The Day We Found the Universe - Marcia Bartusiak [148]
56 “a spectacular performance is kept up”: LOA, Curtis Papers, unsigned letter to Curtis, August 9, 1905.
56 “wonderfully kind, jolly person, always smiling, always happy”: AIP, interview of Mary Lea Shane by Charles Weiner on July 15, 1967.
56 feat once described as “remarkable”: Trimble (1995), p. 1138.
57 These astronomers were specifying that the spirals' sizes and the brightness of their novae only made sense if they were milky ways at great distance: See Very (1911) and Wolf (1912).
57 “If the spiral nebulae are within the stellar system”: Douglas (1957), pp. 26–27.
57 “in best harmony with known facts”: Campbell (1917), p. 534.
57 a program that had not been a top priority since Keeler's death: Charles Perrine took over the Crossley after Keeler's death and made some substantial improvements to its mount, drive, gears, and mirror system. While he did carry out some work on the nebulae, his most acclaimed accomplishment with the Crossley was discovering the sixth and seventh moons of Jupiter. See Osterbrock, Gustafson, and Unruh (1988), pp. 142–44.
57 a gifted mechanic: McMath (1944), pp. 246–47; Curtis (1914).
57 The mirror had already been remounted in 1904: See Perrine (1904).
58 “magnum opus”: Stebbins (1950), p. 3.
59 student of the ancient languages: Aitken (1943), p. 276.
59 He hoped to continue at the Lick Observatory: LOA, Curtis to Keeler, March 24, 1900.
59 “ready and glad to be put at anything from a shovel up”: LOA, Curtis to Campbell, April 11, 1900.
59 hired him on as an assistant: Osterbrock (1984), p. 342.
60 simply good training for a life on Mount Hamilton: LOA, Curtis to Campbell, June 9, 1902; AIP interview of Douglas Aitken by David DeVorkin on July 23, 1977.
60 covered in thick yellow dust: Stebbins (1950), p. 2.
60 saw three miles of fire-front, burning fiercely: Campbell (1971), pp. 62–64.
60 “And, naturally, the lens inverted everything”: AIP, interview of Douglas Aitken by David DeVorkin on July 23, 1977.
60 “Queer how completely we seem to have taken root here”: LOA, Curtis to Richard Tucker, March 23, 1909.
60 Halley's Comet: LOA, Curtis Papers, Folder 1, Halley report.
61 amassed a photographic library of around one hundred nebulae and clusters: Curtis (1912).
61 boosted that number to more than two hundred: LOA, Curtis Papers, “Report of Work from July 1, 1912, to July 1, 1913.”
61 “Many of these nebulae show forms of unusual interest.” Ibid.
61 rich diversity in their appearance: Curtis (1912).
61 “Crossley still has its old reputation”: MWDF, Box 153, Curtis to Walter Adams, May 27, 1913.
61 “If you got a little bit sleepy at night”: AIP, interview of Mary Lea Shane by Charles Weiner on July 15, 1967.
61 observe from a boat: This popular tale, often heard at the Lick Observatory, was told to me by Lick astronomer Tony Misch.
61 “of smooth nebulous material and also of soft star-like condensations or nebulous stars”: Ritchey (1910b), p. 624.
62 “rotatory or otherwise…. As the spirals are undoubtedly in revolution”: Curtis (1915), pp. 11–12.
63 “the Greek letter F … for lack of a better term”: Curtis (1913), p. 43.
63 “shows dark lane down center” … “beautifully clear”: LOA, Curtis Papers, Folder 1, “Edgewise or Greatly Elongated Spirals.”
63 “due to the same general cause”: Curtis (1918b), p. 49.
63 Not one spiral had ever been spotted in the thick of the Milky Way: For his doctoral research at the Lick Observatory, Roscoe Sanford searched the length and breadth of the Milky Way for signs of a spiral, using long exposures in hope of bringing to light faint nebulae previously hidden within the Milky Way. He didn't find any. See Sanford (1916–18).
63 “[The] great band of occulting matter in the plane of our galaxy”: Curtis (1918b), p. 51.
64 “Were the Great Nebula in Andromeda situated five hundred times as far away”: Curtis (1918a), p. 12.
65 nova in NGC 6946: Ritchey (1917).
65 was sure that the outbursts were not simply variable stars: Curtis (1917c), p. 108.
65 “That both these novae