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The Americans Want to Stay

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Astronomy at the Turn of the Twentieth Century in Chile and the United States

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Abstract

This chapter examines how the Expedition remained longer than initially expected in Chile, and describes their progress in astronomical research. While explaining exactly what was the sidereal problem, we can understand the avant-garde questions they were posing. They were getting to know radial velocities, to analyze them, and to study binary stars. In their daily lives, whereas they measured the stars spectra, the astronomers were still constantly surprised with the odd habits of Chileans. They also decided to explore other areas of the country, and had an amazing adventure in the Atacama Desert, which decades later occupied a fundamental place in global astronomy. This chapter connects the adventure of the Lick Observatory astronomers with the current development of cutting edge, international astronomy in the Atacama region.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    William W. Campbell, “Will Determine Whether Solar System Speeds in Its Flight Through Space,” D.O. Mills Expedition, February 23, 1903, UA 36. Ser 04. Box 8 Folder 1, Lick Observatory Records, Special Collections, Mary Lea Shane Archives, University of California Santa Cruz.

  2. 2.

    Campbell, “Will Determine Whether”.

  3. 3.

    D.O. Mills Expedition, Correspondence—W.W. Campbell to D.O Mills. April 4, 1905. UA 36. Ser 04. Box 8 Folder 3, Lick Observatory Records, Special Collections, Mary Lea Shane Archives, University of California Santa Cruz.

  4. 4.

    D.O. Mills Expedition, Correspondence—W.W. Campbell to D.O Mills. April 4, 1905. UA 36. Ser 04. Box 8 Folder 3, Lick Observatory Records, Special Collections, Mary Lea Shane Archives, University of California Santa Cruz.

  5. 5.

    D.O. Mills Expedition, Correspondence—W.W. Campbell to D.O Mills. Carnegie Institution Year Book for 1903, page 24, April 4, 1905. UA 36. Ser 04. Box 8 Folder 3, Lick Observatory Records, Special Collections, Mary Lea Shane Archives, University of California Santa Cruz.

  6. 6.

    D.O. Mills Expedition, Correspondence—W.W. Campbell to D.O Mills. April 4, 1905. UA 36. Ser 04. Box 8 Folder 3, Lick Observatory Records, Special Collections, Mary Lea Shane Archives, University of California Santa Cruz.

  7. 7.

    D.O. Mills Expedition, Correspondence—W.W. Campbell to D.O Mills. Carnegie Institution Year Book for 1903, page 38, April 4, 1905. UA 36. Ser 04. Box 8 Folder 3, Lick Observatory Records, Special Collections, Mary Lea Shane Archives, University of California Santa Cruz.

  8. 8.

    “Every plate makes a distinct contribution to the problem of Solar Motion, for which the expedition was organized; and in addition, as by-products, five spectroscopic binary stars have been discovered.” D.O. Mills Expedition. Correspondence—W. W. Campbell to D. O Mills. January 21, 1905, UA 36. Ser 04. Box 8 Folder 3, Lick Observatory Records, Special Collections, Mary Lea Shane Archives, University of California Santa Cruz.

  9. 9.

    New York Times , March 24, 1905.

  10. 10.

    William W. Campbell, “Organization and History of the D.O. Mills Expedition to the Southern Hemisphere ,” D.O. Mills Expedition. Cerro San Cristóbal , Santiago, Chile. From Its Organization in December 1900 to March 1906, ed. W.W. Campbell and W.H. Wright, Vol. IX (Sacramento : W. W. Shannon Superintendent State Printing, 1907), 11.

  11. 11.

    Heber D. Curtis, “Recent Changes at the Observatory of the D.O. Mills Expedition,” Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 19, no. 116 (October 1907): 227–233.

  12. 12.

    Campbell, “Organization and History,” 12.

  13. 13.

    Campbell, “Organization and History,” 12.

  14. 14.

    “El observatorio del San Cristóbal,” Revista Zig-Zag, May 13, 1906.

  15. 15.

    Hebert D. Curtis, “Recent Progress in the Work of the D.O. Mills Expedition to the Southern Hemisphere ,” Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 21, no. 128 (October 1909): 201.

  16. 16.

    E. Wilson, “Roscoe Frank Sanford, 1883–1958,” Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 70, no. 415 (1958): 360.

  17. 17.

    William W. Campbell, “Notes on the D.O. Mills Expedition to the Southern Hemisphere ” Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 23, no. 135 (February 1911): 52–53.

  18. 18.

    D.O. Mills Expedition, Correspondence—W.W. Campbell to D. O Mills. January 21, 1905. UA 36. Ser 04. Box 8 Folder 3, Lick Observatory Records, Special Collections, Mary Lea Shane Archives, University of California Santa Cruz.

  19. 19.

    “El observatorio del San Cristóbal.”

  20. 20.

