. 1983, CDS Annual Report of the Director for 1982, Inform. Bull. Strasbourg Stellar Data Center 25, 59-62. Jaschek, C. 1985a, CDS Annual Report of the Director for 1983, Inform. Bull. Strasbourg Stellar Data Center 28, 143-146. Jaschek, C. 1985b, CDS Annual Report of the Director for 1984, Inform. Bull. Strasbourg Stellar Data Center 28, 147-152. Jaschek, C. 1986, CDS Council Meeting (Nov 1986) documentation. Jaschek, C. 1988, CDS Annual Report of the Director for 1987, Inform. Bull. Strasbourg Stellar Data Center 34, 145-153. Jaschek, C. & Heintz, W. (Eds.) 1982, Automated Data Retrieval in Astronomy, D. Reidel Publ. Co., Dordrecht, xx + 324 pp. (ISBN 90-277-1435-5) Jaschek, C. & Murtagh, F. (Eds.) 1990, Errors, Bias and Uncertainties in Astronomy, Cambridge Univ. Press, xxii + 422 pp. (ISBN 0-521-39300-0) Jaschek, C. & Sterken, Ch. (Eds.) 1988, Coordination of Observational Projects in Astronomy, Cambridge Univ. Press, viii + 270 pp. (ISBN 0-521-36157-5) Jaschek, C. & Wilkins, G.A. (Eds.) 1977, Compilation, Critical Evaluation, and Distribution of Stellar Data, Astrophys. Sp. Sc. Lib. 64 D. Reidel Pub. Co., Dordrecht, xiv + 316 pp. (ISBN 90-277-0792-8) Jung, J. 1970, Minutes of the CDS Meeting held in Geneva on 27 November 1970. Jung, J. 1971, Minutes of the CDS Meeting held in Strasbourg on 25 November 1971. Jung, J. 1972, Minutes of the CDS Meeting held in Strasbourg on 25-26 May 1972. Jung, J. 2005, CDS: Origins and Early Beginnings, in The Multinational History of Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory, Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht, 211-214. Jung, J. & Lacroute, P. 1970, Minutes of the CDS Meeting held in Strasbourg on 4 July 1970. Kondo, Y. et al. (Eds.) 1987, Exploring the Universe with the IUE Satellite, D. Reidel Publ. Co., Dordrecht, x + 788 pp. (ISBN 90-277-2380-X). Kovalevsky, J. 2005, The Hipparcos Project at Strasbourg Observatory, in The Multinational History of Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory, Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht, 215-219. Lacroute, P. 1969a, Minutes of the CDS Meeting held in Strasbourg on 8 January 1969. Lacroute, P. 1969b, Agenda of the CDS Meeting to be held in Strasbourg on 21-22 October 1969. Lacroute, P. 1970a, Letter to IAU (6 April 1970). Lacroute, P. 1970b, Agenda of the CDS Meeting to be held in Strasbourg on 4 July 1970. Lacroute, P. 1980, personal communication. Murtagh, F. & Heck, A. (Eds.) 1988, Astronomy from Large Databases. Scientiﬁc Objectives and Methodological Approaches, ESO Conf. & Workshop Proc. 28, xiv + 512 pp. (ISBN 3-923524-28-5) Ochsenbein, F. 1978, Possibilities for Data Distribution, Inform. Bull. Strasbourg Stellar Data Center 15, 134-135.

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352 56.

57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68. 69.

Ochsenbein, F. 1981, D´eveloppement d’une Banque de Donn´ees Stellaires et Appli´ ´ cation a ` l’Etude de la Distribution Spatiale des Etoiles, PhD Thesis, Obs. Strasbourg, 180 pp. Ochsenbein, F., Egret, D. & Bischoﬀ, M. 1977, The Catalogue of Stellar Identiﬁcations, in Compilation, Critical Evaluation, and Distribution of Stellar Data, Eds. C. Jaschek & G.A. Wilkins, D. Reidel Pub. Co., Dordrecht, 31-36. Pecker, J.C. 1970, Letter to the Director of INAG (19 Oct 1970). Perek, L. 1969, IAU EC 32 Doc. 11a (June 1969). Perryman, M.A.C. & Bernacca, P.L. 1997, HIPPARCOS Venice ’97, ESA SP-492, European Space Agency Publ. Div., Nordwijk, lii + 862 pp. (ISBN 92-9092-291-5) Perryman, M.A.C. & Guyenne, T.D. 1982, The Scientiﬁc Aspects of the Hipparcos Space Astrometry Mission, ESA SP-177, European Space Agency Publ. Div., Nordwijk, viii + 242 pp. Rolfe, E. (Ed.) 1983, Statistical Methods in Astronomy, ESA SP-201, European Space Agency Publ. Div., Nordwijk, xviii + 262 pp. Stickland, D.J. 1996, The International Ultraviolet Explorer: An Appreciation, Observatory 116, 343-344. Vonﬂie, Ph. & Heck, A. 2005, Strasbourg Observatory Institutional Publications, in The Multinational History of Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory, Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht, 293-310. Wamsteker, W. 1985, Letters of 3 June 1985 to C. Jaschek and of 24 June 1985 to A. Heck. Wamsteker, W. et al. 1989, IUE-ULDA/USSP: The On-line Low-Resolution Spectral-Data Archive of the International Ultraviolet Explorer, Astron. Astrophys. Suppl. 79, 1-10. Wenger, M. 1981, Base de Donn´ees du CDS: SIMBAD, Inform. Bull. Strasbourg Stellar Data Center 20, 81. Wilkins, G.A. 2006, The Genesis of the IAU WG on Astronomical Data, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 7 (OSA 7), Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht (this volume). Wilson, A. 2001, ESA Achievements (2nd Edition) – More than Thirty Years of Pioneering Space Activity, ESA BR-200, European Space Agency Publ. Division, Nordwijk, 280 pp. (ISBN 92-9092-782-8)

Main Abbreviations and Acronyms AAS ADAC ADC ADS ANS ARI Astron. Bitnet BSI Bull. CCSC CDS

American Astronomical Society (USA) Astronomical Data Analysis Center (Japan) Astronomical Data Center (NASA) Astrophysics Data System (NASA) Astronomische Nederlands Satelliet Astronomisches Rechen-Institut (Heidelberg, Germany) Astronomical, Astronomische, Astronomy, ... “Because It’s Time” Network Bibliographical Star Index (CDS) Bulletin Centre de Calcul de Strasbourg-Cronenbourg (France) Centre de Donn´ees Stellaires (France), later: Centre de Donn´ees astronomiques de Strasbourg (France)

THE CDS WORLD PENETRATION

CDSIB CERGA CfA Cl CNES CNFA CNRS Comm. CSI Doc. ENS ESRO ESA ESF ESIS ESO ESRIN ESTEC EXOSAT FAGS GA GDR GSFC HD HIPPARCOS IAP IAU IAU Trans Id. INAG Inform. INSU Inst. Internat. IPAC IRAS IRS ISBN ISSN

353

Information Bulletin of the Centre de Donn´ees Stellaires ´ Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches en G´eodynamique et Astrom´etrie (France) Center for Astrophysics (Cambridge MA, USA) Council ´ Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (France) Comit´e National Fran¸cais d’Astronomie (France) Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France) Commission Catalogue of Stellar Identifications (CDS) Document, Documentation, ... ´ Ecole Normale Sup´erieure (France) European Space Research Organization (now ESA) European Space Agency European Science Foundation European Space Information System (ESA) European Southern Observatory European Space Research Institute (ESA/Italy) European Scientific and Technological Center (ESA/Netherlands) European X-ray Observation Satellite Federation of Astronomical and Geophysical Services General Assembly German Democratic Republic (obsolete) Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA) Henri Draper (catalog) High-Precision Parallax Collecting Satellite Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris (France) International Astronomical Union International Astronomical Union Transactions Identification Institut National d’Astronomie et de G´eophysique (France)(now INSU) Information Institut National des Sciences de l’Univers (France) (formerly INAG) Institut, Institute, ... International Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (USA) Infrared Astronomical Satellite Information Retrieval Service (ESRIN) International Standard Book Number International Standard Serial Number

354 IUCAA IUE MoU Nachr. NASA NED Newsl. NGC NSF Obs. OSA PPARC PRC Proc. Publ. RDA SAO SERC SIMBAD SP SPAN SRC SRON SSD ST ST-ECF STScI UK ULDA ULP Univ. URSS US USA Userid USNO USSR Vilspa WGAD WGMAM

´ HECK ANDRE

Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (India) International Ultraviolet Explorer Memorandum of Understanding Nachrichten National Aeronautics and Space Administration (USA) NASA Extragalactic Database (IPAC) Newsletter New General Catalog National Science Foundation (USA) Observatoire, Observatory, ... Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy (volumes) Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (UK) People’s Republic of China Proceedings Publications, Publishers, ... R´epublique D´emocratique Allemande (obsolete) Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (USA) Scientific and Engineering Research Council (UK) (now PPARC) Set of Identifications, Measurements and Bibliography for Astronomical Data Special Publication Space Physics Analysis Network Scientific Research Council (UK) (later SERC) Stichting Ruimte Onderzoek Nederland Space Science Department (ESTEC) Space Telescope Space Telescope – European Coordinating Facility (ESA/ESO) Space Telescope Science Institute (USA) United Kingdom Uniform Low-Dispersion Archive (IUE) Universit´e Louis Pasteur (Strasbourg I) (France) Universit´e, University, ... Union des R´epubliques Socialistes Sovi´etiques (obsolete) United States (of America) United States of America User Identification United States Naval Observatory (USA) Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (obsolete) Villafranca Satellite Tracking Station (Spain) Working Group on Astronomical Data (IAU Comm. 5) Working Group on Modern Astronomical Methodology

THE GENESIS OF THE IAU WORKING GROUP ON ASTRONOMICAL DATA

GEORGE A. WILKINS

Department of Mathematical Sciences University of Exeter Exeter EX4 4QE, U.K. [email protected]

Abstract. The IAU Working Group on Numerical Data, which was set up by the International Astronomical Union in 1969, brought together astronomers who were separately involved in data activities within their own institutions or within the specialist commissions of the Union. The Group gathered information about the current activities in data compilation and distribution and discussed the ways by which new computer techniques could be used to carry out such activities economically and eﬀectively. The value of the general techniques for documentation and information retrieval was recognised and so the Group was later attached to IAU Commission 5 on Documentation. It was renamed to emphasise its coverage of all types of astronomical data. The Group organised open meetings during the IAU General Assemblies as well as IAU Colloquia and other meetings.

1. Introduction Advances in astronomy have often depended on programmes of international cooperation in the compilation and publication of numerical data on astronomical objects and on the properties of the matter of which they are composed. After the establishment of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 1919 these programmes were organised by the relevant specialised commissions of the Union. Some of these programmes involved cooperation with other international organisations, such as the International Union for Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG). In some ﬁelds permanent services were established for the central collection, reduction, analysis and distribution of certain kinds of data. The earliest was the International Latitude Service, which was set up in 1895. The International Council of Scientiﬁc Unions 355 A. Heck (ed.), Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, 355–366. © 2006 Springer.

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(ICSU) set up the Federation of Astronomical and Geophysical Services (FAGS) in 1956, with the IAU as one of the participating Unions. The International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1957/58 provided the stimulus for the establishment of three World Data Centres: WDC-A in the USA and WDC-B in the USSR, each of which held data for all the IGY disciplines, while WDC-C consisted of several discipline centres in various countries. The WDCs were primarily concerned with the storage and distribution of reduced data of many kinds, including data of relevance to astronomy, whereas each of the services in FAGS concentrated on data in one ﬁeld and analysed the data from many stations to produce results for general use. There was, however, no IAU-wide discussion of data activities until 1969 when the Executive Committee set up, on the suggestion of Lubos Perek (see Heck 2005b), a small ad hoc Working Group (WG) on Numerical Data with Charlotte Moore Sitterley as the Chairman of the Group. Sitterley, who was then about to retire, was the Chairman of a group within Commission 14 that was concerned with data on atomic spectra. [She had attended discussions on this topic at the IAU General Assembly in 1932 (Sitterley 1988).] The Group arranged two open meetings on data activities at the IAU General Assembly (GA) in 1970 and subsequently I was asked to take on the position of Chairman of this IAU WG, which then reported directly to the Executive Committee of the Union. As Chairman of this IAU WG on Numerical Data I was expected to represent the IAU on the ICSU Special Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA) and I was also asked to take on the complementary role as an IAU representative on the Council of FAGS in place of Donald H. Sadler. [Sadler had been General Secretary of the IAU and it is probable that he had nominated me for these IAU positions.] I accepted both invitations although I did not know what would be required of me, nor did I realize that these activities would continue for the next 9 years and that I would ﬁnd them so interesting and rewarding. It soon became clear that the interests of the Group had much in common with those of IAU Commission 5 on Documentation. At that time this commission was primarily concerned with libraries and abstracting services and so it had members who were interested in the problems of computer databases and information retrieval that were of concern to the WG. The IAU Executive Committee accepted my suggestion that the Group should become part of the Commission, which in 1979 was given the name ‘Documentation and Astronomical Data’ to emphasise its extended role. Surprisingly, there are no references to data activities in the History of the IAU by Blaauw (1994). There are, however, several relevant articles in the proceedings of the 1972 CODATA conference, including: Wilkins

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on ‘numerical data for astronomers’; Jung on ‘the Strasbourg Stellar Data Centre’; Minnis and Melchior on the ‘Federation of Astronomical and Geophysical Services’; and Perek on ‘World Data Centres’. The Stellar Data Centre (Centre de Donn´ees Stellaires, CDS) at the Strasbourg Observatory (Heck 2005a1 ) was formally established at the beginning of 1972. In many ways it acted as such a service, but it also developed a computer ﬁle and system for the automated searching of the astronomical literature to provide information about the locations of information on any particular star. The history of CDS is given in a paper by Heck (2005b) that starts with a review of the advent of data centres and especially with the establishment and early activities of the IAU Working Group on Numerical Data2 . This prompted me to write some notes on my recollections of the period from 1970 to 1979 when I was Chairman of the Group. These notes were included by the present Chairman (Ray Norris) of the IAU WG on Astronomical Data on the web-site of the Group and led to a request by Heck for me to write an account for publication in this volume on Organisations and Strategies in Astronomy. I have also written this account from a personal viewpoint and consequently it may give undue prominence to my own participation in the activities of the Group and of the related organisations. My role was, however, largely one of gathering and reporting the experience and ideas of the members of these various groups. They came from a wide range of disciplines and backgrounds, but they had a common wish to ensure that the scientiﬁc data, which were collected at great expense in both eﬀort and money, were made readily available to the worldwide community. 2. Previous Experience In retrospect it is clear that my post-graduate research in geomagnetism gave me a strong appreciation of the value of international cooperation in data gathering and distribution. I needed to use data on the daily variations of the Earth’s magnetic ﬁeld that were collected at stations all around the world during the Second International Polar Year in 1932/33. Most of these data had been carefully reduced and published in standard formats in printed volumes that were held in the library of the (UK) Meteorological Oﬃce at Harrow, UK. For some stations that were important for my purpose, I had to obtain copies of the original traces and then to measure and derive the required values. In all cases, I had to transcribe the values for 1 2

See also the chapter by A. Heck in this volume (Ed.). http://www.atnf.csiro.au/people/rnorris/WGAD/

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subsequent use in calculations using desk machines – I could not wait for the Imperial College Computing Engine that was then under construction! Then I joined HM Nautical Almanac Oﬃce in the Royal Greenwich Observatory at Herstmonceux Castle in Sussex and I soon realized the value of cooperation with the corresponding oﬃce in the US Naval Observatory in Washington. Both oﬃces had electromechanical punched-card machines and so we were able to share the calculation of the astronomical ephemerides for our publications and to exchange the results by sending boxes of punched-cards across the Atlantic Ocean. The work was also shared with ephemeris oﬃces in other countries under arrangements that were made within the framework of IAU Commission 4 on Ephemerides. After a few years I was seconded to USNO to learn how to program and use the IBM 650 computer that was soon to be delivered there. My project was to make a new analysis of the past observations of the positions of the satellites of Mars in order to determine more precise values of their secular accelerations and, in particular, to test the hypothesis that Phobos was hollow. I had to ﬁnd and transcribe the observational data in the literature, but it could then be held on punched-cards for subsequent processing. By this time, in the late 1950s, star catalogues were also being exchanged on punched cards. My introduction to international working groups came when I served as secretary of the IAU WG on the System of Astronomical Constants (in 1963/64) and then as secretary of an IAU Commission 4 WG on Space Ephemerides (from 1964 to 1970). This Group was primarily concerned to adopt standards for the interchange of data (including star catalogues) between astronomical and space research institutions, such as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. By this time, magnetic tape had become the principal medium for data storage and exchange. We held one of our meetings at the COSPAR (ICSU Special Committee on Space Research) General Assembly in Prague in May 1969. As was usually the case, this meeting was held at a place and time where many of the members of the group would be going to attend the scientiﬁc sessions. The Group recommended that an International Information Bureau for Astronomical Ephemerides should be set up and, not surprisingly as I was its President, this was adopted by Commission 4 at its meeting at the IAU General Assembly in 1970. I also reported on the ﬁndings of our Group at an open meeting the Group on Numerical Data. My subsequent role as Chairman of the IAU WG on Numerical/Astronomical Data greatly beneﬁted from my simultaneous involvement in both FAGS and CODATA and so it seems appropriate to describe brieﬂy these two organisations before describing the activities of the IAU group.

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3. The Federation of Astronomical and Geophysical Services (FAGS) The main purpose of the Federation of Astronomical and Geophysical Services (FAGS) was to secure independent funding, for example from UNESCO, for about a dozen small organisations that collected, published and analysed data from all around the world on a variety of topics, such as time, solar activity and glaciers. They provided services to the community as a whole, but the work was often regarded as routine and the small groups concerned often had diﬃculties in obtaining funding from their parent organisations. The long-term series of data proved to be very useful, but the research on interpreting the data was usually carried out by others. The approval by FAGS, small grants form international organisations, including UNESCO, and the prestige of providing an international service were usually suﬃcient to ensure national funding for the bulk of the costs. The Services were, in eﬀect, data centres that provided an international service; many of them were of relevance to both astronomy and geophysics. Some, such as the Bureau International de l’Heure (BIH), which was established in Paris in 1911, had wide application outside science. For example, it was pointed out in 1978 that the results from the Permanent Service on the Fluctuations of Glaciers, which was established in 1967, were clearly of relevance to the studies of the eﬀects of climate change. The International Latitude Service became the International Polar Motion Service and this was combined with the BIH in 1988 to form the International Earth Rotation Service, whose results are fundamental to the use of satellites for the precise determination of position on the Earth. The meetings of the Council of FAGS were usually held in Paris, but every four years they were held during the General Assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics so that there could also be a meeting with the heads of the various services in the Federation. It was the custom for the Unions represented on the Council to take it in turns to provide the secretary. I did not know of anyone else in the IAU who would take on the job and so I served as secretary from 1975 to 1979. I had been made a Vice-President in 1973 and one of the members of the Council expressed his surprise at my becoming secretary instead of waiting my turn to become President! The meetings of the Council took only half a day but I resigned the position after I had taken on the much more time-consuming post of Chairman of the MERIT WG on the determination of the rotation of the Earth (Wilkins 2000).

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4. ICSU Special Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA) I found that CODATA was diﬀerent in many ways from the astronomical organisations with which I had so far been concerned. It held an annual general assembly that was only for representatives of national committees and interested scientiﬁc unions. The former usually came from major organisations, such as the National Bureau of Standards in the USA, and they tended to dominate the proceedings. I found that it was primarily concerned with physical and chemical data and so I and some other Union representatives agitated for a broadening of its scope to cover the geosciences (including astronomy) and the biosciences. As a result I was made Chairman of an advisory panel on the geosciences and I later prepared a guide for the presentation of numerical data derived from observations in the geosciences (Wilkins 1979). CODATA held a general conference (and general assembly) every two years to which all were invited for the presentation of papers on a wide variety of topics. These meetings were almost invariably held in interesting locations and so my collection of travel slides increased dramatically! I ceased to be the IAU representative in 1979, but I remained in touch. I attended the CODATA conference in Ottawa in 1986 and presented a poster paper about the data activities in Project MERIT. From 1985-1987, I represented the IAU on the International Council for Scientiﬁc and Technical Information (ICSTI), which had developed from the former ICSU Abstracting Board. I organised a meeting of a group on numerical data in December 1986, but after the 1987 General Meeting the IAU accepted my recommendation not to renew its aﬃliation. 5. IAU Working Group on Numerical Data (1971-1976) The WG on Numerical Data for Astronomers and Astrophysicists arranged two open sessions for discussion during the IAU General Assembly at Brighton in 1970. Its ﬁrst report contains on overview by the President, Charlotte Sitterley, and lists of the specialised groups within the Union and of the data centres that reported to the Group. The secretary of the Group was C.W. Allen, whose compendium on Astrophysical Quantities (1955) was a standard source of ‘best values’ for many years. References for this report and later reports of the Group in the Transactions of the IAU are given after the list of references for named authors. My ﬁrst task as the next Chairman of the Group was to prepare proposals for its activities and organisation and to establish its membership. The principal aims of the Group were:

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– to collect and publish information about the existence and preparation of ﬁles of numerical data, especially those in machine-readable form, that are relevant to the interests of the Union; – to recommend ways by which the preparation of such data ﬁles and the retrieval of information from them may be carried out economically and eﬀectively; and – to oﬀer advice on these matters to the appropriate Commissions. In carrying out these activities the Group was to endeavour to complement, and not duplicate, the work of the Commissions of the Union in their specialised ﬁelds. There were 12 members, each of whom had a speciﬁc area of responsibility that was linked to a small group of Commissions. In addition there were 18 ‘consultants’ who were willing to share their expertise and knowledge with the group. It was rather ironic that at this time I had to convince the Finance Division of the Science Research Council that other countries (then 31 in number) should not be charged for the supply of Advanced Data for the Astronomical Ephemeris by HM Nautical Almanac Oﬃce, of which I was then the Superintendent! Our next task was to prepare a survey of astronomical data activities then in progress. The results were too extensive to publish with the report to the IAU General Assembly at Sydney in 1973, but copies were circulated for information and correction. Only about 22 Commissions appeared to promote data activities, and many data were only available in printed form. About 40 organisations were, however, reported to have data centres or compilation projects; the larger organisations covered several topics. An open meeting was held during the Assembly and 10 short presentations about a variety of data activities were made. The Group agreed to seek agreement to it becoming part of Commission 5. At that Assembly the President of the Commission 5 asked me to prepare a survey of abstracting and information services in astronomy and so I became more familiar with the scope of these related activities. Just before the IAU General Assembly in Grenoble in 1976 the Group organised IAU Colloquium no. 35 at the University of Strasbourg, where CDS is based. The title was the ‘Compilation, Critical Evaluation and Distribution of Stellar Data’ (Fig. 1). The 38 papers were distributed between the following main headings: – Standards for the presentation of data – Acquisition and processing techniques – The critical evaluation of data – The distribution of data – Existing facilities and future role of data centres.

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C. Jaschek’s paper on a ‘Survey of Existing Facilities’ occupied 75 pages of the published proceedings (Jaschek & Wilkins 1977). My report on the discussions shows that they were very wide ranging and that there were many points on which diﬀering views were held by the participants. For example, one of my papers advocated the use of SI units in astronomy as I felt that astronomers should abandon cgs units, which were no longer used in physics, nor taught in many schools and universities. The 1976 report of the working group was reprinted in full in the information bulletin of CDS (Wilkins 1976), and so was seen by a much larger number of astronomers than would otherwise have been case. Moreover, it contained more detail than is given in the report in the Transactions of the IAU. 6. IAU Commission 5 Working Group on Astronomical Data (1976-1991) After the IAU General Assembly at Grenoble in 1976 the IAU WG on Numerical Data became a part of IAU Commission 5 and changed its name to Astronomical Data. I remained Chairman until 1979 when Bernard Hauck became the Chairman; he was succeeded by Gart Westerhout in 1985. Andr´e Heck became the Chairman in 1991. Some of the highlights of the activities of the Group during this period are given below. I was the Vice-President of Commission 5 from 1979 to 1985 and the President from 1985 to 1991, by which time I had retired from the Royal Greenwich Observatory. During this period I retained an interest in the activities of the Group, but my principal ‘extra-mural’ eﬀort up to 1987 was devoted to Project MERIT, which led to the establishment of the International Earth Rotation Service at the beginning of 1988. This project itself required a substantial involvement in data gathering and analysis. In particular, use was made of the GE Mark III computer network for the transmission of the observational data from the stations to the operational centres for each technique, and then from them to the analysis centres; their results were then sent to the Central Bureau, which was responsible for the ﬁnal results. I doubt whether any of us foresaw that this technique would become so widespread outside the scientiﬁc and technical community. In 1981, there was another IAU Colloquium (no. 64) at Strasbourg; its title was Automated Data Retrieval in Astronomy’ (Jaschek & Heintz 1982). The link with documentation showed itself in the headings of two of the themes, namely, ‘bibliographic services’ and ‘editorial policies and nomenclature’. The problems of the identiﬁcation of astronomical objects were a particular cause for concern. No less than 16 of the 60 papers were listed under the heading of ‘data in space astronomy’. Magnetic tape was ’

Figure 1. Participants to IAU Colloquium 35 on Compilation, Critical Evaluation and Distribution of Stellar Data held in August 1976 at Strasbourg Observatory (Courtesy Strasbourg Obs.)

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still the principal storage medium and the use of computer networks was only just beginning. In 1982, CODATA published a ‘Guide to the Presentation of Astronomical Data’; this was based on the earlier guide for data in the geosciences (Wilkins 1982). In turn it was used as the basis of the relevant sections of the IAU Style Manual, whose principal recommendations were endorsed in a resolution that was adopted by the IAU General Assembly in 1988 (Wilkins 1989). The reports of the President of IAU Commission 5 for the 1985 General Assembly drew attention to the increased volume of activities in both data and abstracting centres, as well as to recent conferences and publications. During the Assembly there were scientiﬁc meetings on the problems that arose from the large amount of data from space astronomy and from the transfer and archiving of astronomical catalogues. Reports on current data activities were included in the Newsletters of IAU Commission 5 and were reprinted by CDS (see below). The group organised a course on ‘Data Handling in Astronomy and Astrophysics’ at Trieste in 1984. There were over 50 participants. The topics included the ‘ﬂexible image transport system’ (FITS) for which a Task Force had been set up by Commission 5 in 1982. Again the widespread use of digital-image processing for everyday use was not then foreseen. IAU Colloquium 110 on ‘Library and Information Services in Astronomy’ (LISA3 ) was held at the US Naval Observatory in Washington DC, just before the IAU General Assembly in Baltimore in 1988 (Wilkins & Stevens-Rayburn 1989). Only a small proportion of the papers were directly related to data activities, but there is an account of the CDS/SIMBAD database which includes bibliographic information. By October 1987, this database was accessible through computer networks from 122 astronomical institutes in 21 countries. An on-line information system was also available from the Astronomical Data Center of the Goddard Space Flight Center. A Joint Discussion on ‘Developments in Documentation and Data Services for Astronomers was held during the 1988 General Assembly (Wilkins 1989). In addition the group held sessions on ‘technical aids for data’ and ‘star catalogues’ as part of the programme of Commission 5, which also included a session on ‘designations’ and one on the new topic of ‘electronic mail’, which had not then developed a standard system of addresses. My ﬁnal report as President of Commission 5 for the period 1987-1990 includes reports from the principal data centres and shows very clearly the large extent of the activities in the ﬁeld of astronomical data. It also drew attention to the enormous growth in the volume of digital data that ‘

3

See also the chapter by C. Corbin & U. Grothkopf in this volume (Ed.).

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was obtained directly at the time of observation or by the scanning of many thousands of sky-survey photographic plates. The discussion of the procedures to be followed in dealing with these data was, however, deferred to the next General Assembly in 1994! 7. Concluding Comments I was surprised and delighted to see that Heck (2005b) ended his paper by quoting the following paragraph from my report to the IAU in 1973 as ‘a matter for meditation’. “The main factor that appears to inﬂuence the success, or otherwise, of a data centre is not its size, nor its hardware facilities, nor its location, but rather whether the persons responsible for maintaining the data ﬁles take an active interest in the generation and analysis of the data. When such an interest exists, any inadequacies in the accuracy or content of the data will become apparent, and a continual improvement in the database and in retrieval facilities may be expected. The scope of a data centre should not be extended beyond the interests of the persons who are available at the centre, and the persons require both astronomical and data handling experience and knowledge.”

Since that time there have been enormous developments in the speed and storage capacity of the computer systems and especially in the worldwide transmission of data of many diﬀerent forms. Now the aim of the ‘Virtual Observatory’ is to provide all astronomers with on-line access to the many datasets that are produced by large and small astronomical survey projects. I hope that the attention given to the quality of the data (as well as to its quantity) is appropriate to the scale of the project. References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Allen, C.W. 1955, Astrophysical Quantities, Univ. London, Athlone Press (2nd ed., 1963). Blaauw, A. 1994, History of the IAU, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordecht. (ISBN 0-79232980-5) Heck, A. (Ed.) 2005a, The Multinational History of Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory Springer, Dordrecht (ISBN 1-4020-3643-4) Heck, A. 2005b, Vistas into the CDS Genesis, in Heck 2005a. Jaschek, C. & Heintz, W. (Eds.) 1982, Automated Data Retrieval in Astronomy, D. Reidel Publ. Co, Dordrecht. (ISBN 90-277-1435-5) Jaschek, C. & Wilkins, G.A. (Eds.) 1977, Compilation, Critical Evaluation and Distribution of Stellar Data, D. Reidel Publ. Co, Dordrecht. (ISBN 90-277-0792-8) Sitterley, C.M. 1988, Reminiscences: Commission 14: The 4th General Assembly at Cambridge, 1932, IAU Today 5 (1988-08-05), 4. [Daily newspaper for IAU General Assembly at Baltimore.] Wilkins, G.A. 1976, Report of WG on Numerical Data of IAU Commission 5, Bull. Inform. CDS 10, 17-27.

366 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.

GEORGE A. WILKINS Wilkins, G.A. 1979, Guide for the Presentation in the Primary Literature of Numerical Data Derived from Observations in the Geosciences, CODATA Bull. 32. Wilkins, G.A. 1982, Guide to the Presentation of Astronomical Data, CODATA Bull. 46. Wilkins, G.A. 1989, Report on the Proceedings of Joint Discussion 1 at 20th General Assembly of IAU, Highlights Astron. 8, 69-86. Wilkins, G.A. 1990, The IAU Style Manual, Transactions of IAU 20B, Chap. 8. [A summary of the recommendations is reprinted in Bull. Inform. CDS 37, 193-196 (1989).] Wilkins, G.A. 2000, Project MERIT and the Formation of the International Earth Rotation Service, in Polar Motion: Historical and Scientiﬁc Problems Eds. S. Dick, D. McCarthy & B. Luzum, Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc Conf. Series 208, 187-200. Wilkins, G.A. & Stevens-Rayburn, S. (Eds.) 1989, Library and Information Services in Astronomy, US Naval Observatory, Washington DC.

The reports of the IAU WG on Numerical Data and of IAU Commission 5 on Documentation and Astronomical Data are to be found in the Transactions of the IAU as follows: Brighton, 1970 Sydney, 1973 Grenoble, 1976 Montr´eal, 1979 Patras, 1982 Delhi, 1985 Baltimore, 1988 Buenos Aires, 1991

14B, 245-248, 1971 15A, 757-760, 1973 16A, 189-194, 1976 17A, 7-11, 1979 18A, 15-18, 1982 19A, 7-11, 1985 20A, 7-12, 1988 21A, 7-12, 1991

15B, 16B, 17B, 18B, 19B, 20B, 21B,

77-79, 1974 69-73, 1977 85-92, 1980 73-77, 1983 97-98, 1986 109-118, 1990 127-134, 1992

The Newsletters of IAU Commission 5 on Documentation and Astronomical Data were reprinted in Bulletin d’Information de CDS as follows: No. No. No. No. No.

1 2 3 4 5

(1986A) (1987) (1988) (1989) (1991)

no. 30, 187-190, 1986 no. 33, 157-162, 1987 no. 35, 167-179, 1988 no. 37, 183-203, 1989 may be available in some libraries.

BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES FOR ASTRONOMERS

WOLFGANG R. DICK

Vogelsang 35 A D-14478 Potsdam, Germany [email protected]

Abstract. This paper describes the diﬀerent types of published sources for biographical data from the history of astronomy – well known ones like encyclopaedias, biographical dictionaries, and obituaries, as well as less known ones like membership directories of societies, annual reports, and lists of solar-system nomenclature. Also online sources such as web pages and databases are considered. Existing bio-bibliographies are discussed and a new “Biographical Index of Astronomy” (BIA) is introduced. It lists biographical and bio-bibliographical sources for more than 16,000 persons.

1. Introduction Biographical information about astronomers is needed in a large variety of historical research – not only when writing someone’s biography, but also in studies on the history of observatories, in editions of correspondences, in astronomical encyclopaedias, in name indices to books, etc. Very often the years of birth and death are indicated for the persons mentioned in a paper, even if no other biographical information is used. For famous astronomers of the past, biographical data can be retrieved simply from encyclopaedias and biographical dictionaries. However, there have been at least 100,000 astronomers, but biographies are easily available for only a few hundreds of them. Although information on several 10,000 astronomers exists, it is spread over thousands of books, journal volumes, newspapers and other sources. When looking for data about a given person from the history of astronomy, especially about a less known one, the problem is, on the one hand the lack of a comprehensive single source and, on the other hand, the quantity of potential sources which had to be con367 A. Heck (ed.), Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, 367–382. © 2006 Springer.

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sulted. It is not possible to go through all these sources when looking for a speciﬁc person. To overcome this problem to a certain extent, a “Biographical Index of Astronomy” (BIA) was published recently (Br¨ uggenthies & Dick 2005). In the following, the types of published sources for biographical data from the history of astronomy and the mentioned Index to these will be described. The retrieval of unpublished sources from archives (and also the location and retrieval of rare printed sources) is another problem which will not be considered here. The references given below are only examples from a very large number of sources and are not meant as an exhaustive list. Also the list of source types is not complete. 2. Types of Published Biographical Sources 2.1. INTERNATIONAL BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARIES OF ASTRONOMY

The forthcoming “Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers” (Hockey et al. 2006) will be a major addition to the existing books of this kind. Up to now, there has been no large biographical encyclopaedia of astronomy. The most comprehensive dictionary (Kol’chinskj et al. 1986) was published in Russian and is biased towards Russian and Soviet astronomers. However, it contains several biographies of Soviet astronomers which can hardly be found elsewhere. Other such books contain only a small number of persons (e.g., Herrmann 1991), do not indicate sources (Abbott 1984), or have other shortcomings. 2.2. SPECIAL BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARIES OF ASTRONOMY

Besides few international ones, there are several national, regional and special biographical dictionaries of astronomy (e.g., Bartha et al. 2000; Foder` a Serio & Randazzo 1997; Haupt & Holl 2000; Schmidt 1990; Suter 1900). As for some of the international dictionaries, the usage of these special compilations is restricted due to problems of language and access. None of the books cited above was written in English, but in other national languages instead (German, Hungarian, Italian). However, they are of great value, because one may ﬁnd therein many persons who are missing in other encyclopaedias and because they used published and unpublished sources which are hardly accessible to readers abroad.

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2.3. ENCYCLOPAEDIAS OF ASTRONOMY

Biographical entries in general encyclopaedias of astronomy and of the history of astronomy (e.g., Lankford 1997; Shirley & Fairbridge 1997) are mostly of popular kind and restricted to famous astronomers. However, in single cases (e.g., Eelsalu 1996), one may ﬁnd also biographical information in these books which is not or hardly available elsewhere. 2.4. ASTRONOMY BOOKS

Several scientiﬁc books on the history of astronomy contain biographical appendices which are of great value and may serve as additions to the special biographical dictionaries (e.g., Christianson 2000; Heck 2005; Litten 1992). There are also popular books on astronomy in general and on the history of astronomy with biographical appendices, which may be considered as short international dictionaries of astronomy (e.g., Becker 1968; Ludendorﬀ 1922). Biographical information is also spread over the texts and footnotes of a large number of history of astronomy books. Some of the authors made special eﬀorts to ﬁnd rare biographical data (e.g., Hentschel 1998; Tassoul & Tassoul 2004). 2.5. BOOKS FROM RELATED FIELDS

The same sources as described above for astronomy exist for related ﬁelds of science. These are also of importance, because many mathematicians, physicists, etc. did also some work in astronomy (and vice versa – astronomers did research also in mathematics, etc.), and because a considerable number of astronomers left astronomy to work in other ﬁelds (or in some cases came from other ﬁelds). 2.6. BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARIES OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Besides the large and well-known biographical dictionaries covering all branches of science – Poggendorﬀ’s “Biographisch-literarisches Handw¨ orterbuch zur Geschichte der exacten Wissenschaften” (Poggendorﬀ 1858ﬀ) and the “Dictionary of Scientiﬁc Biography” (Gillispie 1970-1990) – a large number of similar but much smaller dictionaries exist. Many of these are not of great value, because they do not meet scientiﬁc standards and usually comprise all the same famous scholars which may be found also in large encyclopaedias.

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2.7. GENERAL BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIAS

International biographical encyclopaedias of general kind are usually restricted to famous persons. Of greater value are the large national biographical encyclopaedias like the American National Biography, the (British) Dictionary of National Biography, Dizionaro Biograﬁco degli Italiani, Neue Deutsche Biographie, and many more. Regional and local biographical (and general) dictionaries like, e.g., the encyclopaedia of the German city Augsburg (Gr¨ unsteudel 1998) are especially useful for persons of local importance and as guides to local, otherwise hard-to-ﬁnd sources. There are several bibliographies of biographical dictionaries and other resources, e.g. Slocum (1986), Wick & Mood (1998). 2.8. SPECIAL BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOPAEDIAS

Not only scientists, but also representatives of other ﬁelds of work and culture had relations to astronomy, and several astronomers were at the same time musicians, politicians, Jesuits, etc. Therefore, special biographical dictionaries from the ﬁelds of arts, music, religion, etc., should also be consulted. 2.9. WHO’S WHO OF SCIENCE

Poggendorﬀ’s biographical dictionary (1858-1863) was not only a compendium about scientists of the past, but also the ﬁrst large Who’s Who of science. In the 20th century, dictionaries restricted only to living scholars followed, like “American Men [& Women] of Science”, “K¨ urschners Deutscher Gelehrten-Kalender”, or “Who’s Who in Science and Engineering”. These are the only biographical sources for many astronomers, not only for those alive, but also for astronomers of the past. In other cases, they give additional information not contained in obituaries or elsewhere. Another advantage of the Who’s Who publications is that they are usually based on data provided by the included persons themselves, although typing errors can degrade these. 2.10. GENERAL WHO’S WHO

Of similar importance like the Who’s Who of science are that of international or national type, like “Marquis Who’s Who in the World”, “Who’s Who in America”, “Who’s Who in France – Qui est qui en France”, or “Wer ist Wer? Das deutsche Who’s Who”. However, their huge number makes it diﬃcult to ﬁnd a speciﬁc astronomer or another person related to astronomy.

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Figure 1. A large variety of biographical sources for astronomers exists: encyclopaedias, biographical dictionaries, Who’s Who, monographs, journals, annual reports, bibliographies, etc.

2.11. GENERAL ENCYCLOPAEDIAS

Large encyclopaedias, ﬁrst of all the Encyclopaedia Britannica, can also be used for biographical purposes. Especially the CD-ROM and online versions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica are rather complete and up to date with respect to contemporary outstanding astronomers, e.g. Nobel Prize winners. Some of its entries contain also comprehensive bio-bibliographies. 2.12. MONOGRAPHS AND OTHER BOOKS ON SINGLE PERSONS

When looking for extended biographical information, one wishes to consult biographical monographs and other books devoted to a single person or family, or an autobiography of that person. Nowadays, these can easily be found by the help of online library catalogues. We recommend especially the Library of Congress catalogues1 , and the Karlsruhe Virtual Catalogue2 allowing to search in several large library catalogues with a single mask. Of 1 2

http://catalog.loc.gov/ – See especially “Basic Search > Subject Browse”. http://www.ubka.uni-karlsruhe.de/kvk.html

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course, books are published only about a minority of astronomers, so that this source is restricted to a very limited number of persons. 2.13. JOURNALS, NEWSLETTERS AND SERIES OF BOOKS

Journals, newsletters and other periodicals (yearbooks, series of proceedings and other series of books) contain biographies, obituaries, papers on history of astronomy, personal notes, interviews, and autobiographies/remembrances. Most of biographical information is published in this form, whereas biographical dictionaries present only summaries. The number of journals to be considered is rather large, although only a limited number of astronomical journals publish biographical papers, notes or obituaries. Information on astronomers and the more on other persons related to astronomy can potentially be found in every journal. 2.14. NEWSPAPERS

Newspapers, especially local ones, are also a valuable source in ﬁnding biographical information, mainly in the form of obituaries, but also as reports or interviews. However, it may be rather time-consuming to access these newspapers and to locate articles of interest. Some local libraries or archives may oﬀer help with biographical indices to local newspapers. The archives of the newspapers would be even more helpful, but these are usually not open to the public. Some printed biographical indices to newspapers are available. During the last years, a growing number of newspapers are available in electronic form and may be easily accessed with name, keyword or full-text searches. 2.15. MEMBERSHIP DIRECTORIES OF SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES

Sometimes, membership directories contain not only names and addresses, but also biographical data. For instance, the Astronomische Gesellschaft published a series of “Portr¨ atgal[l]erie”, the ﬁrst of which appeared in 1904, the latest in 1996. These contain short biographies and portraits of those members, who provided these. 2.16. ANNUAL REPORTS OF INSTITUTIONS

Occasionally, annual reports of astronomical and other institutes include also short biographical data beyond the usual lists of staﬀ names, research reports and lists of publications. Some reports contain obituaries or at least death notices which may not be found in other sources.

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2.17. LISTS OF SOLAR-SYSTEM NOMENCLATURE

Many objects in the solar system (Moon craters, asteroids, and others) were given names of astronomers and other persons – not only of famous ones, but also of less-known professional and amateur astronomers. Nomenclature lists like the Dictionary of Minor Planet Names (Schmadel 2003) and the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature3 contain very short biographical information for these persons. In many cases, these seem to be the only biographical data published so far. 2.18. AUTOBIOGRAPHIES IN PHD THESES

Mainly in Germany, partly also in The Netherlands and in other countries, PhD theses (dissertations) contain short autobiographies. For many astronomers, this is the only published biographical information. Nowadays, some German universities do not longer demand these biographies, so that this source of information is declining. 2.19. DATA ON AUTHORS IN BOOKS AND PAPERS

Sometimes, short information on the author(s) is given at the end of a book or on its dust jacket. The same holds for papers in journals, mainly in popular ones. Principally, from all publications by an author some biographical information on him/her can be derived – approximate years of activity, afﬁliations, ﬁelds of research, and others. In some scientiﬁc and popular books and papers from the 19th century or earlier, the author provides even some autobiographical information in the text. Such hidden data can also be found in some modern popular publications. Therefore, also publications by an author should be consulted, especially when no publications about him/her exist. 2.20. INTERNET (WORLD-WIDE WEB)

The Internet is a growing source for biographical information. Books and journals of the past are being digitized, some modern publications appear in both printed and online format. Besides these, more and more web pages devoted to biographies as well as complete online biographical dictionaries are being published. Astronomical institutes provide obituaries online. However, a great problem of the World-Wide Web is its volatility. Web pages are being constantly moved or disappear, making it practically impossible to keep large directories up-to-date, as the author knows from his 3

http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/

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own experience with a website containing about 10,000 links to history of astronomy web pages, many of these of biographical kind4 . Making online publications independent from the author or home institution is a problem which has not yet been solved, although some attempts exist. To a certain extent, this problem can be solved by search engines, such as Google or Alta Vista, which refresh their databases constantly, so that also web pages which have been moved can be found again, or deleted pages can be retrieved from the engine’s cache. However, for astronomers with wide-spread ﬁrst and family names (e.g. Johann Schmidt or John Smith), “googling” is not very helpful because the number of irrelevant hits is too high. For this and for other reasons, link lists maintained “by hand” are necessary. Many astronomers provide (auto)biographical information at their personal homepages. StarHeads5 maintained by A. Heck is a directory to about 6,000 of such personal WWW pages of professional astronomers and related space scientists. However, is is doubtful whether such autobiographical web pages can be regarded as published data which may be cited in other publications. The protection laws of personal data are rather strict in many countries. One should not use these data without contacting the persons concerned. More and more biographical data are available in online databases6 , which cannot be accessed through the common search engines. One has to know their web location and to use their search masks to retrieve the information. Most of these are not free, but subscription databases with annual fees, which can be astronomically high from the point of view of a private person. However, many university and other large libraries provide free access to these databases through their subscriptions. A good example is WBIS (see below). 2.21. GENERAL BIO-BIBLIOGRAPHIES

A look at the reference shelves of large libraries shows that not only uncounted biographical sources are available, but also numerous biobibliographies, indexing biographical dictionaries, monographs, journals or newspapers (e.g., Biography index – a cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines, International bibliography of biography, BIO-BASE – a master index on microﬁche to more than 12,700,000 biographical sketches found in over 1,250 current and retrospective biograph4

http://www.astrohist.org/ http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/starheads.html 6 See, e.g., http://www2.lib.udel.edu/subj/hist/resguide/biograph.htm, http://www.ndb.badw-muenchen.de/eb www.htm, and http://www.astrohist.org/ 5

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Figure 2. The web site http://www.astrohist.org/, maintained by the author, provides links to biographical sites and pages for more than 1800 astronomers and other persons with relation to astronomy.

Figure 3. “Finding List of Obituary Notes of Astronomers (1900-1997)” by Duerbeck & Ott comprises more than 9000 entries for more than 3000 persons.

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ical dictionaries). There are some bio-bibliographies for science in general (e.g. Pelletier 1994), listing also a limited number of (mostly prominent) astronomers, but until recently there was no special bio-bibliography for astronomy. Also, most bibliographies index only a certain type of sources, e.g. biographical dictionaries. Also general bibliographies like ISIS Current Bibliography, devoted to the history of science, include biographical entries sorted by names. The ﬁrst two volumes of the ISIS Cumulative Bibliography list mainly biographical books and papers (Whitrow 1971). Bio-bibliographies may be found with the help of library catalogues or in bibliographies of bibliographies, e.g. Slocum (1986). 2.22. THE WORLD BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEM (WBIS)

The World Biographical Information System Online7 (formerly: Internationaler Biographischer Index – World Biographical Index) is an online subscription database, referencing and making more easily available a variety of biographical dictionaries. WBIS Online is based on the various series of Biographical Archives and Biographical Indices published by K.G. Saur Verlag (e.g. American Biographical Archive and American Biographical Index), each covering a country or language or cultural area and previously available in microﬁche and paper editions. The work of converting the microﬁche editions (i.e. Biographical Archives) to database form is ongoing, whereas most of the printed Biographical Indices are already available as an online database. WBIS is accessible through subscription only; thanks to support by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, in Germany the subscription is free. The Biographical Archives, originally in microﬁche form, now as scans (electronic images) of these microﬁches, are compilations from biographical dictionaries, re-sorted by names. In this way, one may access several entries in diﬀerent dictionaries for one person together on one microﬁche or now online without retrieving the original sources. The corresponding Biographical Indices give access to the microﬁches and contain also the bibliographical data of the original sources, so that these may also be used independently from the Archives as bio-bibliographies. WBIS has two major limitations: 1. Due to copyright restrictions, it concentrates mainly on smaller biographical dictionaries and on those of the past, whereas large and important biographical encyclopaedias like most of the national ones mentioned above are missing. 7

http://www.saur-wbi.de/

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2. The scans of the microﬁches are available as images only (no optical character recognition was done), so that no full-text search is possible. 2.23. OTHER ONLINE DATABASES

Besides WBIS, there are some other online databases of bio-bibliographies. Most general bibliographic databases also include biographical entries. For a link list, see Sect. 2.20, especially the link given in Footnote 4. When only the years of birth (and death) of an astronomer are needed, also online library catalogues may be useful. The Library of Congress catalogues and many others give these data not only for the subjects of biographical books, but also for the authors and editors of many other books8 . Very often the year of birth of an author was taken from one of his listed books. 2.24. BIBLIOGRAPHIES OF ASTRONOMY

Bibliographies of astronomical publications, ﬁrst of all Astronomischer Jahresbericht (AJB), Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts (AAA), and the Abstract Service of the NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS9 ), but also other ones, contain bio-bibliographical entries. However, it is not so easy to make use of this information. ADS may be searched for names, but it is by far less complete than AJB and AAA with respect to biographical publications. On the other hand, there is no index to the biographies listed in AJB and AAA, so that one has to browse many volumes, sometimes all (more than 100) to ﬁnd the information needed. Only for obituaries listed in AJB and AAA there is an index compiled by Duerbeck & Ott (see below). My own checks with the original sources have shown that also AJB and AAA did not completely list all obituaries or biographical notes contained in the indexed journals. Some journals were regarded only for limited periods of time, sometimes obituaries of amateur astronomers were omitted, and for journals like Physics Today only the obituaries of obvious relevance were listed, whereas many obituaries of physicists with astronomical publications were not considered. There are only a few bibliographies of books and papers on the history of astronomy (e.g. DeVorkin 1982). These are useful when looking for biographical books and papers. Only in rare cases they include also obituaries, personal notes, entries in dictionaries, etc. 8 9

http://catalog.loc.gov/ – e.g. “Basic Search > Author/Creator Browse”. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract service.html

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2.25. BIO-BIBLIOGRAPHIES OF ASTRONOMY

The most comprehensive bibliographies concentrating on biographical publications for astronomers are the following ones, all available in online form only: • Duerbeck, H.W. & Ott, B.: A Finding List of Obituary Notes of Astronomers (1900-1997)10 . This list comprises more than 9000 entries for more than 3000 astronomers and some other persons related to astronomy. It was compiled mainly by indexing AJB and AAA (see above). Unfortunately, it will not be possible to continue this index into the 21st century by indexing existing astronomical bibliographies, because AAA has ceased publication, and ADS provides keywords like “obituary” only in rare cases, so that it is not possible to search ADS to ﬁnd all obituaries. • Kinder, A.J.: Index of obituaries appearing in RAS publications11 . This index lists all obituaries published in the journals of the Royal Astronomical Society (mainly in its Monthly Notices and in the Quarterly Journal). With regard to RAS members, it is more complete than AJB and AAA (and thus than the index by Duerbeck & Ott), not only because it starts before the ﬁrst volume of AJB appeared. However, it does not list death notices in the MNRAS which were partly indexed in AJB. • Krisciunas, K.: Name Index to Sky & Telescope12 . This is a valuable source for ﬁnding biographical papers, personal notes and obituaries in S&T, although it is not complete. 3. The “Biographical Index of Astronomy” (BIA) The “Biographical Index of Astronomy” (Br¨ uggenthies & Dick 2005) lists at least one biographical or bio-bibliographical source for more than 16,000 persons related somehow to astronomy. Besides astronomers and astrophysicists, there are also astrologers (at least until early modern times); other staﬀ members of observatories and astronomical institutes; amateur astronomers; historians of astronomy and general historians, philologists, etc., with publications in history of astronomy; scientists from related ﬁelds (physicists, mathematicians, geodesists, geologists, meteorologists, etc.), who made astronomical research or popularized astronomy; pioneers of space ﬂight (among these, e.g., the ﬁrst rocketry engineers and the ﬁrst astronauts in the Moon); instrument and globe makers; patrons of astron10

http://www.astro.uni-bonn.de/∼pbrosche/persons/obit/ http://www.ras.org.uk/html/obits/obits.html 12 http://www.nd.edu/∼kkrisciu/st.html 11

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Figure 4.

Figure 5.

379

The “Biographical Index of Astronomy” (Br¨ uggenthies & Dick 2005).

Sample page and sample entry from the “Biographical Index of Astronomy”.

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omy; science managers with important inﬂuence on astronomy; musicians, artists and writers, who worked on astronomical themes or were inspired by these. Astrologers of the 18th to 20th centuries and architects of observatories were not included. In case of doubt, we tended to rather include than to exclude a person. There are no limitations with respect to time. The index gives ca. 44,000 references to ca. 400 sources (counting all volumes of a journal or of a multi-volume book as one single source). BIA diﬀers from other bio-bibliographic works by the fact that it is not restricted to any kind of sources, e.g., biographical encyclopaedias or obituaries, but uses a large variety of biographical resources. Besides published sources of the types described above, we used also some unpublished archival material (e.g., unpublished death announcements) and some personal communications by archives, institutions und private persons for dates of birth and death which could not be found otherwise. BIA is meant mainly as a ﬁrst guide to the published sources and also as an inventory of “hidden” sources for those persons who are missing in the large encyclopaedias. BIA is in no way complete with respect to the biographical references. For some astronomers (Copernicus, Kepler, etc.) the personal bibliographies alone ﬁll complete books. Therefore also bibliographic sources were referenced. The use of large dictionaries and bibliographies like the Dictionary of Scientiﬁc Biography or WBIS guarantues the internationality of this Index. German sources were indexed more completely than others, so that persons from German-speaking countries are present disproportionately. However, none of the important astronomers of the past is likely to be missing. BIA indicates mainly sources in German and in English, but also works in Czech, Estonian, French, Hungarian, Italian, Russian, Spanish, and in other languages. The referenced bibliographies include sources in many more languages. 4. Problems and Perspectives Bibliographies like the “Biographical Index of Astronomy” would be especially helpful if they could reach relative completeness with respect to the relevant persons. However, this is hardly possible not only due to the fact that this is a private project with very limited resources. The ﬁrst edition could not make use of many important sources and only a small number of sources could indeed be browsed and indexed completely – otherwise the book would have never been ﬁnished. A possible future edition will consider more sources and will index more completely those already used in the ﬁrst edition. Perhaps, someone could start a similar project as an institutional one, relying on better resources with respect to manpower

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and computer assistance. However, even such an enlarged project could not reach completeness due to the overwhelming amount of potential sources to be physically retrieved, checked and indexed – which is growing each day. There are also linguistic problems. It can be a dream only to form a team with a command of all languages in which biographical information was published. For this we would like to encourage historians of astronomy to compile more special bio-bibliographies of astronomers like the ones mentioned above, especially for rare sources in diﬀerent languages. Knowing a source of biographical information is not helpful when this source cannot easily be retrieved or is in a language diﬃcult to translate. Therefore, more national, local and special biographical dictionaries of astronomers in wide-spread languages would be very welcome. Besides such large projects, there is also a contribution that many astronomers and historians of astronomy could easily make. It seems that the number of obituaries published in astronomical journals has considerably decreased during the last decades, at least relatively compared to the growing number of astronomers, and that also their quality has fallen oﬀ (cf. Lankford 1984). The large astronomical journals stopped to include obituaries, and without the eﬀorts of some astronomical societies to publish obituaries of their members in their journals, the situation would be even worse. Consequently, the importance of other sources like that of the Who’s Who kind to ﬁnd biographical information for studies in history of modern astronomy is growing. Therefore, it would be very helpful if astronomers would reply to requests for biographical data sent by Who’s Who editors. At least historians of astronomy should be aware of the importance of these dictionaries and make their biographical data available to future generations of historians – and encourage their astronomical colleagues to do so, too. References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Abbott, D. (Ed.) 1984, The Biographical Dictionary of Scientists, Century Hutchinson, New York. (ISBN 0-58-410853-2) ´ Bartha, L., K¨ onny¨ u, J. & Pischn´e, K.E. 2000, Magyarorsz´ agi Csillag´ aszok Eletrajzi Lexikonja, Budapest. Becker, F. 1980, Geschichte der Astronomie (4th ed.), Mannheim Bibliogr. Inst. Br¨ uggenthies, W. & Dick, W.R. 2005, Biographischer Index der Astronomie – Biographical Index of Astronomy, Acta Historica Astronomiae 26, Verlag Harri Deutsch, Frankfurt a.M., 481 pp. (ISBN 3-8171-1769-8) Christianson, J.R. 2000, On Tycho’s Island – Tycho Brahe and his Assistants, 15701601, Cambridge Univ. Press. (ISBN 0-52-165081-X) DeVorkin, D.H. 1982, The History of Modern Astronomy and Astrophysics: A Selected, Annotated Bibliography, Garland, New York. (ISBN 0-82-409283-X) Eelsalu, H. 1996, Astronoomialeksikon, Eesti Ents¨ uklopeediakirjastus, Tallinn. (ISBN 5-89900-041-4)

382 8. 9. 10. 11.

12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22.

23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30.

13

WOLFGANG R. DICK Foder` a Serio, G. & Randazzo, D. 1997, Astronomi Italiani dall’Unit` a d’Italia ai Nostri Giorni, Soc. Astron. Italiana, Firenze13 . Gillispie, C.C. (Ed.): 1970-1990, Dictionary of Scientiﬁc Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York. (ISBN 0-68-480588-X) Gr¨ unsteudel, G. (Ed.) 1998, Augsburger Stadtlexikon (2nd ed.), Perlach, Augsburg. (ISBN 3-9922769-28-4) ¨ Haupt, H. & Holl, P. 2000, Datenbank Osterreichischer Astronomen – Database ¨ of Austrian Astronomers (1330 – 2000), CD-ROM, Osterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften , Wien. (ISBN 3-7001-2939-4) Heck, A. (Ed.) 2005, The Multinational History of Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory, Springer, Dordrecht. (ISBN 1-4020-3643-4) Hentschel, K. 1998, Zum Zusammenspiel von Instrument, Experiment und Theorie – Rotverschiebung im Sonnenspektrum und verwandte spektrale Verschiebungseﬀekte von 1880 bis 1960, Kovac, Hamburg. (ISBN 3-86064-730-X) Herrmann, D.B. (Ed.) 1991, Biographien bedeutender Astronomen, Volk und Wissen, Berlin. (ISBN 3-06-082502-5) Hockey, T. et al. (Eds.) 2006, The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Springer, New York (in preparation). Kolchinskij, I.G., Korsun’, A.A. & Rodriges, M.G. 1986, Astronomy, Biograﬁcheskij Spravochnik (2nd ed.), Kiev. Lankford, J. 1984, A Crisis in Documentation: The Decline of the Obituary as a Source for the History of Modern Astronomy, Bull. Amer. Astron. Soc. 16, 560-564. Lankford, J. (Ed.) 1997, History of Astronomy – An Encyclopedia, Garland, New York. (ISBN 0-81-530322-X) Litten, F. 1992, Astronomie in Bayern 1914-1945, Steiner, Stuttgart. (ISBN 3-51506092-8) Ludendorﬀ, H. (Ed.) 1922, Newcomb-Engelmanns Popul¨ are Astronomie (7th ed.), Leipzig. Pelletier, P.A. 1994, Prominent Scientists – An Index to Collective Biographies (3rd ed.) Neal-Schumann Publ., New York. (ISBN 1-55-570114-0) Poggendorﬀ, J.C. 1858ﬀ, Biographisch-literarisches Handw¨ orterbuch zur Geschichte der exacten Wissenschaften, Vols. 1-2, Leipzig 1858-1863, Vols. 3-5, Leipzig 18981926, Vol. 6, Berlin 1936-1940, Vols. 7a, 7b, 7a Supplement & 8, Berlin 1956-2004, Erg¨ anzungsband Mathematik, Weinheim 2004. Schmadel, L.D. 2003, Dictionary of Minor Planet Names (5th ed.), Springer Telos, Berlin. (ISBN 3-54-066292-8) Schmidt, H. 1990, Astronomen der Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universit¨at Bonn, Bouvier, Bonn. (ISBN 3-416-80604-2) Shirley, J.H. & Fairbridge, R.W. 1997, Encyclopedia of Planetary Sciences, Springer, New York. (ISBN 0-79-236794-4) Slocum, R.B. 1986, Biographical Dictionaries and Related Works – An International Bibliography of more than 16,000 Collective Biographies (2nd ed.) Gale Research Co., Detroit. (ISBN 0-81-030243-8) Suter, H. 1900, Die Mathematiker und Astronomen der Araber und ihre Werke, Leipzig. Tassoul, J.L. & Tassoul, M. 2004, A Concise History of Solar and Stellar Physics, Princeton Univ. Press. (ISBN 0-69-111711-X) Whitrow, M. (Ed.) 1971, ISIS Cumulative Bibliography – A Bibliography of the History of Science Formed from ISIS Critical Bibliographies 1-90, 1913-65, Vols. 1-2, Personalities, Institutions, Mansell, London. (ISBN 0-72-010183-2) Wick, R.L. & Mood, T.A. (Eds.) 1998, ARBA Guide to Biographical Resources, 1986-1997, Libraries Unlimited, Englewood, CO. (ISBN 1-56-308453-8) http://www.astropa.unipa.it/biblioteca/Astronomi/

GERMAN ASTRONOMY IN THE THIRD REICH

HILMAR W. DUERBECK

WE/OBSS Vrije Universiteit Brussel Pleinlaan 2 B-1050 Brussel, Belgium [email protected]

Abstract. We give a concise outline on astronomical activities carried out in Germany during the time of the Third Reich (1933–1945), both at university observatories and in research institutions funded by other organizations. The fate of observatories in places annected or occupied by Germany – Vienna and other Austrian observatories, Strasbourg (France), Poznan, Warsaw and Cracow (Poland) – is also brieﬂy described. Some astronomers had to suﬀer hardships because of discriminating laws; others rose to inﬂuential positions because of their association with the ruling party. There were attempts to streamline university studies, both in the sciences and the humanities. An ideological conﬂict in physics and cosmology (“Jewish” versus “German” physics) was only softened during the war, and delayed the appointment of Heckmann as director of Hamburg Observatory. On the other hand, research in high-frequency signal transmission carried out by the German air force lead to the establishment of several mountain observatories for solar research. A public struggle against astrology was in opposition to occult studies, mainly carried out by the “Ahnenerbe” research foundation. Soon after the war, a ﬁrst-hand account of German astronomy was given by Kuiper, and a detailed survey was edited by ten Bruggencate. Some astronomical developments in post-war Germany which were inﬂuenced or triggered by events in the Nazi era are brieﬂy mentioned.

1. Introduction Books on the history of Germany during the Nazi era are abundant – the reason is manifold. First, these modern dark times and the actors carry some morbid fascination. Second, although there are losses, the available 383 A. Heck (ed.), Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, 383–413. © 2006 Springer.

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archival material is tremendous. Due to the German defeat, it was often seized by allied forces, evaluated, and later returned. Especially after the reuniﬁcation of Germany (and thus also of the merging of Eastern and Western archives, and the transfer of the NSDAP1 membership ﬁles to the federal archives), research has become more easy. Focusing on science and technology, we mention the intellectual (if this is an appropriate word) struggle between “Jewish” and “German” (or Aryan) physics in the ﬁelds of relativity theory and quantum mechanics, the quest for the use of atomic energy, as well as the development of advanced rockets for military and scientiﬁc use. These developments have been treated extensively in historical researches (see Beyerchen 1977, Irving 1967, and Neufeld 1995 for detailed studies). From time to time, more or less serious research still makes it to the headline news (e.g. about a suspected atomic bomb test in wartime Germany). We also draw the attention of the reader to the book “Physics and National Socialism”, a collection of sources, translated into English and provided with an informative introduction by Hentschel & Hentschel (1996). It includes information on some of the persons mentioned here, and also helps to understand the terminology of some of the organizations that played a role during the Nazi era. When we shift from physics to astronomy, things usually look less spectacular. In the ﬁrst half of the 20th century, most astronomers, in Germany and elsewhere, carried out somewhat old-fashioned research (seen with today’s eyes, and maybe also with the eyes of some of their contemporary scientists). In Germany, time-consuming, useful, but unspectacular work dealt with the production of yearbooks (Berliner Astronomisches Jahrbuch), an astronomical bibliography (Astronomischer Jahresbericht), and a bibliography on variable stars (Geschichte und Literatur des Lichtwechsels ver¨ anderlicher Sterne). In addition, a lot of observational, measuring, and calculating work was done for the preparation and publication of positional star catalogues (2nd Catalogue of the Astronomische Gesellschaft, Geschichte des Fixsternhimmels). 1

NSDAP = Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist Workers’ Party); founded 1919-1920; party leader since 1921: Adolf Hitler; ruling party in Germany from early 1933 to the end of WW II. In the following, “party” will always mean “NSDAP”, and “old comrade” will mean “party member before 1933”. The reader should be aware that membership was widespread in Germany – also among people who became important after the war, in (mainly Western) Germany and elsewhere. Just to give a few examples: Karl Carstens and Walter Scheel, both Federal Presidents; Kurt Georg Kiesinger, Federal Chancellor; Kurt Waldheim, Secretary General of the United Nations Organization; Wernher von Braun, rocket engineer; Herbert von Karajan, conductor; Konrad Lorenz, behaviourist. So it should come as no great surprise that many German astronomers also became party members sooner or later, especially since this was almost tantamount to academic advancement.

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Several aspects merit a closer look. There is, ﬁrst, the interest of some astronomers/cosmologists in relativity theory, which was part of the despised “Jewish physics”. There is, second, the evolution of astrophysics, not only in the ﬁeld of stellar studies, but in particular in solar physics and solar-terrestrial relations. Because these ﬁelds had connexions with weather forecast and radio interference, they developed some dynamics of their own, and transgressed the inner circle of academic studies. During the Nazi era, another ﬁeld outside of academy was boosted: “occult sciences”, like astrology, glacial cosmogony, hollow world theory2 found fertile soil within the so-called Ahnenerbe, a research organization under the protection of Heinrich Himmler, Reichsf¨ uhrer SS (see Sect. 10). 2. Astronomy and its Organizations – From the Kaiser to the F¨ uhrer There is no way to summarize German history in the ﬁrst half of the 20th century on half a page. But the bullets of Sarajewo did not only trigger the First World War, but also laid the roots of the Second one. Kaiser Wilhelm II should not only be regarded as a preposterous and bombastic person, but also as someone who fostered the sciences. Under his reign, the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft was founded in 1911 (later to be known as Max-Planck-Gesellschaft). Scientists, like many Germans of the upper classes, felt with the Kaiser that Germany needed “a place under the Sun”. Thus it comes as no big surprise that, at the outbreak of WW I, a manifesto An die Kulturwelt3 was signed by 93 leading scientists, artists, philosophers and theologicians, supporting the Kaiser’s actions. On the other hand, a counter-manifesto Aufruf an die Europ¨ aer, written by C.F. Nicolai, a professor of medicine, was only signed by Albert Einstein, the astronomer Wilhelm Foerster (who felt bad about his signature under the previous document), and one student4 . It is fair to say that in other countries, the situation was not very diﬀerent – let us just mention that 2 This term actually describes two world views. The ﬁrst one, developed by the USphysicist Cyrus R. Teed around 1890, assumes that the earth’s continents are on the surface of a hollow sphere, and we are looking at a central globe of ﬁxed stars, which is circled by the sun, moon and planets. This concept was revived by Karl Neupert and Johannes Lang around 1930. Kuiper (1946a, p. 277/8) brieﬂy alludes to wartime experiments by the German navy, based on this concept. The second one, ﬁrst scientiﬁcally proposed by the US-oﬃcer John Cleves Symmes in 1818 (of course, there are earlier and later poetical allusions), assumes that the earth is hollow, but that these inner regions are accessible through “holes”. Himmler’s Ahnenerbe included a section on “cave research”, but it is not clear whether this had its roots in scientiﬁc curiosity or mystic speculation. 3 The text is available at: http://www.nernst.de/kulturwelt.htm. Facsimile at: http://philoscience.unibe.ch/lehre/winter99/einstein/Aufruf− Kulturwelt.pdf 4 Due to the lack of support, it was not published. Text at: http://philoscience.unibe.ch/lehre/winter99/einstein/Aufruf− Europaer.pdf

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another “voice in the wilderness” was Arthur S. Eddington, who also abhorred the war, and was quite isolated among his British colleagues. The unconditioned surrender at the end of the First World War imposed a severe ﬁnancial burden upon Germany through the Versailles treaty. Because of the decline of state funding and also inﬂation, the so-called Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft (hardship community of German science) was founded in 1920. This association coordinated the spending of state and private subsidies. Renamed Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft in 1929, it still serves the same purpose today. But Germany not only had lost the war, but also its scientiﬁc acceptance amongst many countries. The (international) Astronomische Gesellschaft (Fig. 1) lost many of its foreign members, and became more and more a society of German-speaking astronomers – while the German language was more and more eliminated from the rank of a lingua franca of science. New international organizations were founded, like the International Astronomical Union, but Germany deliberately was not invited to participate. Although in 1928 some German astronomers were invited to attend a General Assembly, the problem was not solved in the 1930s; Germany also claimed that there were ﬁnancial constraints. Actually, only in 1952 Germany became a member of the IAU (see Blaauw 1994). In the 1920s, a few German scientists nevertheless were invited to lecture in the former “enemy” countries; Einstein was among them (and his Swiss passport could always serve as an excuse for an invitation). In general, countries that had remained neutral in World War I, like the Netherlands or the Nordic countries, were more open to German scientists; and a somewhat special relationship developed between Germany and Russia (or rather the Soviet Union), who had negotiated a separate peace treaty, and had both got rid of their aristocratic rulers because of the war. Several events in the Astronomische Gesellschaft between 1933 and 1939, the year when the last meeting in the time interval considered here took place, deserve to be mentioned. In 1933, during a vote for the executive committee, a competition between Hans Kienle and the old comrade Heinrich Vogt took place; after several ballots, the latter one was elected. It should also be mentioned, however, that Arthur S. Eddington was elected during the same session! In 1936, the readers of the Astronomische Gesellschaft’s Vierteljahrsschrift were informed that Rudolf Prager, the secretary of the executive committee, “resigned by the end of the year, since he has been superannuated.” (Vierteljahrsschrift 1937, p. 1). Since Prager, dismissed from civil service because of his Jewish ancestry, also fought – in vain, at least in Germany – to continue his astronomical work, it may be assumed that this resignation, too, was not a voluntary one.

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Figure 1. Opening session of Astronomische Gesellschaft meeting, Breslau (Wroclaw, Silesia), on 6 July 1937. Since the society always claimed to be an international one, the prominent use of the ﬂag is not very appropriate. First row: representatives of the town and university; second row: Josef Hopmann; third row, from left: August Kopﬀ, Paul ten Bruggencate, Knut Lundmark and Heinrich Vogt; fourth row: Richard Schorr and Luigi Carnera. (Courtesy: Hamburg Observatory)

The last meeting of the Astronomische Gesellschaft before the outbreak of the war took place in August 1939, in Danzig/Gdansk (Fig. 2). Planned meetings in Bonn and Rome in the years 1941 and 1942 were shelved; in April 1947, a constituting meeting of the Astronomische Gesellschaft in der ottingen6 . Britischen Zone5 took place in G¨ 5

This meeting took place by permission of the British military government. All associations that existed before armistice had been forbidden (and thus the Astronomische Gesellschaft proper), just to be on the safe side. . . 6 See Schmeidler (1988) for a concise history of the Astronomische Gesellschaft.

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3. 1933 and its Consequences in the University System Following the nomination of Hitler as Reich chancellor on 30 January 1933, and the subsequent total seize of power by the National Socialists after the burning of the Reichstag on February 27, an attempt was made to politically realign all institutions (Gleichschaltung), and to establish the authoritarian F¨ uhrerprinzip to all subsidiary organizations within the party. From 14 July 1933, the NSDAP was the only legal political party in Germany until 1945. From 1 May 1933 to Spring 1937, no new party members were admitted to avoid the inclusion of too many “freeloaders”. The professional branch for university teachers was the Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Dozentenbund (NSDDB, National Socialist German University Lecturers’ League). It was divided into districts, each headed by a Gauf¨ uhrer (district leader), who was appointed by the ministry of education. Each university had a Dozentenf¨ uhrer (university lecturers’ leader), at Munich University, the ﬁrst of those was the astronomer Wilhelm F¨ uhrer7 . Regular Dozentenlager (camp meetings) not only served for the exchange of professional ideas, but were used for indoctrination, as well as to carry out weapons “sport” (shooting, hand grenade throwing). The district leader’s evaluations were decisive in the acceptance of a habilitation thesis, which was a prerequisite for attaining the rank of lecturer: all new lecturers had to demonstrate their “personal ability to educate students in the National Socialist spirit”. In reading annual reports of observatories, one often notes the “attendance” of aspiring docents in such camps. Other assistants, who did not want to prostitute themselves, rather moved to positions where party requirements were less observed, i.e. to industry, to a Kaiser WilhelmInstitute or even to the military, and only resumed their academic career after the war8 . When new academic teaching positions, especially those of professors and institute directors, had to be ﬁlled, the faculty gave a list of (usually three) names to the Reichserziehungsministerium (REM), and after consultation with the local party members at the university, a decision was made by the ministry. A nationwide student association of the party was the Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund (NSDStB, National Socialist German Student League), founded in 1926. At the student council elections of 1931/32, the NSDStB won the majority of votes. The physics group leaders included the astronomer Bruno Th¨ uring and the mathematician-astronomer 7

F¨ uhrer had a brilliant career in the Nazi system, ﬁrst in the Bavarian Ministry of Culture, then in the Reichserziehungsministerium (REM, Reich Ministry of education). 8 To give just a few examples: Otto Hachenberg, Arthur K¨ onig, Hans Strassl. . .

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Figure 2. Invitation ﬂyer for the Astronomische Gesellschaft meeting in Danzig. Three weeks after the meeting, and a few kilometers away, the old-fashioned ship of the line Schleswig-Holstein ﬁred the ﬁrst salvoes of WW II towards Polish shelters on the Westerplatte. (private archive)

Fritz Kubach. While the former one, who also was a friend of the abovementioned Wilhelm F¨ uhrer, was appointed to be director of Vienna Observatory in 1940, the latter one became section chief of science in the Reichsstudentenf¨ uhrung (Reich student organization), and supervised the publication of a series of books, called Studienf¨ uhrer (study guide). Kubach also edited the introductory volume dealing with the study of science and mathematics (Kubach 1943a). The book contains a short section on astronomy by Th¨ uring, on physics by Rudolf Tomaschek, on history of science by Kubach, and on natural philosophy by Hugo Dingler – although the introductory texts are fairly innocent, only proven national socialists9 were invited to contribute to this and subsequent study guides. 9

Dingler had been a freemason in the 1920s, and thus could become a party member only through Hitler’s act of grace in 1940!

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Looking through Kubach’s study plans, the writer of these lines noted that they show a remarkable similarity to those of the late 1960s when he passed through the university system (and indeed, the publication of such Studienf¨ uhrer was continued after the war – only the ideological blinkers had been removed by then). This is obviously one of the ﬁelds where a modernization carried out during Nazi times was not revoked, but developed further after the war. Kubach also became the editor of a collection of essays on Copernicus (Kubach 1943b), as well as an ill-fated edition of Copernicus’ collected works. He had been missing in action since January 1945, and was declared dead some years later. 4. The Activities at German University Observatories There is not enough space to present all the activities of German observatories during the Nazi era. Activities of German astronomical institutes during the time interval 1933 to the late 1940s (in order to also inform about their fate after the war) can be summarized as follows: 4.1. BAMBERG

The small institute of Bamberg, loosely associated with the university of Erlangen, was headed by Ernst Zinner, a specialist in variable stars and a prominent historian of astronomy. In spite of being quite a staunch conservative, he did not adhere to the Nazi party. Zinner published biographies of Regiomontanus and the genesis of the Copernican world view. 4.2. BERLIN-BABELSBERG

Berlin-Babelsberg Observatory was headed by Paul Guthnick; the observatory was also most of the time in charge of running Sonneberg Observatory, a center of variable star research which had grown out of Cuno Hoﬀmeister’s private observatory. In 1933, the PhD student Lukas Plaut had to quit the observatory. He continued his studies in the Netherlands, and found employment at Leiden, and later Groningen, but he also had to suﬀer twice in concentration camps. Another victim of the Nazi race laws was Rudolf Prager, who not only had to retire “because of the new civil servant laws” at the end of 1935, but was not permitted to use the observatory library any more. He had been in charge of carrying out the Bibliography of Variable Stars, a task that was transferred to Heribert Schneller. Some IAU support helped Prager

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to emigrate to Cambridge/Mass., where he continued his work at Harvard Observatory (Blaauw 1994). He died in 1945. Astronomers of later fame started their career here: Walter Fricke, Otto Hachenberg, Peter Wellmann, and Ludwig Biermann. Some more astronomers should be mentioned: Margarethe G¨ ussow, who rose to the rank of observer10 , was a staunch Nazi who also had some backing by Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, the Reichsfrauenf¨ uhrerin (Reich womens’ leader). The observer and party-member Joachim Stobbe came from Kiel Observatory and later became director of Posen Observatory. 4.3. BERLIN-DAHLEM

The Astronomisches Recheninstitut in Berlin-Dahlem was in charge of preparing the ephemerides, as well as compiling the Astronomischer Jahresbericht, the yearly bibliography of astronomy. Its director was August Kopﬀ. In 1938, the editorial oﬃce of the journal Astronomische Nachrichten was also transferred to the Recheninstitut (from 1939 to the end of the war, it carried the name Coppernicus-Institut). In Summer 1944, the institute was transferred to Gross-Sermuth in Saxony, after the war it moved partly back to Berlin, partly to Heidelberg (i.e. parts were taken by the American Forces to the place of their headquarter). It was re-installed as a stateﬁnanced institute in Heidelberg already in 1945. Among the better known astronomers are: Gustav Stracke, Albrecht Kahrstedt, Friedrich Gondolatsch, Karl Heinemann, Karl Pilowski, and Eugen Rabe. The lecturer Werner Schaub, who had taken over the editing of the Astronomische Nachrichten, was appointed observer in 1940, and subsequently became director of the astronomical institute of the “German Karls-University Prag”. 4.4. BONN

Since 1927, Arnold Kohlsch¨ utter was the director of Bonn Observatory. When still in Potsdam, he had initiated a spectral survey in the Southern Kapteyn “selected areas”, carried out between 1926 and 1929 from a temporary observing station in La Paz, Bolivia (see Sect. 6.2). The principal observer of this station was Friedrich Becker, who also did most of the spectral classiﬁcation work later. When an assistant position became available in Bonn in 1930, Becker was hired by Kohlsch¨ utter to continue his work there; results of this “Potsdam spectral survey” were published between 1931 and 1938. The observatory was also involved in measuring and reductional work for the 2nd Catalogue of the Astronomische Gesellschaft 10

Observator (observer) was an academic position between assistant and professor.

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(AGK2), and in supplementary meridian observations (AGK2A). Some of this work was done by Wilhelm Trippe and Oswald Wachtl, who lost their lifes during the war, and by Bernhard Sticker, who later became a historian of science. With the exception of Becker, all Bonn astronomers were active party members; the young ones of course also to promote their academic career. During wartime, the observatory prepared tables for position ﬁnding for the German air force. After the war, Kohlsch¨ utter had to leave his post because of his involvement with the system, although he continued editing the AGK2. Friedrich Becker took over directorship of Bonn Observatory in 1947. 4.5. BRESLAU

Breslau Observatory was headed by Erich Schoenberg, an astronomer who grew up in the Baltic countries; he obviously never became a member of the Nazi party. The personnel showed a lot of ﬂuctuations; the annual report of 1933 noted “disturbances” in the operations, and “on 1 August, [Wolfgang] Gleissberg was removed from his post by the ministry” – a very uring and Karl open statement11 . Persons who ﬁlled gaps were Bruno Th¨ Stumpﬀ, who later moved to M¨ unchen-Vienna and Lindenberg-Graz. Breslau was involved in meridian observations (AGK2). From 1934 till the outbreak of war, Breslau Observatory ran an observing station in Windhoek (South-West Africa), where mainly studies of the zodiacal light were carried out with small instruments. After the war, Silesia (and thus Breslau/Wroclaw) became part of Poland; Schoenberg ﬂed to Munich, where he took over the directorship of the heavily damaged observatory. 4.6. FRANKFURT

The involvement of Frankfurt University in astronomical research has always been elusive. An observatory was run by the Physikalischer Verein (Physical Society). A so-called Planeteninstitut (Planetary Institute) which carried out studies in celestial mechanics, founded in 1913 and privately ﬁnanced, had been incorporated into the university in 1931. A professorship in astronomy was abolished in 1935, and the planetary institute (i.e. one employee) was later transferred to Heidelberg. After the war, a retired refugee from the Eastern zone, Karl Schiller, was appointed as astronomy lecturer and observatory director in Frankfurt. 11

Between 1934 and 1958, Gleissberg was an astronomer at Istanbul University, a place where many German academicians found a new sphere of activity.

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4.7. FREIBURG

Part of the Reichsstelle f¨ ur Hochfrequenzforschung (RHF, Reich HighFrequency Research Council), founded in 1942 and led by Hans Plendl, was the RHF-institute No. VII (basic research, long-distance radio transmission, radio transmission advice). After preliminary work was carried out in G¨ ottingen, this institute was installed in Freiburg/Breisgau in late 1943, and renamed Fraunhofer-Institut f¨ ur solar-terrestrische Physik. Directed by Karl-Otto Kiepenheuer (see Sect. 6.1 & 9), the institute included quite a number of scientists who had encountered diﬃculties in academic advancement12 . A state-ﬁnanced research institution with links to the local university, it was renamed, in 1978, Kiepenheuer-Institut f¨ ur Sonnenphysik. ¨ 4.8. GOTTINGEN

G¨ ottingen Observatory was headed by Hans Kienle, who was appointed director of Potsdam in 1939. Until 1941, when Paul ten Bruggencate assumed directorship, the observatory was administered by Otto Heckmann. G¨ ottingen Observatory was famous for precise photographic photometry and spectrophotometry. Solar research was also carried out, ﬁrst by Kiepenheuer, then by ten Bruggencate. The G¨ ottingen observer Bruno Meyermann already had served as an astronomer at the naval observatory of Tsingtau (Quingdao, in the German colony Kiautschou, which existed from 1898 to 1914, today PR China). The annual report of 1935 mentions that “M. Schwarzschild obtained and analyzed spectra of Polaris”, but Martin Schwarzschild decided, on the suggestion of Kienle and Heckmann, to quickly hand in a thesis on a theoretical study of pulsation. After having been promoted in late 1935, he immediately left for the Netherlands and Norway, before settling in the United States. Younger astronomers who held assistant jobs and who became wellknown later were Johannes Wempe, Hans Strassl, Walter Fricke and Hans Haﬀner. 4.9. HAMBURG-BERGEDORF

Hamburg-Bergedorf Observatory’s long-time director Richard Schorr oﬃcially retired in 1935. While his wished-for successor, Walter Baade, preferred to stay in the US, it was soon felt that Otto Heckmann would be 12

A list of scientiﬁc and military personnel, as of January 1945, is given by Seiler (2005a). Of the 22 persons, only 3 were party members; among the rest, there is e.g. someone with a Jewish grand-parent; nevertheless this person is classiﬁed by Kuiper (letter dated 14 June 1946, Yerkes Observatory Archives 226:3) as an “active Nazi-member and Pan-German”!

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a suitable director, but only after a lot of interference from the REM, Heckmann could assume his post in 1941. The observer Johannes Hellerich was appointed director of Strasbourg Observatory in 1941; after the war, Hellerich returned to Hamburg before accepting a position in M¨ unster. A detailed history of the observatory was written by Schramm (1996). Together with Bonn, Hamburg was involved in the production of the 2nd Catalogue of the Astronomische Gesellschaft (AGK2), whose photographic observations were made in the early 1930s, but which was published only between 1951 and 1958. In addition, meridian observations were carried out for it in the 1930s (AGK2A). Another major project was the Bergedorf spectral survey of the 115 Northern Kapteyn “selected areas”, whose plates were taken between 1923 and 1933, and whose results (173 500 spectral types) were published, under the supervision of Arnold Schwassmann, between 1935 and 1953. ¨ 4.10. HEIDELBERG-KONIGSTUHL

The actual founder and long-time director of Heidelberg-K¨ onigstuhl Observatory, Max Wolf, died in 1932, and, in Autumn 1933, the Heidelberg astronomer Heinrich Vogt, who had spent a few years as a professor in Jena, returned as its director. Vogt was an ardent Nazi, and among the employees, there were a lot who also were active in the party: Bruno Th¨ uring, Alfred Bohrmann, and Fritz Kubach. Vogt was denied re-employment after the war. 4.11. JENA

In 1933, Jena Observatory’s director Heinrich Vogt was called back to Heidelberg, and his position was ﬁlled by Hans Siedentopf. In the following years, a lot of people were employed in minor ranks who later held research or teaching positions in Germany: Hermann Lambrecht, Ludwig Biermann, Johannes Hoppe, and Hans Bucerius. Research ﬁelds were stellar structure and evolution, interstellar matter, and astronomical instrumentation (e.g. the use of iris diaphragm photometers for photography and photocells for photometry). In 1945, with the evacuation of the Zeiss Optical Company to Heidenheim in the US-American zone, also part of the personnel was moved, and Lambrecht took over directorship. 4.12. KIEL

Kiel Observatory had a quite sad fate. Its director Hans Rosenberg was soon confronted with threats (see Sect. 9), and he decided to take a leave of absence and moved to Yerkes Observatory. His deputy, Carl Wirtz, was also

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confronted with animosities, and he was ﬁnally put aside by the Deutsches Beamtengesetz (German Civil Service Law) of 21 January 1937, which requested that not only the civil servants, but also their spouses must be of “Aryan descent”. He was replaced by the party member Joachim Stobbe. On 1 October 1938, the long-time editor of Astronomische Nachrichten, Hermann Kobold, retired, and the editorial oﬃce moved from Kiel to Berlin. At the same time, Kiel University Observatory was closed by decree of the REM, Stobbe moved to Potsdam and then became director of Posen (Poznan) Observatory, and the instruments were distributed among other institutions. The observatory buildings were later destroyed during an air raid. Albrecht Uns¨ old, professor and director of the institute of theoretical physics since 1932, had taken over the observatory library, and continued to provide astrophysical lectures and lab courses. In 1939, he was at Yerkes/McDonald Observatory as a guest professor. Spectra of τ Sco taken there were analyzed during the war, when he was drafted as a meteorologist, and published in the Zeitschrift f¨ ur Astrophysik between 1941 and 1944. ¨ 4.13. KONIGSBERG

Since 1922, K¨ onigsberg Observatory was headed by Erich Przybyllok, a classical astronomer. Its observer was Ernst Jost, who carried out variable star observations; Paul Labitzke and Kurt Walter held calculating jobs. Walter moved to Potsdam in 1937, and later to Cracow, Labitzke joined Munich Observatory in 1941. The observatory was destroyed during a 1944 air raid, and 67-year-old Jost obviously also lost his life during the conquest of K¨ onigsberg soon after, while Przybyllok ﬂed to the west and later taught classes at Cologne University. 4.14. LEIPZIG

In 1930, Josef Hopmann assumed directorship of Leipzig Observatory; observers were Hans Naumann and Karl Schiller, ﬁrst assistant Josef Weber; the second assistant position was kept by Werner Schaub, and from 1936 onward by Karl Pilowski. While a major part of the observatory’s work focussed on meridian circle observations (also for the AGK2A), Hopmann tried to introduce modern astrophysical methods. At the outbreak of war, the major Hopmann (who had been inclined to the military for most of his life), as well as Pilowski and the stipendiate Hans-Ullrich Sandig were drafted; classes were given by visiting professor Hans Kienle. The observatory suﬀered severe destructions during an air raid on 4 December 1943. Hopmann made plans for a new observatory on a better site outside of Leipzig, and also conﬁscated for it the meridian circle of the Royal

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Observatory of Belgium (Uccle), which was returned damaged after the war. A concise, but complete history of Leipzig Observatory is given by Ilgauds & M¨ unzel (1995). Leipzig Observatory was not rebuilt; Potsdam/Babelsberg (with Sonneberg and Tautenburg) and Jena would become the principal astronomical centers in the German Democratic Republic. ¨ 4.15. MUNCHEN

In 1933, Alexander Wilkens was the director of Munich Observatory, which also had a seismic and a geophysical department, and several external stations. He ruled the institute with a very authoritative hand: assistants who dared to marry were dismissed. He also issued an order that “people in uniform have no place in the institute” (because they obviously wasted time in political activities). In 1934, a political intrigue led to the dismissal of Wilkens, and after a long search for a new director, the Munich Observator Wilhelm Rabe, who had not been involved in the aﬀair, was appointed. He had some sympathies for the Nazis, but obviously was not much engaged, since he became a party member only in 1937. Assistants – already employed by Wilkens – were Bruno Th¨ uring and Wilhelm F¨ uhrer. The staunch anti-relativist Th¨ uring, co-editor of the journal “Zeitschrift f¨ ur die gesamte Naturwissenschaft” (the organ of the Nationalsozialistischer deutscher Studentenbund, NSDStB, from Vol. 3 (1937) onward), later moved to Vienna. Wilhelm F¨ uhrer quickly rose within the Nazi hierarchy to become Regierungsrat (administrative advisor) in the Bavarian Ministry of Culture, and later in the Reichserziehungsministerium in Berlin. Munich observatory was partly damaged by bombing on 11 and 13 July 1944 (Fig. 3). Rabe was dismissed in early 1946 on behalf of the US military government, and politically incontestable 64-year old Erich Schoenberg from Breslau was appointed director, a post that he kept for 10 years (H¨afner 2003). ¨ 4.16. MUNSTER

Since 1930, the mathematician Martin Lindow was the director of M¨ unster unObservatory. Assistants were Erich H¨ uttenhain (till 1937)13 , and Otto G¨ ther thereafter. In the 1930s, a blink comparator, a photometer to measure photographic plates, and a coordinate-measurement device were bought or constructed, and M¨ unster was assumed to be a well-equipped reduction 13

The annual report said that H¨ uttenhain “joined the army”. Indeed, he became section head in the Chiﬀrierungsabteilung des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht (OKW/Chi; cryptography department of the supreme command of the armed forces), and is viewed as the most important German cryptologist of his time. After the war, he became president of the West German Zentralstelle f¨ ur das Chiﬀrierwesen (ZfCh).

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Figure 3. The Munich-Bogenhausen Observatory after the air raids of 11 and 13 July 1944. Reconstruction was begun in 1946, and completed in 1954 (Courtesy: Reinhold H¨ afner, M¨ unchen).

institute (its name was changed from Sternwarte to Astronomisches Institut in 1937). However, because of the outbreak of the war, the subsequent leave of the assistant, and the war prevented a ﬂourishing of this “reduction institute”. 64-year old Lindow left M¨ unster in 1944, after the institute building was destroyed by bombs, and after he had lost his apartment twice. In 1949, Johannes Hellerich assumed directorship of the institute, which had found shelter in a nearby castle, and G¨ unther returned to resume his assistant post. 4.17. POTSDAM

Till 1939, the director of Potsdam Observatory was Hans Ludendorﬀ, the brother of a famous World War I general. In 1933, the solar physics section (the Einstein tower) was renamed Institut f¨ ur Sonnenphysik, its long-time director Erwin Finlay Freundlich was forced to resign, the board of trustees was dissolved and the institute integrated into Potsdam Observatory; in 1935, Paul ten Bruggencate as “principal observer” took the lead of the solar physics section. After Ludendorﬀ’s retirement, Hans Kienle took over the directorship of Potsdam Observatory in Autumn 1939.

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As a complement to the Hamburg-Bergedorf Northern spectral survey, Potsdam carried out a spectral survey of the remaining 91 Southern Kapteyn areas. A temporary observing station in La Paz, Bolivia, was active between 1926 and 1929. The spectral classiﬁcation of 68 000 stars was published by Friedrich Becker and Hermann Br¨ uck between 1931 and 1938. In 1933, the PhD student Karl-Otto Kiepenheuer worked at the solar institute; the assistant Hermann Br¨ uck, after obtaining his teaching license, left the institute in 1936 to continue his career at Vatican Observatory, in Cambridge, Dublin, and Edinburgh. Other astronomers working at Potsdam were Walter Hassenstein, Harald von Kl¨ uber, Walter Grotrian, Rolf M¨ uller, Wilhelm M¨ unch, Emanuel von der Pahlen, Wilhelm Becker, Kurt Walter, and Wolfgang Strohmeier; some of them would become directors of astronomical institutions after the war. 5. Developments in Germany and Elsewhere from 1936 Onward 5.1. VIENNA AND OTHER AUSTRIAN OBSERVATORIES

After the Anschluss (annexation) of Austria to the Third Reich in 1938, the organization of Vienna Observatory was also inﬂuenced. Its director, Kasimir Graﬀ, had to take a leave of absence in 1938, and his colleague Adalbert Prey became acting director. In 1940, Bruno Th¨ uring was appointed director, but he had to cede the job to Prey in 1943 because he had been drafted to the armed forces. After the war, Graﬀ was re-instituted as director; he died in 1950. Innsbruck Observatory seems to have had no interference with German science policy after the annexation. Graz had a small, mostly theoretical department. In 1942, the Institut f¨ ur Periodenforschung (Institute for period research), which had been part of the meteorological-aerological observatory of Lindenberg (near Berlin), was moved to Graz, when its director Karl Stumpﬀ took over the directorship of Graz Observatory and of the incorporated institute. First steps towards the establishment of an observing station (Lustb¨ uhel) were made, but the completion and inauguration took place only in 1976. Stumpﬀ was dismissed after the war, and in 1952 became a lecturer in celestial mechanics at G¨ ottingen University. A three-volume work Himmelsmechanik, conceived in 1944, was only completed after the author’s death in 1970. The solar observatory at Kanzelh¨ ohe, inaugurated in 1943 as part of the solar monitoring network of the RHF (see Sect. 6.1), later became part of Graz University.