    D.O. Mills Expedition, Correspondence—W.W. Campbell to D.O Mills, September 27, 1907 UA 36. Ser 04. Box 8 Folder 3, Lick Observatory Records, Special Collections, Mary Lea Shane Archives, University of California Santa Cruz.

  21. 21.

    Heber D. Curtis. “Temperature Control for Silvered Specula,” Astrophysical Journal 26 (November 1907).

  22. 22.

    D.O. Mills Expedition, Correspondence—W.W. Campbell to D.O Mills, September 27, 1907 UA 36. Ser 04. Box 8 Folder 3, Lick Observatory Records, Special Collections, Mary Lea Shane Archives, University of California Santa Cruz.

  23. 23.

    For example, Edwin B. Frost, “Radial Velocities of 150 Stars South of Declination—20º Determined by the D.O. Mills Expedition, Period 1903–1906,” Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 23, no. 139 (December 1911); W.W Payne, “The Mills Expedition from Lick Observatory ,” Journal of Popular Astronomy 15 (1907).

  24. 24.

    D.O. Mills Expedition, Correspondence—W.W. Campbell to D.O Mills, September 27, 1907 UA 36. Ser 04. Box 8 Folder 3, Lick Observatory Records, Special Collections, Mary Lea Shane Archives, University of California Santa Cruz.

  25. 25.

    D.O. Mills Expedition, Correspondence—W.W. Campbell to D.O Mills, September 27, 1907 UA 36. Ser 04. Box 8 Folder 3, Lick Observatory Records, Special Collections, Mary Lea Shane Archives, University of California Santa Cruz.

  26. 26.

    D.O. Mills Expedition, Correspondence—W.W. Campbell to D.O Mills, September 27, 1907 UA 36. Ser 04. Box 8 Folder 3, Lick Observatory Records, Special Collections, Mary Lea Shane Archives, University of California Santa Cruz.

  27. 27.

    William W. Campbell, R.G. Aitken, and J.D. Maddrill, “The Observatory of the D.O. Mills Expedition to Chile,” Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 16, no. 96 (June 1904): 144–145.

  28. 28.

    William H. Wright, “Radial Velocities of 150 Stars South of Declination—20º. Determined by the D.O. Mills Expedition Period 1903–1906 & General Catalogue”; D.O. Mills Expedition. Cerro San Cristóbal , Santiago, Chile. From Its Organization in December 1900 to March 1906, ed. W.W. Campbell and W.H. Wright, Vol. IX (Sacramento : W. W. Shannon Superintendent State Printing, 1907), 328–343.

  29. 29.

    William H. Wright, “On Some Results Obtained by the D.O. Mills Expedition to the Southern Hemisphere ,” Lick Observatory Bulletin 60 (1904).

  30. 30.

    D.O. Mills Expedition, Correspondence—W.W. Campbell to D.O Mills, September 27, 1907 UA 36. Ser 04. Box 8 Folder 3, Lick Observatory Records, Special Collections, Mary Lea Shane Archives, University of California Santa Cruz.

  31. 31.

    “Studies of the Nebulae,” Publications of the Lick Observatory,” Vol. XIII (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1918).

  32. 32.

    D.O. Mills Expedition, Correspondence—W.W. Campbell to D.O Mills, February 26, 1906, UA 36. Ser 04. Box 8 Folder 3, Lick Observatory Records, Special Collections, Mary Lea Shane Archives, University of California Santa Cruz.

  33. 33.

    D.O. Mills Expedition, Correspondence—W.W. Campbell to D.O Mills, February 26, 1906, UA 36. Ser 04. Box 8 Folder 3, Lick Observatory Records, Special Collections, Mary Lea Shane Archives, University of California Santa Cruz.

  34. 34.

    Payne, “The Mills Expedition,” 523.

  35. 35.

    D.O. Mills Expedition, Correspondence—W.W. Campbell to D.O Mills, February 26, 1906, UA 36. Ser 04. Box 8 Folder 3, Lick Observatory Records, Special Collections, Mary Lea Shane Archives, University of California Santa Cruz.

  36. 36.

    D.O. Mills Expedition, Correspondence—W.W. Campbell to D.O Mills, January 31, 1907, UA 36. Ser 04. Box 8 Folder 3, Lick Observatory Records, Special Collections, Mary Lea Shane Archives, University of California Santa Cruz.

  37. 37.

    William W. Campbell, Stellar Motions, with Special Reference to Motions Determined by Means of the Spectrograph (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1913). This publication was part of Mrs. Hepsa Ely Silliman Memorial Lectures.

  38. 38.

    Heber D. Curtis, “Astronomical Problems of the Southern Hemisphere ,” Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 21, no. 129 (December 1909): 231–244.

  39. 39.

    Beverly Hard, “Notes on the Directors of the D.O Mills Expedition to Chile,” 1972. Expeditions, UA 36. Ser 04. Box 12 Folder 6, Lick Observatory Records, Special Collections, Mary Lea Shane Archives, University of California Santa Cruz, 7.