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5.2. PRAGUE OBSERVATORY

The expansion of the Third Reich, ﬁrst through the Munich treaty and then through the successful military actions of the war saw three famous universities within the borders of the Reich: the universities of Prague, Poznan and Strasbourg14 . All of them had a complicated history, and their fate in the Third Reich has been summarized by Wr´ oblewska (1997). Prague Observatory was founded in 1751 by the Jesuits. While modern instruments were acquired in the early 19th century, no money was available for an observatory. In 1882, Prague University split into a Czech and a German part, and Ladislaus Weinek took over the observatory, which belonged to the “German” part; but mainly magnetic and meteorological observations were continued. After World War I, the institution, by state decret, was declared Czech state observatory. In the following years, the German astronomy department was almost non-existing; by private initiative, in 1929 a provisional observing station in Tellnitz near Aussig (Telnice ´ ı nad Labem), Northern Bohemia, was erected. Its director Adalnear Ust´ bert Prey left Prague in 1930 for Vienna, and in 1936, the newly appointed director Finlay Freundlich intended to close down Tellnitz, and to build a German-Czech observatory, but he left already in 1937 (Mrazek 1939). The annexation of Czechia led to a quick and brutal change at Prague University. Werner Schaub took over the directorship of the observatory; he decided to close Tellnitz deﬁnitively. Because of the missing infrastructure15 , Schaub busied himself by writing a book on spherical astronomy (which was published in 1950), besides planning to build a major observing station. Although this plan could not be realized during wartime, it was realized by Czechoslovakian astronomers later, and this led to the conversion of Ondˇrejov, a previously private observatory, to the main astronomical installation of Czechoslovakia. 5.3. POZNAN OBSERVATORY

The reports of the Universit¨ ats-Sternwarte Posen of 1940 and 1941 were written by its director Joachim Stobbe. In mid-1942, the lecturer Harald Fischer became deputy director, and Stobbe died in Berlin in early 1943 after an operation. Two assistant positions were ﬁlled by Werner Lohmann and Stefan Temesv´ary, but after their appointment they had to serve in the army. The publications deal with positions of comets and minor planets, 14

See Heck (2005) for a history of Strasbourg Observatory. “The whole astronomy consists of a rented appartment on the third ﬂoor, and a passage instrument. . . ” (Letter from W. F¨ uhrer to B. Th¨ uring, 15 June 1939, in Kerschbaum et al. 2006). 15

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and with variable star observations; calculations for the Berlin ephemeris and the navy were also carried out. 5.4. OBSERVATORIES IN THE GENERALGOUVERNEMENT

We should also brieﬂy note the situation in the remaining part of Poland (the Generalgouvernement), which was administered by “GovernorGeneral” Hans Frank, a corrupt and ostentatious autocrate – who was also interested in astronomy. The Potsdam astronomer Kurt Walter was appointed “supervisor” of the Polish astronomers in Warsaw, Cracow and Lwow. Supposedly they would have been oﬀ even worse if the “supervisor” would not have carried out his job and thus provided for them a meagre but regular income (see Walter 1987 for a personal view). Actually, Walter’s headquarters in Cracow should have three sections, astronomy, astrophysics, and “cultivation of the astronomical world view”. Only the third section was ﬁlled, by the popularizer Robert Henseling, who was the author of many popular books, the editor of calendars, and a staunch ﬁghter against astrology and other heresies. He also replaced Walter as a supervisor when the latter had to serve in the army. The available obituaries of Henseling do not mention his Polish adventure. In Walter’s obituary his Polish activities are brieﬂy mentioned; the fact that he studied library science after the war and worked as a librarian until the 1960s was explained because of the “job situation in astronomy after the war”. De mortuis nihil nisi bene – but is it really better to give the impression that he was too stupid to ﬁnd an astronomical job, or to tell the truth about his political “handicap”? Walter certainly tried to make up for his lost years – he celebrated his 70th birthday by carrying out photoelectric observations at ESO La Silla. It is diﬃcult to evaluate Walter’s work in the Generalgouvernement from his own accounts. While Kuiper (1946), considering him from a distance, lists some atrocities, the brief section in Gaw¸eda’s (1981) book treats him quite indulgently, and post-war relationships of some Polish astronomers with Walter appeared to be on fairly friendly terms. Let us just quote from a letter of 24 May 1944, by the deputy director of Posen/Poznan Observatory to the REM16 . He mentions the importance of support for his observatory, because “the numerous Polish astronomers (among them the ones of the former Polish observatory in Posen) have the opportunity to carry out scientiﬁc work at the observatories of the Generalgouvernement, partly with substantial ﬁnancial support, and hardly disturbed by the war. [. . . ] Foreign countries would certainly be inclined to evaluate, in a propagandistic way, 16

Acta Sternwarte Kiel, Bundesarchiv, Berlin.

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these Polish contributions with the eﬀorts of the new Reich Observatory of Posen.” 5.5. STRASBOURG OBSERVATORY

After the conquest of large parts of France, and the move of the French Strasbourg University to Clermont-Ferrand, the Reichsuniversit¨ at Strassburg was opened in 1941, and Johannes Hellerich was appointed professor of astronomy and director of the observatory. Hellerich, the REM’s candidate for the Hamburg Observatory directorship, possibly got this position as a “consolation prize”. An observer’s position could not be ﬁlled, the ﬁrst candidate, Kurt Walter, went to Cracow, the second one, Oswald Wachtl, was killed in action, and the third one, Willi Jahn, never had a chance to go to Strasbourg since times had changed at the time of his appointment. Thus Hellerich, with the help of some local staﬀ, was completely busy to bring the observatory to an operational stage, and no scientiﬁc work was carried out. 6. Extra-University Activity and Future Plans 6.1. SOLAR RESEARCH AND THE FRAUNHOFER INSTITUTE

One of the most interesting extra-university eﬀorts – described in much detail in Kuiper’s (1946) report – is the work of Plendl, Kiepenheuer and collaborators on solar-terrestrial relations. A detailed analysis of these activities has been presented by Seiler (2005a,b), thus only a brief account is given here. In January 1939, a meeting of eminent German radio scientists took place in the Luftwaﬀe (air force) research academy to discuss the poorly understood variance of radio reﬂection in the ionosphere and its role in the guidance of combat aircraft. Hans Plendl, the leading scientist in the ﬁeld, proposed a “systematic collection of all data of the related phenomena, like sunspots, aurorae, etc.” When war broke out, Kiepenheuer, who was working on sensors and solar radiation in G¨ ottingen, faced the fate of serving as a recruit in an army batallion. He was, however, recruited by Plendl in December 1939, to work in “Department F” at the Rechlin airbase. He ﬁrst developed airborne reconnaissance cameras. A year later, Plendl and Kiepenheuer visited Wendelstein mountain, where the ﬁrst mountain solar observatory of the Luftwaﬀe was installed. Kiepenheuer also established a collaboration with other institutions in occupied countries, mainly in France. In mid-1942, Plendl was appointed G¨ oring’s Beauftragter f¨ ur Hochfrequenzforschung (plenipotentionary for high-frequency research), and in the following year more solar observatories went into operation. A central

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institute was to be put up in Freiburg (the so-called Fraunhofer institute), with a solar observatory (Schauinsland, Fig. 4) nearby. Since a relationship between the solar corona and the ionosphere was suspected, coronagraphs were installed at Wendelstein and Zugspitze observatories. Radio propagation forecasts, based on monitoring the sun, the ionosphere, geomagnetic activity, and aurora borealis, were produced from 1943 onward by the forecast service headed by Walter Dieminger, a separate entity of Plendl’s RHF. After the war, Kiepenheuer at ﬁrst had to carry out work for the French Navy, but then became prominent ﬁgures in German solar research. As part of the Operation Paperclip, Plendl went to the USA and worked for several Air Force organizations. Although not directly involved, he might have had some inﬂuence in the establishment of the Air Force Solar Observatory at Sacramento Peak, New Mexico. 6.2. MISSED OPPORTUNITIES FOR A SOUTHERN OBSERVATORY

In spite of the scientiﬁc isolation and the moderate means for research, there were activities to carry out observations in better climate, and especially in the Southern hemisphere. The so-called Bolivia expedition, a spectral survey of the Southern milky way, was carried out by the Potsdam Astrophysical Observatory in 1926-1928, by means of a 30-cm astrograph with objective prism. In the late 1920s there were also plans for a major German observatory in the Mediterranean. In the 1930s, another project was carried out: Breslau Observatory installed an observing station in SouthWest Africa (Namibia), near Windhoek. This was indeed operated till the outbreak of WW II (details of these projects can be found in Wolfschmidt 2002). In the mid-1930s, there were plans for a reshaping of astronomical activity, that ﬁrst concentrated on the Prussian universities. They were developed by the REM, in connection with the installation of a Southern observatory17 . They focussed on a group of “Observatories for observations” (Babelsberg, Potsdam, G¨ ottingen and Breslau), a group of “Observatories for calculations and reductions” (Recheninstitut Berlin-Dahlem, Bonn Observatory, K¨ onigsberg Observatory, M¨ unster Observatory, as well as the Planeteninstitut at Frankfurt University). They also comprised the closing of astronomical activities in Greifswald and Halle (where there was hardly any), Kiel Observatory (because the instrumentation had become useless, the director had been discharged, and the university was eager to sell the valuable grounds of the observatory), as well as the Kiel oﬃce of the journal 17 Letter of the REM to the Ministry of Finance, 18 June 1937, concerning Planning of astronomy at Prussian universities; Acta Sternwarte Kiel R4901/14811, kept at Bundesarchiv Berlin.

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Figure 4. One of the domes of the Schauinsland solar observatory in October 1944. A camouﬂage net is seen covering the dome. The observatory was attacked by allied aircraft on several occasions (Courtesy: Johannes Hertz, Berlin).

Astronomische Nachrichten, which was to be moved to Berlin-Dahlem. The saved money (if there was any) was to be used for the Southern observatory, which was presumably to be erected near Windhoek, and there was also hope to cover the costs from Hitler’s budget and that of the foreign oﬃce. The costs were estimated to amount to 1 Million Reichsmark, and the observatory ready by 1941. This project did not materialize; already in mid-1939, the notorious Oberregierungsrat in the REM, Wilhelm F¨ uhrer, wrote in a private letter of 15 June 1939: “Schoenberg wants to go to the lions. I have told him that I don’t pursue these plans any more.”18 A few months later, the situation in the world would have changed any positive plans anyhow. 18

The text of this letter was published by Kerschbaum et al. (2006).

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When Hitler visited Mussolini on 4 May 1938, he “asked to accept from him, as a token of friendship and reverence, a Zeiss telescope with the associated observatory” (actually, it was a refractor of 11 m focal length, a triple astrograph, and a 1.25 reﬂecting telescope, plus transit instrument and auxiliary equipment). Mussolini chose Frascati near Rome as the site of the observatory (Bianchi 1939). While a few parts of the observatory were delivered before the defection and surrender of Italy, most items were still with the Zeiss company. Some of the material went to the Soviet Union to compensate for the losses at Pulkovo and Simeis observatories. 7. War-Related Work at Observatories During the war, a substantial percentage of observatory personnel was drafted and served in the army, navy or air force, in a few cases, in warrelated astronomical work. A major task for the remaining staﬀ at the observatories was also work for the military, or for military industry. Under the supervision of Guthnick, calculations of star positions on the sphere for each minute were carried out – in Bonn, in Hamburg19 and presumably also in Berlin (available records do not reveal the very nature of this work). Calculators at Leipzig worked for the Deutsche Flugzeugwerke, an aircraft factory near Leipzig. Other activities were the calculation of tables for artillery (a task with which already Karl Schwarzschild had busied himself during World War I), and the decipherment of enemy codes20 . 8. After-the-War Astronomy Field Surveys During wartime, astronomical research in most places declined noticeably because personnel was drafted to the armed forces. Also, international exchange of scientiﬁc journals and communications had become much more diﬃcult. Work on the Astronomischer Jahresbericht, the annual bibliography of astronomy, came to a halt and was resumed only after the war. Gerald Kuiper of Yerkes Observatory (University of Chicago) was a member of the Alsos group, headed by the physicist Goudsmit, that was particularly interested to inquire the state of German nuclear research, and the whereabouts of its scientists (Goudsmit 1947). Kuiper visited German observatories in Summer 1945, and wrote a short report on their present state, the work done during wartime, and listed the publications issued by 19 Schramm (1996) quotes a document indicating that star positions for air navigation were calculated – presumably for the bomber ﬂeet – up to the year 1960! 20 It is interesting to see that astronomers/cosmologists Walter Fricke and George C. McVittie carried out similar tasks on opposite sides of the front line.

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the various institutions (Kuiper 1946)21 ; he was most impressed by the solar work done by Kiepenheuer and his collaborators, which is outlined in a major section of his article. Then, a group of German specialists was assigned the preparation of a collection of review articles – the so-called FIAT Review – about astronomical research done in Germany during 1939-1946 (ten Bruggencate 1948). The chapters of this 426-page review of astronomical research cover work on geographical position ﬁnding, time determination, celestial mechanics, astrometry, photometry, spectroscopy, stellar atmospheres and internal constitution, solar physics, solar-terrestrial relations, solar system, double stars, variable stars, stellar system, dynamics of stellar systems, cosmogony (including cosmology). Quite a number of its authors had been involved in the Nazi system (Karl Sch¨ utte, Karl Stumpﬀ, Arnold Kohlsch¨ utter, Paul ten Bruggencate, Josef Hopmann, Johannes Hellerich). Most substantial – both because of the authors and because of the work done in wartime – are the articles on stellar structure and atmospheres (Ludwig Biermann, partly with Peter Wellmann), on solar physics and solar-terrestrial relations (Paul ten Bruggencate and Harald von Kl¨ uber, and Karl-Otto Kiepenheuer), and on galactic structure (Wilhelm Becker and Walter Fricke). The two ﬁnal articles deal with dynamics of stellar systems (Otto Heckmann reviewing his own work done in the mid-1940s), and cosmogony (Carl Friedrich von Weizs¨acker reviewing his own work, and Heckmann’s cosmological studies). There is no contributing author from the Russian zone (although work done in this part of Germany is also reviewed); it is also interesting that stellar atmospheres were treated by two Hamburg astronomers, and not by Albrecht Uns¨old (Kiel); this is possibly explained by some rivalry between Heckmann and Uns¨ old. The book also does not mention the Bethe-Weizs¨ acker cycle, which indeed was discovered in 1938, but it is possible that it is mentioned in another book of the series. 9. Spotlights on the Fate of Some Astronomers Especially after the Einstein year, all readers are aware of the dramatic inﬂuence that the Nazi rule also had on the fates of scientists. Let us brieﬂy recall, as an illustration, the careers of four scientists, two emigrants and two who could pursue their work inside Germany. After his astronomical studies in Strasbourg and G¨ ottingen, Hans Rosenberg (1879-1940) built a private observatory in T¨ ubingen, where he did pioneering work on phototubes and astronomical photometry. In 1926, 21 Some more details, especially on German astronomers’ party membership, are given in a circular letter by Kuiper, dated 14 June 1946 (Yerkes Observatory Archives 226:3). They should, however, be treated with caution.

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he was appointed professor at Kiel University and director of the observatory; his quite outstanding military record in WW I may have been quite a helpful part of his CV that led to his appointment. Nevertheless, on 1 April 1933, “three gentlemen in SA-uniform appeared in my apartment and declared that I should consider myself suspended”22 . While the “Law for the restoration of the Professional Civil Service”, issued 7 April 193323 would not apply to him because he was a “front-line ﬁghter”, Rosenberg, in 1934, took over a visiting professorship at Yerkes Observatory; he would have lost his German position the following year because of the Reich citizen law of September 1935. He was appointed professor and director of Istanbul Observatory in 1938; two years later, he died in Istanbul from a heat-stroke. After mathematical and astronomical studies, Erwin Finlay Freundlich (1885-1964) became assistant at Berlin Observatory in 1910, and besides his boring observational work, he became interested in the veriﬁcation of the nascent general theory of relativity. After the successful veriﬁcation of the light deﬂection at the solar limb, German sponsors secured the funds to build the Einstein tower solar telescope, and Freundlich, having become observer at Potsdam Observatory, was appointed head of this research institution. Its association with Potsdam Observatory, whose director Hans Ludendorﬀ had scientiﬁc and political views that were quite contrary to those of Freundlich, led to a continuing friction between them. After the taking over of power of the Nazis, and Einstein’s step-back from the Berlin academy – thus preventing his dismissal –, Freundlich’s position had become untenable, too (e.g. he refused to sign a note circulated by Ludendorﬀ that only the Nazi salute had to be used in the institute). He took over a professorship in Istanbul, and in 1936 moved to the German University at Prague. But because of the increase in tensions, he went in 1939 via Holland to Scotland, where he was invited to establish an astronomical department in St. Andrews, a plan that was seriously begun only in 1951. After his retirement, in 1959, he moved to Wiesbaden, where he died 5 years later. See Hentschel (1997) for an account of his work, especially in Potsdam. Otto Heckmann (1901-1983) (Fig. 5) started his astronomical studies in Bonn. As an assistant at G¨ ottingen observatory, he did some fundamental work on cosmology in 1932, anticipating the “Einstein-de Sitter model” of 1933. He kept his assistant position in G¨ ottingen for 14 years, since applications for professorship positions elsewhere were not considered, or, in the case of Hamburg Observatory, unduly delayed. Although he had signed a letter of submissiveness to Hitler in 1933, became a member of 22

Acta Sternwarte Kiel, Bundesarchiv Berlin. An English translation of the text is given by Hentschel & Hentschel 1996, Doc. 7, p. 21. 23

GERMAN ASTRONOMY IN THE THIRD REICH

Figure 5.

407

Otto Heckmann in a 1947 photograph. (Courtesy: Hamburg Observatory).

some NS-organizations and also a party member in 1937, his pre-1933 background and his interest in relativity made him suspicious. His book Theorien der Kosmologie, published in 1942, confronted Friedmann-Lemaˆıtre’s relativistic and Milne’s kinematic cosmology. The bibliography hardly mention Einstein’s name, and the book could be interpreted as pro- and contraEinstein, according to the taste and the intellectual level of the reader (see also Sect. 11). Soon after the war, Heckmann was elected president of the Astronomische Gesellschaft, and was among the founding fathers, as well as the ﬁrst director-general of the European Southern Observatory. See both Hentschel & Renneberg (1995) and Schramm (1996) for a well-documented overview of his career. The ﬁrst authors show the somewhat darker sides of his “academic career in the time of National Socialism”, but without them there deﬁnitively would not have been any academic career for Heckmann, considering his ﬁeld of research and his pre-1933 political background. Karl-Otto Kiepenheuer (1910-1975) (Fig. 6), the son of a publisher famous for progressive and leftist literature, studied astronomy in Berlin, and became interested in solar research. Although his academic career progressed slowly (because he never became a party member), he started work with the military, at the air force research base at Rechlin. To forecast

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radio interference by solar activity, he was able to install several solar observatories in Germany (including Austria) and Italy. He also carried out measurements of solar UV-radiation from balloons; a similar experiment, planned with Erich Regener24 , on board an A4 rocket did not materialize (since all A4 = V2 rockets were urgently needed to drop explosives onto London and Antwerp). Although his actions sometimes also are debatable (seizure of astronomical equipment in occupied countries), he was kept in high esteem by Kuiper in his review of German astronomy, and actually his career in Germany also continued after the War – the institute of solar research in Freiburg now carries his name. See Seiler (2005a,b) for an account of his life and work. 10. Obscurantism While Kuiper’s (1946) report propagates the rumor that Wilhelm F¨ uhrer became oﬃcial astrologer for Himmler and Hitler, this seems to be blackmail of some former astronomical colleagues that were treated unfriendly by him. Oﬃcially, astrology was suppressed during the Nazi era (e.g. no horoscopes appeared in newspapers). The director of Hamburg Observatory, Richard Schorr (not a party member) quarrelled privately against practicing astrologers, sent “spies” to their public lectures, and subsequently wrote reports to the secret police. His activities lead to the incarceration of Hamburg astrologer Wilhelm Th.A. Wulﬀ, who later was released, participated in a research project Pendelforschung (locating ships on the atlantic by swinging a pendulum on a toy ship on a sea chart), and, indeed, ﬁnally became personal astrologer of Himmler25 . It was Himmler’s pet project Ahnenerbe (Ancestral Heritage Foundation of the Defense Squadron) that assembled under its wings, among others, a collection of scientiﬁc charlatans. Nevertheless, Himmler obviously also attempted to recruit serious scientists: After attacks of the SSjournal Das Schwarze Korps against the “white Jew” Werner Heisenberg and his science, Himmler wrote to Heisenberg that he “did not approve of the attack”26 , and at the same time he wrote to Reinhard Heydrich that “we might make use of Heisenberg when the Ahnenerbe has become an academy”27 . 24 Since 1938, Erich Regener headed the research unit for physics of the stratosphere of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft. 25 See Howe (1995), who also quotes Wulﬀ’s memoirs. Hitler’s supposed belief in astrology appears to be a mixture of German rumours and Allied propaganda. 26 This happened after a complaint of Heisenberg’s mother to Himmler’s mother; Heisenberg’s grandfather and Himmler’s father had been school directors in Munich and had known each other. 27 Facsimiles of the letters are given in Goudsmit (1947), pp. 116, 119.

GERMAN ASTRONOMY IN THE THIRD REICH

Figure 6.

409

Karl-Otto Kiepenheuer in a 1940 photograph. (Courtesy: Michael P. Seiler).

Disciples of the engineer Hanns H¨ orbiger’s Welteislehre (cosmic ice doctrine, originally called “glacial cosmogony” by H¨ orbiger) tried to promote their master’s ideas. While Hitler’s opinion appears to be ambiguous, Himmler was an ardent believer. In the framework of the Ahnenerbe, the Pﬂegest¨ atte f¨ ur Wetterkunde (section of meteorology) was installed, and its task was “by a new analysis of meteorology, to prove the correctness of the glacial cosmology”. While a hardly known Hans-Robert Scultetus was the head of the section, the talented amateur astronomer Philipp Fauth was an active observer who even put his private observatory in the hands of the Ahnenerbe. Professional astronomers, physicists and others were not amused (among them the inﬂuencial Nobel Prize winner and old comrade Philipp Lenard), and fought against any publicity that the glacial cosmologists intended to carry to prominent newspapers28 . 28

A very good overview with many original documents from the Nazi era has been published by Nagel (1991).

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11. What Remains? When one looks through the pages of Struve’s Astronomy of the 20th Century (1962), hardly any astronomical achievements in Nazi Germany are listed; it appears that Struve’s view is biased towards people he knew well. Uns¨old, who had collaborated with Otto Struve at McDonald in 1939, is very often mentioned; cursorily treated are also C.F. von Weizs¨ acker’s planetary cosmogony, as well as Heckmann’s studies of galactic clusters. This was certainly a time when noticeable textbooks were still appearing in Germany: the ﬁnal volume of the Handbuch der Astrophysik, Albrecht Uns¨old’s fundamental textbook Physik der Sternatmosph¨ aren (1938), Wilhelm Becker’s Sterne und Sternsysteme (1942), and Heinrich Vogt’s Aufbau und Entwicklung der Sterne. A small but important book, Otto Heckmann’s Theorien der Kosmologie (1942), deals with (dynamic) Newtonian cosmology, (metric) relativistic Friedmann-Lemaˆıtre cosmology, as well as with kinematic cosmology, as developed by Milne from 1932 onward. The book shows that the ﬁrst two are largely equivalent when applied to most problems, but shows the superiority of relativistic cosmology when dealing with light propagation. The book has caused some stir in recent time, since it is claimed that it can be read pro- as well as anti-Einstein (Hentschel & Renneberg 1995), while Heckmann, in an annotated reprint states that “the second part of the book is the only positive outline of Einstein’s theory of gravitation that appeared [in Germany] between 1933 and 1945”. Indeed, when the book was published in 1942, the tide of “German Physics” was already falling – in November 1940, a so-called “Munich synod” had taken place, in which moderate “German” experimentalists29 and “modern” theorists (among them C.F. v. Weizs¨acker) had agreed that “the observed facts summarized in the special theory of relativity as an established part of physics. The applicability of the general theory to cosmic relationships is not so certain, however, as to eliminate the necessity of further veriﬁcation” 30 . Supposedly even Brans and Dicke would have subscribed to this, and Heckmann’s text follows exactly along its lines: relativistic cosmology and some alternatives are outlined, and tests are suggested. Because of the growing confrontation between the Western and Eastern allies, Germany did not suﬀer the same fate as after WW I. Germany’s two states – but still united in astronomy – became a member of the International Astronomical Union. In the early 1950s, the European attempt 29

The hard-cored “Germans” Wilhelm M¨ uller – the successor of Sommerfeld in Munich – and Bruno Th¨ uring had by then left the discussion table. 30 See Hentschel (1996), p. 290 for the oﬃcial letter by C. Ramsauer to the REM, and p. 339 for a personal account by W. Finkelnburg.

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to build an observatory in the Southern hemisphere also included German astronomers (the document of 1954 carries the signatures of Heckmann and Uns¨ old, see Blaauw 1991), and it was indeed Otto Heckmann who became the ﬁrst director general of ESO. In the ﬁeld of solar research, it was Karl-Otto Kiepenheuer who continued his international contacts with astronomers in other countries to join eﬀorts in solar monitoring and to build a powerful solar observatory on Canary Islands, which was, however, realized only long after his premature death. Besides this development of European institutions for stellar and solar work, the pioneering theoretical work of Uns¨ old lead to the establishment of the “Kiel school” whose disciples held inﬂuential positions in many German astronomical institutes in the ﬁrst decades after the war. In addition, the Max-Planck-Institut f¨ ur Physik, re-established after the war in G¨ ottingen, also carried out important research on stellar structure and evolution, and relocated in 1958 to Garching near Munich as Max-PlanckInstitut f¨ ur Physik und Astrophysik (with Werner Heisenberg and Ludwig Biermann as co-directors). The wartime development of high-frequency radio equipment, in Germany and elsewhere, also led to the rise of radio astronomy. First developments in Kiel in the early 1950s were soon followed by more serious attempts in Bonn, leading ﬁnally to the founding of the Max-Planck-Institut f¨ ur Radioastronomie in 1966 (with Otto Hachenberg as one of its directors). After the high-ﬂying nationalism and its devastating consequences, it was the scientiﬁc research in nuclear physics, astronomy, and other “big sciences” which served as a hotbed of European collaboration, and it is pleasing to see that German scientists assumed leading, although not dominating positions. 12. A Note on Sources When preparing this review, there was no opportunity to carry out speciﬁc archival research; I mostly relied on material that I had collected previously and material thad had already been evaluated by others. Besides some primary and secondary sources which are mentioned in the references, I relied on the annual reports of observatories, published from 1933-1944 in the Vierteljahrsschrift der Astronomischen Gesellschaft, and in 1948 in the journal Die Himmelswelt, as well as on information from obituaries in the Mitteilungen der Astronomischen Gesellschaft, as well as in the journal Astronomische Nachrichten. A few studies, which deal with special aspects of the topic covered here and which are based on thorough archival researches and interviews with contemporaries, should be mentioned. One is a study by Seiler (2005b)

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on solar research and solar-terrestrial relations in Germany 1939-1949. A second one by Litten (1992) deals with astronomy in Bavaria 1914-1945. Acknowledgments I thank the Bundesarchiv Berlin and Judith Bausch (Yerkes Observatory Archive) for supplying archival material. I also thank Adrian Blaauw (Groningen), Piotr Flin (Kielce), Reinhold H¨ afner (M¨ unchen), Franz Kerschbaum (Vienna), Beatrix Ott (M¨ unster), and Michael P. Seiler (Munich) for supplying published and unpublished material. Illustrations were kindly provided by Johannes Hertz (Berlin), Reinhold H¨ afner (M¨ unchen), Michael P. Seiler (M¨ unchen) and Anke Vollersen (Hamburg). I thank Peter Brosche, Reinhold H¨ afner, Gisela M¨ unzel, Don Osterbrock, and Chris Sterken for information. References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

10. 11. 12. 13. 14.

Beyerchen, A.D. 1977, Scientists under Hitler, Yale Univ. Press, New Haven. (ISBN 0-300018-30-4) (German ed.: Wissenschaftler unter Hitler, 1980, Kiepenheuer und Witsch, K¨ oln, ISBN 3-462-01406-4). Bianchi, E. 1939, Das Geschenk des F¨ uhrers an Mussolini, Himmelswelt 49, 51-53. Blaauw, A. 1991, ESO’s Early History, European Southern Obs., Garching. (ISBN 3-923524-40-4) Blaauw, A. 1994, History of the IAU. The Birth and First Half-Century of the International Astronomical Union, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht. (ISBN 0-79232979-1) Gaw¸eda, St. 1961, Die Jagiellonische Universit¨ at in der Zeit der faschistischen Okkupation 1939-1945, Friedrich-Schiller-Universit¨ at, Jena. Goudsmit, S. 1947, Alsos, Henry Schuman, New York. (ISBN 1-563964-15-5) H¨ afner, R. 2003, Die Universit¨ ats-Sternwarte M¨ unchen im Wandel ihrer Geschichte, Inst. Astron. Astrophys., M¨ unchen. Heck, A. (Ed.) 2005, The Multinational History of Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory, Springer, Dordrecht. (ISBN 1-402036-43-4) Hentschel, K. 1997, The Einstein Tower. An Intertexture of Dynamic Construction, Relativity Theory, and Astronomy, Sandford University Press, Palo Alto. (ISBN 0-804728-24-0) (German ed.: Der Einstein-Turm, 1992, Spektrum, Berlin, ISBN 386025-025-6) Hentschel, K. & Hentschel, A. 1996, Physics and National Socialism. An Anthology of Primary Sources, Birkh¨ auser Verlag, Basel. (ISBN 3-764353-12-0) Hentschel, K. & Renneberg, M. 1995, Eine akademische Karriere: Der Astronom Otto Heckmann im Dritten Reich, Vierteljahrshefte f¨ ur Zeitgeschichte 43/4, 581610. Howe, E. 1995, Uranias Kinder: Die seltsame Welt der Astrologen und das Dritte Reich, Beltz Athen¨ aum, Weinheim. (ISBN 3-895477-10-9) Ilgauds, H.J. & M¨ unzel, G. 1995, Die Leipziger Universit¨ atssternwarten auf der Pleissenburg und im Johannistal: astronomische Schulen von Weltruf, Sax-Verlag, Beucha. (ISBN 3-930076-11-X) Irving, D.J.C. 1967, The Virus House, Kimber, London. (ISBN 0-914539-08-6) (German ed.: Der Traum von der deutschen Atombombe, S. Mohn, G¨ utersloh)

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27. 28. 29. 30. 31.

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Kerschbaum, F., Posch, Th. & Lackner, K. 2006, Die Wiener Universit¨ atssternwarte und Bruno Th¨ uring, Acta Historica Astronomiae (in press). Kubach, F. (Ed.) 1943a, Das Studium der Naturwissenschaft und der Mathematik. Einf¨ uhrungsband, Carl Winter Universit¨ atsverlag, Heidelberg. Kubach, F. (Ed.) 1943b, Nikolaus Kopernikus: Bildnis eines großen Deutschen; neue Arbeiten der Kopernikus-Forschung mit Ausz¨ ugen aus kopernikanischen Schriften in deutscher Sprache, Oldenbourg, M¨ unchen and Berlin. Kuiper, G.P. 1946, German Astronomy during the War, Popular Astronomy 54/6, 263-287. Litten, F. 1992, Astronomie in Bayern 1914-1945, Boethius Bd. 30, Franz Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden. (ISBN 3-515-06092-8) Mrazek, J. 1939, Die Geschichte der deutschen Universit¨ ats-Sternwarte in Prag und ihres Zweiges in Tellnitz, Himmelswelt 49, 2-6. Nagel, B. 1991, Die Welteislehre. Ihre Geschichte und ihre Rolle im “Dritten Reich”, GNT-Verlag, Stuttgart. (ISBN 3-928186-55-8) Neufeld, M.J. 1995, The Rocket and the Reich: Peenemunde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era, Free Press, New York. (ISBN 0-029228-95-6) (German ed.: Die Rakete und das Reich, 2nd ed. 1999, Henschel, Berlin, ISBN 3-89487-325-6) Schmeidler, F. 1988, Die Geschichte der Astronomischen Gesellschaft, Astronomische Gesellschaft, Hamburg. Schramm, J. 1996, Sterne u ¨ber Hamburg. Die Geschichte der Astronomie in Hamburg, Kultur- & Geschichtskontor, Hamburg. (ISBN 3-980319-26-1) Seiler, M.P. 2005a, Solar research in the Third Reich, Development of Solar Research, Eds. A.D. Wittmann, G. Wolfschmidt & H.W. Duerbeck, Acta Historica Astronomiae 25, 199-228. Seiler, M.P. 2005b, Solar-terrestrische Physik in Deutschland 1939-1949, Instrumentalisierung und Kontinuit¨ at der Forschung, Dissertation, Martin-Luther-Universit¨ at Halle-Wittenberg, Math.-Nat.-Techn. Fak., Acta Historica Astronomiae (in preparation). Struve, O. & Zebergs, V. 1962, Astronomy of the 20th Century, MacMillan Co., New York. ten Bruggencate, P. 1948, Naturforschung und Medizin in Deutschland 1939-1946 (FIAT Review of German Science), Band 20: Astronomie, Astrophysik und Kosmogonie, Dieterichsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Wiesbaden. Walter, K. 1987, Astronomy in Poland during the Second World War, J. British Astron. Assoc. 97, 270-273. Wolfschmidt, G. 2002, Early German Plans for Southern Observatories, Astron. Nachr. 323, 548-554. Wr´ oblewska, T. 2003, Die Reichsuniversit¨ aten Posen, Prag und Straßburg als Modell nationalsozialistischer Hochschulen in den von Deutschland besetzten Gebieten, Adam Marszalek, Toru´ n. (ISBN 83-7322-663-X)

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE

GREGORY J. FEIST

Department of Psychology University of California Davis CA 95616, U.S.A. [email protected]

Abstract. Who becomes a physical scientist is not completely a coincidence. People with spatial talent and who are thing-oriented are most likely to be attracted to physical science, including astronomy. Additional lessons from the psychology of science suggest that compared with non-scientists and social scientists, physical scientists are most likely to be introverted, independent, self-conﬁdent, and yet somewhat arrogant. Understanding the physical and inanimate world is part of what physical scientists do, and understanding those who understand the physical world is part of what psychologists of science do.

1. Introduction To a psychologist of science, that there are psychological underpinnings behind who becomes interested in science, who develops talent for science, and who goes on to achieve at the highest levels in science, is obvious. To others – both inside and outside of psychology – this may not be so obvious, and even if it is, it may not be seen as all that relevant or important. After all, science should be evaluated on its own terms, not based on the personalities of those who created it. That is perfectly true and valid. What psychologists of science have to oﬀer, however, is evidence that by understanding the psychology behind scientiﬁc interest, talent, and achievement, we – as parents, teachers, graduate advisors, laboratory leaders – can better identify and appreciate interest, talent, and achievement when it ﬁrst starts to appear in potential scientists. And it does start to appear often in childhood or early adolescence. In this chapter, I brieﬂy lay out what psychologists of science know about the psychology of the physical scientist. 415 A. Heck (ed.), Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, 415–418. © 2006 Springer.

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First let me deﬁne what I mean by physical science in its broadest, most psychological sense. Physical knowledge concerns the inanimate world of physical objects (including tools), their movement, positioning, and causal relations in space, and their inner workings (machines). Because the tool-use element is a large component of physical knowledge, some archeologists refer to this domain as “technical intelligence” (cf. Byrne 2001 and Mithen 1996). An “implicit physics” is also seen in children’s automatic sense that physical objects obey diﬀerent rules than living things (inanimate vrs animate rules). Inanimate objects fall to the ground and do not get up. Understanding the physical world has been a crucial component to our species’ survival, especially as it is involved in our tool-making abilities and spatial and geographic understanding. As I argue in more depth in my recent book, The Psychology of Science and the Origins of the Scientiﬁc Mind (Feist 2006), the physical sciences (astronomy, physics, chemistry, geology) as well as applied science, technology, and engineering stem from our evolved capacity to understand the physical world. 2. Personality Underpinnings of Physical Creativity Various lines of evidence, sometimes direct and sometimes indirect, converge on the conclusion that physical scientists from very early in life have temperaments and personalities that are thing- rather than people-oriented. For instance, indirect evidence comes from Simon Baron-Cohen and his colleagues who have demonstrated a thing- versus people-orientation as early as 36 hours after birth, with male neonates showing a slight preference for things over people and females showing no real preference one way or the other. Whether this eﬀect, assuming it can be replicated, has an inﬂuence on interest in science has yet to be demonstrated, but it is an intriguing hypothesis since males, as reported by the National Science Foundation (NSF 1999), are still disproportionately represented in the physical sciences and math. In addition, Baron-Cohen and his colleagues have shown that engineers, mathematicians, and physical scientists score much higher on measures of high functioning autism and Asperger’s syndrome than nonscientists, and that physical scientists, mathematicians and engineers are higher on a non-clinical measure of autism than social scientists. Lastly, autistic children are more than twice as likely as non-autistic children to have a father or grandfather who was an engineer. Secondly, the research that has been conducted explicitly on the personality traits of scientists has conﬁrmed a personality constellation that is relatively introverted, asocial, and thing-oriented. For instance, in summarizing the results from 26 studies (and 41 samples), I reported the median eﬀect size (Cohen’s d) for introversion comparing scientists to non-scientists

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was .26 or about a quarter of a standard deviation higher in scientists – a small but non-zero eﬀect size (Feist 1998). More speciﬁcally the cluster of social traits (i.e., introversion, independence, arrogance, dominance, hostility, and self-conﬁdence) suggests a relatively low threshold for social stimulation in physical scientists; meaning that physical scientists are more likely than others to be overstimulated by social activities. They regulate this overstimulation by preferring to be in non-social or less social situations, such as working with things rather than people. The problem with the research on personality and science is that it is not speciﬁc to physical scientists but rather covers scientists in general. Very little if any research has compared the personality dispositions of natural, biological and social scientists to examine whether the more social the scientist the more sociable his or her personality. Of most interest would be developmental research that examined whether a preference for things is evident early in life for future physical scientists and likewise whether a preference for people is evident early in life for future social scientists. The next line of research for the personality psychology of science is to explore diﬀerences in personality between physical, biological, and social scientists. My hunch is that the physical scientists as a group will be more introverted and thing-oriented (i.e., have more developed implicit physical domain knowledge) than the social scientists. 3. Conclusion In sum, my argument is that talent and creativity seen in the physical sciences does not develop randomly in some people and not others. The disposition to be interested in and have a talent for understanding the physical and inanimate world has been shaped by evolutionary pressures and humans in general have a speciﬁc domain of mind devoted to solving just such problems. In that sense we all have some implicit capacity for physical knowledge. Only some of us, however, take these implicit capacities and develop a real talent for formal and explicit skill in understanding the physical world. Like interest and talent in the other folk domains (psychology, biology, math, linguistics, art, and music), physical science talent stems from and is built upon the implicit, evolved constraints, capacities, and ﬁrst principles. These constraints and implicit ﬁrst principles sometimes facilitate the development of explicit formal physical knowledge and sometimes hinder such knowledge. Indeed scientiﬁc interest and talent in general is a function of many psychological processes (development, cognition, personality, and social inﬂuences to name just the most obvious), and the explication and analysis of these processes is the task for the psychology of science. Physical knowl-

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edge and physical science is a perfect place for the psychology of science to focus its attention. Understanding the physical and inanimate world is indeed part of what humans do intuitively and implicitly and sometimes explicitly, and understanding those who understand the physical world is part of what psychologists of science do. 4. Sources Cited and for Further Reading • Baron-Cohen, S., Wheelwright, S., Stott, C., Bolton, P. & Goodyer, I. 1997, Is There a Link Between Engineering and Autism?, Autism 1, 101-9. • Baron-Cohen, S. Bolton, P., Wheelwright, S., Short, L., Mead, G., Smith, A. & Scahill, V. 1998, Autism Occurs More Often in Families of Physicists, Engineers, and Mathematicians, Autism 2, 296-301. • Baron-Cohen, S., Wheelwright, S., Skinner, R., Martin, J. & Clubley, E. 2001, The Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ): Evidence from Asperger Syndrome/High-Functioning Autism, Males and Females, Scientists and Mathematicians, J. Autism & Developmental Disorders 31, 5-17. • Connellan, J., Baron-Cohen, S., Wheelwright, S., Batki, A. & Ahluwalia, J. 2000, Sex Diﬀerences in Human Neonatal Social Perception, Infant Behavior and Development 23, 113-118. • Feist, G.J. 1998, A Meta-Analysis of the Impact of Personality on Scientiﬁc and Artistic Creativity, Personality and Social Psychological Review 2, 290-309. • Feist, G.J. 2006, The Psychology of Science and the Origins of the Scientiﬁc Mind, Yale Univ. Press, New Haven, 336 pp. (ISBN 0-30011074-X) • NSF 1999, Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering: 1998 (NSF 99-87), National Science Foundation, Arlington, xvii + 330 pp.

THINKING LIKE AN ASTRONOMER

MICHAEL E. GORMAN

School of Engineering and Applied Science University of Virginia 351 McCormick Road P.O. Box 400744 Charlottesville VA22904-4744, U.S.A. [email protected]

Abstract. Astronomers have to gain three types of knowledge: information, skills and wisdom. Amateurs can gain aspects of this knowledge as well, but they are not subjected to the kind of peer review experienced by professionals. Astronomers increasingly collaborate with other disciplines on the development of new instruments, which calls for interactional expertise. Examples are drawn from the history of astronomy, from the author’s own experience as an amateur, and from recent developments like the Hubble Space Telescope.

1. Types of Knowledge William Herschel (1738-1822) was a musician who made a transition from amateur to professional astronomer (Belkora 2003) and gradually all but abandoned his career in music. He was greatly aided in these endeavors by his sister Caroline, who became the ﬁrst female astronomer to be paid for her work in that profession. To think like astronomers, the Herschels had to master three types of knowledge: 1. Information, or what: Herschel’s interest in astronomy arose from reading about “the many charming discoveries that had been made by means of the telescope” (Belkora 2003, p. 82). Every profession requires mastery of a body of facts and terms – and also the knowledge of where and how to obtain more information, from books, other experts, and nowadays from sources on the internet. Part of expertise is knowing which sources are reliable. 419 A. Heck (ed.), Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, 419–428. © 2006 Springer.

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2. Skill, or how: Herschel had to learn the art of telescope-making, and also how to observe using the instruments he had created. He eventually build some of the largest and best telescopes of his day, and used them to make discoveries, including Uranus. 3. Judgment, or when: Judgment is knowing when speciﬁc information and skills should be combined. In 1781, Herschel was sweeping the skies with the 12” reﬂector he had built, seeking new discoveries. Here is an oft-repeated pattern in astronomy: development of superior technologies opens more of the universe to study. In Herschel’s day, light was the astronomical medium. He was able to make discoveries by looking with greater depth and precision where others had looked before. On the 13 March, he noticed an unusually large star. Here judgment becomes important. Herschel had enough information about other objects to know that this one was diﬀerent, and he had the skill and equipment to both see the diﬀerence and track the object afterwards. By 19 March, he had conﬁrmed that the object moved through the ecliptic, suggesting it might be a planet. Chance discoveries like Uranus are often referred to as ‘serendipitious’. But note that Herschel was not the ﬁrst to see Uranus; others had noted a star in positions consistent with Uranus’, but had not the judgment to track it. The discovery of quasars could similarly be attributed to serendipity. In 1960, Allan Sandage discovered “a 16th magnitude object in Triangulum that appears to be the ﬁrst case where strong radio emission originates from an optically observed star” (Edge & Mulkay 1976, p. 204). Maarten Schmidt extablished that this ‘star’ had a pronounced redshift, suggesting it was well beyond our galaxy. The ‘star’ became a new kind of ‘radio galaxy’ that was also one of “the most luminous objects in the Universe” (Edge & Mulkay 1976, p. 212). Sandage had the judgment to recognize that a source of radio emissions was worthy of further careful study. In this case, serendipity was the result of a systematic program of ﬁnding optical correlates for radio sources. Schmidt and others clariﬁed the nature and signiﬁcance of the object. Note the interplay of diﬀerent methodological skills: the ability to locate a radio source, to then ﬁnd its visual correlated, and to do the appropriate spectral analysis. Note also the dependence of discoveries on the emergence of new technologies, like the 200” telescope at Palomar. Pasteur famously noted that ‘chance favors only the prepared mind’. In this case, we could add that ‘chance favors only the prepared scientiﬁc community’. This framework, if it is useful, should also help us understand astronomers who display a lack of judgment. Percival Lowell build his own observatory in Flagstaﬀ, Arizona, and – like Herschel – spent long hours at his 24” Alvan Clark refractor, observing under good conditions. He is most

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famous for an apparent discovery he conﬁrmed – that there were canals on Mars (Hoyt 1976). Schiaparelli had observed canali’, or channels Lowell transformed these into canals. Lowell had solid information about Mars from other astronomers, including those like Schiaparelli, that had observed lines or channels. He was also a skilled observer. What he lacked was an aspect of judgment. He let his imagination govern his data. In contrast, upon hearing Harlow Shapley’s hypothesis that the Milky Way was vastly larger than any previous estimate and our own solar system was on the periphery, George Hale advised Shapley to “substitute new hypotheses for old ones as rapidly as the evidence may demand” (Belkora 2003, p. 268). Karl Popper said that scientists should make bold conjectures, like Lowell’s – then propose ways in which they could be refuted (Popper 1963). One of Lowell’s own observatory assistants tried to demonstrate, via a clever experiment with artiﬁcial planets, that the lines were perceptual in origin. Instead of questioning his own judgement, Lowell ﬁred the assistant (Hoyt 1976). When leaders at other American observatories, like Wallace Campbell at the Lick, did not ﬁnd evidence for the Martian canals, Lowell dug in his heels (Doel 1996). This tendency to cling to a hypothesis no matter what, and seek only evidence that supports it, is referred to as conﬁrmation bias (Gorman 1992). It makes sense to seek conﬁrmation early in the discovery process, when one has a tentative hypothesis and there may be a great deal of noise and error in the data (Tweney 1981). But according to Popper, the resultant hypothesis has to be articulated in a way that makes it possible to falsify. Herschel, for example, followed Galileo’s belief that all the nebulae were actually composed of stars too small to resolve. But in November 1790, he observed a star apparently embedded in a shining, spherical cloud that would not resolve into additional stars (Belkora 2003). [This object is now classiﬁed as NGC 1514.] For Herschel, this evidence disconﬁrmed his earlier hypothesis about nebulae. Popper reminds us that part of scientiﬁc judgment is humility. This maxim applies not only to theories, but also to the mental models that lie behind them. A mental model is exactly what the name suggests – a threedimensional representation that can be manipulated, or ‘run’, mentally. The Aristotelian universe of perfect spheres is an example. Looking out from the Earth, it was easy to run – each planet on its own sphere, and then the stars beyond. Retrograde motion was a problem, so Greek astronomers and mathematicians put each planet on an epicycle, a small circle which rotated uniformly about a point on a second circle, the deferent, which rotated around the Earth (Kuhn 1957).

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Copernicus shifted the mental model by putting the Sun at the center of the solar system (thought Aristarchus had done it before him, and been forgotten). But even Copernicus’ universe required perfectly circular planetary orbits. This circular dogma was more than a hypothesis – it was a mental model that became confused with reality (Gorman 1998). Kepler shared the predominant mental model, but no perfect circle ﬁt Tycho Brahe’s data for Mars. An important aspect of scientiﬁc thinking is the belief that there is an order to the universe, if only we have the humility to perceive it. If perfect circles did not ﬁt the data, there had to be another pattern. Kepler found it: the ellipse. Percival Lowell was never able to transcend his own mental model. I remember growing up with a picture book that had illustrations of the giant canals on Mars. It was a compelling story, one I wanted to believe in. I am sure Lowell felt he, alone, really understood what was happening on Mars, and was frustrated by others who failed to see this obvious truth. It is easy to laugh at Lowell, and those who believed the Earth was at the center of a universe of spheres. Indeed, the cognitive scientist Pat Langley created a simple computer program that discovered Kepler’s laws in a few moments – given columns of data, appropriately organized (Langley et al. 1987). Why did it take poor Kepler so long to see what was obvious? In ﬁfty or a hundred years, astronomers will be shaking their heads, wondering how anyone could have held some of the mental models of the cosmos that now dominate our thinking. 2. Amateur and Professional Astronomers As an amateur astronomer, I can now replicate many of Herschel’s discoveries, using an even better telescope than he possessed – the 26” Alvan Clark refractor at the McCormick Observatory, once used in parallax studies because of its precision. Leander McCormick, whose donation created the observatory, speciﬁed his telescope should always be open to the public, and I am one of the operators trained to give lectures and turn the scope towards objects like planets and globular clusters. One particularly good night I spent time with Mars. I could see the South Polar Cap and the outline of Syrtis Major – faint features that took great concentration. For an instant, tracing the smudges around Syrtis Major, I imagined I saw lines connecting the shadows. Lowell spent hours studying a similar image of Mars. I could understand how he thought he saw complex patterns. Unfortunately, research is no longer part of the McCormick Observatory’s mission. Herschel could conduct his observations right from the city

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Figure 1. The author at the eyepiece of the 26” Alvan Clark refractor at the Leander McCormick Observatory. (Photograph by Wiebe Bijker)

of Bath because there was little light pollution in his day. The lights of Charlottesville limit the eﬀectiveness of the McCormick. So how am I, an amateur, diﬀerent from Herschel? He built his telescope, but that would not be a requirement for a modern astronomer – though astronomers often collaborate in the design of telescopes, satellites and planetary missions (McCray 2004). When Herschel swept the skies, he was adding to the store of knowledge. When I sweep it, I am following in his footsteps – depending on what he and others have learned about the position and composition of objects. I am not adding to the store of knowledge – just sharing it with others. On 23 January 2004, an amateur astronomer named Jay McNeil discovered a new nebula in one of the most watched areas of the sky, near Orion’s dagger (Aguirre 2004). Amateur astronomers have a Herschel-like knowledge of the sky, the kind that makes new objects ‘pop out’ – like the comets discovered by Carolyn Herschel and by modern comet hunters like David Levy. They possess information, skills and judgment and add to the store of knowledge.

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3. Why then are these Discoverers Amateurs? Because another part of expertise is socialization into the profession. Herschel’s ﬁrst step towards professionalization came when William Watson looked through Herschel’s 6” refractor, and invited Herschel to join the new Literary and Philosophical Society in Bath. In joining this new scientiﬁc community, Herschel began a path that would lead him to increasing recognition by, and eventually membership in, the important learned societies of his day, including the Royal Society. Herschel also attracted ﬁnancial and political support for his research from the King, who employed William and Carolyn as royal astronomers and moved them closer to the palace. A modern Herschel might be searching for extrasolar planets, using expertise gained through a PhD, followed perhaps by postdoctoral apprenticeships, and professional experience with the appropriate technologies and mathematical analyses. She or he might seek support from the National Science Foundation, NASA, universities, agencies elsewhere in the world, major private donors and foundations. Most of these funding agencies put proposals through a referring process by other professionals, and papers submitted for publication are also referred. So a professional astronomer is continually subjected to the judgment of her or his peers, who decide on the merits of the work, and also determine access to observing times on shared telescopes. Herschel regularly reported his results to organizations like the Royal Society, which awarded him its Copeley Medal for discovering Uranus. Being a successful astronomer means possessing the information, skills and judgment to navigate the social as well as cognitive aspects of the profession. 4. Collaboration Collaboration is also an essential feature of astronomy. William depended on his sister Carolyn to correct Flamsteed’s star catalogue and organize it so it was useful for sweeping the sky (Hoskin 2005). Trickett and her colleagues studied a pair of modern astronomers interpreting optical and radio data on a galaxy (Trickett et al. 2005). The two paid particular attention to apparent anomalies, like a nebular region that showed no evidence of stellar formation. One generated a hypothesis that the other rejected, then they came up with several more hypotheses together. Radio astronomy began with two research groups working at Jodrell Bank and the Cavendish in the UK, just after World War II (Edge & Mulkay 1976). Geoﬀrey Marcy, discoverer of extrasolar planets, worked closely with chemist R. Paul Butler, who suggested observing stars through iodine gas to look for the kind of precise Doppler shift required for detection of planets (Croswell 1997).

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Herschel could use his telescope any night that the sky was clear. Modern astronomers engage in ‘queue observing’ at major telescopes (McCray 2004). Instead of building their own instruments, they collaborate with engineers and other specialists to create telescopes and satellites for exploring multiple sources and types of radiation dating from dawn of the universe. The historian of science Peter Galison has referred to collaborations across scientiﬁc and engineering communities as trading zones (Galison 1997). To develop radar, physicists, engineers and military commanders had to learn how to speak a kind of creole that would allow them to communicate (Conant 2002). Similarly, astronomers working with engineers on the design of satellites have to reach enough of a common understanding to design a mission that mates maximum scientiﬁc impact with engineering feasibility. These trading zones can be contentious. When astronomers discovered a spherical aberration in at least one of Hubble’s mirrors, NASA engineers resented their intrusion into the testing process (Chaisson 1994). The astronomers were drawing conclusions from the images, while the engineers were using telemetry data to try to improve the focus. “The arguments predictabley ran along technocultural lines; the scientists were largely convinced that Hubble was the victim of a serious case of bad optics, while the engineers ... maintained that the data were inconclusive, ambiguous, and contradictory” (Chaisson 1994, p. 172). Bureaucratic boundaries between NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute inhibited the kind of knowledge trades essential to solving the problem. For scientiﬁc teams associated with the project, novel observations were the ‘goods’ that they hoped to gain from trading with engineers, politicians and others. When the diﬃculties with the space telescope became apparent, some of these teams refuse to observe until a repair mission had taken place – and also refused to allow anyone else to look at the objects they had selected. In eﬀect, they felt that they owned the future observations. Taxpayers had expected spectacular images, in return for their investment, yet it proved nearly impossible to get engineers to agree to stop testing the instruments long enough to try. One prominent member of the Institute stormed out of two-day meeting focused on selecting what objects to image. Sometimes, for a trading zone to succeed, parties have to exit – leaving behind those who have the most to gain by success and the most to lose by failure. Top NASA scientist Leonard Fisk told the group “if you’re concerned about proprietary data rights, then you’re worrying about who is stealing deck chairs on the Titanic”(Chaisson 1994, p. 232). The end result was a set of inspiring images that also led to discoveries, in part because of creative ways scientists and engineers invented to work around the mirror problem. A subsequent shuttle repair mission greatly

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enhanced Hubble’s value, and other shuttle missions have signiﬁcantly upgraded the telescope (Grunsfeld 2002). To facilitate these collaborations, it is important to have astronomers and engineers who exhibit interactional expertise (Collins & Evans 2002), or the ability to understand enough of another discipline to converse intelligently at the level of research strategy. So in addition to information, skills and judgment, at least some astronomers will have to possess suﬃcient interactional expertise to be part of interdisciplinary teams that design, maintain and use instruments like the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. They will not only have to be able to collaborate with other astronomers, but also with engineers in the design of new instruments. It is also important for at least some astronomers to be able to collaborate with politicians and a variety of funding agencies, and also be able to engage the public imagination. 5. Future Research on Astronomical Thinking The framework suggested in this article points to directions for future research. Such research should include: • Historical studies of the thinking processes of astronomers. I used Herschel as an example in this paper, but to ﬁgure out exactly how Herschel thought, it is necessary to study his and Carolyn’s notebooks in detail, doing a ﬁne-grained analysis of their cognitive processes. This kind of analysis has been done on Michael Faraday (Gooding 1990), and Alexander Graham Bell (Gorman 1995), but not on any astronomers. • Studies of currently-active astronomers. The best way to conduct such studies is to watch astronomers at work, supplementing observations with interviews. As in the historical case, the goal is a ﬁne-grained, cognitive analysis of individual and group processes. Kevin Dunbar has followed this approach successfully with teams of molecular biologists (Dunbar 1995), Monique Lambert has done it with engineers at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Lambert & Shaw 2002) but it has never been done with astronomers, as far as the author knowa, in the US. • Studies of amateur astronomers, to see how their thinking processes contrast with professionals. Part of such a study will be cognitive, but part will be social. What are the career trajectories of diﬀerent sorts of professional astronomers, in contrast to amateurs? One end result of such research would be educational materials for use in astronomy classrooms – including case studies of the thinking processes of astronomers. These case studies could also be written for a wider audience. Taxpayers have to shoulder much of the burden of building giant telescopes

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and sending out unmanned expeditions to explore the solar system. It is not easy to justify astronomy in economic or military or social terms, though substantial practical beneﬁts could emerge from understanding dark matter and energy, or actually making contact with another civilization elsewhere in the galaxy. Astronomy, at best, is driven by the need to understand the universe we are a part of. One way to engage a larger public is to have them experience, vicariously, the frustration and joy of research. NASA and JPL websites allow people to follow the progress of the rovers on Mars, and even included journals kept by members of the team1 – but not by astronomers, or scientists. Similar sites with astronomical journals would educate the public on how science is really done. Cognitive analyses of the journals could show the path astronomers followed to a discovery – or an important replication, or even a negative result. Some of those reading such journals might be inspired to become astronomers. Others would have a better understanding of why such work needs to be supported by society. Acknowledgements The author would like to thank Ed Murphy, Astronomy Dept., Univ. Virginia, for comments and Wiebe Bijker, sociologist of technology, for the picture. References Aguirre, E.L. 2004 (June), Unraveling the mystery of McNeil’s nebula Sky & Telescope 107, 114-117. Belkora, L. 2003, Minding the heavens: The story of our discovery of the Milky Way, Inst. Phys. Publ., Bristol. Chaisson, E. 1994, The Hubble wars : astrophysics meets astropolitics in the two billion dollar struggle over the Hubble Space Telescope, HarperCollins Publ., New York. Collins, H.M. & Evans, R. 2002, The third wave of science studies, Social Studies of Science 32(2), 235-296. Conant, J. 2002, Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street tycoon and the secret palace of science that changed the course of World War II, Simon & Schuster, New York. Croswell, K. 1997, Planet Quest: The epic discovery of alien solar systems, The Free Press, New York. Doel, R.E. 1996, Solar system astronomy in America: Communities, patronage, and interdisciplinary research, 1920-1960, Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge. Dunbar, K. 1995, How scientists really reason: Scientiﬁc reasoning in real-world laboratories, in The nature of insight, Eds. R.J. Sternberg & J. Davidson, MIT Press, Canbridge MA, pp. 365-396. Edge, D.O. & Mulkay, M.J. 1976, Astronomy transformed : the emergence of radio astronomy in Britain. Wiley, New York.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

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http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/journal/

428 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23.

24.

MICHAEL E. GORMAN Galison, P. 1997, Image & logic: A material culture of microphysics, Univ. Chicago Press, Chicago. Gooding, D. 1990, Experiment and the Making of Meaning: Human Agency in Scientiﬁc Observation and Experiment, Kluwer Academic Publ., Dordrecht. Gorman, M.E. 1992, Simulating Science: Heuristics, Mental Models and Technoscientiﬁc Thinking, Indiana Univ. Press, Bloomington. Gorman, M.E. 1995, Conﬁrmation, Disconﬁrmation and Invention: The Case of Alexander Graham Bell and the Telephone, Thinking and Reasoning I(1), 31-53. Gorman, M.E. 1998, Transforming nature: Ethics, invention and design, Kluwer Academic Publ., Boston. Grunsfeld, J.M. 2002 (March), Remaking Hubble, Sky & Telescope 103, 30-33. Hoskin, M. 2005 (May), Astronomy’s matriarch, Sky & Telescope 109, 42-47. Hoyt, W.G. 1976, Lowell and Mars, Univ. Arizona Press, Tucson. Kuhn, T.S. 1957, The Copernican Revolution, Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge MA. Lambert, M.H. & Shaw, B. 2002, Transactive Memory and Exception Handling in High-Performance Project Teams, CIFE Techn. Rep. 137, Stanford Univ., Palo Alto. Langley, P., Simon, H.A., Bradshaw, G.L. & Zykow, J.M. 1987, Scientiﬁc Discovery: Computational Explorations of the Creative Processes, MIT Press, Cambridge MA. McCray, P. 2004, Giant telescopes, Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge MA. Popper, K.R. 1963, Conjectures and Refutations. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London. Trickett, S.B., Schunn, C.D. & Trafton, J.G. 2005, Puzzles and peculiarities: How scientist attend to and process anomalies during data analysis, in Scientiﬁc and technological thinking Eds. M.E. Gorman, R.D. Tweney, D.C. Gooding & A. Kincannon, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, pp. 97-118. Tweney, R.D., Doherty, M.E. & Mynatt, C.R. (Eds.) 1981, On Scientiﬁc Thinking, Columbia Univ. Press, New York.

MERCURY MAGAZINE: THE INCARNATION OF A SOCIETY

JAMES C. WHITE II

Oﬃce of the Provost Gettysburg College Gettysburg PA 17325, U.S.A. [email protected]

Abstract. Mercury is the membership magazine for the Astronomical Society of the Paciﬁc and a venue for presentation and discussion of contemporary and historical astronomy and science education.

1. Introduction More than thirty years ago an old and venerated astronomy organization gained a new voice. The Astronomical Society of the Paciﬁc launched in 1972 a publication named Mercury for the Society’s members. This new “Journal” of the ASP was, according to then ASP President Harold F. Weaver, “the most evident step in a series now being taken by the Society to provide better public understanding of astronomy”. Since and perhaps because of that beginning, Mercury has come to occupy an unusual position among the other astronomy publications. The magazine is ﬁlled with science and history articles, and, increasingly, it is a venue for discussion and announcement of new trends and methods in science education. Such a blend of content – a given edition may contain feature articles by a middle-school teacher, a high-level science administrator, and a couple of renowned scientists – is the practice rather than the exception for Mercury, and its broad coverage of science, education, and policy is arguably its most important quality. Yet this small magazine merely reﬂects the voice of its polyphonic parent organization.

429 A. Heck (ed.), Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, 429–437. © 2006 Springer.

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2. The Birth of an Organization San Francisco, California, in 1889 was a city ﬂourishing commercially and intellectually. On 7 February of that year, a group of men gathered in the city’s heart for a meeting to discuss the creation of an organization to be devoted to the science of astronomy. The path of a total solar eclipse had fallen just north of the city on 1 January of the same year, and local photographers and others interested in the eclipse had responded to it with fervor and passion. This demonstrated interest in a celestial event made this group gathering in February believe that a formal organization should perhaps be created to foment the development of astronomy in San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area. Forty attendees at that meeting enthusiastically signed the charter membership role for a new organization, and a circular describing it was distributed following the 7 February meeting. It began: The cordial cooperation of many amateur and professional astronomers in the very successful observations of the Solar Eclipse of January 1, 1889, has again brought forward the desirability of organizing the Astronomical Society of the Paciﬁc, in order that this pleasant and close association may not be lost, either as a scientiﬁc or as a social force ... (Holden 1889)

The Astronomical Society of the Paciﬁc was born. Originally charged with accommodating, reﬂecting, and nurturing the needs of the professional and amateur practitioners of astronomy in the Bay Area, it has grown to address the needs of people throughout the nation and even around the world. To do this, the Society’s creators envisioned the “establishment of an astronomical journal of high class”, the “formation of a special astronomical library”, and the “organization of such scientiﬁc work as requires cooperation and mutual assistance ...” Each of these desired elements were created or put in place long ago, and today the Society continues to develop and reﬁne them and to add to them new and important elements. Since its formation 117 years ago, the “ASP” has never reinvented itself but has remained true to the vision of its charter members. Indeed, its formal mission statement, crafted oﬃcially only in 2000, perpetuates the original ideals: The Astronomical Society of the Paciﬁc is an international nonproﬁt scientiﬁc and educational organization, founded in 1889, that works to increase the public understanding and appreciation of astronomy by: • uniting the interests and expertise of scientists, educators, amateur astronomers, and astronomy enthusiasts; • providing resources and tools to assist educators of all types; • recognizing and honoring extraordinary contributions to astronomy and astronomy education;

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The ASP’s original seal was adopted in early 1891. (Courtesy ASP)

• disseminating the results of astronomical research to the astronomical community; and • communicating the excitement of astronomy to educators and the general public.

What the original members of the ASP probably did not foresee is the national role that the Society now plays in the communication of science among scientists and between astronomy and the larger, mostly nonscientiﬁc public. From Mercury and other Society activities, astronomical knowledge and information is spread around the world. Begun in 1889 with the Society’s birth, the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Paciﬁc has always been a venue for the presentation of new science to members of the astronomical community. The peer-review process ensures that only discoveries, ideas, and data of the highest order are disseminated through the PASP, and its standing as initially a refereed journal of astronomy on America’s western coast has expanded considerably in that the PASP for at least the half century has been viewed as a source of astronomy from around the world. Another means of delivering astronomy to the professionals and occasionally amateurs who can best use it is the relatively recent invention of the ASP’s series of conference-proceedings volumes. In 1988, nearly one century after the Society’s establishment, the Conference Series was started as a means of getting new, important information presented at astronomical meetings out and into the larger scientiﬁc community. The inexpensive volumes are approaching 350 in number as of this writing, and each year sees the production of approximately twenty new volumes.

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But as ﬁrst ASP President Edward S. Holden, also ﬁrst director of Lick Observatory, stated in an address to the nascent organization’s members in March, 1889, “[the Society] may look forward to a career of real usefulness not only to [its] members, but to the science of Astronomy”. Indeed, and in greater service to the science, the ASP is dedicated to the notion that astronomy is a broad endeavor that involves those who practice it for a living, those who are interested in and/or passionate for it, and those who would use our innate curiosity about the heavens as a means to teach science (including astronomy). In an eﬀort to extend the reach of the Society beyond the seeming conﬁnes of the PASP or even the more recent Conference Series, Mercury magazine was dreamed and materialized in 1972. Reaching from mountain-top and orbiting observatories into living rooms and classrooms, Mercury is a venue in which the joy of the science of astronomy is manifest as careful articles of discovery and interrogation of nature and a nexus through which the Society’s members maintain connection with the larger, grander whole. 3. Making an Idea Real Mercury was launched in January 1972 with the ASP’s ﬁrst Executive Oﬃcer, Leon Salanave, serving also as the magazine’s ﬁrst editor. In that 22-page, maiden-voyage issue, an introductory message from Harold F. Weaver, then President of the Society, captured the excitement associated with production of Mercury and repeated clearly the purpose of the ASP: “Publication of this ﬁrst issue of the new Journal of our Society is an important event in our history. It represents the most evident step in a series now being taken by the Society to provide better public understanding of astronomy. To provide such understanding was a major goal of the Society when it was founded 82 years ago; it is becoming increasingly important in the now enlarging activities of the Society. Astronomy has very typically been a science the layman can understand. It has greatly interested the educated public. But the character of astronomical research is changing. It is becoming more analytical, less descriptive, and harder to explain. The modern observatory is more like a physics or electronics laboratory than an abode of philosophers looking through telescopes. Computers now control the telescopes which feed radiation to arrays of analysing instruments. Observations are made from airplanes, balloons, rockets, and satellites by “telescopes” the nonspecialists would never recognize. Technology has greatly increased our ability to do research and has deepened our understanding, but the strangeness and the signiﬁcance of the exciting new astronomical discoveries must be explained in language all can understand. Our Society can make a

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Figure 2. The cover of the ﬁrst edition of Mercury, which appeared in January 1972. (Courtesy ASP)

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contribution of far-reaching importance to the science of astronomy by interpreting the results of astronomical research for the nonspecialist. It is a task worthy of our strongest eﬀorts. This new Journal represents one of those efforts. Let us all wish it and its Editor well! (Weaver 1972)

Mercury, Roman god of commerce and trade and purported messenger of the gods, had a place in the Society even before the moniker was applied to the ASP’s new membership magazine. The Society voted in 1890 to solicit the design for an organizational seal, and on 31 January 1891 the original emblem of the Astronomical Society of the Paciﬁc was adopted: it bears the Society’s name and features a crescent Moon, three stars, heavenly clouds, and a telling incarnation of Mercury, set centrally to represent the importance with which the Society viewed its responsibility of communicating cosmic news. When Mercury, the magazine, ﬁrst appeared, it bore the ﬁtting name of Mercury, the messenger god. The thirty-ﬁve years since its creation hold signiﬁcant changes in Mercury’s appearance and subtle shifts in emphasis in its coverage of astronomy and the activities of its parent organization. Since the January/February 1972 edition, which comprised 22 black and white pages, Mercury has become a 48-page glossy magazine fully formed in four colors. It remains a bimonthly publication, and the emphasis on communicating the joy of astronomical discovery to educated readers remains undiluted. There are palpable changes, however, in the manner in which the magazine is viewed both by the membership and by non-members who ﬁnd Mercury on library shelves around the world. Monthly publications such as Sky & Telescope and Astronomy, and weekly periodicals like Science News and New Scientist, do a marvelous job of reporting to scientists and nonscientists alike the latest and freshest news from astronomical frontiers. Professional journals – examples include the Astrophysical Journal, Astronomy & Astrophysics, and the PASP – and preprint servers (e.g., astro-ph) now equip individual and institutional subscribers with practically immediate electronic access to the latest astronomical science. Save for the somewhat similar Astronomy & Geophysics, which is produced six times a year by the United Kingdom’s Royal Astronomical Society, Mercury magazine has never been set to compete with these and other astronomy periodicals. Yet it has a place all its own in the astronomy community. The magazine typically includes feature articles and regular columns on current and historical astronomical topics. From considerations of the local, universal “brane” and greater “bulk”, to the growing ﬁeld of forensic astronomy, to, say, the critical role of O.M. Mitchel, the “Astronomer-General” of 19th -century America, Mercury is a vessel of thought and consideration

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Figure 3.

The cover of a recent edition of Mercury. (Courtesy ASP)

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TABLE 1. Mercury Editors Leon Salanave Richard Reis Andrew Fraknoi Sally Stephens George Musser James White Robert Naeye James White

1972 1974 1978 1992 1994 1998 2000 2003

– – – – – – – –

1974 1978 1992 1994 1998 2000 2003

for readers and the fundamental means by which members of the Society learn about and remain connected to their organization. This role, as the face and voice of the ASP, is one that has grown and developed through the magazine’s 35 volumes. Indeed, a purposeful evolution of Mercury over just the last several years has resulted in a publication known for its attention to science as well as to science education. 4. Mercury’s Message In 2003, the ASP’s Board of Directors and Executive Director put the organization through a process of strategic review, and the results of that review were of little surprise to anyone. The Society is an organization dedicated now, as it was at the time of its founding, to communication, to dissemination, and to education. One revelatory conclusion from the internal and external evaluation of the Society and its activities is that Mercury is not only a means of communication, dissemination, and education, but it is also a tool that can be applied by the Society to Society projects and activities such as Project ASTRO, Astronomy From the Ground Up, and Family ASTRO. The magazine has grown by the conclusions of that planning process into a brighter and more coherent voice of the Society. Regular coverage is given in Mercury to Society initiatives, projects, programs, and activities. Readers are reminded in each issue – by delicate balance of articles and occasional narratives – of the Society’s role in bringing attention to bear on topics of currency and impact in relation to science and science education. Indeed, the ASP has come to be viewed as one of, if not the, primary national organizations dedicated to facilitating and enhancing formal and informal science education. Working alongside the editors and contributors to the web-based Astronomy Education Review, Mercury’s Editor and the ASP’s Executive Director are crafting a new means of alerting scientists and

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science educators to the best practices and most promising trends in science education – be it conducted in the classroom, in the lab, at a science or nature center, or at a star party hosted by an enthusiastic group of amateur astronomers. Mercury magazine is approaching the end of its fourth decade of existence, and there has not been a time when its voice has been needed more – this vessel of an amalgam of the individual voices of scientists, educators, policymakers, and interested non-scientists. And it, along with the Society’s other means to communicate, to disseminate, and to educate, are wielded by an organization whose attention has enlarged since its founding from the San Francisco Bay Area to all of the United States to beyond. Well into its second century of existence, the Astronomical Society of the Paciﬁc continues to bring the heavens down to Earth for everyone, and Mercury, the Society’s voice and face, is the portal through which all of that heavenly mystery and delight is passed. References 1. 2.

Holden, E.S. 1889, The Work of an Astronomical Society, Publ. Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc 1/2, 9. Weaver, H.F. 1972, A Message from the President, Mercury 1/1, 3.

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STERNE UND WELTRAUM – A POPULAR MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO SCIENCE AND ITS USE IN SCHOOL TEACHING JAKOB STAUDE

Max-Planck-Institut f¨ ur Astronomie K¨ onigstuhl 17 D-60117 Heidelberg, Germany [email protected]

Abstract. Sterne und Weltraum (Stars and Space, SuW) is produced monthly at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Heidelberg. Here we describe the goals pursued by the magazine, its development and the method of working of its editors, and we brieﬂy characterize its authors and readers. Finally, we present a school project based on SuW which we started recently.

1. Sterne und Weltraum 1.1. THE BEGINNINGS

SuW was founded in 1962 by Hans Els¨ asser (who in 1969 became the ﬁrst Director of MPIA), Karl Schaifers, an astronomer at the Landessternwarte (State Observatory) Heidelberg-K¨ onigstuhl, and Rudolf K¨ uhn, a former astronomer at the Munich Observatory, then a free collaborator of the broadcasting network Bayerischer Rundfunk. At that time, the largest and most modern telescope in the Federal Republic of Germany was the 1 metre telescope in Hamburg-Bergedorf, which had been built in 1910. Therefore, since more than half a century there had been no progress in observational astronomy in Germany, which would have required larger and better instruments operating at more appropriate sites. In 1962, the big astronomical institutes, such as the Max Planck Institutes for Radioastronomy in Bonn, for Astrophysics and for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, and for Astronomy in Heidelberg, were not 439 A. Heck (ed.), Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, 439–448. © 2006 Springer.

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even a dream. The same was true for the later strong German committment to ESO and ESA. The objective of the founders of SuW was to create a medium with which they could awake and cultivate the interest in astronomy within all sectors of society. Hans Els¨asser was soon appointed Director of the Landessternwarte and later of the newly founded MPIA. Karl Schaifers was the ﬁrst and only active editor of SuW from 1962 to 1981; and Rudolf K¨ uhn produced with great success his personal astronomical TV show at the Bayerischer Rundfunk. Sadly he died in an accident in 1963, barely two years after the foundation of SuW. 1.2. THE OBJECTIVES OF SUW

The magazine is intended to oﬀer a public forum for widely diﬀerent groups of authors where they can present their interests and describe their work. In this, they have to take into account the needs of a variety of readers. But in all cases the readers are given access to “ﬁrst-hand astronomy”. Thus, the primary goal of the editors of SuW is to promote communication within the largest possible, but otherwise highly heterogenous, circle of authors and readers, deﬁned only through their astronomical interests of one kind or another. Their goal is also to promote the understanding and appreciation of ever new kinds of astronomical activities. In doing this, they must ensure the technical correctness of all contributions. 1.3. THE TARGET GROUPS

In the sixties, pupils and students were the primary target group. Since an upcoming generation of astronomers was eﬀectively non-existent, motivation and education of pupils and students had highest priority in view of the large astronomical projects which at that time were being conceived. Nowadays, due to the dramatic decline of the number of students in all branches of physics, this goal is again of burning interest and highly topical. To the professional astronomers, SuW oﬀers a platform from which they can reach two groups of vital interest to them: on the one hand the youth, which has to be motivated towards science, on the other hand the media, which have to build up the appreciation of science in the public and in the political class. However, the media can achieve this only if the experts communicate with them in a language which is as accessible as possible. SuW does not try to compete with science journalists: the daily coverage, which today largely rests on the press releases produced by major science institutes, has its place in the editorial oﬃces of press, radio and TV. Rather, SuW provides journalists with ﬁrst-hand background knowl-

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Some recent issues of SuW.

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edge and long-term perspectives on astronomical research – with emphasis on the european scene, since the power of the american PR machinery is overwelming worldwide. Amateur astronomers, who with their contributions sometimes reach remarkable technical and also scientiﬁc results, are a classical example of how far a reasonably advised “learning by doing” can go. The astronomically interested layman is the largest fraction among our readers. As it is well known, in all times astronomy has exerted a fascination, of which many other sciences are envious. We want to make use of this fascination as a “Trojan horse” in order to introduce our readers into physical thinking and to improve their understanding of scientiﬁc research in general. With this, SuW obtains a role which is important far beyond the specialized astronomical sciences, for physics as a whole and for their acceptance among the young generation and the general public. 1.4. THE DEVELOPMENT SINCE 1962

SuW was ﬁrst published by the Bibliographisches Institut Mannheim which, however, dropped it in 1971 because of its too low proﬁtability. Thereupon, it was published privately until 1993 with a secretary, a small administrative oﬃce and no other resources whatsoever. Then, it passed again to a publishing house, the Verlagsgruppe H¨ uthig, and in 2001 to “Spektrum der Wissenschaft”, the publisher of the German edition of Scientiﬁc American. However, the editorial oﬃce always remained in the MPIA, on top of the K¨ onigstuhl in Heidelberg. At the beginning in 1962, 1500 copies were sold monthly to subscribers only. Until 1981 my predecessor Karl Schaifers alone was in charge of the daily editorial work. During that period, the subscriptions increased to 5300 copies. Fig. 2a shows the further development until today. The steady rise of this curve for more than two decades reﬂects the diﬃcult diﬀusion process, during which the magazine had to conquer, so to speak, every single reader. In fact, there was no budget available for marketing and promotion. The counterpart of this laborious growing was the tight bond of the readers to SuW: our readers are diﬃcult to reach, but then they stay with us for a long time: today on average for about 12 years. Only the steadily increasing number of readers enabled us to develop the magazine, since SuW had always to be ﬁnanced by its readers alone. An increase of the number of subscribers always gave rise to improvements of the magazine. One of the indicators of this is the number of pages produced each year (Fig. 2b): While in the early sixties there were fewer than 300, today we produce more than 1200 pages a year, distributed in 12 issues. This increase in size allowed step by step to increase also the variety of astro-

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Figure 2. The number of subscribers (left), pages per year (center) and authors per year (right) between 1982 and 2000.

nomical themes treated in each issue, and therefore to reach an increasing number of readers. Correspondingly, the number of authors has also steadily grown (Fig. 2c). Who are the 400 or so authors publishing every year in SuW? This number has to be related to the total of about 800 German-speaking professional astronomers, of whom only a small fraction contributes to the magazine. The other authors are not active in astronomical research, rather they are lecturers in high schools, planetaria, adult education, or are school teachers trying to incorporate astronomical themes in their physics courses because in most states of the Federal Republic astronomy is not an independent subject. But most important besides professional astronomers is the community of amateurs who write regularly in SuW and sometimes produce excellent work. The curves in Fig. 2a-c are strongly interdependent. An increased circulation was obtained by an increase of the variety of themes treated, and thus of the number of pages and of contributing authors. Today, SuW has more than 13,000 subscribers, and about 6000 copies are sold by retail per month (Fig. 3). The editorial work is done by ﬁve full-time editors and is entirely ﬁnanced by the readers. 1.5. WHO ARE THE READERS?

Our regular readership surveys yield the following picture: • Each sold copy is read by 2.3 readers on average. Thus, we reach about 44,000 readers.

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• In view of the diﬃculty of the subjects treated it is not surprising that two thirds of our readers have a grammer school education. But one third left school earlier and they have still found their way to SuW. • The readers spend eight hours on average with every new issue, whithin a range of two to thirty hours. This means that the magazine is not leafed through, but rather studied thoroughly. • About 2000 of our readers use SuW regularly to prepare their own lecturing or teaching activities of various kinds. 1.6. THE STRUCTURE OF TODAY’S SUW ISSUES

Today, each issue has about 100 pages. We start with letters to the editor, often containing questions about astronomical subjects, which we try to answer exhaustively. Then about 40 pages are devoted to actual research. We start with short news and one to two pages long reports on the work done in astronomical institutes. The basic items are two or three review articles (eight to twelve pages each), written by active scientists presenting their own work in the context of the state of the art. We put a great eﬀort into helping the authors to explain their concepts and methods, such that they don’t loose their readers midway. We also have articles dealing with historical or less technical aspects of astronomy, like for instance in the history of art or ethnology, etc. But always we ask experts to write about their own work. After this, the reader ﬁnds about 15 pages of extensive practical instructions for performing his own observations, followed by about six articles written by amateurs, describing their (self-made) instruments and their own observations, and discussing their results. Then, events on the amateur scene are reported, and new books and technical products are reviewed. Finally, a brain-twister is presented by one of the SuW editors, the solution to which requires the skills of a talented 16- to 18-years old schoolboy (or -girl) and the thorough study of one of the major review articles on actual research in the same issue. Two months later, the solution is presented, and once a year generous prizes are given to the most strenuous participants to these contests. 1.7. WHAT IS MOST INTERESTING TO OUR READERS?

Before starting regular surveys of our readers, we had feared that they would not appreciate the really demanding review articles on actual aspects of the astronomical research, which of course are for us the most essential part of SuW. To our surprise, more than 80% of the readers regularly declare that these articles are the most interesting ones to them. But the

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Figure 3. Total circulation from 1982 to 2005. The isolated peaks in the years 1997 and later refer to our special issues.

level of interest is high throughout, especially also in the sections devoted to learning by doing. Thus, if one asks what it is that the general readers want to learn about science and research, then according to our experience it is not so much the latest amazing or outstanding results. Their excessive celebration can soon produce saturation eﬀects. Rather, the readers want to perceive the real scientists in their daily work, and to be informed about the questions they ask, the problems they have, and the methods they develop to solve them. 1.8. SPECIALS ISSUES

Since 1997, besides the monthly issues we occasionally publish “SuWspecials”, which are dedicated to outstanding astronomical events – e.g., the SuW-special “Comets” in occasion of the appearence of Hale-Bopp in 1997, or “The Sun” in occasion of the total solar eclipse in 1999. Or they give a more systematic overview on speciﬁc branches of astrophysics, like for instance the SuW-special “Gravitation”, which illustrates the resarch performed at the MPI for Gravitational Physics, or “Europe’s new tele-

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scopes”, which is dedicated to the new ground-based and space istruments developed by ESO and ESA. Fifteen SuW-specials have appeared up to now (Fig. 4). Not only the articles for these special issues are written by the experts in the ﬁeld, but whenever appropriate the whole table of contents is conceived in collaboration with the institutes whose work is described. The result is a powerful PR instrument, which does not need to be given away free of charge, since each can be sold up to 35,000 times (see Fig. 3). 2. A School Project with SuW How can we let school teachers of physics classes and their pupils take advantage for their teaching and learning of the motivation and enthusiasm which is perceived by our readers? Evidently, we cannot reach this goal by printing chapters of class-books in SuW. Rather, we have to leave the free and entertaining character of the magazine unchanged, and in addition provide the teachers and pupils with didactic material ready for use which allows them to treat within the frame of standard physics classes the exciting topics of actual research described in the magazine. Since October 2003, we produce monthly such extensive didactic material (about 20 pages) related to one of the major review articles in the current issue, and we make it available, together with the article in question, on the freely accessible internet platform called “WiS!” (“Wissenschaft in die Schulen!” or “Science in Schools!”1 , which is run by the publishing house Spektrum der Wissenschaft. Again, the fascination conveyed by the highly topical themes of astronomical research, which are treated in the printed review articles, is used as a “Trojan horse” in order to induce the pupils to a motivated study of basic physics and other natural sciences. The subjects treated monthly come in a casual order, but of course we aim to cover in a systematic way the basic topics prescribed by the physics curriculum. At present, 35 such teaching units are available on the WiS! platform. Among the treated subjects we have, for example: Dust experiments on the ISS; Planet formation in circumstellar disks; Ten years of exoplanets research – lessons learned; The physics of supernovae of type Ia; Huygens explores the atmosphere of Titan. The didactic material includes basic concepts, exercises, school experiments, model building, numerical models, photographic material, video clips. So, it happens that active scientists at our institutes write an original article for SuW about their actual research, and two months later teachers and pupils all over the country discuss it in their physics classes. This short connection between authentic science and everyday school life is of course exciting for both the writing scientists and the teachers and pupils. Furthermore, part of the didactic 1

http://www.wissenschaft-schulen.de/

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Some of the SuW-Specials.

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material refers to articles written by amateurs. They oﬀer the means to learn by doing: constructing simple instruments, performing observations, etc. After having started this project in October 2003, we soon realized that neither our manpower nor our didactic experience was suﬃcient to conduct it appropriately. So we looked for professional help and found Olaf Fischer, an experienced teacher of physics and astronomy who had also worked as an instructor of young teachers. Thanks to the generous ﬁnancial support granted by the Klaus Tschira Foundation, we were able to oﬀer him, from January 2005 on, a full-time position at the Landesakademie f¨ ur Lehrerfortbildung (State Academy for Teachers Training) in Donaueschingen. Since then, he produces extensive didactic material in close cooperation with the editors of SuW and with the authors of the articles to which the material refers. In order to secure the usefulness of this material, Olaf Fischer teaches a few classes each month in a school in Heidelberg, and once every three months he gives an extended training course for teachers, always based on our newly developed didactic material. This gives him the opportunity to see how teachers and pupils react to the new material and whether it ﬁts their needs, and it allows the teachers to become well acquainted with our project. As a consequence, today we have about 1800 downloads monthly from our WiS! platform, which seems to tell us that our oﬀer is well accepted by pupils and teachers. 3. Comparable Projects Popular magazines which can be compared with SuW are for instance Sky and Telescope and Astronomy in the USA, Astronomy now in England, Ciel et Espace and Astronomie Magazine in France, L’Astronomia in Italy. But Sterne und Weltraum is special, in that those who actually make it have themselves a thorough experience in astronomical research, and in that the daily editorial work is done just in the middle of a highly active research institute. This, we believe, is a necessary condition for the character of SuW, and for its success.

COMMUNICATING ASTRONOMY WITH THE PUBLIC AND THE WASHINGTON CHARTER

IAN ROBSON

UK Astronomy Technology Centre Royal Observatory Blackford Hill Edinburgh EH9 3HJ Scotland, U.K. [email protected]

Abstract. Communicating astronomy with the public is a rewarding and stimulating experience undertaken by professional astronomers, enthusiastic amateurs, public information oﬃcers, planetarium presenters, observatory staﬀ and a whole raft of others. It is widely acknowledged as one of the key topics that engage the public and perhaps even more importantly, the children of today, hopefully stimulating more of them to study science as a career subject. Over the last three years the nature of the topic has changed with the inception of the ‘Washington Charter’ (a set of principles for those involved in the work) and the setting up of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Working Group on Communicating Astronomy with the Public. This article describes the origins and evolution of the Washington Charter, the work of the Working Group and the challenges of the future for those working in the ﬁeld.

1. Introduction Communicating astronomy with the public is a hugely important part of the work of astronomers the world over. This is undertaken for diﬀerent reasons: personal enthusiasm, employer requirements, funding agency requirement, personal reward, professional position and so on. What’s more, it is done widely and in the most part without any degree of coherence and commonality and is often totally voluntary and unpaid. Should this matter? In the main, communicating astronomy with the public is done at a local level, even though the audience may be global. This is either via a 449 A. Heck (ed.), Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, 449–461. © 2006 Springer.

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website, or the local venue of an observatory, club or society, or through the local media of radio and TV. So while there is no overall need for a large degree of commonality or organised bureaucracy, there is great merit in communicators coming together to exchange ideas, share innovations and opportunities and perhaps most importantly, to share lessons learned. There have been three international conferences on ‘Communicating Astronomy with the Public’. The ﬁrst was held in Tenerife in 2002, the second was at Washington DC in October 2003 and the most recent, in Garching in June 2005. The Washington meeting turned out to be a watershed for this global outreach activity, and from now on I will tend to use outreach synonymously with communicating astronomy with the public. Various funding agencies classify the work as ‘Outreach’;, ‘Public Understanding of Science’, ‘Science and Society’, etc. What this topic is not about, however, is astronomy education, where astronomy is used to strengthen the school curriculum at many age levels. While this is a vital role, it is not what I will be talking about here. The Washington meeting1 was held around a series of themes with speciﬁc purposes and goals. It was run along workshop lines with required ‘outputs’ from the meeting participants. In this it was incredibly successful, and this is due in no small part to the organisers who deserve a huge round of applause. Three key themes emerged, all of which were taken forward and have blossomed. These were: the production of the Washington Charter; the setting up of an International Astronomical Union Working Group on Communicating Astronomy with the Public; agreement of the need for a Virtual Repository for Astronomical Images. 2. The Washington Charter (for Communicating Astronomy with the Public) 2.1. THE WASHINGTON CHARTER

The Charter outlines “Principles of Action” for individuals and organizations that conduct astronomical research and is formulated by the CHARGE: “As our world grows ever more complex and the pace of scientiﬁc discovery and technological change quickens, the global community of professional astronomers needs to communicate more eﬀectively with the public. Astronomy enriches our culture, nourishes a scientiﬁc outlook in society, and addresses important questions about humanity’s place in the universe. It contributes to areas of immediate practicality, including industry, medicine, and security, and it introduces young people to quantitative reasoning and attracts them to 1

http://www.nrao.edu/ccap/

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scientiﬁc and technical careers. Sharing what we learn about the universe is an investment in our fellow citizens, our institutions, and our future. Individuals and organizations that conduct astronomical research – especially those receiving public funding for this research – have a compelling obligation to communicate their results and eﬀorts with the public for the beneﬁt of all.”

This is followed by the PRINCIPLES OF ACTION “Funding Agencies Should: • Mandate and fund public outreach and communication in all projects and grant programs; • Develop infrastructure and linkages to assist with the organization and dissemination of outreach results (including information, materials, etc.); • Continuously emphasize the importance of such eﬀorts to project and research managers; • Recognize public outreach and communication plans and eﬀorts through proposal selection criteria and decisions and annual performance awards; and, • Encourage international collaboration on public outreach and communication activities. “Professional Astronomical Societies Should: • Strongly endorse standards for public outreach and communication; • Assemble best practices, formats, and tools that will aid in eﬀective public outreach and communication; • Work to promote professional respect and recognition of public outreach and communication; • Make public outreach and communication a visible and integral part of the activities and operations of the respective societies; and, • Encourage greater linkages with successful ongoing eﬀorts of amateur astronomy groups and others. “Universities, Laboratories, Research Organizations, and Other Institutions Should: • Declare public outreach and communication a clear priority for all departments and personnel; • Actively recognize public outreach and communication eﬀorts when making decisions on hiring, tenure, compensation, and awards; • Provide appropriate institutional support (e.g., funding, infrastructure, personnel, training, etc.) to enable and assist with public outreach and communication eﬀorts; • Collaborate with funding agencies and other support organizations to help ensure that public outreach and communication eﬀorts are eﬃcient and have the greatest possible impact; • Develop appropriate formal public outreach and communication training for all researchers; and,

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IAN ROBSON • Integrate communication training (e.g., writing, speaking, etc.) into the academic courses of study for the next generation of researchers. “Individual Researchers Should: • Actively participate – directly or indirectly – in communicating the results and beneﬁts of astronomical research directly to the public; • Convey the importance of public outreach and communication to all team members; and, • Instil this sense of responsibility in the next generation of researchers.”