  40. 40.

    D.O. Mills Expedition, Correspondence—W.W. Campbell to D.O Mills, January 21, 1905, UA 36. Ser 04. Box 8 Folder 3, Lick Observatory Records, Special Collections, Mary Lea Shane Archives, University of California Santa Cruz.

  41. 41.

    “El observatorio del San Cristóbal.”

  42. 42.

    D.O. Mills Expedition, Correspondence—W.W. Campbell to D.O Mills, January 21, 1905, UA 36. Ser 04. Box 8 Folder 3, Lick Observatory Records, Special Collections, Mary Lea Shane Archives, University of California Santa Cruz.

  43. 43.

    Michele Catanzaro, “Big Players / Chile: Upward Trajectory,” Nature 510 (June 12, 2014): 204–205.

  44. 44.

    Heber D. Curtis, “Report on Astronomical Conditions in the Region About Copiapo,” D.O. Mills Expedition: Report on Site Survey Near Copiapo. April 17, 1909, UA 36. Ser. 04. Box 8 Folder 12, Lick Observatory Records, Special Collections, Mary Lea Shane Archives, University of California Santa Cruz, 1.

  45. 45.

    Curtis, “Report on Astronomical Conditions,” 1.

  46. 46.

    Curtis, “Report on Astronomical Conditions,” 1.

  47. 47.

    Curtis, “Report on Astronomical Conditions,” 2–3.

  48. 48.

    Curtis, “Report on Astronomical Conditions,” 3.

  49. 49.

    Curtis, “Report on Astronomical Conditions,” 4

  50. 50.

    Curtis, “Report on Astronomical Conditions,” 4.

  51. 51.

    Curtis, “Report on Astronomical Conditions,” 5–7.

  52. 52.

    Curtis, “Report on Astronomical Conditions,” 8. Underlined in the original.

  53. 53.

    Curtis, “Report on Astronomical Conditions,” 8.

  54. 54.

    Curtis, “Report on Astronomical Conditions,” 10.

  55. 55.

    Curtis, “Report on Astronomical Conditions,” 10.

  56. 56.

    Curtis, “Report on Astronomical Conditions,” 10.

  57. 57.

    Curtis, “Report on Astronomical Conditions,” 14.

  58. 58.

    Curtis, “Report on Astronomical Conditions,” 17.

  59. 59.

    Curtis, “Report on Astronomical Conditions,” 20.

  60. 60.

    D.O. Mills Expedition, Correspondence—Herber D. Curtis to W.W. Campbell, “Trip to Puquíos”. June 29, 1916. UA 36. Ser. 04. Box 7 Folder 9, Lick Observatory Records, Special Collections, Mary Lea Shane Archives, University of California Santa Cruz.

  61. 61.

    D.O. Mills Expedition, Correspondence—Herber D. Curtis to W.W. Campbell, “Trip to Puquíos”. June 29, 1916. UA 36. Ser. 04. Box 7 Folder 9, Lick Observatory Records, Special Collections, Mary Lea Shane Archives, University of California Santa Cruz.

  62. 62.

    Curtis, “Report on Astronomical Conditions,” 11.

  63. 63.

    Curtis, “Report on Astronomical Conditions,” 13.

  64. 64.

    Curtis, “Report on Astronomical Conditions,” 14.

  65. 65.

    Curtis, “Report on Astronomical Conditions,” 19.

  66. 66.

    Curtis, “Report on Astronomical Conditions,” 11.

  67. 67.

    Curtis, “Report on Astronomical Conditions,” 18.

  68. 68.

    Hilmar Duerbeck, et al. “Halfway form La Silla to Paranal – in 1909,” The Messenger 95 (March 1999).

  69. 69.

    Ricardo Leiva, “Atacama: a 100 años del informe Curtis,” Revista de Humanidades 3 (2010): 21.

  70. 70.

    “But six years later, at the end of Dr. Curtis’ term he discussed the possibilities of Copiapo, of Antofagasta and Iquique and even of Tacna, which is southern Peru. It is interesting that the port of Coquimbo, less than three hundred miles north, is also a place he mentioned, because it is very near La Serena, which is the headquarters for the Cerro Tololo Inter American Observatory which has been established by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy and supported by the National Sciences Foundation,” Hard, “Notes on the Directors,” 7.

  71. 71.

    Bárbara Silva, PI, Stars and Galaxies from the South. Chile and Its Scientific—Astronomical Insertion in the Global Cold War , 1962–1973, FONDECYT Research Project 3170099.

  72. 72.

    Virginia Trimble, “The 1920 Shapley–Curtis Discussion: Background, Issues, and Aftermath,” Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 107 (December 1995): 1133–1144.

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  1. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Bárbara K. Silva

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Silva, B.K. (2019). The Americans Want to Stay. In: Astronomy at the Turn of the Twentieth Century in Chile and the United States. Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17712-6_4

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