So we see that the Charter is a clear instruction to those involved in all aspects of professional astronomy to ‘do their bit’ to support and promote public outreach and to support and recognise those that do so. One should remember that this was produced by activists who were most fervent in their belief of the value of the subject and we see that the aims and requirements are laid out very clearly in the rather ﬁrm phraseology of the Principles. We shall see later that this caused some problems and indeed, a revision of some of the wording has now been made. 2.2. WHAT TO DO WITH THE WASHINGTON CHARTER

While the production of the Washington Charter was a noble eﬀort of a sub-group of the participants of the Washington Meeting, the obvious question is what to do with it once it had been written. This is where the second outcome of the Washington meeting came into play, the IAU Working Group on Communicating Astronomy with the Public (henceforth the WG – see Sect. 3). In the absence of any other formal body, the founding trio of the WG took it on themselves to promote the Washington Charter amongst astronomical societies, funding agencies and supporters around the world. Co-helpers were brought in to promote the work in speciﬁc countries. The UK Royal Astronomical Society was the ﬁrst to sign up and since then the list of endorsees has grown. However, there were problems. The Charter was not adopted with open arms by all approached, and a number had reservations about the form of the wording. Nevertheless, most signed up on the basis that it was a set of principles and not a set of legal rules. Unfortunately, the anomaly was the largest astronomical society in the world, the American Astronomical Society, the AAS. This was somewhat surprising in that the composition of the group that produced the Washington Charter was over 90% American! The AAS declined to endorse the Charter at their meetings in June 2004 and again in January 2005, citing the fact that they could not endorse all the requirements, many of which lay outside their jurisdiction. While technically correct, there was some surprise and this was viewed from outside

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as a rather legalistic stance rather than adopting a set of principles. Nevertheless, this was a major stumbling block that clearly had to be overcome. The members of the IAU WG agreed that unless the wording was changed, there was little chance that the AAS would endorse the Charter. There was much to-ing and fro-ing between the members on the AAS Council and principally Rick Fienberg (a US member of the IAU WG Executive Committee). In fact there was no opposition to change from the WG as a matter of principle, but at that point it was unclear who were the actual owners of the Charter and who could authorise any change. In the summer of 2005, the original members of the group that produced the Charter were approached by the IAU WG Executive and they readily agreed that what was already happening in practice should be formalised – that the WG should take on full ownership of the Charter and be responsible for its dissemination and any changes. 2.3. REVISION OF THE WASHINGTON CHARTER

So with that endorsement the path for making changes was clear. It was left to Rick Fienberg to propose changes to the Charter at the CAP2005 conference in Garching. He suggested changes that softened the tone of the Principles (which were renamed ‘Recommendations’). For example, phrases such as ‘mandate and fund’ were replaced by ‘encourage and support’. The revised version of the Charter now says: “RECOMMENDATIONS “For Funding Agencies: • Encourage and support public outreach and communication in projects and grant programs; • Develop infrastructure and linkages to assist with the organization and dissemination of outreach results; • Emphasize the importance of such eﬀorts to project and research managers; • Recognize public outreach and communication plans and eﬀorts through proposal selection criteria and decisions and annual performance awards; • Encourage international collaboration on public outreach and communication activities. “For Professional Astronomical Societies: • Endorse standards for public outreach and communication; • Assemble best practices, formats, and tools to aid eﬀective public outreach and communication; • Promote professional respect and recognition of public outreach and communication;

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• Make public outreach and communication a visible and integral part of the activities and operations of the respective societies; • Encourage greater linkages with successful ongoing eﬀorts of amateur astronomy groups and others. For Universities, Laboratories, Research Organizations, and Other Institutions: • Acknowledge the importance of public outreach and communication; • Recognize public outreach and communication eﬀorts when making decisions on hiring, tenure, compensation, and awards; • Provide institutional support to enable and assist with public outreach and communication eﬀorts; • Collaborate with funding agencies and other organizations to help ensure that public outreach and communication eﬀorts have the greatest possible impact; • Make available formal public outreach and communication training for researchers; • Oﬀer communication training in academic courses of study for the next generation of researchers. “For Individual Researchers: • Support eﬀorts to communicate the results and beneﬁts of astronomical research to the public; • Convey the importance of public outreach and communication to team members; • Instill this sense of responsibility in the next generation of researchers.”

This revision was enthusiastically endorsed by the members of the conference. Indeed, it was noted that the proposed changes would have made it easier for many of those agencies and societies that had signed up, to have done so with less eﬀort or soul searching. The next step was to present the revised version of the Washington Charter to the AAS Council in January 2006, and from informal approaches anticipating a full endorsement. Unfortunately, due to an administrative diﬃculty, the Charter was not considered by the Council! Assurances have been given that the AAS will give this due consideration at its summer meeting in Calgary in June 2006 and the omens look good. We await the outcome with interest. In the meantime all those organisations that endorsed the original Charter are being contacted to support the revised version and there is no intention to consider a further revision of the Charter. 2.4. FUTURE WORK

Twenty societies, funding agencies, observatories and institutions have endorsed the Washington Charter so far2 . Apart from the AAS, the success 2

http://www.communicatingastronomy.org/washington charter/endorsers.html

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rate of endorsements is 100% of those approached. It is only through the hiatus caused by the need to revise the Charter that more organisations have not been approached. However, now that the new version of the Charter is agreed, more eﬀort will be devoted to expanding the number of endorsees and enlarging the global ‘club’ of those bodies that will actively encourage and support communicating with the public. We expect to have a much larger number of endorsees by the time of the IAU General Assembly in August 2006. 3. The IAU Working Group on Communicating Astronomy with the Public 3.1. INCEPTION

The formation of this group was the brainchild of Virginia Trimble, who towards the end of the Washington DC conference called for all IAU members to get together to discuss the formation of a working group. V. Trimble is the Chair of Division XII of the IAU, which looks at activities that span the entire remit of the IAU as distinct from the other Divisions and Commissions that have a very speciﬁc focus (e.g. Commission 46 – Astronomical Education, led by Jay Pasachoﬀ). Dennis Crabtree (HIA, Victoria Canada) and Ian Robson (UK ATC, Royal Observatory Edinburgh, Scotland) were proposed as Co-Chairs for this putative group with Lars Lindberg Christensen (ESA/Hubble ESO Germany) as the Convener and Executive Secretary. The group set themselves four early targets: the promulgation of the Washington Charter to societies, agencies etc; organisation of a webpage to promote activities; organisation of some form of repository for data, and the organisation of a third Communicating Astronomy with the Public conference to be held in 2005 (CAP2005). 3.2. THE REMIT OF THE GROUP

From the outset it was considered important that the Working Group had the widest possible remit for astronomy outreach to the public and to be distinct from the more speciﬁc education-focused activities of Commission 46. The overarching theme for the Working Group is that: It is the responsibility of every practising astronomer to play some role in explaining the interest and value of science to our real employers, the taxpayers of the world. The Working Group Mission statement is: • To encourage and enable a much larger fraction of the astronomical community to take an active role in explaining what we do (and why) to our fellow citizens.

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• To act as an international, impartial coordinating entity that furthers the recognition of outreach and public communication on all levels in astronomy. • To encourage international collaborations on outreach and public communication. • To endorse standards, best practices and requirements for public communication. It is widely recognised that there are a number of barriers to communicating astronomy. Firstly, a number of professional astronomers do not feel comfortable with the very concept of talking with the public. Secondly, a number of employing organisations do not regard communication and outreach as a real part of the “job description” and so the time taken for public communication may not only go unrewarded for the researchers, it may well go against the researcher if outreach is not counted as a merit in the same way as grants, refereed papers, etc. The ﬁnal hurdle is that a number of organisations (especially those outside the USA or Europe) have not yet integrated public communication (or “science and society”) into their own organisational structure by providing the necessary support of funding, training, infrastructure, personnel, etc. 3.3. THE WEBSITE

Setting up the website was a very important step forward and provided a focus for the Group’s activities as well as being an obvious means of promoting its existence and providing a key link for those interested in volunteering for work. This has been a huge success and is entirely due to the enthusiasm and ability of Lars and colleagues at ESO, where the website is located3 . This website is the real focus for the Group and contains a wealth of information. Of course as all those who manage websites recognise, ongoing maintenance and update is a continuous and daunting task. But so far, because of the site design, this has proven to be tractable within the necessity of the work being done outside the normal day-job. The web site also has a sign-up form for those who want to become personally involved with the Working Group activity. We are in the process of preparing an e-mail distribution list so that we can keep people informed of progress on something like a quarterly basis. One key area of future work, still very much at a preliminary stage, is the compilation of a compendium of sites and information for those that wish to have access to sites that are known to have high standards and to 3

http://www.communicatingastronomy.org/

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Figure 1.

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The IAU Working Group Website home-page.

promote professional information. This could be looked at as some form of ‘one-shop’ activity whereby enquirers can be passed on to other sites that have a ‘kite-mark of approval in the professional sense. This would then be an aide to those who seek astronomy information but do not have the knowledge to sort out the factual from the bogus. 3.4. CAP2005

The Communicating Astronomy with the Public conference 2005 (CAP2005) was a hugely successful four-day event that took place at the ESO Headquarters in Garching in June 2005. Financial and infrastructure support was provided by ESO, as well as ﬁnancial support from ESA and the IAU. The participants included over one hundred astronomers,

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public information oﬃcers, planetarium specialists and image processing gurus. The main aim of the meeting was to bring together specialists from the various strands of astronomy that undertake outreach in the broadest sense. Much was achieved at the meeting and an added bonus was that the work of ESO was better appreciated (especially from the non-European perspective) through a tour of the facility. The meeting was focused around a number of key themes; these were covered in the plenary sessions. Each session began with talks by invited speakers and one of the main highlights of the meeting was the extremely high level, both in terms of content and presentational style, of all the speakers. The sessions were: Setting the Scene; The TV Broadcast Media; What Makes a Good News Story?; The Role of the Observatories; Innovations; The Role of Planetaria; Challenges and New Ideas; Keeping our Credibility – Release of News; The Education Arena; Astronomical Images – Beauty Is in the Eye of the Beholder; Cutting-edge Audiovisuals; Virtual Repositories. A most successful discussion on credibility and the general theme of communication ethics took place in the session “Keeping our Credibility”, where a star-studded panel, including the ESO Director General, Catherine Cesarsky ﬁelded a number of questions. As a direct result of this session a project was started at the University of Roskilde with the title “Credibility of Modern Science Communication”. The aim of the project, lead by Lars Holm Nielsen, is to investigate the question: “How far can science communicators in the name of science communication keep pushing, or promoting, science results or projects without damaging the individual, and thus also the collective credibility, of the science communication community and the involved institutions?” One of the planned outcomes of the project is a draft for a so-called “Code of Conduct” for press releases. This will provide recommended ethics and procedures for conﬂict resolution, analysis and retraction and will eventually be submitted to the IAU WG for possible inclusion in an overall IAU recommendation in this area. The code of conduct will be aimed at the science communicators. The “Hands-on” workshop sessions that ran in parallel in the afternoons were a huge success and a number were over-subscribed. This had been anticipated in the planning stage and so the more popular ones were repeated on subsequent days. The workshops were woven around the themes of image processing, interactions with the media and a communications toolkit. In keeping with the thrust of communication, technology and the power of the web were much to the fore. All the PowerPoint presentations were posted online on the conference website on the same day as the talk took place. The conference was also broadcast as a live Webcast and thus available worldwide. Great credit for this huge success must go to the members

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Figure 2.

Communicating with the Public 2005 Proceedings.

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of the ‘FITS Liberator’ team, who provided extremely high levels of technical support throughout the meeting. The proceedings of the Conference (see Fig. 2) were published within six months of the meeting and can be found on the web as a PDF ﬁle. The proceedings volume is edited by Ian Robson and Lars Lindberg Christensen and is in full-colour and extremely glossy. This eye-catching book is now being used as a marketing tool to demonstrate the value of astronomy outreach to the political movers and shakers in a number of key countries. It is anticipated that the next CAP2007 meeting will be held in Victoria, Canada in the autumn of 2007 and the announcement will be made through the IAUWG web pages and the e-mail exploder. 4. Future Work Of course the list for future work is almost endless but is currently limited by the available spare time of the three key individuals, all of whom have rather pressing day-time jobs. In the near-term, the focus is on spreading the word more widely across the globe (China has just linked into the group) and promulgating the Washington Charter. We need to get to grips with the e-mail exploder and organise the Business Meeting of the WG for the IAU General Assembly in Prague in August 2006. We have also been asked to help in the preparations for the anticipated 2009 Year of Astronomy that should be agreed by the United Nations General Assembly towards the end of this year. As my background is very much from the observatories sector, in 2004 I undertook a survey of the outreach activities of observatories around the world. While the response was somewhat underwhelming, the information was very interesting, especially the ‘what worked’ and ‘what didn’t’, where good practice was readily identiﬁed and can be used as a primer for others. This survey is described in the CAP2005 Proceedings (Robson 2005) and will be updated for input to the IAU General Assembly. Good progress has been made on the virtual repository of images by Lars, the key ﬁrst stage being deﬁnitions of header material that can be used in a web search. The goal of this project is that anyone can trawl the web looking for astronomical images and obtain them, in a format that does not need complicated research-astronomy data analysis software, but can be loaded into products such as Adobe Photoshop and manipulated to obtain the individualised result that is desired. The small step to an exciting tool that can be used to stimulate students in an educational environment is obvious. We are currently seeing if there are EU funding strands that we can tap into in order to obtain modest funding for a post to provide the much needed boiler-house activity associated with moving this project forward.

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In the longer-term still there is the intention of collecting the best examples of good practice that can be disseminated to those who wish to learn and improve. ‘How to give a successful public talk’ is just one example of the key themes that we intend to address. The WG web-site would then be a portal to these ‘how to’ locations so that the best practice can be widely disseminated and more people are encouraged to ‘go out and give it a go’. 5. Conclusions Those of us who have lived our lives as professional astronomers recognise the value of our subject in stimulating the old and the young in the excitement of science. It is a fabulous hook on which much can be hung. The tremendous success of CAP2005 showed how widespread Communicating Astronomy with the Public has become, ranging from the traditional talks and open days given by observatories and societies through regular radio slots, the use of stories and cartoons with an astronomy thread to the ultramodern use of podcasting for promulgating the word. So the future is indeed bright and we look forward to seeing Communicating Astronomy with the Public expand and grow as groups learn from each other and become ever more proﬁcient in making the best use of, what we all have to acknowledge, is a precious resource: the time of the professional astronomer who is the key to new discoveries. References 1.

Robson, I 2005, The Role of the Observatories, in Communicating Astronomy with the Public 2005, Eds. I. Robson & L. Lindberg Christensen, ESA/Hubble, Munich, pp. 60-70.

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COMMUNICATING X-RAY ASTRONOMY

MEGAN WATZKE

Chandra X-Ray Center 60 Garden Street Cambridge MA 02138, U.S.A. [email protected]

Abstract. Exciting and informing the public about complicated scientiﬁc concepts can be diﬃcult. Doing so in a way that is true to the science is even more challenging. This chapter explores one NASA mission’s eﬀorts to communicate with the general public about the fascinating ﬁeld of X-ray astronomy.

1. Introduction The Chandra X-ray Observatory, launched aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1999, is NASA’s premier X-ray observatory. Along with the Hubble Space Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope, it belongs to NASA’s ﬂeet of “Great Observatories”. Astronomers need X-ray telescopes to observe the hot regions of the Universe, where matter is heated to millions of degrees Celsius by gigantic explosions or intense magnetic or gravitational ﬁelds. X-ray telescopes, like Chandra, allow scientists to image vast clouds of gas that stretch for millions of light years, matter that swirls incredibly close to the edge of a black hole, or the debris from the remains of an exploded star. How do we most eﬀectively communicate this important, but often complex, information about the cosmos to the press, students, and ultimately the public at large? Non-optical astronomy, such as the X-ray regime, faces unique challenges. To begin, many non-astronomers are not even aware that scientists need “other” types of astronomy to learn about the Universe. To most of the general public, a telescope is an optical instrument they see at their local planetarium or in a backyard. X-ray astronomy, on the other hand, cannot even be attempted from the ground. Because the Earth’s atmosphere blocks incoming X-rays, the 463 A. Heck (ed.), Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, 463–476. © 2006 Springer.

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ﬁeld of X-ray astronomy had to wait for the advent of the Space Age and rocket technology in the 1960’s. Perhaps one of the most exciting aspects of the Chandra X-ray Observatory is the monumental leap of progress it represents from the early X-ray telescopes. In fact, over a period of 380 years, optical telescopes improved in sensitivity by 100 million times from Galileo’s telescope to the Hubble Space Telescope. Remarkably, the Chandra represents a comparable leap in sensitivity over one of the ﬁrst X-ray telescopes ﬂown in 1963. 2. The Chandra X-ray Center The Chandra X-ray Center (CXC) is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and staﬀed by personnel from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Northrop Grumman Space Technology (formerly TRW). The CXC is responsible for the mission planning and science operations of the satellite. The CXC also houses the Operations Control Center (aka “mission control”), which directs the ﬂight, executes the observing plan of the observatory, receives the scientiﬁc data from the observatory and provides support to the worldwide community. In addition, the CXC carries out a comprehensive education and public outreach program. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville AL, manages the CXC on behalf of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA. 3. The Chandra EPO Program The CXC’s Education and Public Outreach program (EPO) is designed to disseminate results from the mission in an accurate and exciting manner. The intended audiences for the EPO eﬀorts range from students and teachers in a school setting to the science media and eventually the general public. The general goals and philosophies of the EPO eﬀort include inspiring the next generation to explore science and other academic pursuits, and to increase the public’s engagement and support for NASA’s space science, always a challenge in an entertainment-laden society. The EPO group also tries to convey excitement of Chandra discoveries by highlighting the innovative and surprising aspects of the research when appropriate. The EPO group provides free access, in multiple formats, to Chandra images, information, and education products. The program’s goals also extend to the classroom, promoting science literacy and increase learning opportunities in science, math, and technical ﬁelds. This is done by providing opportunities for authentic science research in the classroom.

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Figure 1.

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The Chandra X-Ray Observatory. (Courtesy NASA)

The Chandra EPO group is a relatively small-sized operation that often relies on each employee to handle responsibilities in several areas. With approximately 12 full-time employees, the gamut of press and media relations to hands-on classroom activities is supported. The EPO group possesses a variety of scientiﬁc and artistic skills, as well as knowledge of multi-media and print production techniques. All of the Chandra EPO eﬀorts are vetted by multiple scientists – both on the EPO staﬀ and those outside the project. Accuracy is a requirement for every product released. Our goal is to preserve scientiﬁc integrity while engaging the science community in our eﬀorts to educate and excite the public about X-ray astronomy. 4. Spreading the Word about Chandra and X-ray Astronomy In order to maximize eﬃciency, the EPO generally “recycles” its material in various ways for the diﬀerent audiences it serves. The ﬁrst stage of this cycle usually begins with materials generated for public release through media outlets. This “front end” of the EPO eﬀort will be the focus of the next several sections. Under the agreement and contract that the CXC has with NASA, the CXC EPO group is tasked, among other things, to publicize the mission’s results. Speciﬁcally, the public aﬀairs plan states:

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“The general goal of NASA’s Chandra public aﬀairs eﬀorts is to greatly increase public awareness of Chandra, its activities, and its accomplishments with emphasis on communicating the excitement of the science and the scientists involved as they expand our understanding of the structure and evolution of the Universe”.

NASA has identiﬁed at various levels of newsworthiness that it uses to publicize results from its missions. As a NASA mission, Chandra follows this model and works with NASA Headquarters (HQ), located in Washington, DC, on every release to the media. The possibilities range from a televised press conference to a posting on the Chandra website1 . For the most newsworthy stories, NASA will hold a so-called NASA Science Update (NSU). In order for an NSU to be approved, Chandra must make a case for the story’s public appeal to an Editorial Board at NASA HQ, which consists of scientists, public aﬀairs oﬃcers, and non-scientists who assess the result’s potential. NSUs are press conferences televised on NASA-TV, during which the scientist(s) present their work. In addition, at least one outside expert commentator is also on the panel to put the new results into perspective for the media. NSUs are held in the NASA HQ auditorium, but oﬀ-site reporters can participate by calling in. The ideal outcome from an NSU would be prominent articles in newspapers such as the Washington Post and New York Times as well as signiﬁcant broadcast (both cable and network) coverage. For a story just a step below in perceived public appeal, NASA conducts a so-called media teleconference. Like the NSU, the “media telecon” must be approved by an Editorial Board and consists of short presentations by the main scientist(s) involved, plus commentary from another researcher not directly involved with the research. Media telecons, however, are done via a phone conference call and do not have the scope of a televised broadcast. It should be noted, however, that reporters are still provided with a visual presentation narrated by the scientist(s) involved. This is done by creating a special, password-protected website that only legitimate reporters can access during the media telecon. If an interesting result is deemed not to be worthy of a press conference – televised or phone-based – it can sent to the media via a press release. Of course, this is the most common way Chandra results are disseminated to the press. As part of NASA policy, all Chandra press releases must be sent to NASA HQ for “ﬁrst right of refusal”. This policy states that NASA HQ may choose to release any Chandra result from HQ. If NASA HQ declines or 1

http://chandra.harvard.edu/

Figure 2. The center of the Milky Way, which is blocked by dust for optical telescopes, comes alive in X-rays. This 400 by 900 light-year mosaic of several Chandra images of the central region of our Milky Way galaxy reveals hundreds of white dwarf stars, neutron stars, and black holes bathed in an incandescent fog of multimillion-degree gas. The supermassive black hole at the center of the Galaxy is located inside the bright white patch in the center of the image. (Courtesy NASA/UMass/D. Wang et al.)

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“passes”, then the release is issued jointly from the Chandra X-ray Center and the Marshall Space Flight Center. The CXC EPO group distributes press releases through several diﬀerent channels so that they may reach any interested reporter, informal educator, and ultimately the general public. One major outlet for Chandra press releases is a service run by Steve Maran, the press oﬃcer for the American Astronomical Society, who emails releases to over 1,500 members of the media. Likewise, NASA uses PR Newswire, which is a customizable service designed to reach diﬀerent audiences of reporters. In parallel the CXC also uses two other separate, private release distributions: EurekAlert and Newswise. The purpose of this multi-faceted delivery system is to provide the released information in a variety of manners in order to optimize the possibility of an interested reporter ﬁnding it. 5. Finding Results to Bring to the Public As mentioned earlier, it is the responsibility of CXC EPO to ﬁnd, assess, and ultimately distribute to the press, students, and general public any Chandra result that is appropriate. While this might seem like a relatively straight-forward objective, it turns out to be a rather complex endeavor. For example, every year over a hundred scientists worldwide are awarded Chandra observing time after competing in the peer-reviewed proposal process. These scientists, in most cases, have one year of proprietary time with these data, after which the data go into Chandra’s public archive. To ﬁnd the “right” Chandra results to publicize, the CXC EPO group takes a multi-pronged approach. First, an automated email is sent to every recipient of Chandra observing time at various intervals after they have received their data (for example, scientists are contacted as the end of their one-year proprietary time approaches.) Also, members of the CXC EPO group attend all of the major astronomy and high-energy astrophysical conferences, establishing relationships with members of the scientiﬁc community. Staﬀ of CXC EPO attend colloquia and other talks held both at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Also, conversations with the CXC’s Director and other senior scientists give us advanced warning when signiﬁcant observations are about to take place. 6. Getting the Science Right The CXC EPO has an extensive review process to ensure that all of its material is both scientiﬁcally accurate as well as exciting and engaging. For press releases, CXC EPO develops a ﬁrst draft and then iterate with the main scientists involved until both groups are satisﬁed with the text.

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Figure 3. This spectacular image of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A is the most detailed image ever made of the remains of an exploded star. The one million second image shows a bright outer ring (green) ten light years in diameter that marks the location of a shock wave generated by the supernova explosion. A large jet-like structure that protrudes beyond the shock wave can be seen in the upper left. (Courtesy NASA/CXC/GSFC/U. Hwang et al.)

This can be a single exchange or it can take several tries in order for the proper wording and analogies to be found. It should be noted that for a scientist who is working on a press release for the ﬁrst time, this process can seem unnatural. That is, an astronomers giving a scientiﬁc presentation or writing a paper will preface the new result by describing previous work in that area, explaining detail in the methods used, and so on. Press releases, however, have a much diﬀerent structure, which is known as the “inverted pyramid”, where the most exciting aspect of the result comes in the headline and ﬁrst paragraph of the text. Supporting details, if they are appropriate and necessary to the story, are given further down in the release with the least newsworthy aspects found at the bottom. In general, once an astronomer goes through such an exercise, they are much more comfortable with the process for subsequent press releases.

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After the scientists involved have approved the press release text, the review process continues. For Chandra press releases, the next step is to circulate the text to key senior scientists and personnel on the Chandra mission who send comments within a designated time period (usually one business day). If signiﬁcant changes have been made, the release goes back to the principal researcher. If not, then the release is sent to NASA HQ where it is reviewed by several people including public aﬀairs oﬃcers and scientists. The text is then sent back to the research team one last time before a release date and time is set. (In addition to working with NASA, the CXC EPO group coordinates press releases with the news or press oﬃces of the institutions of the main scientists while this review process is taking place.) On any given press release, the text can be changed during any step of this process. The purpose of having the multiple layers of review is to assure that the dual goals of scientiﬁc accuracy and public appeal can be maintained. The process is designed to be iterative and ﬂexible, which hopefully creates the best product possible. 7. Targeting Multiple Audiences In order to maximize eﬃciency, the CXC EPO group often revises material for multiple purposes. In other words, the Chandra staﬀ does not produce independent content for all of the press, informal, and formal education projects. Rather, the new science results presented in press material frequently become the basis for other types of products. The hub that links all of the CXC EPO activities and truly makes this program succeed is Chandra’s public website (cf. Footnote 1). It is more than just a repository. As alluded to earlier, the philosophy of the CXC EPO group is to put every Chandra result in context, make material easy to access by providing it in multiple ways, while being conscious of the variety of people using the website. The CXC public website serves as an eﬃcient and eﬀective tool to meet multiple audience needs. Its design principles include internally consistent organization and numerous, logical internal links. Some key features are that all publicly released images are available in multiple formats and all press and image releases are linked to background information (known as the Field Guide and Resources sections). There are consistent, multiple modes of access for key information, and special libraries for animations, PowerPoint and PDF slide presentations are maintained. The CXC public website is also in full compliance with Sect. 508 and WAI Level I standards for visually impaired accessibility, and developments in this area are constantly monitored.

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Figure 4. On 15 February 2004, Chandra observed X-rays produced by an aurora in the north-polar region of Earth. The X-rays, superimposed on a model of Earth, are seen as the violet-yellow-red arc stretching from northern Canada on the upper left to the Hudson Bay on the lower right. To obtain this data, Chandra was aimed at a ﬁxed point in the sky, and the Earth’s motion carried the auroral regions through the ﬁeld of view. The shadowed area deﬁnes the day-night boundary at sea level. The X-ray activity is taking place at approximately 100 kilometers above the Earth. (Courtesy: X-Rays: NASA/MSFC/CXC/A. Bhardwaj & R. Elsner et al.; Earth model: NASA/GSFC/L. Perkins & G. Shirah)

The main page of Chandra’s public website is updated regularly to include the latest press release. In addition to textual information, every release has a “package” of material including relevant multi-wavelength images and other supporting graphics. Supplementing X-ray images with optical and other wavelengths is particularly important for missions in nonvisible wavelengths such as Chandra. Use of multiple views of the sky contributes to public understanding of the need for observations in across many wavelengths. Educators can use the web site (cf. Footnote 1) to ﬁnd standards-based material for use in the classroom. Museums, planetariums, commercial and education product developers, publishers and multi-media producers can all ﬁnd the Chandra material tailored to their speciﬁc uses (as much as possible) on the website.

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From the website, one can ﬁnd digital representations of all of the printed posters, postcards, bookmarks, and lithographs that the EPO group creates. These products are given away for free upon request to community and educational groups, at teacher conferences, and to others actively engaged in informing the public about astronomy. On the lighter side, the website also contains “interactives”, or games, involving Chandra images and content. These are designed to make learning about Chandra and X-ray astronomy fun and less daunting. 8. Visualizing the Invisible One of the biggest challenges to communicating X-ray astronomy to the non-experts such as newspaper editors and the general public is visually engaging them with the data. While some Chandra images are truly aesthetic, often the important science implications revealed in the data are not readily obvious to the untrained eye. It is the responsibility of the CXC EPO group to overcome this challenge. This topic could easily warrant a long discussion in its own right. Instead, the major areas of these eﬀorts are brieﬂy touched upon here. The ﬁrst challenge comes in presenting the Chandra data themselves. One reason for this is that most non- astronomers are unfamiliar with nonoptical astronomy. Most of the lay public expects all astronomical images to appear as enhanced versions of what can be seen with the naked eye – the “Hubble eﬀect”, so to speak. But this is simply not the case for X-ray astronomy. For example, a cluster of galaxies will appear through an optical telescope to be a collection of individual galaxies. Chandra, on the other hand, ﬁnds the space in between the galaxies ﬁlled with multimillion-degree gas that contains most of the matter. So, while scientiﬁcally signiﬁcant, the Chandra image is presented as smooth areas of color. To overcome this potential confusion, the CXC group will, for example, present the X-ray image with the optical image. Doing this allows a viewer to see how each wavelength represents a piece in a complementary puzzle. In other instances, the Chandra data can be even more diﬃcult to interpret visually. Frequently, the Chandra image looks like a simple dot, or the data are available only as spectra, which are complex plots of information. In these cases, artist’s illustrations and/or animations are crucial to conveying the information to a larger audience. These graphics are not only used for press release packages, but are used in virtually every product the CXC EPO group creates. The importance of both still illustrations and moving graphics cannot be overstated. Even the most striking data image represents a snapshot in time. A good illustration can deﬁne hidden features, create context, and

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Figure 5. An artist’s conception shows a black hole surrounded by a disk of hot gas, and a large doughnut or torus of cooler gas and dust. The light blue ring on the back of the torus is due to the ﬂuorescence of iron atoms excited by X-rays from the hot gas disk. (Courtesy NASA/CXC/M. Weiss)

provide understanding virtually instantaneously for even the most complex system. Likewise, an animation can show what happens over time, focusing on the changes that occur. It should be noted that a strong animation is almost always a requirement if one hopes to get television news coverage for a science story. The CXC EPO group is fortunate to have very talented staﬀ who, among many other tasks, create the still and moving graphics for the mission, which are done in collaboration with the scientiﬁc team. 9. The “E” in CXC EPO While this chapter has mainly focused on Chandra’s press eﬀorts, it needs to be emphasized that this is just one part of the overall EPO eﬀort. Some of the other signiﬁcant EPO projects will be described below, though in

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less detail than they deserve. More information on these and other projects can be found on the web site (cf. Footnote 1). Chandra has a strong educational program for pre-college teachers and students in developing their understanding of astronomy and highenergy astrophysics. Some of the projects include hands-on, immersion, exploratory learning for students and their teachers. This involves getting students and teachers to use the actual imaging and analysis software used by scientists. In order to accomplish this, the CXC EPO group has developed a student-friendly interface with the same functionality as the more technical input screen that astronomers are familiar with. This project has enabled students to have use of Chandra FITS ﬁles for authentic science research experiences. This project was developed in partnership with scientists, educators, software developers at Rutgers University and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, and specially-trained and designated teachers who work with the CXC EPO group. Field testing of this project is done both at the Rutgers Astrophysics Summer Institute and the CXC EPO teacher workshops that are held throughout the year. These CXC workshops, held at educator conventions of such national organizations as the National Science Teacher Association (NSTA) or the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) as well as at the Wright Center for Science Education at Tufts University in Medford MA, reach scores of pre-college science teachers annually, introducing them to the critical concepts of X-ray astrophysics and related ﬁelds. 10. Importance of Involving Scientists A main goal of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (to which the Chandra program belongs) education initiative is to involve scientists in education and public outreach activities. Chandra and other missions encourage scientist involvement by presenting appropriate opportunities for collaboration or direct participation. For example, scientists can – and are strongly encouraged as mentioned previously – to participate in press conferences and press releases when their results warrant it. Also, the CXC EPO group solicits scientiﬁc input to press and EPO products, seeking out the expert or experts in a given area depending on what is being produced. Scientists also contribute by being a resource for the public and educators by answering questions and serving as consultants on projects or educational work. The CXC also help facilitate Chandra users to organize or participate in special events such as star parties, observing nights, and school talks. Scientists can serve as the “talent” in special video productions and requested television or radio interviews.

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Figure 6. This artist’s illustration depicts a quasar in the center of a galaxy that has turned on and is expelling gas at high speeds in a galactic superwind. Clouds of hot, X-ray producing gas detected by Chandra around the quasars 4C37.43 and 3C249.1 provide strong evidence for such superwinds. (Courtesy NASA/CXC/M. Weiss)

The scientiﬁc community is directly involved through an annual call to participate in the EPO grant proposals. The aim of the Chandra EPO grant program is to encourage collaborative eﬀorts among professional space scientists, professional educators, and public outreach specialists that would broaden knowledge and understanding of the latest discoveries of the Chandra X-ray Observatory, have a positive impact on the nation’s education system, help develop the next generation of scientists and technical professionals, and promote the enhanced participation of underserved/underutilized groups and women in science. 11. Summary The Chandra X-ray Observatory itself has proven to be a magniﬁcent and highly successful mission, surpassing expectations in the breadth of science it has discovered. The CXC EPO group, through its many talented and

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dedicated individuals, works to excite and engage about this science the public through a variety of methods and means. This chapter is intended to give the reader an overview of the Chandra X-ray Observatory’s education and public outreach eﬀorts, while an emphasis on the publicity aspect of the program. It does not, however, explain with the proper depth or detail of all that is done. For more information on the CXC EPO group and the Chandra mission, please visit the web site (Footnote 1).

ESTABLISHING AN EFFECTIVE EDUCATION AND PUBLIC OUTREACH PROGRAM AT GEMINI OBSERVATORY – A CASE STUDY

PETER MICHAUD

Gemini Observatory 670 A’ohoku Place Hilo HI 96720, U.S.A. [email protected]

Abstract. In 1998, the Gemini Observatory began the systematic ramp-up of its Education and Public Outreach (EPO) program. A plan to create an audience-based EPO program was initiated in 2000 with a ﬁve-year operational plan that established the staﬀ, infrastructure and core programmatic elements that would take the department into the observatory’s operational phase. This paper presents a unique case study for the development of a successful EPO program for a ground-based observatory within the context of the multi-partner model in which Gemini operates. It also discusses our current eﬀort to produce a comprehensive and detailed EPO-speciﬁc strategic plan that will lead the Gemini Observatory into the next phase of its programming and how this is related to the strategic planning eﬀorts of similar institutions.

1. Introduction When a new observatory comes on line, its Education and Public Outreach (EPO) eﬀort plays a critical role in helping the observatory deﬁne its public image by the dissemination of scientiﬁc work produced from the observatory. While there are many forces that shape EPO activities at any modern observatory, the ultimate goal is long-term sustainability and support of astronomical research, which relies heavily on public understanding and appreciation of astronomers’ work. How this is accomplished for our diverse audiences or “publics” is not something that can be constrained to a simple formula or set of guidelines. 477 A. Heck (ed.), Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, 477–493. © 2006 Springer.

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Each institution has unique needs that are dictated by funding constraints, local circumstances, and broader institutional and agency missions and goals. While acknowledging these diﬀerences, there are lessons to be learned from organizations that have gone through the process of setting up a smoothly operating and eﬀective EPO program. Traditionally, the sharing of EPO best practices and the accumulated knowledge based on successful operations has occurred through related professional associations (astronomical societies and journalistic aﬃliations) and close inter-institutional and personal relationships. Recent initiatives are moving the EPO profession away from these ad-hoc associations and toward more formal and eﬀective sharing of ideas and guiding principles1,2,3 . The purpose of this article is to present the Gemini Observatory’s EPO program as an example of a successfully developed and established observatory-speciﬁc EPO eﬀort. This will, (in the spirit of the references above), further the formal process of sharing that brings together the best approaches and practices for others organizations who ﬁnd themselves faced with the challenge of establishing an eﬀective EPO program. 2. Historical Perspective The history of the Gemini Project, which led to the establishment of Gemini Observatory, is well documented in the book Giant Telescopes by Patrick McCray4 . EPO is not a discrete topic in the book. It does, however, provide an excellent historical perspective on the environment that fostered the philosophical commitment to EPO that ultimately developed at Gemini. Providing a healthy lead-time for developing an observatory EPO program is essential, but requires considerable foresight by funding agencies coupled with philosophical backing by the entire institution. Acknowledging EPO as a key and integrated part of the institutional objectives is the ﬁrst and most important step in developing an eﬀective program. In the late 1990s, the Gemini Project began the formal development of a multi-faceted EPO program. With the imminent ramp-up to full scientiﬁc operations at the observatory (within ﬁve years), the process began with the hiring of a 1.0 Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) EPO Manager (the author) in mid-1998. 1

Communicating Astronomy with the Public – ESO/ESA/IAU Conference – 14-17 June 2005, Garching Germany (Robson & Christensen 2005) 2 Engaging the EPO Community: Best Practices, New Approaches – A National Conference Astronomical Society of the Paciﬁc – Tucson AZ, 16-18 September 2005 (http://www.astrosociety.org/events/meeting.html) 3 Christensen (2006) 4 MacCray (2004)

Figure 1. Gemini North telescope on Mauna Kea with “transparent” dome and summer Milky Way (left). Gemini South telescope with southern star trails (right). (Courtesy Gemini Obs.)

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During the “project” phase (while the twin Gemini telescopes were under construction – one in Chile and the other in Hawaii), the international partnership of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and the addition of Australia (in 1998) forged the relationships and organizational agreements that would guide the observatory to its present-day operations. The wide range of institutional priorities presented many challenges and generated diverse opinions, on the importance, function and priorities that should deﬁne the EPO program at Gemini. Coherency in all aspects of the observatory and speciﬁcally in EPO was provided by the US National Science Foundation (NSF), which provided a strong philosophical foundation with its Broader Impacts Criteria5 (elaborated on in Sect. 3 of this paper). The NSF was also the ﬁrst to provide additional funding for the Gemini EPO eﬀort in 1999. This money supported the creation of such media resources as animations and public relations images, as well as the documentation of the Gemini South mirror move from France to Chile. The supplemental funding established a model and an initial order of magnitude for the ﬁnances necessary to support an appropriate EPO program at Gemini. Ultimately, the model was accepted and funded by the entire Gemini partnership with minimal resistance. About the time the supplemental Gemini NSF EPO funding was nearing the end of its cycle, a management review of Gemini in 2000 recommended a substantial increase in the EPO level of eﬀort to be funded by the entire partnership as part of the ongoing Gemini operating budget6 . A ﬁve-year EPO expansion proposal was developed and presented to the Gemini Board later that same year and was met with broad support. The plan provided a signiﬁcant increase in the level of staﬃng and infrastructure available at Gemini, and resulted in the establishment of many new initiatives-ranging from local outreach and education to the continued production of new media resources for the partnership as a whole. Substantive goals were codiﬁed in the Gemini EPO mission statement, which stated (in part) that EPO would: “... create a public legacy of Gemini science while meeting the media relations and education needs of the Gemini partnership as well as our local, international and global communities.”

Within this context, Gemini began the enhancement of its EPO program in late 2000. During the next ﬁve years the EPO program grew to a staﬀ of 5.5 FTEs and established a diverse set of education and outreach 5

Merit Review Broader Impacts Criterion: Representative Activities, National Science Foundation (http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/gpg/broaderimpacts.pdf) 6 Gemini Observatory Management Review Report 2000

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programs. One stated goal of this process was to provide a real-world basis for establishing a “steady-state” budget to support an appropriate level of EPO activity for Gemini. During this development period, the program plan deﬁned staﬃng ramp-up and other budgetary expectations. In addition, it outlined goals that would support speciﬁc and yet-to-be deﬁned programmatic elements. This combination of deﬁned and open-ended planning allowed the observatory to establish basic EPO infrastructure and functions while exploring opportunities that would deﬁne the ﬁnal programs we describe later in this paper. More recently, the Gemini Observatory EPO program underwent a successful external review of its EPO programming in late 2005. In addition to providing excellent input and suggestions for programmatic improvements, the review presented a strong conﬁrmation of the success of the program’s development to date. The following is excerpted from the Gemini EPO External Review Report Summary7 : “Gemini PIO has developed a wide range of programs and activities, balancing the needs and opportunities of a complex, international partnership. Gemini PIO has produced an impressive array of high quality materials for communicating scientiﬁc and technical achievements to a variety of audiences, and has done an excellent job in creating a consistent visual identify. Media releases are being generated at an appropriate annual rate. Gemini PIO has explored a range of local outreach programs and built a strong community presence in both Chile and Hawaii, which will be an excellent foundation for future programs. PIO has initiated the Gemini PIO Liaison Network is to bring together partners into a working group. The Virtual Tour that the PIO group has created is a useful tool that can be used across the partnership for various activities.”

While it is diﬃcult to compare the level of Gemini’s EPO eﬀort to other observatories, a preliminary (limited) survey8 indicates that Gemini’s EPO eﬀort is currently funded at about two times the sample average. Before looking at the speciﬁcs of the current EPO program at Gemini, it is useful to review the circumstances that the Gemini Observatory operates under to provide a context for our unique “ﬂavor” of EPO programming and strategies. 3. Gemini Observatory – A Context for EPO Development As previously mentioned, Gemini Observatory is funded by and serves an international partnership. Financial support by the governmental agencies 7 8

Hunter et al. (2005) Robson & Christensen (2005), p. 67

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in each of the partner countries is “channeled” through the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the US. As the executive agency for the international partnership, NSF has inﬂuenced much of the philosophical prioritization for EPO activities. The result is clear, concise support and guidance for the EPO developmental strategy. Speciﬁcally, the NSF has articulated the purpose of EPO in terms of what it calls “Broader Impacts”9 . These were inﬂuential in our program development and are summarized as follows: • How well does the activity advance discovery and understanding while promoting teaching, training and learning? • How well does the proposed activity broaden the participation of underrepresented groups (e.g., gender, ethnicity, disability, geographic, etc.)? • To what extent will it enhance the infrastructure for research and education, such as facilities, instrumentation, networks and partnerships? • Will the results be disseminated broadly to enhance scientiﬁc and technological understanding? • What may be the beneﬁts of the proposed activity to society? Another contextual element for EPO at Gemini involves the management of the Observatory by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA). AURA is supportive of strong a EPO program, as evidenced in the AURA Strategic Plan, which states that “... Education and Public Outreach [as well as] broader beneﬁts to society that accrue from accomplishing our mission [will be] maintained as high strategic priorities10 .”

The Gemini Observatory Vision Statement also includes the following: “We see the Observatory establishing a leadership role in a global eﬀort to deﬁne, address and solve compelling scientiﬁc questions. The answers to these questions will have a fundamental impact on our view of the Universe and our place in it.”

This sentiment has a profound connection to EPO eﬀorts at Gemini Observatory. It provides a strong aﬃrmation and commitment to educating the world about our science by impacting our world-view of the universe and our place in it. From an organizational perspective, a strong EPO program also requires signiﬁcant support by senior management willing to sustain funding 9 National Science Foundation GPRA Strategic Plan FY 2001-2006 (http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2001/nsf0104/start.htm) 10 A Strategic Plan for AURA, p. 3 (2005) (http://www.aura-astronomy.org/nv/AURA Strategic Plan.pdf)

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Figure 2. StarLab portable planetarium used by Gemini for outreach programming to local schools in both Chile and Hawaii.

for EPO when other priorities make legitimate demands on ﬁnite resources. The multi-partner environment at Gemini also adds another layer of complexity to the process. Local issues in the two Gemini host communities (Hawaii Island and the regions surrounding Gemini South’s telescope and base facilities) have also played a signiﬁcant role in deﬁning EPO programs and priorities. In Chile, a primary issue is the threat of light pollution to the quality of the site for astronomy. A partnership between Gemini and the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), (both AURA facilities) has been forged to address this issue. Central to Gemini’s programming is a portable StarLab planetarium11 that visits communities surrounding the Gemini South telescope and CTIO with programming that focuses on dark sky/light pollution issues. In Hawaii, the controversy inherent in operating telescopes on Mauna Kea, a site sacred to Native Hawaiians, is a genuine and a signiﬁcant challenge for any observatory’s healthy relationship with the local community. This reality has made local outreach in Hawaii a high priority, seemingly disproportionate in magnitude to those unfamiliar with the seriousness of the issue for our long-term operations. Gemini’s eﬀorts have led to a sub11

Learning Technologies Inc. (http://www.starlab.com/slmain.html)

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stantial increase in local EPO eﬀorts among most of the Mauna Kea observatories and has allowed for extensive leveraging with new initiatives and multi-institutional partnerships. 4. Gemini EPO and a Strategy to Deﬁne EPO Programs We now turn to a discussion of the development and speciﬁcs of the Gemini EPO program. This should have relevant implications for any facility contemplating the development of a strong EPO eﬀort. Establishing a starting point for the development of an EPO program requires identiﬁcation of key audiences or customers to be served by the program’s activities. Deﬁning these audiences or publics provides a clear context for activities and is a basic foundation for the development of a formal strategic plan. Given the unique character of each institution and its needs, it is not appropriate to dictate the manner in which any given astronomical facility should identify its key EPO audiences. However, some general suggestions can be made. First, it is best to identify the fewest number of audiences possible in order to eﬀectively address all relevant publics. In our experience at Gemini, the identiﬁcation of audiences has evolved and been reﬁned during the development of the overall program. The following represent the four primary audiences we have identiﬁed and targeted for our program: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Local Communities (Hawaii/Chile) Gemini Partnership EPO Media Staﬀ/Users

Each of these audiences has multiple sub-audiences, and many areas where activities overlap between audiences. This overlap is to be expected in any broad classiﬁcation and often indicates areas where leveraging and cost eﬃciencies have been achieved. An excellent example of this is in the area of media relations. When a press release is developed, it has a measurable impact for all four identiﬁed audiences and therefore is an activity that is weighted heavily in strategic importance. The relative weighting (prioritization) of resource allocation (primarily staﬀ) is something that every institution struggles with at some level. This is especially problematic when activities are heavily leveraged internally (as occurs naturally in most EPO programs). To address this, rather than attempt to quantify how staﬀ and budget resources are allocated to speciﬁc audiences, we have adopted an overall programmatic approach at Gemini. The goal of this is to allow quantiﬁable programmatic impact

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measurements12 on a speciﬁc audience without the complexity and ambiguity of monitoring the level of resources devoted to each audience. This approach is currently being formalized into speciﬁc objectives and measurable outcomes, and written into long-term strategic and operational plans that balance the expected outcomes across the audiences we serve. Gemini’s EPO strategic planning process is introduced in Sect. 6. Establishing the infrastructure to allow the matching of programs with audiences was the ﬁrst challenge faced in the development of the Gemini EPO program. To accomplish this, the capabilities of a fully-functional EPO program serving all of our audiences was delineated in the following key functional programmatic areas: • • • • • • • • • •

Graphic, Publication, Photographic and Video Arts; Illustration/Art Production; Writing and Editing; Media Relations and Resources Development; Library Services; Web Development and Maintenance; Educational Materials Development; Partnership Communications; Local Community Outreach (Hawaii and Chile); Tour and Public Inquiry Fulﬁllment.

How these capabilities were established from a programmatic perspective has undergone a relatively complex evolutionary process. Functional capabilities stemmed from a vision to become a full-service and proactive EPO program and become a model EPO program that provides for the EPO needs of our primary audiences in a timely and professional manner. While many speciﬁc program elements were not envisioned at the outset, the process of deﬁning the audiences, key functions and vision provided the guidance necessary to develop and reﬁne most of the programs and activities described in Sect. 5. Finally, the process of identifying key functional capabilities resulted in developing staﬀ positions in alignment with diverse responsibilities, limited infrastructure and budgetary constraints. This was also a process that involved many adjustments and adaptations as staﬀ positions were hired and unique skill sets, strengths/weaknesses identiﬁed. To fulﬁll the objectives of a fully functional EPO program at Gemini and align with the functions listed above, the following key positions were deﬁned early in the process of EPO development at Gemini: 12 Slater, T. Finding the Forest Amid the Trees: Tools for Evaluating Astronomy Education and Public Outreach Projects, Astronomy Education Review, Volume 3, Issue 2 (online only: http://aer.noao.edu/about.html)

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• • • • •

EPO Manager (1.0 FTE) Graphic Artist (1.0 FTE) Writer/Press Oﬃcer (1.0 FTE) Webmaster/Librarian (1.0 FTE) Local Education and Outreach Specialists (Hawaii and Chile) (2.0 FTE) • Assistants and student interns (1.5 FTE) Establishing these positions was accomplished in a scheduled “ramp-up” fashion to allow time for program development, budget phase-in, integration with existing staﬀ, training, and establishing appropriate infrastructure to support each position. Within three years of beginning Gemini’s initial EPO expansion, all positions were staﬀed and program development was underway as described in Sect. 5. One area that was modiﬁed signiﬁcantly as the program developed was the use of “contracted services” to ﬁll many EPO needs in cases where capabilities were not met by new staﬀ. The most signiﬁcant application of this approach was for the position of the Writer/Press Oﬃcer. Due to budgetary constraints and the need to hire locally, we were unable to meet the minimum needs of the position as deﬁned. The solution was to identify the position’s key responsibilities and hire individuals on a contractual basis to ﬁll those needs. This approach has proven to be extremely eﬀective and fulﬁlled or exceeded all of our deﬁned needs within budgetary limits. A variety of functions have been ﬁlled by individuals on project-based contracts and these include: artwork/illustration production, special writing projects, video production and interactive educational software/exhibit programming. In all cases (except the Writer/Press Oﬃcer), we were able to ﬁnd extremely capable individuals from our local workforce in Hawaii and Chile. Wherever skill sets were lacking, contracted individuals could usually ﬁll the speciﬁc remaining needs as mentioned above. The ﬁnal position to be added to the EPO staﬀ is a 0.5 FTE science position to serve as a scientiﬁc liaison for EPO programming and also facilitate a communications plan between Gemini and our science users. This position was not part of the original ﬁve-year expansion plan but was added in response to requirements by the EPO department and a widely acknowledged need to communicate more eﬀectively with our scientiﬁc user community. 5. EPO Program Development The development of programs and resources for the Gemini EPO eﬀort is an ongoing evolutionary process directed by the needs of each of the four audiences listed in Sect. 4. While this paper is not intended to provide

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Figure 3. Cover of GeminiFocus, the newsletter of the Gemini Observatory produced and edited by the EPO oﬃce.

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an in-depth description of all programs developed to date, a representative sample of the more signiﬁcant programs follows, delineated by audience. For more information on speciﬁc programs, see the Gemini EPO Webpage13 . As mentioned earlier, most programs are intended to impact more than one identiﬁed audience, and where a signiﬁcantly higher level of overlap occurs it has been noted. 5.1. LOCAL COMMUNITY PROGRAMS

At the Gemini Observatory, local outreach is deﬁned as programming that impacts the public, educators and students in our host communities on the Island of Hawaii and in the vicinity of La Serena, Chile. Local outreach is staﬀ-intensive and a total of almost 4 FTE’s are engaged in these activities at both sites. Gemini’s local outreach programming is anchored at both sites with multiple StarLab portable planetaria that are used to visit local schools and present programs on general astronomy, recent discoveries at Gemini and light pollution (in Chile where the threat of light pollution is most urgent). Other programming involves extensive partnerships with local institutions such as the Department of Education in Hawaii, neighboring observatories (both Hawaii and Chile), local museums and education centers (see Figs. 4 & 5) and active involvement in community service organizations. Two of the most signiﬁcant local outreach eﬀorts to date have involved partnerships with national US programs FamilyAstro (Astronomical Society of the Paciﬁc) and the Universities for Space Research Association’s Journey through the Universe. A highly successful teacher exchange between Hawaii and Chile called StarTeachers and classroom presentations, teacher experiences (tours and workshops), internships and student mentoring round out Gemini’s current local outreach programming. 5.2. GEMINI PARTNERSHIP EPO

Perhaps the most challenging aspects of Gemini’s EPO eﬀort is the diversity presented by the international partnership. While this is a challenge, it is also a tremendous strength given the expertise and resources available through this association. To tap into this strength, representatives from each country make up the Gemini EPO Liaison Group, which is a working group that meets annually (along with quarterly videocons) to allow communication and the sharing of ideas and initiatives that will beneﬁt the entire partnership. 13

http://www.gemini.edu/pio/

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Figure 4. Centro de Apoyo a la Did´ actia de la Astronom´ıa (CADIAS) in La Serena Chile. This astronomy education center includes a presentation theater sponsored by Gemini as well as space for Gemini’s StarLab portable planetarium, the Gemini Virtual Tour kiosk and other Gemini educational materials.

Figure 5. ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaii in Hilo, Hawaii. Featuring a leading-edge planetarium and exhibits on astronomy and Polynesian culture, the center is located adjacent to the Gemini Northern Operations Center. Multiple programs and exhibits feature Gemini science and technology in highly leveraged programming including an exhibit using an unused Gemini control console (inset).

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Collectively the ongoing interactions between Gemini EPO and the Liaison Group have proven to be a powerful mechanism for continually identifying new areas where the observatory can support the partner country eﬀorts (as needs and priorities evolve). Activities that support the partnership include the development of exhibits and displays for conferences, the twice-yearly GeminiFocus newsletter (see Fig. 3), image/poster production and image gallery web resources, education resources (see Fig. 6) and websplash news updates. An ongoing initiative to produce animations on astronomical topics and technologies (i.e. adaptive optics, laser guide stars etc.) has also succeeded in producing a unique and widely-used resource for the Gemini partnership as well as formal and informal educators, staﬀ and the media. All of these products have obvious applications for other audiences. 5.3. MEDIA RELATIONS

Often EPO is considered synonymous with media relations. While media relations is an important part of Gemini’s EPO program, it is important that our resources devoted to media relations have an impact that supports the partnership as well as our local host communities. To accomplish this, we have established a procedure to create media resources such as press release templates, images, video and illustrations that can be used broadly with our four primary audiences and in our partner countries. To make this happen from a staﬃng point of view, the traditional duties of a Press Oﬃcer have been integrated into the EPO Manager’s position along with several individuals who provide editorial, editing and artistic services on a contractual basis. In a typical year, the Gemini EPO oﬃce will produce up to 10 press releases that are augmented by additional releases from partner country universities or National Gemini Oﬃces. In addition, various staﬀ members are trained in hosting visiting media for on-site videoshoots, interviews and background research. Additional key initiatives in media relations include the development of a complete video library of B-roll footage, the Gemini Legacy Imaging program (see Fig. 7) and a centralized image gallery that includes hundreds of publication-quality images (astronomical and facility) as well as broadcast quality video. 5.4. STAFF/USERS

Supporting the observatory’s staﬀ (and overall operational support) is a role that EPO plays by its very nature. Staﬀ support covers a wide gamut of activities that include: graphic support on scientiﬁc posters, building

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Figure 6. Main navigation page for the Gemini Virtual Tour kiosk and CD-ROM-based interactive educational resource.

aesthetics, library/archive services, image production, photo/video documentation, lobby exhibits/displays, VIP event coordination/tours, informational materials and traveling conference exhibits. Even if these duties are not strictly deﬁned in an operational plan, this work often naturally falls under EPO due to the types of expertise available in the EPO oﬃce. At Gemini we have deﬁned a speciﬁc role of EPO to support scientiﬁc user communications on such topics as technical capabilities, achieving institutional milestones, and even how to complete observation submissions. Recognizing that communicating with our users is a critical activity at any observatory, supporting scientiﬁc staﬀ communications with informational resources, publications and other resources (such as conference displays) is a function that is well suited to EPO. To supplement the Gemini EPO involvement in user scientiﬁc communications, a 0.5 FTE science staﬀ member is assigned to the EPO group as a scientiﬁc liaison. 6. EPO Strategic Planning at Gemini While all observatory EPO programs integrate some level of strategic planning, anecdotal evidence suggests that this is often part of a larger insti-

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tutional “umbrella” strategic plan and, as such, is frequently very general in nature. Given this still-emerging environment, few examples exist that establish “best practices” in strategic planning (especially in the groundbased observatory EPO community). However, one excellent example, developed by the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), provides a model for a successful observatory EPO strategic plan (Christian 2001) that could be adapted by others (ground or space-based). Despite the eﬀorts of STScI and others, very little formal and general guidance is available for those wishing to develop a rigorous strategic plan speciﬁcally for an astronomical observatory EPO program. During the development phase of Gemini’s PIO program, a plan was implemented that deﬁned speciﬁc operational “ramp-up” goals and staﬃng/infrastructure targets as well as a vision that stated: “... Gemini is established as a model EPO program that provides for the EPO needs of our primary audiences in a timely and professional manner.”

While helpful to establish a functional department, this provided little in the way of guiding principles to help direct speciﬁc programmatic direction. As with many EPO programs, overall direction has often been more instinctual than deﬁned. While successful, an eﬀort is now underway to deﬁne our programs and direction more formally and develop a ﬁve-year strategic and operational plan that will purposefully guide the Gemini EPO program into the future. The strategic planning for Gemini’s EPO program can be summarized by the following set of guiding principles: 1. Objectives must be audience driven and readily measured; 2. Target audiences limited to ∼4; 3. Vision and Mission statements – short and easy to remember and apply by staﬀ; 4. Includes staﬀ input and consultation; 5. Allows for changing circumstances/opportunities; 6. Integrates successful existing programming and lessons learned; 7. Aligns with institutional and common funding agency missions. Development of the plan is well underway and expected to be completed during 2006. 7. Conclusions Creating an eﬀective EPO program is a critical element in the development of a vibrant and healthy astronomical observatory facility. While the process is not easily formulated and plugged into standard procedures and operational procedures, there are methods available that will help iden-

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Figure 7. Sample Gemini Legacy image used to illustrate Gemini’s capabilities to both the public and astronomical community.

tify appropriate activities and priorities for each institution and its unique circumstances. Gemini Observatory, with its relatively complex organization of multiple partner countries and twin telescopes in both hemispheres, provides a relatively complex real-world model for the successful development of an EPO program. The implementation of an EPO program developed from the “ground up” at Gemini, provides valuable ”lessons learned” and best practices for others to use when developing EPO programs for future generations of ground-based observatories. References 1. 2.

3. 4. 5.

Christensen, L.L. 2006, The Hands-On Guide to Science Communication, Springer, New York Christian, C. 2001, 2002-2007 Strategic Plan for the Oﬃce of Public Outreach – Strategies for the Next Five Years of Education and Public Outreach, Space Telescope Sc. Inst., Baltimore MD (http://outreachoffice.stsci.edu/mission/strategic2002.pdf) Hunter, L., Crabtree, D., Christian, C. & Sim, H. 2005, Gemini EPO External Review – Final Report McCray, P. 2004, Giant Telescopes, Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge MA Robson, I. & Christensen, L.L. (Eds.) 2005, Communicating Astronomy with the Public: Proceedings From the ESO/ESA/IAU conference 14-17 June 2005, Garching (http://www.spacetelescope.org/about/further information/books/html/cap2005 proceedings.html)

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PUBLIC OUTREACH AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MCDONALD OBSERVATORY – A BRIEF HISTORY AND CURRENT OVERVIEW

SANDRA L. PRESTON

McDonald Observatory The University of Texas at Austin One University Station A2100 Austin TX 78712, U.S.A. [email protected]

Abstract. The University of Texas McDonald Observatory is known as one of the world’s mega centers for astronomy outreach and education. What series of events took place in history to make this state-supported Observatory one of the key players in astronomy outreach in the US and internationally? What programs remain successful today? And, what does the future hold for outreach and education at McDonald Observatory? This chapter provides a brief history of the outreach programs, an overview of the present programs, and a glimpse into what the future is likely to hold.

1. History of Outreach When William Johnson McDonald, a Paris TX banker and amateur scientist died in 1926 he bequeathed his fortune to the University of Texas to establish an observatory for the study of the stars and the promotion of astronomy. Six years later, the University of Texas (which at that time had no astronomy department) joined forces with the University of Chicago (which had astronomers) to build McDonald Observatory and operate it for 30 years. The Observatory’s original 2.1-meter (82-inch) telescope was completed in 1939. In 1963, the contract between the two universities expired, and the University of Texas at Austin took on the operation. A young Ivy Leaguer named Harlan J. Smith was hired to be the ﬁrst Texas Director. Smith was a visionary for large telescopes and a missionary for astronomy. Upon arriving at Texas, he immediately went to work to build a 495 A. Heck (ed.), Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, 495–516. © 2006 Springer.

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2.7-meter (107-inch) telescope, which was dedicated in 1969. It was the third largest telescope in the world at the time. Although public viewing night and guided tours were already taking place at the 2.1-meter telescope (the telescope that was built with McDonald’s donation), the creation of the new 2.7-meter telescope, enabled Smith to expand the accessibility of the Observatory to visitors. Unlike the 2.1-meter telescope, the 2.7-meter telescope was designed to include a visitors’ area in the lobby. A visitors’ viewing gallery was built level with the dome ﬂoor and visitors could walk the 77 steps up to the gallery area and see the great 2.7-meter telescope during daylight hours. If they were lucky, they might arrive in time for one of the daily tours and get to step out on to the dome ﬂoor while a guide manipulated the controls to move the dome and the telescope. In the early 1970s, the Observatory developed an advisory council. The advisory council consisted of inﬂuential Texans from the business world and industry who could help insure the Observatory’s future funding. (McDonald is funded as a separate line item from the University in the State’s budget.) In addition to helping convince members of the legislature of the importance of funding the Observatory, the advisory council played a major role in seed funding McDonald’s outreach programs in the early years. About the same time the advisory council was forming, the Observatory began publishing a one-page monthly newsletter called the McDonald Observatory News. The original version of the newsletter contained a star chart and a sky calendar designed to keep the Observatory’s growing number of friends and acquaintances up-to-date with sky watching news. In 1977, the “Have you seen the Stars Tonight?” telephone message began. It was upgraded to a radio program and the name was changed to StarDate in 1978. It was this same year that StarDate received a grant from the National Science Foundation and the radio program began broadcasting on over 1,000 radio stations nationally. A Spanish-language version, called Astrofecha, began airing also. In the late 1970s, Smith worked with advisory council members to build a new facility at the base of Mt Locke that would be devoted to welcoming visitors. By 1981, the Observatory was dedicating the 2,500 square foot W.L. Moody, Jr. Visitors’ Information Center, which was designed to accommodate the 18,000 to 20,000 visitors a year. The Auxiliary University Fund would supply about $50,000 a year to run the Center until 1992, when the budget would be reduced by $10,000 a year until no University support remained. In Washington DC at this time, the Oﬃce for Space and Society at the National Science Foundation, which funded StarDate, was closing. University oﬃcials decided that StarDate would have to ﬁnd its own funding or

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Figure 1.

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William J. McDonald (1844-1926). (Photo McDonald Obs.)

Figure 2. The 82-inch Otto Struve Telescope Dome with workers, mid-1930s. (Photo McDonald Obs.)

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end. The 1,000 radio stations airing StarDate were asked to pay and ten percent of them choose to do so, providing almost enough funds with which to operate. The Longhorn Radio Network at the University took on the operation of Astrofecha; but, the number of Spanish broadcasting stations could not support the production and distribution costs and Astrofecha soon ended. The Friends of McDonald, a donor membership group was formed in 1981 to provide the director with discretionary funds to help support public outreach programs and other projects that required timely funding. Subscribers to the McDonald Observatory News were asked to join the Friends of McDonald Observatory and hundreds of them did. In 1983, the name of the Advisory Council changed to the Board of Visitors and the number of board members soon expanded from about 50 to 200. In 1985, the McDonald Observatory News changed it name to StarDate magazine and changed its format from a newsletter to a magazine. It increased in size and added color. The magazine was sent to legislatures and other inﬂuential people to inform them about happenings in the astronomical world. In 1986, with funding from the advisory council, StarDate developed special one-minute television programs in connection with Comet Halley and over 50 television stations aired the programs nationally. Also that year, more than 88,000 people visited the Observatory and participated in special comet programs. It became clear that the tiny Visitors’ Center was already bursting at the seams and expansion was inevitable. Frank N. Bash became the second Texas director in 1989. Bash was a long-time faculty member on the department of astronomy staﬀ who was well known for his teaching. He took on the large, new technology telescope project, that Smith had envisioned but would not live to see come to pass. (Smith died in 1991 of cancer and in 1995 the 2.7-meter telescope was renamed in his honor.) Bash also created the Public Information Oﬃce in 1991, under which all the outreach programs – Visitors’ Center, StarDate radio and magazine – were organized and a press oﬃce was added. The 9.2-meter Hobby-Eberly Telescope was well underway by 1991 with partners from Penn State, Stanford, and two German universities (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit¨ at M¨ unchen and Georg-August-Universit¨ at G¨ ottingen). The German version of StarDate, Sternzeit, was created at this time and an astronomer at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit¨ at M¨ unchen agreed to be the technical editor to assure the accuracy of the German translations. The next spike in the education and outreach programs came in 1995 when the National Science Foundation’s Informal Science Education Ofﬁce funded Universo, the new Spanish-language version of the StarDate

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Figure 3. Harlan J. Smith (1924-1991), the ﬁrst Director of McDonald Observatory. (Photo McDonald Obs.)

Figure 4. Construction of the Harlan J. Smith Telescope, in the late 1960s. (Photo McDonald Obs.)

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radio program. Universo was immediately a hit with Spanish-language radio stations. Also at this time StarDate Online 1 and Universo Online 2 were created to take advantage of providing astronomy information to the growing Internet audience. In conjunction with National Science Foundation funding, the Observatory began producing special programs for Hispanic Heritage Month. In the US, Hispanic Heritage Month celebrates the educational and cultural contributions of Hispanics and Latinos every year from 15 September to 15 October. Hispanic Heritage Month pilot programs were produced in 1997 with support from the NSF, NASA, and the American Honda Foundation. Some of the Hispanic Heritage Month programs were longer than the daily StarDate and Universo programs and contained interviews with Hispanic astronomers and astronauts, as well as historical content. In 1997, the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) was dedicated – the second largest telescope in the world at the time and now among the handful of the largest telescopes in the world, built for less than 20 percent of the costs of competing telescopes. A visitors’ gallery – the George T. Abell Gallery – was added to the telescope building to allow visitors to see Texas’s largest telescope, which is now a tradition at McDonald. The Gallery is a 1,000 square-foot building attached by a greenhouse-type glass window that spans from the ﬂoor to overhead and permits visitors to walk up and see the mammoth telescope. Also in 1997, McDonald Observatory spearheaded the creation of a group called SCOPE. SCOPE is the Southwestern Consortium of Observatories for Public Education (SCOPE), a group of professional research observatories located in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona who are committed to providing outreach materials to teachers, schoolchildren, and adults. SCOPE has produced a series of posters encouraging people to visit the member observatories. One of the posters, which contained educational content on the back, was given to 25,000 teachers as an insert into the Science and Children journal of the National Science Teachers Association. SCOPE also has also created tourism brochure racks for the member observatories to oﬀer visitors travel information on other members. Around the time of the dedication of the Hobby-Eberly telescope in 1997, Frank Bash and HET Project Manager Tom Sebring met with Khotso Mokhele, a South African then in charge of the Foundation for Research Development and Bob Stobie, Director of the South African Astronomical Observatory. Mokhele and Stobie agreed that a Southern Hemisphere version of the HET could beneﬁt Southern African science, the economy, and excite African children in scientiﬁc and technical careers. HET partners 1 2

http://www.stardate.org/ http://www.radiouniverso.org/

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Figure 5. Obs.)

Dome of the Harlan J. Smith Telescope. (Photo Marty Harris/McDonald

Figure 6. Obs.)

Aerial view of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope. (Photo Marty Harris/McDonald

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would get time on the telescope for sharing the plans. Soon McDonald Observatory became involved in working with the South African Astronomical Observatory. Sutherland, where the new Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) would soon be located, became sister towns with Fort Davis, TX. And, as a result, STARTEC (State of the Art Telescope Education Collaboration) came out of an astronomy education meeting held in Cape Town, South Africa in 2001 with funding from the National Science Foundation. More information on STARTEC is available on the web3 . After completing the fundraising for the Hobby Eberly telescope, Bash raised the money to build a new 11,000 square-foot Visitors’ Center. The new center opened on 6 April 2002. A major change in the direction of the outreach programs took place upon the opening of the new center. Up to this point, outreach programs were, for the most part, targeted at adults. The direction changed to add informal education programs for elementary and secondary school children. All the original McDonald Observatory outreach programs started small – with only one to one and a half staﬀ members – and very little budgets. The programs have grown to employ 29 full time employees and some of the programs are international in scope. One lesson that could be drawn from the history of McDonald Observatory’s outreach programs is that small beginnings can grow to great things with perseverance. 2. The Outreach and Education Programs Today In 2003, David L. Lambert became the third Texas director. He, too, was a long-time faculty member at Texas with a nationally respected research background. He has been instrumental in involving Texas in the Giant Magellan Telescope project and in building HETDEX (Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment), a project designed to understand the evolutional history of dark matter. Soon after he became director (2005), the name of the Public Information Oﬃce was changed to the Education and Outreach Oﬃce to better reﬂect the new focus on K-12 education and outreach. Outreach programs that were begun in the 1970s and 1980s are still around today. They have matured and grown and hybrid programs have blossomed. The programs today have an annual budget of $2 million. About 70 percent of this budget comes from sales, 7.5% is supported by the director’s oﬃce, and the remainder comes from gifts and grants. With the addition of the new Visitors Center, the number of employees has doubled. There are currently 19 full-time equivalent Visitors Center staﬀ and an additional 8.25 full-time equivalent staﬀ members working on education and 3

http://www.startec-intl.org/

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Figure 7. Khotso Mokhele (left), President of South Africa’s National Research Foundation, with Frank Bash, former Director of McDonald Observatory. (Photo McDonald Obs.)

Figure 8. The Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) with star trails. (Photo SALT Consortium)

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outreach projects in the Austin StarDate oﬃces plus a half-dozen regular freelancers. 3. Radio Program Outreach McDonald Observatory’s widest-reaching astronomy outreach programs are the StarDate and Universo radio programs. A diﬀerent 2-minute radio program is produced for each of the 365 days of the year, as well as one bonus, evergreen program per month, for a total of 377 new programs each year. Universo is the Spanish-language version of StarDate. In the US, StarDate airs on 368 radio stations and reaches an audience of 2 million people daily. Universo reaches an audience of 250,000 people daily on 153 radio stations. StarDate is also heard internationally on the Armed Forces Radio Network and Universo is heard by millions of people in Mexico and South America. Universo celebrated 10 years on the air in 2005. The German version of StarDate, Sternzeit, is heard throughout Germany on Deutschlandfunk daily before 5 pm. Sternzeit is celebrating 15 years on the air in 2006. StarDate and Universo are distributed monthly to radio stations on audio compact discs. Each disc contains up to 72 minutes of programming, enough time to include a program for each day of the month, weekly promos that encourage listeners to tune in, and an evergreen, bonus program for the month. StarDate aﬃliates often air the program as many as three to ﬁve times a day. Most aﬃliates are public radio stations, some are noncommercial radio stations, and about one quarter are commercial stations. Two-thirds of the radio stations that air Universo are commercial. The radio scripts are dated to correspond with the day they are to air and recorded programs are not reused. Some of the scripts are recycled every three years and can be reused with some rewriting and updating. About 50 percent of the scripts are about sky watching. The rest are evenly divided among astronomy research, space exploration, the history of astronomy, star lore and the Earth. Universo scripts are translated directly from StarDate scripts. A small percentage of the scripts are newly created speciﬁcally for the Spanishlanguage audience and cover culturally relevant astronomy, history, sky lore and contributions of Hispanic astronomers. German scripts are, for the most part, direct translations of the English version. Some of the bonus programs are used when events that relate only to the US would not be appropriate for German listeners. When necessary, German producers create new scripts. Production for the StarDate and Universo radio programs is out sourced, while marketing is done in-house. Station revenue provides about

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Figure 9. Sundial Court at McDonald Observatory Visitors Center. (Photo Hester + Hardaway)

Figure 10. Dean of Natural Sciences Mary Ann Rankin and McDonald Observatory Director David Lambert, with a model of the Giant Magellan Telescope. (Photo Marsha Miller/Univ. Texas)

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half of the StarDate ’s funding; grants provide the rest. Universo is supported totally by gifts and grants. 4. StarDate Magazine and Other Print Outreach The StarDate magazine has become a full-color publication. The 10,000 subscribers provide most of the ad-free magazine’s operating costs. It has a pass-along readership of 3.3. It is 24 pages in length, easy to read, and is targeted at a high-school level audience and up. The magazine is published six times a year and one issue is devoted to the annual Sky Almanac. Every issue contains sky watching highlights and star charts. Merlin answers astronomy questions and there is the latest news on astronomy together with spectacular astronomical photography. A StarDate/Universo teachers guide is published to help teachers use the StarDate and Universo CDs eﬀectively. The teachers guide contains astronomy activities for grades K-12 that align with the National Standards for Science Education in the US. StarDate also publishes a guide to the Solar System and a Beyond the Solar System guide. Both are 40-page, full-color guides, which provide spectacular photography and the most current information on the planets and celestial objects outside our solar system. Both publications were made possible with funding from NASA in connection with University of Texas education and outreach programs. 5. Electronic Outreach Both StarDate and Universo have online components4 . Over 100,000 visitors come into the sites each week. The content at both sites is updated daily to add the new script each day. An archive of scripts and RealAudio is available at both sites and StarDate can be downloaded as a pod cast. Most materials that are available in print are also available at the websites including the teacher guide, the guide to the Solar System, and Beyond the Solar System. The black holes website5 is available in both English and Spanish. It includes eight major sections: Black hole basics, black holes in popular culture, ﬁnding black holes, black hole history, black hole catalog, the Principal Investigator’s black hole research, and resources. Each section oﬀers text, photographs, charts and other illustrations, and additional materials, such as audio and computer animations. 4 5

http://www.stardate.org/ and http://www.radiouniverso.org/ http://blackholes.stardate.org/ and http://blackholes.radiouniverso.org/

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Figure 11. Obs.)

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McDonald Observatory Visitors Center. (Photo Marty Harris/McDonald

Figure 12.

“Decoding Starlight” Exhibit. (Photo Hester + Hardaway)

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“What are Astronomers Doing?”6 is a weekly updated web site detailing current research at McDonald Observatory. Each week, visitors can ﬁnd descriptions of all observing projects on McDonald telescopes. A “NASA Astronomer of the Week” feature, funded by NASA’s Oﬃce of Space Science includes a new write-up of NASA-funded research by a University of Texas astronomer each week. Each project write-up is accompanied by a biography of the astronomer or engineer in charge. Text for the site is prepared by a graduate-student, undergraduate, or K-12 teacher interns; edited for accuracy by astronomers; and ﬁnally edited by a professional writer/editor. Site-related classroom activities aligned with the National Science Education Standards are also available. The templates for this system are available free to other institutions; customization is available for a fee. For more information, visit the web site7 . 6. Friends of McDonald The Friends of McDonald donor membership group continues today. A membership campaign launched close to the opening of the new Visitors Center in 2002 brought in 1,000 new members. Today there are close to 1,400 members that donated between $50 and $1,000 to help support McDonald Observatory outreach and education programs. The Board of Visitors continues to help with fundraising for both research and education and outreach programs. 7. Visitors’ Center On 6 April 2002, McDonald Observatory oﬃcially opened a 12,000 square foot Visitors Center. An NSF-funded, permanent, $1.5 million, bilingual, interactive exhibit entitled “Decoding Starlight” focuses on how astronomers use spectroscopy to understand the Universe. (The exhibit was designed to focus on the primary purpose of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope.) The Center is open daily 9-5 (and Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday evenings) 362 days a year. The StarDate Caf´e and an Astronomy Gift Shop are also open during these times to serve visitors. The gift shop also operates an online gift shop8 . Income from ticket sales, as well as caf´e and gift shop purchases, support 100 percent of the operation. Currently 70,000 to 100,000 visitors participate in the variety of activities conducted at the Visitors Center each year. 6

http://www.mcdonaldobservatory.org/research http://www.whatareastronomersdoing.org/ 8 http://www.stardate.org/giftshop 7

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Figure 13. Star party at McDonald Observatory Visitors Center. (Photo Frank Cianciolo/McDonald Obs.)

Figure 14. Dome of the 2.1-meter (82-inch) Otto Struve Telescope. (Photo Marty Harris/McDonald Obs.)

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Visitors can explore the “Decoding Starlight” Exhibit Hall at the Visitors Center and enjoy various astronomical presentations in the multimedia theater. They can see the Sun from the comfort of the multimedia theater during a Solar Viewing program. They can view sunspots, ﬂares, and prominences safely as they happen live. In the event of cloudy conditions, they can see video of these solar features taken with telescopes. Guided Tours are available twice daily and provide an up- close look at large research telescopes at McDonald Observatory. Knowledgeable guides who provide insight into the workings of a professional scientiﬁc research facility lead the 90-minute guided tours. Each Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday evenings, Twilight Programs take place in the theater. The Twilight program provides an engaging, 60- to 70-minute activity, which begins one and a half hours before the Star Party. The program is designed for families and people of all ages. Star Parties are the most popular of the programs at McDonald Observatory. Star Parties take place each Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday evening at dusk in the Rebecca Gale Telescope Park outside of the Visitors’ Center. In an amphitheater designed to hold over 300 people, visitors can enjoy a tour of the constellations. They can view the moon, planets, stars, galaxies, and other objects through large telescopes at the public observatory. The program is fun for the entire family, and is open to everyone. In the event of rain, signiﬁcant clouds, or high winds/dust/humidity, a series of unique indoor presentations is available. 8. Special Viewing Programs Today special viewing programs take place on three diﬀerent research telescopes: the 2.7-meter Harlan J. Smith Telescope, the 2.1-meter Otto Struve Telescope (named after the Observatory’s ﬁrst director from Chicago), and the 0.9-meter (36-inch) telescope. Looking through the historic 2.1-meter Otto Struve Telescope is a wonderful experience of going back in time to the 1930s. At the same time this telescope continues to be modernized and oﬀers visitors and amateurs spectacular views of planets, nebulae, galaxies and other deep sky objects through one of the largest telescopes in the world available to the public. This program is typically scheduled for nights free of bright moonlight, thereby proving excellent views of the night sky. Dinner is also provided as part of the program. The 2.1-meter viewing program is approximately 4 to 5 hours in length, including dinner. One night a month, typically on the Wednesday nearest the full moon, the 2.7-meter Harlan J. Smith Telescope is opened for public viewing. In addition to the view through the telescope, the professional astronomer

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Figure 15. The 2.1-meter (82-inch) Otto Struve Telescope at the University of Texas McDonald Observatory. (Photo McDonald Obs.)

Figure 16. A nearly full gibbous Moon shines at sunset over the dome of the 2.7-meter (107-inch) Harlan J. Smith Telescope at McDonald Observatory. (Photo Frank Cianciolo/McDonald Obs.)

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using the telescope speaks about their research project and responds to questions. A demonstration of spectroscopy is given by the Visitors Center staﬀ to oﬀer the program participants a glimpse into how research is conducted at McDonald Observatory. Dinner is provided as part of the program. Viewing Night on the 2.7-meter is typically a four-hour program. Dedicated in 1956, the 0.9-meter Telescope near the top of Mt Locke remains a powerful window on the universe. Its long focus allows for excellent views of the planets as well as high contrast views of deep space objects like globular clusters, planetary nebulae, and galaxies. More nights can be secured for public viewing on the 0.9-meter than on either the 2.1-meter or the 2.7-meter while still providing excellent views. 9. Educational Programs McDonald Observatory’s Visitors Center is designed to be the hub for astronomy education for Texas Kindergarten through12th grade (K-12) students and teachers. McDonald oﬀers both Student Field Experiences and Professional Development Workshops for teachers. 10. Student Field Experiences K-12 Student Field Experiences are available to school groups with advance reservations. Student Field Experiences consist of a tour of the Observatory, the exhibit hall experience, an enrichment activity for small groups, and an optional star party. Teachers may select from an extensive menu of activities customized to grade levels and Texas standards. Pre-and postvisit materials and activities are available. A videoconference version of the Student Field Experience is under development. Many classroom resources have been developed for K-12 students. They are available from websites9 . More information on student ﬁeld experiences is available on the web10 . 11. Teacher Professional Development Workshops McDonald Observatory oﬀers a unique setting for teacher workshops in the Davis Mountains of West Texas, which is one of the darkest astronomical observing sites in the world. Teachers do inquiry-based activities aligned with national and state standards for science, they practice new astronomy skills under the dark skies, eat meals with astronomers, partner with 9

http://outreach.as.utexas.edu/Marykay/previsit.html http://mcdonaldobservatory.org/teachers/classroom/ http://stardate.org/teachers/plans/ http://stardate.org/teachers/activities/index.html 10 http://www.mcdonaldobservatory.org/teachers/visit/

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Figure 17. The 2.7-meter (107-inch) Harlan J. Smith Telescope at the University of Texas McDonald Observatory. (Photo Marty Harris/McDonald Obs.)

Figure 18. The 0.9-meter (36-inch) Telescope at McDonald Observatory. (Photo Kevin Mace/McDonald Obs.)

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trained and nationally recognized astronomy educators, and receive continuing education credits for time spent in the workshops. Some of the workshops are designed to promote learning about the NASA-sponsored research done by McDonald astronomers. Scholarships are available for some workshops. More information on teacher professional development workshops is available on the web11 . 12. Conclusion Public outreach and education are important parts of the mission of McDonald Observatory. Today, many of the University of Texas astronomers participate in education and outreach programs, be it radio, publications or teachers workshops, that make their research available to the public. University of Texas astronomers play a key role in helping to fund the outreach programs through education and outreach funding from their NASA and NSF proposals. Although McDonald Observatory is part of a state university, it has done astronomy outreach at the national and international levels and has competed for national funding to support its outreach programs since the 1970s. For these reasons, McDonald’s outreach is closely tied to the nation’s priorities. The international outreach done by McDonald is closely tied to international telescope collaborations. A new telescope being dedicated at McDonald Observatory today (28 March 2006), the MONET North Telescope, is a perfect example of what the future is likely to hold for McDonald education and outreach. MONET stands for “Monitoring Network of Telescopes”. It is a 1.2-meter robotically controlled telescope that is the ﬁrst of two telescopes planned. The second telescope will be located at the South African Astronomical Observatory’s Sutherland Station, northeast of Cape Town, South Africa. MONET is an international partnership between McDonald Observatory, the University of G¨ ottingen in Germany, and the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO). When both MONET telescopes are operating, McDonald Observatory astronomers will get 15 percent of the observing time on both telescopes. G¨ ottingen will receive 80 percent for use in both research and education, and SAAO will receive about ﬁve percent. Half of G¨ ottingen’s time will be used by school kids all over the world – including Texas – but with a particular emphasis in Germany’s Ruhr Valley, home of the Krupp Foundation, who funded the telescopes. The time diﬀerence of seven hours between Texas and Germany will allow German students participating in the “Astronomie & Internet” project to 11

http://mcdonaldobservatory.org/teachers/profdev/

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Figure 19. The barn-shaped enclosure of the MONET/North telescope at McDonald Observatory sits atop Mt Locke, below the Otto Struve Telescope (top left) and the Harlan J. Smith and 0.8-meter telescopes (top right). (Photo Frederic Hessman/Univ. G¨ ottingen)

Figure 20. The clamshell enclosure of the MONET/North telescope is open, revealing the 1.2-meter robotically controlled telescope. (Photo Frederic Hessman/Univ. G¨ ottingen)

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conduct astronomical observations “live” via the Internet during their morning hours of school, while the telescope itself is under a dark Texas sky. Likewise, Texas school children will have access to MONET South during the daytime, when the skies are dark in South Africa. And, Southern African students will have access to MONET North during daytime hours when Texas skies are dark. MONET education and outreach programs will take advantage of existing international collaborations with G¨ ottingen, an Hobby-Eberly Telescope partner; the German version of StarDate, Sternzeit; and the South Africa Astronomical Observatory. And, MONET will create many new opportunities for Texas to work together with G¨ ottingen and South Africa on education and outreach. Today, University of Texas astronomers look forward to being a partner on the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), a 25.6-meter (84-foot) diameter telescope – or 10 times the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope. Based on past experience, future McDonald education and outreach programs are likely to shape themselves around GMT research projects and partners. (The Giant Magellan Telescope consortium includes The University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, the Carnegie Observatories, Harvard University, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, the University of Arizona, the University of Michigan and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.) Lessons learned from outreach and research collaborations with MONET, HET and SALT, will provide important clues for designing creative and eﬀective outreach and education for GMT. References 1. 2. 3.

Evans, D.S. & Mulholland, J.D. 1986, Big and Bright: A History of the McDonald Observatory, Univ. Texas Press. Science with SALT: The Southern African Large Telescope, Proceedings of the SALT/HET Workshop held at the University of Cape Town 2-6 March 1998, Ed. D.A.H. Buckley. Smith, H.J. & Douglas, J.N. 1990-1991, An Oral History of Harlan Smith.

THE EUROPLANETARIUM GENK – THE STORY OF A PLANETARIUM

CHRIS JANSSEN

Europlanetarium vzw Planetariumweg 19 B-3600 Genk, Belgium [email protected]

Abstract. With the words of Neil Armstrong on the Moon in 1969, the awareness for science changed the city of Genk (Belgium). From then on, we worked to spread the news about science, more speciﬁcally on space travel and on the wonders of the universe. This led to building an observatory in 1984, a planetarium in 1991, and an auditorium in 1998. The future is bringing us still extra growth as we are going to be a gateway to the “Nationaal Park Hoge Kempen”.

1. The Young Researchers In 1969, Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon saying “This is a small step for man, but a giant leap for mankind”. This event also meant a giant leap for science and astronomy in the city of Genk (Northeast Belgium). Under the impetus of Lode Vanhoutte, a group of young enthusiasts formed the Jonge Onderzoekers [Young Researchers] group. The topics at the meetings included not only astronomy, but also chemistry, archaeology, physics and so on. These meetings were mainly held in the local elementary school where most of the members were attending classes. In 1971, the ﬁrst oﬃcial ﬂyer was sent to all the members, announcing a night sky observing session at the Vanhoutte’s house in Genk. Father Lode Vanhoutte and Son Paul had built their ﬁrst telescopes. With these instruments the Jonge Onderzoekers could make their ﬁrst telescope observations of celestial objects. 517 A. Heck (ed.), Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, 517–535. © 2006 Springer.

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Astronomy turned out very quickly to be the most popular matter, also because of the existence of the Vereniging voor Sterrenkunde (VVS1 ), an active amateur astronomy association. And soon the Jonge Onderzoekers found a haven for expanding their hobby. On 20 April 1972, the Apollo 16 lunar module Orion landed in the crater Descartes. In Genk, this became the perfect opportunity to change the name from Jonge Onderzoekers to Descartes and also to narrow down the science to astronomy, space travel and related sciences. 2. Limburg Public Observatory The public observatories Mira in Grimbergen2 and Urania in Hove3 had already opened their doors. Both the VVS and Armand Pien (who has been for 37 years the weather anchor on Flemish Television) wanted to see a public observatory in every Flemish province. Again under the impetus of Lode Vanhoutte, the idea of a third Flemish public observatory spread out. The original plans were quite modest as only a ground-level observatory was envisaged. Contacts with local politicians and companies triggered a good response with however the restriction that the structure needed a legal status. On 31 March 1977, the bylaws of the not-for-proﬁt organization Limburgse Volkssterrenwacht 4 were published in the Belgisch Staatsblad 5 . With this, a solid structure was born. It could carry the organization and guarantee its future. On this basis, the City Council of Genk granted a piece of land to the Limburgse Volkssterrenwacht in the recreational zone of Kattevennen. Promoting the public observatory was the ﬁrst objective. Participating in exhibitions, giving talks in schools, being present at local markets were just a few ways of getting the plans for building an observatory known to the public. The idea of building a small observatory was also changing into that of a bigger infrastructure with a more professional look. In 1979, some of the members were still trying to get the business side of the observatory up and running, others were planning a ﬁrst course of general astronomy for beginners. More than 125 people registered to this ﬁrst course. The public observatory would now consist of an exhibition area and an administrative room on the ground level, together with a dome for the 1

http://www.vvs.be/ http://www.mira.be/ 3 http://www.urania.be/ 4 Limburg Public Observatory 5 Oﬃcial Journal 2

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Figure 1. First Astronomical Camp with (left to right) Johan Gijsenbergs, Paul Hansen, Roger Loreis and Chris Janssen.

Figure 2.

Presenting Limburg Public Observatory to Genk City Council.

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Figure 3.

Promoting Limburg Public Observatory.

telescope on the ﬁrst ﬂoor. The observing facility was planned to be 5 m above ground level and the dome had to have a diameter of 6 m. For ﬁnancing and building the Observatory we could rely on the Province of Limburg and on the municipality of Genk. In 1982, the plans by architect Jos Hansen from Genk were ﬁnalized and the actual building could get started. The members of the Limburgse Volksterrenwacht began to construct a dome made of 12 sections and a door. The material used was polyester and glass ﬁbres mats. Layer after layer, they worked for more then 2000 hrs to get the job completed. Meanwhile in Kattevennen, the building was erected, again with the help of the municipality of Genk and volunteers from the Limburgse Volkssterrenwacht. In 1983, a course started to prepare the volunteers for their task. Fifteen amateur astronomers received the title of “Astronomical Animator”. In 1984, the dome was mounted on the building and a Lichtenknecker refractor (diameter of 200 mm, focal length of 3000 mm was installed. Some ﬁnishing touches were brought and the Limburgse Volkssterrenwacht could open for the public. From 19 May 1984 onwards, the third Flemish public observatory was operational. The Limburg Public Observatory is located in a Kattevennen recreational domain which, from 1970 onwards, oﬀered a growing number of possible activities such as outdoor grass skying, miniature golﬁng, roller skating, mountain boarding, mountain biking, horse riding, and so on.

THE EUROPLANETARIUM GENK

Figure 4.

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c Seppe Canonaco). Sketch of Limburg Public Observatory (Courtesy and

Figure 5.

The Lichtenknecker telescope in the observatory.

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Figure 6.

Geological garden with the “History of Belgium in Rocks”.

In July 1988, a geological garden also opened in Kattevennen: a scientiﬁc image of 570 million years of geological history amidst very pleasant surroundings. Specialists, students and laymen can get something out of a visit to this addition to the domain. Integrating a coalmine-shaft gave an extra incentive. Genk was a mining village from the early 20th century until the late 1970s and this mine-shaft was also a kind of a tribute to the heritage of the city. 3. The Europlanetarium Genk needed more stable tourism. Thus came up the project of building a planetarium as an addition to the public observatory. An attractive facility would draw people from the nearby region and from further away to visit Genk and its cloudless sky in that planetarium. Being able to show stars during day and night would also induce schools to visit the planetarium as part of their curriculum. Movements of planets could be speeded up to explain astronomical laws. Building a planetarium was of course a totally diﬀerent thing from constructing an observatory. Two years of preparation were necessary before we could convince partners to joined the venture leading to what is now

THE EUROPLANETARIUM GENK

Figure 7.

The ﬁrst mockup of the Europlanetarium.

Figure 8.

Building the planetarium.

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called the Europlanetarium. These partners were the European Economic Community (EEC – 50%), the Flemish General Directorate for Tourism (FCGT – 40%) and the city of Genk (10%). In 1987, the EEC agreed to ﬁnance the project. For the FCGT, two dossiers were prepared: one for the planetarium projector and one for the actual building. Both dossiers were approved in 1988. Architect Jos Hanssen was asked to make preliminary plans and later ﬁnal plans for building the planetarium within the restriction of 18 Million Belgian Francs (about 450,000 Euros). The project had to be put aside for several months due to the local elections. In December 1988, the drawing was ﬁnalized, presented and approved. Because the costs came out 30% higher than expected, the plans had to be simpliﬁed. Building a second ﬂoor was no longer possible and this became an option for the future. The opening of what was to become the most modern planetarium of the Benelux was scheduled for the end of 1990. In June 1989, at least 20% of the funding had to be spent on the planetarium project. The Limburgse Volkssterrenwacht acted as coordinator between the authorities and their workers in the ﬁeld, beyond preparing the various dossiers. Intensive talks took place with diﬀerent planetaria as well as with manufacturers. These companies were visited and the Limburgse Volkssterrenwacht participated in a planetarium conference held in Paris for further international contacts. The Observatory became also a member of the International Planetarium Society (IPS6 ). With the help of the Groep LEA (Limburgse Economical Activating), we worked to prepare a marketing plan for the future of the organization. At the end of 1989, the actual building of the planetarium started. After consulting planetarium directors from Brussels and Amsterdam, it was decided to purchase a mid-size planetarium from Carl Zeiss Jena, the Spacemaster, together with a 12.5 m dome. The building was assigned to the company Driessen from Maasmechelen. The biggest problem occured with costs running 30% higher then budgeted. The architect and his way of working appeared to be source of overspending. Cutting in the original plans was the only way to get back on track with the budget schedule. The auditorium, extra toilets and an administrative room were postponed. Even then the budget was exceeded and the city of Genk came to the rescue with extra funding. In 1989, a dossier was prepared for the Province and the GOM (Regional Development Company). In 1990, one million Belgian Francs (about 25,000 Euros) were put aside for roads and other facilities the construction of which were initiated the same year. 6

http://www.ips-planetarium.org/ [See also the chapter by C.C. Petersen in OSA 6 (Ed.).]

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Figure 9. Inauguration of the Planetarium with (left to right) Messrs. Val Slegers, Armand Pien, Johan Gijsenbergs (then Director), Theo Kelchtermans, and Jef Gabriels.

Building and installing took more time than expected so that the inauguration had to be postponed compare to prevision. Due to the still growing costs of the whole project, some additional dossiers had to be prepared for the Europees Fonds voor Regionale Ontwikkeling (EFRO) 7 , the Vlaams Commissariaat Generaal voor Toerisme (VCGT) 8 , the city of Genk and the Province of Limburg. The installation of the planetarium projector ﬁnally started in January 1991. It took three months before the instrument became operational. During this time, we had already started the technical and creative training of the staﬀ. The inner dome was installed with the help of technicians from the city of Genk. At the end of 1991, the equipment from the American company Sky-Skan9 was delivered and had still to be installed. A contest was launched for students and teachers of the local art school SHIVKV. This resulted in beautiful ideas and a nice work of art to decorate the planetarium. Luc Vanlessen and Luc Smeets designed a Stairway to Heaven which was installed next to the planetarium dome. 7

European Fund for Regional Development Flemish General Commission for Tourism 9 http://www.skyskan.com/ 8

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First lights of the planetarium were held during a meeting of the volunteers. Still without seats, we started running trial shows from July on. Everything was getting prepared for the grand opening on 20 December 1991. The 90 seats were installed in a unidirectional way, the sound equipment was installed. Outside workers started to put the ﬁnishing touches so that the planetarium could be easily reached and would look attractive. At last December 20 had arrived. The opening festivities with Armand Pien as a host and over 200 invited guests were fantastic. The Europlanetarium10 was operational, but not yet fully functional. Until May 1992, only live shows were presented by seven trained people. Each of them gave a live show that they had written themselves. In March 1992, Sky-Skan started to install the multivision equipment: 12 slide projectors, a video beamer and several special-eﬀect projectors completed the planetarium installation. We could ﬁnally start to produce automated shows. In this line, we produced a holiday show called Speurtocht door het heelal 11 , a search through the universe with the voice of the new Flemish weather anchor Frank Deboosere. This show was very well received by the audience. Therefore a second show was made with the voice of Bob Davidse. The Star of Bethlehem, as this show was called, gave an extra boost to the number of visitors during the Christmas vacation period. The production of the shows was done in house in order to keep the costs as low as possible and to imprint the shows with our own touch. To do this, we also set up our own image and sound studio. The possibility to produce automated shows did not prevent live shows to take place. We integrated live parts after each show. The audience loved the live interventions where they could see the starry sky of that night. Also schools asked for these live interventions to show special cosmographical phenomena. In 1993, we bought the program DigiDome from the Amsterdam Planetarium. With this, we could produce our own all-dome and panorama sliced slides. We also provided a live Meteosat video feed that could be shown on the planetarium dome. For the Ramadan, the Muslim Lent, we produced a show which explained the Lent and its relation with the Moon and the Sun. The Turkish and Moroccan public appreciated this, as well as the fact that the shows were also in their own language, together with Dutch. 10

http://www.europlanetarium.be/ e-mail: [email protected] 11 Exploration of the Universe

Figure 10.

General view of the Europlanetarium.

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Figure 11.

One of the planets of the path: Mars.

As kids could not be left out, we produced Het vreemde bezoek van Tante Julia 12 , about a bear that was born in space and wanted a name. 4. More Developments The Europlanetarium started to be on cruising speed. Plans were made to expand the audio-visual capabilities, as well as adding an administrative centre and an auditorium to the existing building. From 1994 on, we went online to be able to keep up with the modern technology in retrieving images from the Hubble Space Telescope or other space-related sites. In 1995, the path along the Planets was ﬁnished in collaboration with the Regionaal Landschap Hoge Kempen. Building the administrative rooms and adding the auditorium was agreed upon in 1995. An investment of about 30 million Belgian Francs (about 750,000 Euros) from the European Fund for Regional Development, 12

Aunt Julia’s Foreign Visit

THE EUROPLANETARIUM GENK

Figure 12.

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David Berghmans lectures about the Sun in the auditorium.

the Flemish General Directorate for Tourism and the city of Genk made all this possible. The plans for the auditorium consisted of a building of about 15 m × 35 m with 108 comfortable seats, and room for about 110 more chairs. For projecting images, we installed a Video Wall with 12 cubes. Each cube held a 100 Hz video projector. They could project one image each or project one image over the 12 screens. In this way, we could produce an image of 5 m × 3 m. For controlling all this, a control room was added inside the auditorium. The control room was equipped with a wide scale of players like a VHS, SVHS, BETACAM, LASER disk, CDI, DVD, Cassette, CD and a computer for presentations such as PowerPoint. In 1998, we had the ﬁrst images on the Video Wall and the ﬁrst time to put the auditorium to work was during the meeting of the Association of Space Explorers (ASE 13 ) in Brussels. Two American astronauts came to the Europlanetarium and took part in a discussion forum under the supervision of singer Stijn Meuris. From then on, the auditorium was used for lectures, ﬁlms, product presentations, computer classes, congresses, live transmissions via satellite, and so on. In 1998, Johan Gijsenbergs moved to the Artis Planetarium 14 in Amsterdam and I took over as Director of the Europlanetarium. In 1998, we also had the inauguration of the all-dome laser. The laser was ﬁrst put to work 13 14

http://www.space-explorers.org/ http://www.artis.nl/

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Figure 13.

The laser projector.

in the planetarium show Mars, Terug naar de rode planet 15 . To this end, we had gathered about 12 million Belgian Francs (about 300,000 Euros). Installing the Omniscan from the company Audio Visual Imagineering16 took about ﬁve months. In Summer 2000, a permanent sundial exhibition was inaugurated in a park in the city centre. The twelve diﬀerent sundials were resulting from a contest we designed in collaboration with the Zonnewijzerkring Vlaanderen 17 . Every sundial is both a piece of art and a piece of science. In 2002, we requested several authors of children books to write a story for kids between the ages of 7 and 12. Five diﬀerent stories were handed in and The Spike Codex from Geert de Sutter was selected, not only for its very nice contents, but also for the good-looking illustrations based on comic strip characters. We started producing this show and wanted a complete new show with an original story, images and sound. We already had the story and the images were promising, so we had to look for a sound studio to make the sound track. Several actors were hired and the music was composed. At the inauguration, 90 children (without their parents) were admitted to the 15

Mars, Return to the Red Planet http://www.av-imagineering.com/ 17 Flanders’ Sun Specialist Circle 16

THE EUROPLANETARIUM GENK

Figure 14.

One of the twelve sundials in a Genk city park.

Figure 15.

A scene of the Spike Codex.

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dome. Noise from the kids was the only thing we could hear. But as soon as the show started and Strike (one of the characters) said “Keep quiet. Somebody could hear us”, one could not even hear the kids breathe anymore, and we knew that the show was a success. In 2003, we wanted to take the opportunity of a lunar eclipse to organize a big event. Under the project Volle Maan in Kattevennen 18 , we started to work with several local cultural organizations. This resulted in a night to be remembered by the more then 200 people who worked and the more then 1200 people that walked with us through the woods of Kattevennen. We had a didgeridoo concert in the Europlanetarium under the planetarium’s starry sky. In the auditorium, there was a violin concert and a brass band. On the walk outside, we had a witches school, a children’s choir, an Italian folk song and dance group, a group of troubadours performing in the open, some telescopes in the ﬁeld, a group of nature preserve with a scene of night animals, poetry in the woods, a group of children with several shows with light and dark as a theme, and much more. In 2004, we organized a big Ramadan event. For four nights, Genk’s Moroccan and Turkish communities broke their Lent in the Europlanetarium. A feast with a planetarium show, religious songs, tea, food, a bookshop, etc., were enough to reach more then 1200 people. Also in 2004, we upgraded the planetarium computer to more modern technology. The technology from former East Germany was replaced by Jan Sifner’s from the Prague Planetarium. The combination of hard and software made the planetarium more stable and easier to use for both the technicians and the operators. The city of Genk settled the upgrade bill. The video wall became obsolete as modern computers could no longer be hooked onto the system. Maintenance costs were also growing. It was therefore decided to replace the system. The Flemish government, more precisely its Science Department, and the city Genk were prepared to invest in a new screen and projector. In September 2005, we started to replace the video wall by the new system. A giant screen measuring 9 m × 5 m was installed by the company AVC from Hasselt and they also installed a Barco Icon H600 projector with native high resolution and a stunning 6000 lumen power. At the end of 2005, we started to show The Origins of Life, a 3D animation movie in high resolution with 5.1 Dolby surround sound. This ﬁlm was produced by the Dutch company Mirage III D19 . In 2005, the plans of the National Park Hoge Kempen were released to the press. The National Park covers about 5700 ha . Gateways were needed, as well as information points for visitors. 18 19

Full Moon in Kattevennen http://www.mirage3d.nl/

THE EUROPLANETARIUM GENK

Figure 16.

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The auditorium during a lecture by European Astronaut Frank De Winne.

Kattevennen and more speciﬁcally the Europlanetarium was chosen to be one of the Gateways into the National Park. The city of Genk, the Regionaal Landschap Kempen en Maasland, the Limburgse Strategische Ontwikkelingsmaatschappij (LISOM) 20 , the Europlanetarium and the Commissariaat-generaal voor de Bevordering van de Lichamelijke Ontwikkeling, de Sport en de Openlucht Recreatie (BLOSO) 21 got together to see what was possible and it was decided to build an extension to the existing building. Architect Vittorio Simoni was assigned the task to design that addition to the Europlanetarium. He proposed a modern concept adapted to Nature by working with lots of wood and glass. The building will be located over the road/path and thus will become a real gate to the National Park. The new building will host a reception desk, a shop, a library, a restaurant, conference rooms, exhibition rooms and a workshop for bicycles that will be also oﬀered for hire there. The inauguration will take place at the beginning of 2007 and we are looking forward to receiving even more people. In the last ten years, we have had about 40,000 visitors a year, 25,000 of whom were school children and students. We are currently working to 20 21

Limburg Strategic Development Society Administration for Physical Education, Sports and Outdoor Activities

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Figure 17.

Origins of Life poster.

THE EUROPLANETARIUM GENK

Figure 18.

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New addition to the Europlanetarium (to be build in 2006).

adapt the programs for the schools to a new curriculum and we plan to ﬁnish this in the next half year, in time for the start of the new school year (2006-2007). The Europlanetarium will keep working to entertain the audience with a mix of science and entertainment. Acknowledgements We would like to thank the organizations that enabled us to spread science to the public. We are looking forward to working with them in the future as we did in the past. All illustrations of this chapter, except as indicated, are courtesy of the Europlanetarium.

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THE INSAP V EXPERIENCE ON ART AND ASTRONOMY

MARVIN BOLT

Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum 1300 South Lake Shore Drive Chicago IL 60605, U.S.A. [email protected]

Abstract. The ﬁfth INSAP conference, held at the Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum in Chicago in June 2005, brought together people with many diﬀerent interests to communicate and learn about astronomical inspiration. Presentations, exhibitions, planetarium shows, theatrical performances, and other events provided valuable experiences, conversations, and opportunities.

1. Introduction The INSAP conference series1 takes its name from the INSpiration of Astronomical Phenomena. These meetings encourage us to explore the diverse, creative ways in which people past and present incorporate astronomical events into literary, visual, and performance arts, as well as ways in which visual representation plays a role in astronomical inquiry or popularization. The emphasis on historical and contemporary aesthetics distinguishes INSAP from related conferences that pay more attention to archeoastronomy, ethnoastronomy, or cultural astronomy. The goal of INSAP is to provide a mechanism for a broad sampling of artists, astronomers, other scientists, writers, musicians, historians, philosophers, and those of diﬀerent interests to communicate and learn about the diversity of astronomical inspiration. The ﬁrst INSAP Conference took place 27 June – 2 July 1994 in Italy, at a retreat near the Vatican Observatory at Castel Gandolfo. Subsequent meetings took place from 7 to 14 January 1999 in Malta, from 31 December 1

See for instance the chapter by R.E. White, Jr. (1933-2004) in OSA 1. INSAP V was dedicated to Ray’s memory. (Ed.)

537 A. Heck (ed.), Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, 537–541. © 2006 Springer.

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2000 to 6 January 2001 in Palermo, Sicily, and from 3 to 9 August 2003 at Oxford University. INSAP V, which took place 26 June – 2 July 2005, was hosted at Chicago’s Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum. The intent of this meeting was to increase not only knowledge and awareness of the astronomically inspired arts but to experience them in a variety of stimulating presentations, discussions, and other opportunities. A truly international conference, INSAP V featured participants from the United States, Canada, Germany, England, Italy, Turkey, Switzerland, Sweden, Malta, Belgium, Serbia, and China. Its ambitious scope required external funding, generously provided by the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Aﬀairs, the Illinois Arts Council, and the McCormick Tribune Foundation. 2. INSAP V The daily INSAP V schedule featured a keynote address, scholarly presentations by participants, a planetarium show devoted to the conference topic, a ﬁeld trip, and, usually, an evening performance2 . Break times and a special session allowed participants to engage with poster papers and an art exhibition organized especially for the conference. Each keynote address enabled attendees to explore the rich interaction between astronomy and art. Astronomer James Kaler opened the conference with numerous examples of the mutual inspiration of astronomy on art and art on astronomy. Whereas Michael Shank articulated the changing details in the textual and visual allusions speciﬁc to Saturn from antiquity to the sixteenth century, Mary Quinlan-McGrath explored the broader connections between astronomy, astrology, and Italian Renaissance art, showing the impact of the study of the heavens on the creative processes in that period. John Carswell expanded our investigations into the Persian and Islamic worlds, examining their depictions of the constellations and the zodiac in particular. Barbara Staﬀord revealed the wealth of optical technologies from the pre-modern to the contemporary period, challenging us to think of technical and popular media in new ways. Donna Cox provided a wonderful introduction for most conferees to the burgeoning ﬁeld of astronomical visualization. Overall, the keynotes provided engaging presentations and opened up new areas of understanding. The participant presentations ranged over centuries, continents, and topics too diverse to summarize in a short paragraph. Evaluations suggest that conferees found the program rewarding for its content and informal, friendly atmosphere that allowed people of varied backgrounds to learn about astronomy and the arts. Feedback also indicated that we accom2

The full schedule can be found at http://www.adlerplanetarium.org/INSAPV/ .

Figure 1.

INSAP V group photo. (Courtesy Craig Stillwell, Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum)

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plished our goal of providing an opportunity for exploring diverse topics and bringing together multiple disciplines; one participant noted that “the gathering of astronomers, physicists, historians, authors, and artists of all sorts and the sharing of their varied, creative and passionate responses to astronomical phenomena was just what I was hoping for”. Other comments conﬁrmed that the variety of attendees and presentations provided a great mix of people with diﬀerent backgrounds. One particularly valuable experience for many attendees was their introduction to the ﬁeld of visualization; for those outside of astronomy research, the interactions between contemporary researchers and visualizers were largely unknown, and prompted much discussion about the nature of observations, knowledge, the choices involved in visualization, responding to data, and disseminating knowledge to professional and public audiences. One of the unique features of INSAP V was its setting in a planetarium and astronomy museum, which permitted us to take advantage of two different planetarium theater technologies. Each day featured an innovative way to use this environment for storytelling, poetry, a children’s show, or a theatrical presentation. Conferees particularly appreciated the opportunity to encounter novel and unusual ways of using planetarium settings. Afternoon ﬁeld trips featured visits to the Oriental Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, and the Joan Flasch Artists’ Books Collection at the Flaxman Library of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Several evenings also featured a theatrical presentation: a group from Berlin performed a musical performance written speciﬁcally for a planetarium setting; the movie Galileo’s Sons provided insights into science and religion; the brilliant Starball – A Dreamy Musical Astronomy Show by Ethereal Mutt brought together cosmology, basic astronomy, and improvisational theater in an unforgettable live performance that engaged children and adults alike; the highlight event was a well-attended public concert by the Kronos String Quartet, performing Sun Rings at Chicago’s Harris Theater in the new Millennium Park, centerpiece of the city’s downtown lakefront public space; ﬁnally, an innovative exhibition brought together original astronomically-inspired artwork, music, and dance at a closing reception at the John David Mooney Foundation. Again, feedback indicated that these opportunities were well-received and important elements for accomplishing the goals of the INSAP mission. INSAP V also oﬀered several exhibits featuring astronomically inspired art. On-site locations featured digital art, an exhibit of varied projects by children and professional artists, and a large-scale publicly displayed exhibit of a decade-long project involving records of lunar observations made by a local artist. Conferees also enjoyed the opportunity to engage with artifacts from the Adler’s important collection of historic artifacts.

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3. A Few Comments An interdisciplinary conference such as INSAP V requires considerable time to meet people from other disciplines, to develop relationships, and for informal discussion to explore unfamiliar topics. A few logistical matters made this more diﬃcult to accomplish at times than we had hoped. First, housing presented a considerable problem. The conference site is located on the end of a peninsula in the Museum Campus on Lake Michigan. While the location provide a convenient setting for presentations, planetarium shows, exhibits, and dining, as well as the best view of the distinctive and renowned Chicago skyline, there is no suitable conference housing within easy walking distance of the conference. The conference organizers selected university dorm housing that, while adequate and aﬀordable, nonetheless did not easily enable conferees to meet informally as much as hoped. A second diﬃculty was a familiar one – in order to allow maximal participation by conferees to present their work, the schedule became so full and tightly packed that it became to diﬃcult at times to carry out informal discussions during the day as much as desired, a problem that was exacerbated by some presentations that took too much time or did not allot enough time for questions. This tight scheduling also prevented us from having enough time to fully appreciate the poster papers and art exhibitions. The ambitious schedule also meant that some felt there was not enough time to take full advantage of the ﬁeld trips. Future meetings need to consider ways (other than parallel sessions) to accommodate the large number of diverse presentations and performances that are needed to provide the rich breadth of experiences desired. It could be better to do fewer excursions, and highly desirable to host the next meeting in a setting oﬀering housing within a short walking distance from the conference events. One unrealized goal of the conference was to provide direct encounters with the night sky itself. To do this, we had organized a pre-conference trip visit (about 2 hours from Chicago) to Yerkes Observatory, home of the largest refracting telescope in the world. For reasons not entirely clear – but possibly involving timing, cost, and lack of awareness – only one person signed up for this unparalleled observing experience; whatever the reason, the irony involved in the lack of inspiration by this unique opportunity might prove an interesting topic in its own right at the next meeting, which has not yet been scheduled at the time of writing these lines.

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WHAT DOES THE NEW CLIMATE FOR DIALOGUE AND DEBATE MEAN FOR COMMUNICATING ASTRONOMY?

STEVE MILLER

Department of Science and Technology Studies, Physics and Astronomy University College London Gower Street London WC1E 6BT, U.K. [email protected]

Abstract. Astronomy appears to receive a great deal of public interest. Until now, its portrayal in the media has been generally positive. But the climate for science communication has changed from one of one-way communication of the facts, to a more interactive two-way dialogue. This poses challenges for astronomy and space science and its interaction with ordinary citizens. Scientists in these areas will have to be trained to respond to those challenges.

1. The Public Climate for Astronomy Unless you are deeply into astrology or paranoid about being killed by an asteroid or meteor impact, then taking note of what is happening in heavens above would not appear to be a necessary everyday concern for most ordinary citizens. But thousands take their precious annual holidays at times and locations that enable them to watch a solar eclipse. And, for every eclipse tourist, ten or a hundred of their fellow citizens stop their daily activity to watch even a partial obscuring of the Sun that is available to them from their home or oﬃce windows. When local astronomical societies – of which there are over 120 in the UK alone – and observatories open themselves to host star parties, they are usually swamped – either by people ﬂocking to see what is on oﬀer or (in the case of the UK) by the weather, in which case only the bravest put in an appearance. Look at the popular science section of any reasonable bookshop, and astronomy, 543 A. Heck (ed.), Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, 543–552. © 2006 Springer.

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planetary science and cosmology are always well represented, with oﬀerings ranging from the coﬀee table to the highly philosophical. Space and astronomy are the inspiration for some great (and some awful) works of ﬁction – books, television and radio broadcasts and ﬁlms. The British Broadcasting Corporation, for example, has just remade the classic sci-ﬁ thriller A for Andromeda. Although those of us who can remember it from the ﬁrst time are not very impressed by the update, cosmologist Fred Hoyle’s tale is still ahead of its time in terms of how a really clever alien would go about invading Planet Earth without having to leave the comfort of its own armchair and risk our poisonous oxygen-rich atmosphere. Dr Who has already made a comeback for the next generation of children (from 7 to 70) and is poised for the next series. So there seems to be something timeless and culturally appealing about space-based stories, and that feeds into stories about the non-ﬁction, science aspects of astronomy, too. This abiding interest is part of the reason why the longest running TV show in the world is The Sky at Night, now in its 50th year, and still presented by the quintessentially iconic Patrick Moore. Surveys support the impression of public interest in matters astronomical given above. Every few years, the European Commission carries out a wide-ranging enquiry into the public’s views about, and knowledge, of science V the Eurobarometer Survey. The last general survey of European citizens was carried out in 2005. Eurobarometer 224 Europeans, Science and Technology gave the headline ﬁgure that 23% of Europeans expressed an interest in “astronomy and space”, when faced with a choice of natural and human science choices. Of course, this ﬁgure is less than medicine (61%) and environment (47%), which are subjects close to everyday concerns. Of note, too, is the interest in the internet (29%). But all of these subjects show little or no change over the last ﬁve years. Interest in astronomy, by contrast, is up 6% compared with 2001. So the climate for popularising astronomy, on the face of it, appears to be healthy and getting better. 2. Media Coverage Of the physical sciences, astronomy is probably the one that attracts the most media interest (e.g. Greenberg 2004). From an academic viewpoint, it could be used as a useful comparison for media studies of topics such as medicine, clearly of immediate interest and applicability, biotechnology, of immediate concern and possible applicability, and nanotechnology, of possible future concern and potential. One might hypothesise that astronomy would escape the increasingly critical stance that journalists and broadcasters, and perhaps the public at large, are adopting towards other branches of science and technology. For example, Weingart et al. (2003), looking at

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ethical concerns about science, have claimed that media portrayal of astronomy is “mostly outside of this concern”; so it might make a “neutral” comparator for studies of issues where ethical considerations are important. That said, however, there have been relatively few studies of the way in which astronomical subjects are dealt with the in mass media. Gregory’s recent biography of the British cosmologist Fred Hoyle (2005) traces the way in which he made use of all of the popular media to ﬂoat ideas, ahead of publication in the scientiﬁc literature or when he was prevented from accesses peer-reviewed outlets for his science. The use of large and important metaphors in popularising astronomy and space science is particularly prevalent (Christadou et al. 2004). Miller (1994) and Bucchi (1998) have both looked at the presentation of cosmology to the general public, particularly in terms of the issues it raises vis--vis religion, and the in which religious metaphors (“knowing the mind/seeing the face of God”) are often invoked. They also looked at the way embargoes work – or rather do not work – when big claims are at stake and many individual scientists are involved, an issue addressed in more detail in Kiernan’s (2000) study of the martian meteorite, ALH84001. In that instance, a presidential endorsement for Mars exploration on a massive scale was at stake. In other studies, Einseidel (1992), Bucchi & Mazzolini (2003) and Gopfert (1996) have both found that there is relatively little astronomy-related material in [Canadian and Italian] newspapers and [German] TV. respectively. According to myth, scientists dislike the way journalists and broadcasters deal with science: the media trivialise, over-simplify, distort and sensationalise, the accusations go. Also according to myth, media professionals despair of the inability of scientists to communicate in a manner that their readers, listeners and viewers can comprehend. Myths may have some basis in reality, otherwise they would not survive long enough to become myths, but they are myths, nonetheless. Pioneering media research on the media treatment of science by Nelkin (1987) has long shown that the actual relationships are much more complicated and nuanced. So how do the media treat astronomy and space science? A recent study of the UK press coverage of two space missions – the Beagle 2 attempt to land a rover on Mars and the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and its giant moon Titan – showed that the media climate for them was remarkably benign (Jergovic et al. 2006). We should not forget that space mission are expensive; usually anything from tens of millions to billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money go into making them a success. Wasting that kind of money loses ministers their jobs and governments their majorities. But Beagle 2, which should have touched down on the Red Planet at the end 2003, never phoned home. There were a few criticisms of the project, particularly when a joint UK/European Space Agency

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enquiry reported. But otherwise Beagle 2’s champion and lead scientists, Colin Pillinger was (and still is) portrayed as a plucky chap who took on great odds and went down ﬁghting. It is also true that there were some nervous comments in the run up to the landing of the Huygens probe on the surface of Titan, which came just a year after Beagle 2’s very public failure; this one had to succeed, the papers opined, or British space scientists would be in trouble. Fortunately, Huygens was extremely successful, beaming back the ﬁrst clear images of a strange world, which has been likened to our own planet, in its infancy and in “deep freeze”. This study also found that journalists were prepared to cut the scientists a lot of slack, in a way reminiscent of Nelkin’s ﬁndings that many science journalists became, or at least felt themselves to have become, “part of the team”. Instant analysis would not be held against those scientists who ventured opinions as the ﬁrst images arrived, even when it turned out later to be a bit wide of the mark. So Huygens lead scientist John Zarnecki could get away with likening the surface of Titan to “crˆeme brˆ ul’ee”, while admitting a month later that his instrument had really detected the space-probe stumbling over a loose pebble. No one minded, and the press coverage of Cassini-Huygens and all those scientists associated with the mission remained almost uniformly positive. As an aside, it may be worth pointing out that ﬁeldwork for Eurobarometer 224, which showed this apparent increase in interest in astronomy and space science, was carried out during January and February 2005, just after Huygens landing and its accompanying media coverage, which also emphasised the fact that this bit of the mission was led by the European Space Agency, rather than NASA. This highlights the importance of putting survey results into their proper media (and often, political) context. Media coverage for astronomical events follows normal news values. Journalists and broadcasters are certainly looking for impact: there is a threshold below which a story just will not make it into the newspaper or onto the airwaves. “Small meteorite misses Blackpool” does not make into in the International Herald Tribune, La Vanguardia or Le Monde. “Asteroid impact wipes out White House” is a bit more newsworthy. So, in the attempt to get their revenge in ﬁrst, NASA’s recent project to blast a (smallish) crater in a comet by hitting it with a block of copper the size of a fridge – aptly named Deep Impact – got headlines around the world, especially as the movies of the impact became available. NASA, never one to miss a media opportunity, maximised its impact by timing the event for Independence Day, 4 July 2005. A decade previously, the collision between Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 (SL9) and Jupiter (16-22 July 1994) received and added boost by being linked with the events 65 million years ago that may have resulted in the extinction of the dinosaurs. It can be argued that SL9

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Figure 1. Arizona)

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Huygens’ view of the strange surface of Titan. (Courtesy: ESA/NASA/Univ.

led to the popularisation of the impact theory of the death of the dinosaurs among the public, and among scientists too. Several scholars of science communication have noted that two-way popular, channels play an important role in communicating science that is cross-disciplinary and controversial to scientists as well as ordinary citizens (Clemens 1985; Close 1992; Lewenstein 1995), in contrast to linear models that have a one-way ﬂow of scientiﬁc information from peer-reviewed journal to the general public (Hilgartner 1990). 3. From Deﬁcit to Dialogue So far, so good. It would appear that astronomy and space science are well covered, and in a generally positive tone. But the climate for science communication has been changing for some time – along with everything

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else. In the mid-1980s, a programme to increase what became known as the “public understanding of science” got underway, particularly in the United Kingdom. The Royal Society, Britain’s premier scientiﬁc society, got together with the British Association for the Advancement of Science (the BA, as it now is), and the Royal Institution, home to Humphry Davy and Michael Faraday, two of the pioneers of science communication in the 19th century. These august bodies formed the Committee on the Public Understanding of Science (COPUS). A sea-change was initiated. Scientists were put under a duty to communicate about their work to their fellow citizens, rather than hiding in the laboratory or – in the case of astronomers – in the observatory. The media were encouraged to carry more science in their pages or broadcasts. Nor was this a purely UK phenomenon. It echoed across Europe. Considerable activity in the area of practical PUS got going, with science festivals and hands-on science centres springing up all over the continent. Behind much of this activity was the assumption that getting more scientiﬁc information out into the public was going to increase the value citizens placed on science, and make them more positive towards it. Much of this activity had a rather top-down, paternalistic feel to it. Much of this activity assumed a one-size-ﬁts-all model in which members of the public were seen as rather empty headed and impressionable. Some of this activity was driven by the fear that if science did not ﬁll those empty heads, then anti-science would. There was a deﬁcit of knowledge about science to be addressed, the arguments went. Or else. At the same time, however, many social science researchers were demonstrating that relations between science and citizens were much more nuanced than the deﬁcit model outlined above could conceive of. Those researchers argued for a contextual approach to science communication in which the lay expertise of citizens requiring advice was acknowledged and mobilised, and that engaged the public with relevant scientiﬁc issues. Practical examples of this included such activities as consensus conferences and science shop. (See Gregory & Miller 1998, for a much fuller discussion of this.) Also coincidentally, a number of “scandals” involving science were making their mark on public attitudes: mad cow disease (BSE) in the UK; HIV-contaminated blood supplies in France; and adulterated cooking oil in Spain. Some 15 years after COPUS was established, the UK House of Lords produced its report Science and Society, which spoke of a “crisis of trust” between citizens and scientiﬁc experts (and the government ministers they advised) and a “new mood for dialogue”; there should also be a “presumption of openness” (House of Lords 2000). The European Commission’s Science and Society Action Plan (2001) spoke of the needs and aspirations of European citizen‘s being out of line with scientiﬁc develop-

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ments, and called for actions to address this perceived problem. The new climate of science-and/in-society was to be inclusive, one in which scientiﬁc researchers would have to engage in real discussions with their fellow citizens about the way in which society would make use of the potential of new discoveries, debate about the moral issues they raised, and decide on whether the attendant risks were outweighed by the beneﬁts. At least, that was the theory. 4. The Challenge for Astronomy From the mid-1990s the research councils in the UK, responsible for funding the various branches of science, have had to include science communication as part of their mission. The Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council, PPARC, set up a Public Understanding of Science Advisory Panel to do this. The Panel instituted a number of schemes, giving small and quite large grants to produce exhibitions, sponsor lecture tours and fund star parties, for example. For schools, it saw its role as using the attractions of particle physics and astronomy – science at the exciting cutting edge – as a way of enlivening the curriculum for the physical sciences, and slowing – if not halting or even reversing – the trend for young people to give up physics and chemistry at the ﬁrst opportunity, usually at age 16. Glossy posters with amazing facts about the particle zoo or the big bang adored the classroom walls, courtesy of PPARC. Leading UK planetary scientists toured the schools, taking students into the latest ﬁndings from missions to strange worlds far away. In many ways, this activity was typical of the deﬁcit model approach. So what now, now that “deﬁcit is dead” and we are all signed up to “dialogue and debate”? For a start, there is no supporting the patronising, “pearls cast before swine”, approach of some of the early COPUS enthusiasts and their counterparts in other European countries. In that sense, the deﬁcit model should most deﬁnitely be consigned to dustbin of history. But the 1980s onwards saw the mobilisation of thousands of scientists, young and old, to talk to non-scientists about what they did, and why they found it interesting. And, young and old, these researchers did just that with a degree of enthusiasm that could not help but be infectious. Nor was there much evidence that their audiences found them patronising, despite the quite understandable gulf in expertise between – say – a Cassini-Huygens mission scientist and a fourteen-year-old school student or an old-age-pensioner. So long as there was mutual respect, so long as the scientist tailored their information to the their audience, then such communication was enjoyable for both parties. So long may it continue.

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But the social science research looking at how ordinary citizens interact with scientiﬁc information does emphasise the necessity of starting from where people are, at the time that any communication is to take place. It does not help if the up-to-date modern astronomy gallery designed for public consumption on a Sunday afternoon outing turns into Cosmology Level 400 for elite university students. Too often, one can hear astronomers saying things like “stars are big, but planets are small”. Mum and Dan are big to a ﬁve-year-old. A planet that can hold 6 billion mums and dads, like our “little” Earth can, has got to be enormous. So what does that make Jupiter and some of the super-Jupiters we know know of? When Marvin the Paranoid Android says he has a brain the size of a planet, he does not mean small. Risk is an area that has very much driven changes in the way that we think about science communication and public understanding or engagement with science. At the same time as COPUS was setting forth to win hearts and minds for science, Beck (1986) was already warning that communicating the facts of science and risk was insuﬃcient. “Even in their highly mathematical or technical garb, statements on risk contain statements of the type that is how we want to live ... in their concern with risk, the natural sciences have disempowered themselves somewhat, forced themselves towards democracy”, he explained. For astronomy, some of the major risks are that equipment costing large sums of money – money that some might argue was better spent on hospitals and schools – will never leave the Earth’s gravity, or crash land when they are supposed touch down gently. But, particularly as space scientists grapple with the search for extraterrestrial life, there are other risks: might we contaminate the Earth with some virus brought back from a sample-return mission to a comet; might we contaminate pristine Europa or the “world-in-the-making” Titan with our terrestrial life-forms before they ever get a chance to develop their own? And if humans land on Mars, as the US, Europe and China want to do in the next few decades, who owns the real estate and the mineral rights and are we risking third millennium interplanetary wars of empire, just as the discoveries of America and the African interior by Europeans caused global wars in the second millennium AD? These are a sample of the questions of many that may accompany astronomy in the future, for which astronomy alone cannot possibly supply the answers. One question currently troubling many politicians – and others – around the globe is that of how to deal with religious sensibilities in a modern world. One may believe that modern cosmology has answered all of the questions that religion sought to address in the past, for example. But wading into those with religious faith as if they were infected by some sort of virus does not sound much like dialogue. If astronomers do ﬁnd Life –

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extant or remnant – on Mars or Europa or on some other body we never thought would harbour it, there will be social, religious and philosophical repercussions that aﬀect everyone. In the ensuing clamour, the voices of astronomers will certainly be heard, but they will be just one part of the discussions being held. One area that still gets little attention in oﬃcial literature is the question of training. If scientists have all these duties to communicate, to be involved in dialogue and debate, to listen to what their fellow citizens are saying and to reﬂect on it, do they have the skills necessary to do so? Many answer this question by assuming a sort of osmosis, just being around other researchers who have learned to get by, will somehow transfer communication skills to the younger generation. In a world where everything is so much more professional than before, this hope-for-the-best attitude is decidedly amateurish and old-fashioned. Astronomy students are trained on small telescopes before they are let loose on the 10-metre Kecks. And even then a telescope operator is needed to run the telescope itself; the astronomers set up routines on the instruments and have the job of analysing the subsequent data. So why should it be diﬀerent when communication, a task that is increasingly thrust upon young scientists, is concerned. So this short piece ends with a plea that science communication training should be given much more prominence in the education of our community of astronomers than is currently the case. References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

Beck, U. 1986, Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity, Sage, London. Bucchi, M. 1998, Science and the Media: Alternative Routes to Scientiﬁc Communications, Routledge, London. Bucchi, M. & Mazzolini, R.G. 2003, Big Science, Little News: Coverage in the Italian Daily Press, 1946-1997, Pub. Understand. Sci. 12, 7-24. Christidou, V., Dimopoulos, K. & Koulaidis, V. 2004, Constructing Social Representations of Science and Technology: The role of Metaphors in the Press and Popular Science Magazines, Pub. Understand. Sci. 13, 347-362. Clemens, E. 1985, Of Asteroids and Dinosaurs, Soc. Stud. Sci. 16, 421-456. Close, F. 1992, Too Hot to Handle: The Race for Cold Fusion, Princeton Univ. Press. Einseidel, E.F. 1992, Framing Science and Technology in the Canadian Press, Pub. Understand. Sci. 1, 89-101. European Union 2001, Science and Society Action Plan, Comm. European Community, Brussels. European Union 2005, Eurobarometer 224: Europeans, Science and Technology, Comm. European Community, Brussels. Gopfert, W. 1996, Scheduled Science: TV Coverage of Science, Technology, Medicine and Social Science and Programming Policies in Britain and Germany, Pub. Understand. Sci. 5, 361-374. Greenberg, J.M. 2004, Creating the “Pillars”: Multiple Meanings of a Hubble Image, Pub. Understand. Sci. 13, 83-95. Gregory, J. 2005, Fred Hoyle’s Universe, Oxford Univ. Press.

552 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22.

STEVE MILLER Gregory, J. & Miller, S. 1998, Science in Public: Communication, Culture and Credibility, Plenum, New York. Hilgartner, S. 1990, The Dominant View of Popularisation: Conceptual Problems, Political Uses, Soc. Stud. Sci. 20, 519-539. Jergovic, B., Kehar, A. & Miller, S. 2006, A Tale of Two Missions: UK Press Reporting of Beagle 2 and Cassini-Huygens, Proc. PCST-9 Congress, PCST, Seoul. House of Lords 2000, Science and Society, Houses of Parliament, London. Kiernan, V. 2000, The Mars Meteorite: A Case Study of Controls on Dissemination of Science News, Pub. Understand. Sci. 9, 15-41. Lewenstein, B.V. 1995, From Fax to Facts: Communication in the Cold Fusion Story, Soc. Stud. Sci. 25, 403-436. Miller, S. 1994, Wrinkles, Ripples and Fireballs: Cosmology on the Front Page, Pub. Understand. Sci. 3, 445-453. Nelkin, D. 1987, Selling Science: How the Press Covers Science and Technology, W.H. Freeman, New York. Valenti, J.A.M. 2002, Communication Challenges for Science and Religion, Pub. Understand. Sci. 11, 57-63. Weingart P., Muhl, C. & Pansegrau, P. 2003, Of Power Maniacs and Unethical Geniuses. Science and Scientists in Fiction Film, Pub. Understand. Sci. 12, 279287.

COMMUNICATING ASTRONOMY – SUCCESSES AND LIMITS

PAUL MURDIN

Institute of Astronomy Madingley Road Cambridge CB3 0HA, U.K. [email protected]

Abstract. Astronomers and media professionals have formed very successful partnerships to communicate astronomy to the public, through communications media of all sorts. But these eﬀorts communicate what science is like, subject to the constraints of the communications medium. They do not communicate what science is. The missing and essential ingredient is public participation in an investigation, starting from uncertainty and proceeding to lesser uncertainty by means of organised enquiry. Science is a medium in itself and the medium is the message. We have started to communicate what science is, but the systems for doing so are sophisticated and we are only just beginning to implement them.

1. Communicating Science The interaction between the scientist and the public usually takes the form of a dialogue, in which the scientist tells what he has done and discovered and the member of the public says “These are my concerns about your work.” The dialogue is asymmetric. The scientist is in other circumstances a member of the public and can readily exchange his roles. In the laboratory (or observatory, or computer room) a scientist can take the point of view of a scientist, whereas in his home and in the street he is a lay person, perhaps someone who is in general informed about scientiﬁc matters but not an expert on topics outside his ﬁeld. By contrast a member of the public usually ﬁnds diﬃculty in being a scientist. Of course astronomers have been breaking down this barrier, and generating as many opportunities as possible for lay people to taste being a 553 A. Heck (ed.), Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, 553–563. © 2006 Springer.

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scientist. The opportunities are most often the following: – – – –

The The The The

lay lay lay lay

person person person person

learns about science in the media. hears the scientist lecture. simulates scientiﬁc enquiry. learns what science is like.

2. Science in the Media Communicating science through the everyday communications media is very important. The media provide channels by which busy and unique people can speak to huge audiences. The science is presented by interpreters skilled in communicating simply, clearly and interestingly. The science that is presented can be culled from the whole world, so everyone can learn about extremely important results no matter where they originate – the media have truly created a “global village” of universal understanding. Astronomers, in partnership with savvy media professionals, have done a really good job in accessing the media in order to tell about science. We owe a debt of gratitude to the astronomy media pioneers and to the sheer professionalism of groups like the HST Oﬃce of Public Outreach1 . However, wonderful though I think these eﬀorts have been, are and will remain in communicating some of the features of science, they are not enough. They do not communicate some absolutely essential features of science. The global village of universal understanding is not complete. The media communicate what they can communicate. They select what they communicate for reasons that are non-scientiﬁc, e.g. to attract viewers or to sell copies of newspapers. We as scientists have to learn how to cast our science into a form that is set by the media. The science is selected as a “story” and is edited by the media. The story has to have a beginning and an end. It is an advantage if it has an associated dramatic picture, humour or some sort of record breaking fact. It has to have news value, perhaps to show an implied threat – that asteroids might destroy the world, perhaps. It has to be important in news terms, for example to come from some expensive and politically relevant facility, or to have been carried out by a well-known person, or perhaps to contradict one. It has to have human relevance, a person or people with whom we can identify. We as astronomers are learning how to cast our science into the form required to access the communications media. In particular we are lucky enough to have both pictures and people who know how to display them, and we gain the front pages. If the launch of our spacecraft is successful or hits the target, our people are savvy enough to cheer, whoop, punch the 1

http://www.stsci.edu/outreach/

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Figure 1. Paul Murdin enjoys a joke about some aspect of what science is like at the conference on Communicating Astronomy to the Public at Garching in June 2005. (Photo by Lars Holm Nielsen)

air and jump up and down and show the emotion that gets our project on the TV news. Our press releases start with the superlatives and carry witty turns of phrase. Our scientists show enthusiasm and make themselves into characters. It is diﬃcult to get access to the media to describe an incremental advance, or one that is abstract, or one that is still uncertain. Press releases can have no “wiggly lines” – no graphs, in other words, even though the business pages are full of them and this is the language of quantitative presentation. What is presented of science through the media is too literary and “too neat”. It is hard for me to resist thinking that this is because the media are run by literary people. Their view of the world is shaped by literature and art. They do not understand how many people think scientiﬁcally and what a strong culture science is. It is not that they are anti-science – the whole

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of their thinking is based on the metaphor of art, even in politics. Think of the images of the toppling of the statue of Saddam Hussein in 2003, taken as symbolic of the fall of his evil regime and thus of the transformation of Iraq to a new dawn. We see from years later that repressive power was not defeated in that moment, nor was the country transformed into a happy place to live. Like the news, science as portrayed in the media may thus often be a distorted version of the real thing. 3. Science in Lectures Lectures describe an authentic experience by a scientist, either talking about his own work or his understanding of other people’s work. Listening to a lecture is listening to an expert, and what is being said is “right from the horse’s mouth”. On the planetarium deck, domed by the arch of a plexi-roof, transparent to the sky, lifts are unloaded of those who wish to stroll at leisure to and fro upon the star-deck and watch a nova’s ﬁre, the glow of which comes to us from the coils of Berenice’s hair. And the astronomer – modest in his knowledge – describes to us how the Universe plays dice in distant solar systems with the scalding novas. [Harry Martinson (1956) Aniara stanza 55, adapted from the Swedish by Hugh MacDiarmid & Elspeth Harley Schubert (London: Hutchinson 1963) 74.]

However, the lecture is also edited science. Just as with a scientiﬁc paper, history is rewritten (for reasons of logic and understanding). The context in which the science is placed is selected to illuminate the science. Like a scientiﬁc paper or a media story, the lecture is too neat. It is also passive for the audience and they have to be listening. Of course, lectures teach – but experience teaches better. When I heard the learn’d astronomer, When the proofs, the ﬁgures, were ranged in columns before me, When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide and measure them, When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectures with much applause in the lecture room, How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, Till rising and gliding out I wander’d oﬀ by myself, In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,

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Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars. [Walt Whitman (1865) When I heard the learn’d astronomer in Complete Poems (Harmondsworth: Penguin 1975) 298.]

4. Simulated and Taught Science Simulated science is an experience. The public can relatively easily get to simulate science under controlled conditions. Public viewing nights where people get to look through telescopes are always popular. The thought of the photons from so far away interacting with your eye directly, rather than through a detector, a computer and a screen, is a powerful draw. School students do more than this every day in classroom learning experiences. In a science lesson they are given an instruction sheet and a collection of apparatus. Following the instructions they conduct an experiment, making measurements. In the data analysis phase of the lesson they may plot this against that, and attempt to replicate a result, for example to “prove Ohm’s Law”. The experience of simulated science is memorable. And simulated science teaches some of the methodology of science. However, the classroom is not the laboratory. A lesson is an activity that is similar to science, it is not “real” science. As students know, it may be boring. It is like science, it is not what science is. Science in education is an authoritarian structure of books, laws, right answers and proofs. As a result students have negative impressions of science. It is – Diﬃcult – Mathematical – A long haul – Impersonal – Cautious. They are told that science is certain: they are taught things discovered by dead people who were right. Simulated science misses out the essential feature of science, that it is a learning process of reducing uncertainty, not a learning process about what has already been discovered by hard work. The result is that science appears unattractive. To counteract these impressions, teachers (including scientists themselves) may teach science as – Fun – Visual – Snappy – Biographic – Contains dramatic “eureka moments”.

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(However, teachers still pretend that science is correct.) Science does indeed contain these features – but not only these features, so taught and simulated science is actually false, or at least incomplete. British TV tried to stage a “eureka moment” at the time of the encounter of the Giotto space probe with Halley’s comet. The hypothesis of the live TV programme was that suddenly the nature of comets would become clear, transformed from our previous uncertainty. The simulation of this scientiﬁc enquiry took the form of a gathering of astronomical experts. The experts were shown pictures from the probe, as they came in live from the space communications station. The cameras waited for the cry: “I’ve found it!” Actually no one knew what the pictures showed. There was no scale on the pictures. They were unprocessed and without contrast. They showed a distribution of light that was eventually shown to be a close up of the cometary nucleus, but might as well, at the moment that it was received, have been the daubings of a monkey with a paintbrush. No one had prepared, no one had the context of the image. The eureka moment didn’t happen. There was, to be sure, a moment, but there was no cry of eureka. It all needed lots more work to understand what was going on. This programme did great harm to astronomy in Britain. Mrs Thatcher, the Prime Minister, who was watching it, gained the impression that astronomers did not know what they were doing, and scorned the pictures from the European Space Agency as “the most expensive postcards” she had ever received. She understood that the programme on the TV was simulated science but she made the mistake of thinking that what the space scientists were doing was the same. 5. What Science Is Real science is quite diﬀerent from simulated science. The “answer” is unknown. However, a working hypothesis comes before the results and the method of the study is deﬁned by the scientist’s anticipation of the results. In the data reduction phase, the scientist makes a conclusion about the result on the basis of incomplete data. Science is inherently uncertain, but it is post-validated by re-framing it according to rules of “scientiﬁc method”. This takes time and thought. Here come more stars to character the skies, And they in the estimation of the wise Are more divine than any bulb or arc, Because their purpose is to ﬂash and spark, But not to take away the precious dark.

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We need the interruption of the night To ease the attention oﬀ when overtight, To break our logic in too long a ﬂight, And ask us if our premises are right. [Robert Frost (1942) The Literate Farmer and the Planet Venus stanza 6 in Complete Poems (London: Cape 1951) 402; see also Stephen James O’Meara, Sky and Telescope, June 1992, 692.]

The reality of scientiﬁc enquiry, with its uncertainty and its human interaction, is at odds with common perception. Science is not certain, or completely reliable. It is constructed by people – who have, however, tried to remove themselves from it. To view science as infallible or certain is to misunderstand science. How can we oﬀer a more realistic scientiﬁc experience to the lay public? The most direct way to experience science is through observational science. Observation both was and remains often a feature of nonprofessionally conducted natural history. Bird watchers and fossil hunters are examples of present day naturalists who still have the possibility of making scientiﬁc discoveries. And of course amateur astronomers still exist in large numbers, viewing the sky through small telescopes or binoculars, and on the alert for the comet or the nova. Observation need not be more than looking, seeing and recording. At some stages of science this might be enough of an end in itself. Robert Hooke looked through his microscope, and drew a magniﬁed and magniﬁcent ﬂea. James Nasmyth looked through his telescope, recorded and reconstructed in model form the lunar mountains and craters. But being a spectator is not really enough. In 1806 William Wordsworth described the reaction of onlookers who viewed the sky through a telescope mounted by a showman, communicating science in the centre of London: What crowd is this? what have we here! we must not pass it by: A Telescope upon its frame, and pointed to the sky: Long is it as a barber’s pole, or mast of little boat, Some little pleasure-skiﬀ, that doth on Thames’s water ﬂoat. The Show-man chooses well his place, ‘tis Leicester’s busy Square; And is as happy in his night, for the heavens are blue and fair; Calm, though impatient, is the crowd; each stands ready with the fee, And envies him that’s looking; what an insight must it be! Yet, Showman, where can lie the cause? Shall thy Implement have blame, A boaster, that when he is tried, fails, and is put to shame? Or is it good as others are, and be their eyes in fault? Their eyes, or minds? or, ﬁnally, is yon resplendent vault? Is nothing of that radiant pomp so good as we have here? Or gives a thing but small delight that never can be dear?

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PAUL MURDIN The silver Moon with all her vales, and hills of mightiest fame, Doth she betray us when they’re seen? or are they but a name? Or is it rather that Conceit rapacious is and strong, And bounty never yields so much but it seems to do her wrong? Or is it, that when human Souls a journey long have had And are returned into themselves, they cannot but be sad? Or must we be constrained to think that these Spectators rude, Poor in estate, of manners base, men of the multitude, Have souls which never yet have risen, and therefore prostrate lie? No, no, this cannot be: – men thirst for power and majesty! Does, then, a deep and earnest thought the blissful mind employ Of him who gazes, or has gazed? a grave and steady joy, That doth reject all show of pride, admits no outward sign, Because not of this noisy world, but silent and divine! Whatever be the cause, ‘tis sure that they who pry and pore Seem to meet with little gain, seem less happy than before: One after One they take their turn, nor have I one espied That did not slackly go away, as if dissatisﬁed. [William Wordsworth (1806) Star-gazers in Poems of the Imagination XV in Poetical Works (London: Ward, Locke n.d.) 153.]

The crowd witnessed by Wordsworth experienced the vision of the Moon but did not understand what they saw, and felt there should have been more to their experience. It was too much of idle curiosity, “prying and poring”. What was missing, here as in the TV programme about the Giotto space probe, was the ﬂash of the idea, the progress of an investigation and the achievement of understanding. We do have in astronomy scientiﬁc investigations through organised amateur astronomy, following the tradition of the great amateurs of individual astronomical research. I know the ones in Britain best, like the Herschels, Carrington, Rosse, W.H. Smyth, Lassell, Huggins ... Societies like the British Astronomical Association and the American Association for Variable Star Observations continue to coordinate programmes of observations of variable stars, planetary features, etc. Some professionally run astronomy projects oﬀer and manage real science opportunities that include amateurs, such as The Global Telescope Network2 , which is an optical backup programme for satellite gamma-ray astronomy and the Small Telescope Science Program (STSP) of comet photometry for the Deep Impact mission3 . The Virtual Observatory and National Virtual Observatory 2 3

http://gtn.sonoma.edu/ http://deepimpact.umd.edu/stsp/

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projects make access to professionally archived data easy for amateur scientists to make genuine astronomical discoveries, in the same way that the SOHO images of the Sun were used by an amateur to make discoveries of Sun-grazing comets. Two exciting new projects that communicate astronomy beyond the community of amateur astronomers into the wider community of school students are the National Schools Observatory4 and the Faulkes Telescopes5 . Both use 2m-class robotic telescopes. In the NSO, images are taken to order by a telescope on La Palma. In the Faulkes Telescope project, opportunities on telescopes on Maui, Hawaii, and Siding Spring Observatory, Australia, are oﬀered for real-time observations. The essential point however is that both telescopes coordinate with scientiﬁc/educational projects. Example FT/NSO projects are: – Determining the light curve of a BL Lac object or gamma-ray burster that has gone into outbreak – Determining the size of an extrasolar planet from the light curve of its transit across its parent star – Measuring and classifying the light proﬁles of galaxies for a catalogue – Determining the orbit of an asteroid to see if it will crash into the Earth. These observations are of members of a population so large that professionals have not devoted time to them, or of events that are transient so that they are in the sky only brieﬂy and the student might be the lucky person with the telescope in the right place at the right time. This is democratic science. Preparation for such projects is extensive and in particular the teacher training is pretty serious. The Faulkes Telescope teacher training course covers: – Waves, optics, refraction, reﬂection, electromagnetic spectrum – Colour imaging, human eye, colour pictures – Photons, electrons, CCDs – Mathematics, coordinate systems – Robotics, weather, sensors, IT systems – The scientiﬁc process. It is easy to see what a task it is to communicate what science is. The NSO and FT projects consist of – A facility – Some projects – As few nerdy astronomy techniques as possible 4 5

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– As much cool astronomy science as possible – Some scientiﬁc principles – A scientiﬁc programme that matches on to ability-related educational objectives – Knowledgeable and conﬁdent teachers – Enthusiastic students, young or young at heart. Only the last is guaranteed: the rest has to be worked at. The promised outcome is that the telescope rises beyond being an optical instrument. It becomes an instrument for generating human understanding: Look in the giant mirror And you look into a well, The depth of which is Time, The gage of which is Light. The Heavens coming nearer Uncover parts of Hell, Where Order stands at prime, And Chaos turns in ﬂight. There is no Present here, Only the empty spool Of centuries unwound Before men and Desire. Only the Past is clear In the enormous pool Of silver that has drowned The noise of worlds on ﬁre. The speed of light is known, But not the speed of thought Crossing the Milky Way On rapid wings of prayer. Someday it may be shown How Light and Darkness fought When Evil lost the Day Upon the prism’s stair. [A.M. Sullivan (1946) Telescope Mirror, from Atoms and Stars have no size (NY: E.P. Dutton & Co. 1946).]

6. Conclusion The essential characteristic of science is not to hear stories about science that ﬁt a predetermined media requirement or even to learn what is known. The essential characteristic of science is to enquire. The purpose of science education is not to teach facts or “laws”. Science is about changing heads.

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For a time I worked in government in the UK and met people from the UK Treasury who saw science as a commodity. According to them you could buy science. Science was a table of ﬁgures, a picture or a mathematical formula. Science was like a spell that the Apprentice could apply, having learnt it from the Sorcerer. Because scientists went around blabbing their spells at conferences, you could even learn the spells for next to nothing. I had to explain that science was education, that it was the development of understanding in people’s brains. Without understanding the spell, the Sorcerer’s Apprentice could not control the brooms to make them clean the castle’s kitchen. We have to be careful ourselves not to fall into the same mode of thought. Pictures are commodities. Communicating pictures made in astronomy is a part of science. But communicating science is more than getting a picture on TV or the front page. Coming to terms with what science is, not what it is like, is one of the biggest issues in science communication. It is a key to the public development of a realistic attitude to science. The challenge is to put in place entire systems to communicate science realistically in this way. [This is an expanded version of a talk presented at the conference Communicating Astronomy to the Public 2005, Garching, 14-17 June 2005.]

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UPDATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SOCIO-ASTRONOMY

Introduction The following lists gather together publications (from 1980 onwards) on socio-astronomy and on the interactions of the astronomy community with the society at large. A few related contributions have also been included, as well as the decennial reports from the US National Research Council. The ﬁrst part is chronological and the second one, purely alphabetical on the authors names. It is of course impossible such a list be complete and we apologize to authors whose related publications could have been omitted. For inclusion in future releases of this compilation and of its web version1 , please send an e-mail2 with the full bibliographical references (including title). The Editor gratefully acknowledges the assistance of all persons who contributed to the substance of the following list. Chronological list 1980 1. Abt, H.A. 1980, The Cost-Eﬀectiveness in Terms of Publications and Citations of Various Telescopes at the Kitt Peak National Observatory, Publ. Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc 92, 249-254 2. Stebbins, R.A. 1980, Avocational Science: The Avocational Routine in Archaeology and Astronomy, Int. J. Comp. Sociology 21, 34-48 1981 3. Abt, H.A. 1981, Long-Term Citation Histories of Astronomical Papers, Publ. Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc 93, 207-210 1 2

http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/∼heck/osabib.htm [email protected]

565 A. Heck (ed.), Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, 565–594. © 2006 Springer.

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4. Abt, H.A. 1981, Some Trends in American Astronomical Publications, Publ. Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc 93, 269-272 5. Gieryn, T.F. 1981, The Aging of a Science and its Exploitation of Innovation: Lessons from X-ray and Radio Astronomy, Scientometrics 3, 325-334 6. Heck, A. & Manfroid, J. 1981, International Directory of Amateur Astronomical Societies 1981, ed. Heck-Manfroid, iv + 300 pp. 7. Heck, A. & Manfroid, J. 1981, International Directory of Amateur Astronomical Societies 1982, ed. Heck-Manfroid, iv + 304 pp. 8. Stebbins, R.A. 1981, Looking Downwards: Sociological Images of the Vocation and Avocation of Astronomy, J. Roy. Astron. Soc. Canada 75, 2-14 9. Stebbins, R.A. 1981, Science Amators? Rewards and Costs in Amateur Astronomy and Archaeology, J. Leisure Res. 13, 289-304 1982 10. Abt, H.A. 1982, Statistical Publication Histories of American Astronomers, Publ. Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc 94, 213-220 11. Field, G.B. et al. 1982, Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 1980’s [‘Field Report’], National Acad. Press, xx + 190 pp. (ISBN 0-30903249-0) 12. Stebbins, R.A. 1982, Amateur and Professional Astronomers, Urban Life 10, 433-454 1983 13. Abt, H.A. 1983, At What Ages did Outstanding American Astronomers Publish their Most-Cited Papers?, Publ. Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc 95, 113116 14. Gieryn, T.F. & Hirsh, R.F. 1983, Marginality and Innovation in Science, Social Studies Sc. 13, 87-106 15. Martin, B.R. & Irvine, J. 1983, Assessing Basic Research – Some Partial Indicators of Scientiﬁc Progress in Radio Astronomy, Research Policy 12, 61-90 1984 16. Abt, H.A. 1984, Citations to Federally-Funded and Unfunded Research, Publ. Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc 96, 563-565 17. Abt, H.A. 1984, Citations to Single and Multiauthored Papers, Publ. Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc 96, 746-749 18. Heck, A. & Manfroid, J. 1984, International Directory of Amateur Astronomical Societies 1984, ed. Heck-Manfroid, iv + 278 pp.

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19. Trimble, V. 1984, Postwar Grown in the Length of Astronomical and Other Scientiﬁc Papers, Publ. Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc 96, 1007-1016 20. Trimble, V. 1984, How Science Ought to be Done, New Scientist (29 Nov 1984) 41 1985 21. Abt, H.A. 1985, An Assessment of Research Done at the National Optical Observatories, Publ. Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc 97, 1050-1052 22. Arunachalam, S. & Hirannaiah, S. 1985, Has Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy a Future?, Scientometrics 8, 3-11 23. Heck, A. & Manfroid, J. 1985, International Directory of Astronomical Associations and Societies 1986, Publ. Sp´ec. CDS 8, iv + 266 pp. (ISSN 0764-9614 – ISBN 2-908064-06-5) 24. Trimble, V. 1985, Some Notes on Patterns in Citation of Papers by American Astronomers, Q. J. Roy. Astron. Soc. 26, 40-50 1986 25. Evans, D.S. & Mulholland, J.D. 1986, Big and Bright: A History of the McDonald Observatory, Univ. Texas Press, xii + 186 pp. (ISBN 0-2927-0759-2) 26. Heck, A. & Manfroid, J. 1986, International Directory of Professional Astronomical Institutions 1987, Publ. Sp´ec. CDS 9, iv + 276 pp. (ISSN 0764-9614 – ISBN 2-908064-07-3) 27. Herrmann, D.B. 1986, Astronomy in the Twentieth Century, Scientometrics 9, 187-191 28. Pinch, T. (Ed.) 1986, Confronting Nature – The Sociology of SolarNeutrino Detection, D. Reidel Publ. Co., Dordrecht, viii + 268 pp. (ISBN 90-277-2224-2) 29. Trimble, V. 1986, A Note on Self-Citation Rates in Astronomy, Publ. Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc 98, 1347-1348 30. Trimble, V. 1986, Death Comes as the End: Eﬀects of Cessation of Personal Inﬂuence on Citation Rates of Astronomical Papers, Czechosl. J. Phys. 36B, 175 1987 31. Abt, H.A. 1987, Are Papers by Well-Known Astronomers Accepted for Publication More Readily than Other Papers?, Publ. Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc 99, 439-441 32. Abt, H.A. 1987, Reference Frequencies in Astronomy and Related Sciences, Publ. Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc 99, 1329-1332 33. Davoust, E. & Schmadel, L.D. 1987, A Study of the Publishing Activity of Astronomers since 1969, Publ. Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc 99, 700-710

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34. Heck, A. & Manfroid, J. 1987, International Directory of Astronomical Associations and Societies 1988, Publ. Sp´ec. CDS 10, vi + 516 pp. (ISSN 0764-9614 – ISBN 2-908064-08-1) 35. McCrea, W.H. 1987, Clustering of Astronomers, Ann. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 25, 1-22 36. Peterson, C.J. 1987, The Evaluation of Scientiﬁc Research: A Brief Study of Citations to Research Papers from the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, J. Roy. Astron. Soc. Canada 81, 30-35 37. Stebbins, R.A. 1987, Amateurs and their Place in Professional Science, in New Generation Small Telescopes, Eds. D.S. Hayes, D.R. Genet & R.M. Genet, Fairborn Press, Mesa, 217-225 1988 38. Abt, H.A. 1988, What Happens to Rejected Astronomical Papers?, Publ. Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc 100, 506-508 39. Abt, H.A. 1988, Growth Rates in Various Fields of Astronomy, Publ. Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc 100, 1567-1571 40. Heck, A. 1988, International Directory of Professional Astronomical Institutions 1989, Publ. Sp´ec. CDS 12, vi + 492 pp. (ISSN 0764-9614 – ISBN 2-908064-10-3) 41. Herrmann, D.B. 1988, How Old were the Authors of Signiﬁcant Research in 20th Century Astronomy at the Time of their Greatest Achievements?, Scientometrics 13, 135-137 42. Makino, J. 1988, Productivity of Research Groups. Relation between Citation Analysis and Reputation within Research Communities, Scientometrics 43, 87-93 43. Peterson, C.J. 1988, Citation Analysis of Astronomical Literature: Comments on Citation Half-Lives, Publ. Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc 100, 106115 44. Trimble, V. 1988, Some Characteristics of Young versus Established American Astronomers, Publ. Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc 100, 646-650 1989 45. Abt, H.A. & Liu, J. 1989, Journal Referencing, Publ. Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc 101, 555-559 46. Heck, A. 1989, International Directory of Astronomical Associations and Societies together with Related Items of Interest – R´epertoire International d’Associations et Soci´et´es Astronomiques ainsi que d’Autres Entr´ees d’Int´erˆet G´en´eral – IDAAS 1990, Publ. Sp´ec. CDS 13, vi + 716 pp. (ISSN 0764-9614 – ISBN 2-908064-11-1) 47. Heck, A. 1989, International Directory of Professional Astronomical Institutions together with Related Items of Interest – R´epertoire In-

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ternational des Institutions Astronomiques Professionnelles ainsi que d’Autres Entr´ees d’Int´erˆet G´en´eral – IDPAI 1990, Publ. Sp´ec. CDS 14, vi + 658 pp. (ISSN 0764-9614 – ISBN 2-908064-12-x) 1990 48. Abt, H.A. 1990, Trends towards Internationalization in Astronomical Literature, Publ. Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc 102, 368-372 49. Abt, H.A. 1990, Publication Characteristics of Members of the American Astronomical Society, Publ. Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc 102, 1161-1166 50. Abt, H.A. 1990, The Use of Publication Studies to Aﬀect Policies and Attitudes in Astronomy, Curent Contents 33/39, 7 1991 51. Abt, H.A. 1991, Science, Citation, and Funding, Science 251, 14081409 52. Bahcall, J.N. 1991, Prioritizing Scientiﬁc Initiatives, Science 251, 14121413 53. Bahcall, J.N. et al. 1991, The Decade of Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics [‘Bahcall Report’], National Acad. Press, xvi + 182 pp. (ISBN 0-309-04381-6) 54. Blaauw, A. 1991, ESO’s Early History, European Southern Obs., Garching, xvi + 268 pp. (ISBN 3-923524-40-4) 55. Davoust, E. & Schmadel, L.D. 1991, A Study of the Publishing Activity of Astronomers since 1969, Scientometrics 22, 9-39 56. Heck, A. 1991, Astronomical Directories, in Databases and Online Data in Astronomy, Eds. M.A. Albrecht & D. Egret, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 211-224 57. Heck, A. 1991, Astronomy, Space Sciences and Related Organizations of the World – ASpScROW 1991, Publ. Sp´ec. CDS 16, x + 1182 pp. (ISSN 0764-9614 – ISBN 2-908064-14-6) (two volumes) 58. Jaschek, C. 1991, The Size of the Astronomical Community, Scientometrics 22, 265-282 59. Thronson Jr., H.A. 1991, The Production of Astronomers: A Model for Future Surpluses, Publ. Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc 103, 90-94 60. Trimble, V. 1991, Long-Term Careers of Astronomers with Doctoral Degrees from Prestigious versus Non-Prestigious Universities, Scientometrics 20, 71-77 61. Trimble, V. & Elson, R. 1991, Astronomy as a National Asset, Sky & Tel. 82, 485

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1992 62. Abt, H.A. 1992, What Fraction of Literature References are Incorrect?, Publ. Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc 104, 235-236 63. Abt, H.A. 1992, Publication Practices in Various Sciences, Scientometrics 24, 441-447 64. Davoust, E. & Schmadel, L.D. 1992, A Study of the Publishing Activity of Astronomers since 1969, Scientometrics 22, 9-39 65. Jaschek, C. 1992, The ‘Visibility’ of West European Astronomical Research, Scientometrics 23, 377-393 66. White II, J.C. 1992, Publication Rates and Trends in International Collaborations for Astronomers in Developing Countries, Eastern European Countries, and the Former Soviet Union, Publ. Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc 104, 472-476 1993 67. Abt, H.A. 1993, The Growth of Multiwavelength Astrophysics, Publ. Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc 105, 437-439 68. Abt, H.A. 1993, Institutional Productivities, Publ. Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc 105, 794-798 69. Davoust, E. 1993, L’Astronomie, Cartographie d’une Discipline, Cahiers ADEST, n-ro sp´ecial, 44-49 ` Quoi Sert la Scien70. Davoust, E., Bergecol, H. & Callon, M. 1993, A tom´etrie?, J. Astron. Fran¸cais 44, 13-19 71. Heck, A. 1993, StarGuides 1993 – A Directory of Astronomy, Space Sciences and Related Organizations of the World, Publ. Sp´ec. CDS 20, x + 1174 pp. (ISSN 0764-9614 – ISBN 2-908064-14-6) (two volumes) 72. Trimble, V. 1993, Patterns in Citations of Papers by American Astronomers, Q. J. Roy. Astron. Soc. 34, 235-250 73. Trimble, V. 1993, Patterns in Citations of Papers by British Astronomers, Q. J. Roy. Astron. Soc. 34, 301-314 1994 74. Abt, H.A. 1994, Institutional Productivities, Publ. Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc 106, 107 75. Abt, H.A. 1994, The Current Burst in Astronomical Publications, Publ. Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc 106, 1015-1017 76. Blaauw, A. 1994, History of the IAU, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, xx + 296 pp. (ISBN 0-7923-2980-5) 77. Chaisson, E. 1994, The Hubble Wars: Astrophysics Meets Astropolitics in the Two Billion Dollar Struggle over the Hubble Space Telescope, Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, 424 pp. (ISBN 0-674-41255-9)

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225. Corbin, B.G. 2003, The Evolution and Role of the Astronomical Library and Librarian, in Information Handling in Astronomy – Historical Vistas, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 139-155 226. Ferlet, R. 2003, The Soci´et´e Astronomique de France in the Astronomical Landscape: Evolution and Prospects, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 4, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 143-155 227. Fraknoi, A. 2003, 115 Years of Communicating Astronomy: Education and Outreach at the Astronomical Society of the Paciﬁc, in Astronomy Communication, Ed. A. Heck & C. Madsen, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 121-138 228. Griﬃn, I. 2003, The Hubble Space Telescope Education and Outreach Program, in Astronomy Communication, Ed. A. Heck & C. Madsen, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 139-156 229. Heck, A. 2003, From Early Directories to Current Yellow-Page Services, in Information Handling in Astronomy – Historical Vistas, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 183-205 230. Heck, A. 2003, Astronomy Professional Communication, in Astronomy Communication, Ed. A. Heck & C. Madsen, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 203-220 231. Heck, A. (Ed.) 2003, Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 4, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, xii + 326 pp. (ISBN 1-40201526-7) 232. Heck, A. 2003, Editorial, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 4, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 1-12 233. Heck, A. 2003, Wrong Impact!, European Astron. Soc. Newsl. 26, 4-5 234. Heck, A. & Madsen, C. (Eds.) 2003, Astronomy Communication, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, x + 226 pp. (ISBN 1-4020-1345-0) 235. Henbest, N. 2003, Astronomy on Television, in Astronomy Communication, Ed. A. Heck & C. Madsen, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 55-66 236. Isbell, D. & Fedele, R. 2003, Outreach at Kitt Peak Visitor Center: Techniques for Engaging the Public at a Major Observatory, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 4, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 93-104 237. Isobe, S. 2003, Activities in Astronomy Education of the International Astronomical Union, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 4, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 189-196 238. Leibundgut, B., Grothkopf, U. & Treumann, A. 2003, Metrics to Measure ESO’s Scientiﬁc Success, ESO Messenger 114, 46-49 239. Jones, D.H.P. 2003, Was the Carte du Ciel an Obstrction to the Development of Astrophysics in Europe?, in Information Handling in

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240.

241.

242.

243.

244.

245. 246.

247.

248.

249.

250.

251.

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Astronomy – Historical Vistas, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 267-273 Madsen, C. 2003, Astronomy and Space Science in the European Print Media, in Astronomy Communication, Ed. A. Heck & C. Madsen, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 67-120 Madsen, C. & West, R.M. 2003, Public Communication of Astronomy, in Astronomy Communication, Ed. A. Heck & C. Madsen, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 3-18 Mamon, G.A. 2003, The Selection of Tenured Astronomers in France, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 4, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 245-263 Maran, S.P., Cominsky, L.R. & Marschall, L.A. 2003, Communicating Astronomy to the Media, in Astronomy Communication, Ed. A. Heck & C. Madsen, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 19-29 McDonald, G.D. & Storrie-Lombardi, M.C. 2003, The Astronomer’s Pocket Guide to Astrobiology, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 4, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 27-36 McNally, D. 2003, Foreword, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 4, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, vii-xii Oswalt, T.D. 2003, Charting the Future of Small Telescopes – New Strategies for a New Decade, in The Future of Small Telescopes in the New Millennium, Vol. I – Perceptions, Productivities, and Policies, Ed. T.D. Oswalt, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 287-300 Rijsdijk, C. 2003, Doing it Without Electrons: Innovative Resources for Promoting Astronomy and Science in a Developing Country, in Astronomy Communication, Ed. A. Heck & C. Madsen, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 157-176 Ringwald, F.A., Culver, J.M., Lovell, R.L., Kays, S.A. & Torres, Y.V. 2003, The Research Productivity of Small Telescopes and Space Telescopes, Bull. Amer. Astron. Soc. 35, 1063-1074 Roller, J.P. & Klein, M.J. 2003, The GAVRT Partnership: Bringing the Universe to K-12 Classrooms, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 4, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 171-187 Sage, L. 2003, Writing a Clear and Engaging Paper for All Astronomers, in Astronomy Communication, Ed. A. Heck & C. Madsen, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 221-226 Sage, L. 2003, A Brief History of the Controversy Surrounding the Mount Graham International Observatory, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 4, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 75-91

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252. Schwarz, H.E. 2003, Light Pollution Control: World-Wide Eﬀects of and Eﬀorts to Reduce Light Pollution, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 4, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 37-57 253. Stickland, D.J. 2003, The Observatory Magazine: Linking Three Centuries, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 4, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 205-220 254. Vavilova, I.B. & Yatskiv, Y.S. 2003 Astronomy Education in Ukraine: Status, Perspectives, and Activity of the Ukrainian Astronomical Association, Teaching of Astronomy in Asian-Paciﬁc Region Bull. 19, 47-48 255. Yatskiv, Y.S. & Vavilova, I.B. 2003, Astronomy in Ukraine: Overview of the Situation and Strategic Planning for 2004-2011, Kinematics and Physics of Celestial Bodies 19, 569-574

2004 256. Abt, H.A. 2004, Some Incorrect Journal Impact Factors, Bull. Amer. Astron. Soc. 36, 576-577 257. Al-Malki, M.B. 2004, Astronomy in Saudi Arabia: The Challenges, in Developing Basic Space Science World-Wide, Eds. W. Wamsteker, R. Albrecht & H.J. Haubold, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 261-266 258. Andersen, J. 2004, The International Astronomical Union, in Developing Basic Space Science World-Wide, Eds. W. Wamsteker, R. Albrecht & H.J. Haubold, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 9-15 259. Batten, A.H. 2004, Astronomy Around the World, in Developing Basic Space Science World-Wide, Eds. W. Wamsteker, R. Albrecht & H.J. Haubold, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 23-30 260. Burton, M.G. 2004, Astronomy in Antarctica, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 5, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 11-37 261. Christian, C.A. 2004, The Public Impact of the Hubble Space Telescope: A Case Study, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 5, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 203-216 262. Comer´on, F. 2004, Observing in Service Mode: The Experience at the European Southern Observatory, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 5, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 141-158 263. Coyne, G.V. 2004, Ruminations on the Evolving Universe and a Creator God, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 5, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 273-286

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264. Cramer, N. 2004, Ludek Pesek’s Role as Space Artist, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 5, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 259-272 + CD 265. D´ebarbat, S. 2004, Statistics on Women in the IAU Membership, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 5, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 189-195 266. de Jager, C. & Drummen, M. 2004, Popularization of Astronomy in the Netherlands, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 5, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 233-258 267. Dick, W.R. & Richter, B. 2004, The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS), in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 5, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 159-168 268. Green, P.J. & Yukita, M. 2004, Publication Metrics for Chandra Science, Chandra Nsl. 11, 19-20 269. Grice, N.A. 2004, Astronomy for Blind and Visually-Impaired People, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 5, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 217-231 270. Haubold, H.J. & Wamsteker, W. 2004, The UN/ESA Workshops on Basic Space Science in the Developing Countries, in Developing Basic Space Science World-Wide, Eds. W. Wamsteker, R. Albrecht & H.J. Haubold, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 3-8 271. Heck, A. 2004, StarGuides Plus – A World-Wide Directory of Organizations in Astronomy and Related Space Sciences, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, viii + 1142 pp. (ISBN 0-4020-1296-2) 272. Heck, A. (Ed.) 2004, Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 5, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, xii + 310 pp. (ISBN 1-40201926-2) 273. Heck, A. 2004, Editorial, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 5, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 1-9 274. Heck, A. 2004, Switzerland towards ESA and ESO: Diversity, Perseverance, and Diplomacy – An Interview with Marcel Golay, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 5, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 123-140 275. Hidayat, B. 2004, A Short History of Astronomy in Indonesia, in Developing Basic Space Science World-Wide, Eds. W. Wamsteker, R. Albrecht & H.J. Haubold, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 61-76 276. Medagangoda, I. 2004, The Present Status of Astronomy in Sri Lanka, in Developing Basic Space Science World-Wide, Eds. W. Wamsteker, R. Albrecht & H.J. Haubold, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 55-60 277. Meurs, E.J.A. 2004, Astronomy in Ireland, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 5, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 103-122

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278. Meylan, G., Madrid, J.P. & Macchetto, D. 2004, Hubble Space Telescope Science Metrics, Publ. Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc 116, 790-796 279. Nha, I.S. 2004, Astronomy in Korea, in Developing Basic Space Science World-Wide, Eds. W. Wamsteker, R. Albrecht & H.J. Haubold, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 95-97 280. Pearce, F.R. 2004, Citation Measures and Impact Within Astronomy, Astron. & Geophys. 45/2, 15-17 281. Pilachowski, C. 2004, Foreword, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 5, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, vii-x 282. Rutten, R. & M´endez, J. 2004, The Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes from a Historic Perspective, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 5, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 83-102 283. S´ anchez, F. 2004, The Instituto de Astrof´ısica de Canarias (IAC): Its Role in Leading the Development of Spanish Astrophysics, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 5, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 61-82 284. S´ anchez, S.F. & Benn, C.R. 2004, Impact of Astronomical Research from Diﬀerent Countries, Astron. Nahr. 235, 445-450 285. Sandqvist, Aa. 2004, The A&A Experience with Impact Factors, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 5, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 197-201 286. Schwarz, G.J. & Kennicutt, R.C., Jr. 2004, Demographic and Citation Trends in Astrophysical Journal Papers and Preprints, Bull. Amer. Astron. Soc. 36, 1654-1663 287. Soriano, B.M. & Celebre, C.P. 2004, Astronomy in the Philippines, in Developing Basic Space Science World-Wide, Eds. W. Wamsteker, R. Albrecht & H.J. Haubold, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 49-54 288. Tr¨ umper, J. 2004, Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Cosmology in the Max Planck Society, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 5, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 169-187 289. Wamsteker, W., Albrecht, R. & Haubold, H.J. 2004, Developing Basic Space Science World-Wide, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, xvi + 504 pp. (ISBN 1-4020-1681-6) 290. Warner, B. 2004, Astronomy in South Africa, in Developing Basic Space Science World-Wide, Eds. W. Wamsteker, R. Albrecht & H.J. Haubold, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 179-181 291. Whitelock, P.A. 2004, Optical Astronomy in Post-Apartheid South Africa: 1994 to 2004, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 5, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ., Dordrecht, 39-60 292. Yatskiv, Y.S. 2004, Scientiﬁc and Technological Sphere of Ukraine: Overall Performance. Scientiﬁc World 5, 8-13

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2005 293. Abt, H.A. 2005, A Comparison of Citation Counts in the Science Citation Index and the NASA Astrophysics Data System, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 6, Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht, 169-174 294. Abt, H.A. 2005, Information Obtainable from Bibliometric Studies, in Communicating Astronomy, Ed. T.J. Mahoney, Inst. Astrof. Canarias, 2-7 295. Abt, H.A. 2005, Peer Reviewing, in Communicating Astronomy, Ed. T.J. Mahoney, Inst. Astrof. Canarias, 19-21 296. Abt, H.A. 2005, Estimated Completeness if the Science Citation Index, Bull. Amer. Astron. Soc. 37, 551-552 297. Abt, H.A. 2005, National Astronomical Productivities, Bull. Amer. Astron. Soc. 37, 1540-1543 298. Beckman, J.E. 2005, Peer Review in Present Day Conditions, in Communicating Astronomy, Ed. T.J. Mahoney, Inst. Astrof. Canarias, 2230 299. Benn, Chr.R. & S´ anchez, S.F. 2005, The Scientiﬁc Impact of Large Telescopes, in Communicating Astronomy, Ed. T.J. Mahoney, Inst. Astrof. Canarias, 8-13 300. Blom, J.J. 2005, New Developments in Astronomy Publishing, in Communicating Astronomy, Ed. T.J. Mahoney, Inst. Astrof. Canarias, 6668 301. Cesarsky, C. 2005, Foreword, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 6, Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht, vii-viii 302. Christian, C.A. & Davidson, G. 2005, The Science News Metrics, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 6, Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht, 145-156 303. Cirou, A. 2005, Astronomy Multimedia Public Outreach in France and Beyond, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 6, Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht, 299-310 304. Corral, L.J. & S´ anchez-Almeida, J. 2005, Counting Publications in Astronomy, in Communicating Astronomy, Ed. T.J. Mahoney, Inst. Astrof. Canarias, 14-15 305. Ferlet, R. & Pennypacker, C.R. 2005, The Hands-On Universe Project, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 6, Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht, 275-286 306. G´ omez, M. 2005, Bibliometrics: A Librarian’s Viewpoint, in Communicating Astronomy, Ed. T.J. Mahoney, Inst. Astrof. Canarias, 16-18 307. Grothkopf, U., Leibundgut, B., Macchetto, D., Madrid, J.P. & Leitherer, Cl. 2005, Comparison of Science Metrics among Observatories, ESO Messenger 119, 45-49

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308. Hearnshaw, J.B. 2005, Astronomy in New Zealand, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 6, Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht, 63-86 309. Heck, A. (Ed.) 2005, The Multinational History of Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory, Springer, Dordrecht, viii + 310 pp. (ISBN 1-4020-3643-4) 310. Heck, A. 2005, Vistas into the CDS Genesis, in The Multinational History of Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory, Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht, 191-209 311. Heck, A. (Ed.) 2005, Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 6, Springer, Dordrecht, xii + 344 pp. (ISBN 1-4020-4055-5) 312. Heck, A. 2005, Editorial, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 6, Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht, 1-10 313. Heck, A. 2005, AFOEV: Serving Variable-Star Observers since 1921 ´ – An Interview with Emile Schweitzer/AFOEV, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 6, Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht, 243-252 314. Hermida, J. 2005, Space Law, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 6, Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht, 191-204 315. Jung, J. 2005, CDS: Origins and Early Beginnings, in The Multinational History of Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory, Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht, 211-214 316. Kurtz, M.J., Eichhorn, G., Accomazzi, A., Grant, C.S., Demleitner, M. & Murray, S.S. 2005, Worlwide Use and Impact of the NASA Astrophysics Data System Digital Library, J. Amer. Soc. Inform. Sc. Technol. 56, 36-45 317. Kurtz, M.J., Eichhorn, G., Accomazzi, A., Grant, C.S., Demleitner, M., Murray, S.S., Martimbeau, N. & Elwell, B. 2005, The Bibliometric Properties of Article Readership Information, J. Amer. Soc. Inform. Sc. Technol. 56, 111-128 318. Kurtz, M.J., Eichhorn, G., Accomazzi, A., Grant, C.S., Demleitner, M., Henneken, E. & Murray, S.S. 2005, The Eﬀect of Use and Access on Citations, Information Processing and Management 41, 1395-1402 319. Linsky, J.L. 2005, An Insider’s Perspective on Observing Time Selection Committees, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 6, Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht, 111-116 320. Linsky, J.L. 2005, Letters to the Editor of the AAS Newsletter: A Personal Story, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 6, Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht, 175-189 321. Madrid, J.P., Macchetto, F.D., Leitherer, Cl. & Meylan, G. 2005, The Development of HST Science Metrics, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 6, Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht, 133-143

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322. Mahoney, T.J. 2005, Communicating Astronomy, Inst. Astrof. Canarias, La laguna, xiv + 220 pp. (ISBN 84-689-0403-1) 323. Martinez, P. 2005, Building Astronomy Research Capacity in Africa, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 6, Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht, 39-62 324. McNally, D. 2005, Rapid Publication in Astronomy: Its Blessings and Curses, in Communicating Astronomy, Ed. T.J. Mahoney, Inst. Astrof. Canarias, 31-34 325. The Rise and Citation Impact of astro-ph in Major Journals, Bull. Amer. Astron. Soc. 37, 555-557 326. Morison, I. & O’Brien, T. 2005, Outreach from the Jodrell Bank Observatory, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 6, Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht, 287-298 327. Pearce, F.R. & Forbes, D.A. 2005, A Citation-Based Measure of Scientiﬁc Impact Within Astronomy, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 6, Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht, 157-168 328. Petersen, C.C. 2005, The International Planetarium Society: A Community of Planetarians Facing the Challenges of the 21st Century, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 6, Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht, 253-274 329. Rebolo, R. 2005, Search Strategies for Exoplanets, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 6, Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht, 205-224 330. Rickman, H. 2005, IAU Initiatives Relating to the Near-Earth Object Impact Hazard, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 6, Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht, 225-241 331. Robson, I. & Christensen, L.L. 2005, Communicating Astronomy with the Public 2005, ESA/Hubble, Munich, 400 pp. 332. Roy, J.R. & Mountain, M. 2005, The Evolving Sociology of GroundBased Optical and Infrared Astronomy at the Start of the 21st Century, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 6, Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht, 11-37 333. Schindler, S. 2005, The Current State of Austrian Astronomy, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 6, Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht, 87-95 334. Schwartz, R., Kraus, A. & Zensus, J.A. 2005, Evaluation and Selection of Radio Astronomy Programs: The Case of ths 100m Radio Telescope a Eﬀelsberg, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 6, Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht, 125-131 335. Siegfried, T. & Witze, A. 2005, Astronomers and the Media: What Reporters Expect, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 6, Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht, 311-320

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336. Stencel, R. 2005, Challenges and Opportunities in Operating a HighAltitude Site, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 6, Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht, 97-109 337. Trimble, V., Zaich, P. & Bosler, T. 2005, Productivity and Impact of Optical Telescopes, Publ. Astron. Soc. Paciﬁc 117, 111-118 338. Uitenbroek, H. 2005, Evaluation and Selection of Solar Observing Programs, in Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy – Vol. 6, Ed. A. Heck, Springer, Dordrecht, 117-124 2006 339. Christensen, L.L. 2006, The Hands-On Guide for Science Communicators – A Step-by-Step Approach to Public Outreach, Springer, New York, xii + 250 pp. (ISBN 0387263241) 340. Nielsen, L.H., Jørgensen, N.T., Jantzen, L. & Bjerg, S. 2006, Credibility of Science Communication – An Exploratory Study of Press Releases in Astronomy, Roskilde Univ., viii + 66 pp. Alphabetical list of authors The numbers in the following table refer to the chronological list.

590

UPDATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SOCIO-ASTRONOMY

– Abbott, A.: 95, – Abt, H.A.: 1, 3, 4, 10, 13, 16, 17, 21, 31, 32, 38, 39, 45, 48, 49, 50, 51, 62, 63, 67, 68, 74, 75, 82, 83, 88, 89, 107, 108, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 160, 161, 186, 187, 188, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 256, 293, 294, 295, 296, 297, – Accomazzi, A.: 316, 317, 318, – Albrecht, R.: 289, – Alexander, D.T.: 216, – Al-Malki, M.B.: 257, – Andersen, J.: 133, 258, – Arunachalam, S.: 22, – Bahcall, J.N.: 52, 53, 119, – Barve, S.: 110, – Battaner, E.: 115, – Batten, A.H.: 259, – Beckman, J.E.: 298, – Benn, C.R.: 162, 189, 217, 284, 299, – Benvenuti, P.: 190, – Bergecol, H.: 70, – Bergeron, J.: 120, – Bjerg, S.: 340, – Blaauw, A.: 54, 76, 163, – Blom, J.J.: 300, – Bohlin, J.D.: 134, – Boily, C.M.: 218, – Bonnell, J.: 181, – Bonnet, R.M.: 219, – Boonyarak, Ch.: 215, – Bosler, T.: 337, – Boyce, P.: 90, – Branch, D.: 127, – Brandt, P.N.: 191,

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Breysacher, J.: 164, Bryson, E.P.: 165, Burstein, D.: 135, Burton, M.G.: 260, Butcher, H.: 220, Buxton, M.: 121, Callon, M.: 70, Carty, A.J.: 221, Castellani, V.: 222, Cayrel, R.: 192, Celebre, C.P.: 287, Cesarsky, C.: 301, Chaisson, E.: 77, Christensen, L.L.: 223, 331, 339, Christian, C.A.: 261, 302, Cirou, A.: 303, Claros, V.: 193, Cohen, R.J.: 224, Comer´on, F.: 262, Cominsky, L.R.: 151, 243, Consolmagno, G.J.: 127, Corbin, B.G.: 225, Corral, L.J.: 304, Coyne, G.V.: 263, Crabtree, D.R.: 165, Cramer, N.: 166, 264, Culver, J.M.: 248, Cummins, M.: 169, Dalterio, H.: 90, Davidson, G.: 302, Davoust, E.: 33, 55, 64, 69, 70, 99, – D´ebarbat, S.: 265, – de Jager, C.: 266, – Delgado, A.J.: 115,

UPDATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SOCIO-ASTRONOMY

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Demleitner, M.: 316, 317, 318, Dick, W.R.: 267, Doel, R.E.: 91, Drummen, M.: 266, Eichhorn, G.: 105, 106, 316, 317, 318, Elson, R.: 61, Elwell,B.: 317, Enard, D.: 194, Esterle, L.: 136, Evans, D.S.: 25, Evans, N.R.: 181, Feast, M.: 195, Fedele, R.: 236, Ferlet, R.: 226, 305, Fern´andez, J.A.: 109, Field, G.B.: 11, Finley, D.G.: 196, Forbes, D.A.: 327, Fraknoi, A.: 227, French, J.C.: 105, 106, Friel, E.D.: 197, Garﬁeld, E.: 188, Gibson, B.K.: 121, Gieryn, T.F.: 5, 14, Gilmore, G.: 167, Girard, R.: 99, Golay, M.: 168, 274, G´ omez, M.: 306, Gopal-Krishna: 110, Grant, C.S.: 316, 317, 318, Green, P.J.: 268, Grice, N.A.: 269, Griﬃn, I.: 228, Grothkopf, U.: 120, 169, 238, 307,

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– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

591

Guerrieri, M.: 152, Haubold, H.J.: 170, 289, 270, Hearnshaw, J.B.: 308, Heck, A.: 6, 7, 18, 23, 26, 34, 40, 46, 47, 56, 57, 71, 78, 84, 92, 100, 111, 112, 113, 114, 122, 123, 124, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 171, 173, 172, 174, 198, 199, 200, 201, 229, 234, 230, 231, 232, 233, 271, 272, 273, 274, 309, 310, 311, 312, 313, Hellemans, A.: 146, Henbest, N.: 235, Henneken, E.: 318, Hermida, J.: 314, Herrmann, D.B.: 27, 41, Hidayat, B.: 275, Hilton, P.: 181, Hirannaiah, S.: 22, Hirsh, R.F.: 14, Houziaux, L.: 147, Hurley, K.: 127, Iglesias de Ussel J.: 115, Irvine, J.: 15, Isbell, D.: 236, Isobe, S.: 237, Jantzen, L.: 340, Jaschek. C.: 116, 58, 65, Jones, D.H.: 121, Jones, D.H.P.: 239, Jørgensen, N.T.: 340, Joyce, R.R.: 152, Jung, J.: 315, Kays, S.A.: 248, Kennicutt, R.C.: 286, Kiernan, V.: 148,

592

UPDATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SOCIO-ASTRONOMY

– Klein, M.J.: 249, – Kraus, A.: 334, – Kurtz, M.J.: 105, 106, 316, 317, 318, – Lahav, O.: 175, – Lankford, J.: 101, – Leibundgut, B.: 238, 307, – Leitherer, Cl.: 307, 321, – Leverington, D.: 93, 102, 103, – Linsky, J.L.: 319, 320, – Liu, J.: 45, 85, – Lovell, R.L.: 248, – Macchetto, D.: 278, 307, 321, – Madrid, J.P.: 278, 307, 321, – Madsen, C.: 149, 234, 241, 240, – Mahoney, T.J.: 150, 322, – Makino, J.: 42, 117, – Mamon, G.A.: 242, – Manfroid, J.: 6, 7, 18, 23, 26, 34, – Maran, S.P.: 125, 151, 243, – Marschall, L.A.: 151, 243, – Martimbeau, N.: 317, – Martin, B.R.: 15, – Martinez, P.: 323, – Massey, Ph.: 152, – Mattig, W.: 191, – Mayer, A.E.S.: 176, – McCrea, W.H.: 35, – McDonald, G.D.: 244, – McKee, Ch.F.: 177, – McNally, D.: 245, 324, – McSween, H.: 127, – Meadows, A.J.: 118, 153, – Medagangoda, I.: 276, – M´endez, J.: 282,

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Metcalfe, T.S.: 325, Meurs, E.J.A.: 277, Meylan, G.: 278, 321, Mitton, J.: 178, Morison, I.: 326, Mountain, M.: 332, Mulholland, J.D.: 25, Murdin, P.: 179, Murray, S.S.: 105, 106, 316, 317, 318, Narlikar, J.V.: 180, Nature: 94, Nemiroﬀ, R.J.: 127, Nha, I.S.: 279, Nicollier, C.: 202, Nielsen, L.H.: 340, O’Brien, T.: 326, Osterbrock, D.E.: 203, Oswalt, T.D.: 246 ¨ Ozel, M.E.: 98, Palouˇs, J.: 204, Pasachoﬀ, J.M.: 104, Pearce, F.R.: 280, 327, Pennypacker, C.R.: 305, Perlmutter, S.: 127, Perriello, B.: 181, Petersen, C.C.: 328, Peterson, C.J.: 36, 43, Peterson, K.A.: 181, Pfau, W.: 154, Pilachowski, C.: 281, Pinch, T.: 28, Ponz, D.: 193, Pottasch, S.R.: 126, 155, Powell, A.L.: 105, 106,

UPDATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SOCIO-ASTRONOMY

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Rebolo, R.: 329, Reichhardt, T.: 95, Richter, B.: 267, Rickman, H.: 205, 330, Rijsdijk, C.: 247, Ringwald, F.A.: 248, Roberts, B.: 181, Robson, I.: 182, 331, Rodr´ıguez-Espinosa, J.M.: 115, Roller, J.P.: 249, Roy, J.R.: 332, Ru´ız, D.: 115, Ruˇsin, V.: 207, Rutten, R.: 282, Sage, L.: 250, 251, Salvador-Sol´e, E.: 115, S´ anchez, F.: 283, S´ anchez, S.F.: 162, 217, 284, 299, S´ anchez-Almeida, J.: 304, Sandqvist, Aa.: 285, Saurer, W.: 79, Schaefer, B.E.: 127, Schaefer, M.W.: 127, Schindler, S.: 333, Schmadel, L.D.: 33, 55, 64, Schubert, A.: 183, Schulman, E.: 105, 106, Schwartz, R.: 334, Schwarz, G.J.: 286, Schwarz, H.: 252, Sevenster, M.N.: 121, Shortridge, K.: 184, Shu, Z.: 85, Siegfried, T.: 335, Smith, E.: 181,

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593

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594 – – – – – – – –

UPDATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SOCIO-ASTRONOMY

Waelkens, Chr.: 164, Wamsteker, W.: 289, 270, Warner, B.: 290, Weinberger, R.: 79, West, R.M.: 149, 241, White II, J.C.: 66, White, R.E.: 159, Whitelock, P.A.: 291,

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