The Day We Found the Universe - Marcia Bartusiak [169]
256 “I picture … an even distribution of protons and electrons”: Eddington (1933), pp. 56–57.
257 “If we go back in the course of time”: Lemaître (1931b).
257 Lemaître was spurred by the revelations of atomic physics: Kragh (2007), pp. 152–53.
257 “The evolution of the world can be compared to a display of fireworks”: Lemaître (1950), p. 78.
258 “Lemaître believed that God would hide nothing from the human mind”: Kragh (1990), p. 542.
258 Times had assuredly changed: Though Lemaître was both scientist and priest, he believed that science and theology should remain separate entities. He disagreed when Pope Pius XII in 1951 announced that the Big Bang cosmology confirmed the fundamental doctrines of Christian theology. “As far as I can see,” he said, “such a theory [of the primeval atom] remains entirely outside any metaphysical or religious question. It leaves the materialist free to deny any transcendental Being.” See Kragh (1987), pp. 133–34.
259 Baade was able to prove that there were two distinct kinds of Cepheid stars: Baade (1952).
259 Those who desired nature to be uniform breathed a huge sigh of relief: The astronomical community was aghast when Harlow Shapley went to the press and attempted to claim that he, not Baade, had first discovered the correction to Hubble's distance scale. What he actually did was go back to some of his old observations and simply confirm Baade's discovery after the fact. Sandage (2004), p. 310.
259 “Never in all the history of science”: De Sitter (1932), p. 3.
261 “a growing community of American astronomers … by the 1960s were concentrating to an unprecedented degree on the study of galaxies”: Kragh and Smith (2003), p. 157.
Whatever Happened to …
262 In 1900 Charles Yerkes moved to New York City: Miller (1970), p. 110.
262 Within a month, she married Wilson Mizner: Franch (2006), pp. 318–23.
262 maintains its status as the largest refractor: A 49-inch refractor was displayed at the 1900 Paris Exposition but was never used professionally and ultimately dismantled.
262 At the end of a long honeymoon in Europe, he and his bride took a balloon ride: Hoyt (1996), p. 233.
262 the observatory spent a decade fighting in court with his widow for control of his estate…. “opulent squalor” until her death at the age of ninety in 1954: The phrase “opulent squalor” was used by the Reverend Fay Lincoln Gemmell, who did chores for Constance while a theology student in the 1940s. Putnam (1994), p. 104.
264 “I have so little confidence in the theories of Lemaître, Eddington, et al. in this field that I shall follow the safe if not sane course of just sitting tight”: HUA, Curtis to Shapley, August 24, 1932.
265 He had hopes for erecting a big reflector for Michigan's use: J. Stebbins (1950). A 36-inch reflecting telescope, dedicated as the Heber Curtis Memorial Telescope, was erected in 1950 on Peach Mountain, northwest of Ann Arbor. It was devoted to the study of galactic and extragalactic structure. In 1967 the telescope was moved to the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile.
265 He always considered his work on the nebulae as his greatest contribution to astronomy: McMath (1942), p. 69.
265 “The truth is … that I have been enjoying from boyhood the things I liked most to do”: Wright, Warnow, and Weiner (1972), p. 99.
266 He moved to his ranch east of Pasadena, growing lemons, oranges, and avocados and dreaming of designing ever-bigger telescopes, with mirrors up to 320 inches in width: Osterbrock (1993), pp. 160–64.
266 controversial design for the Naval Observatory scope, worked out earlier in collaboration with the French astronomer Henri Chrétien, would later be used in many giant telescopes: Ibid., p. 282.
266 “very gracious, kindly person, a real gentleman”: AIP, interview of George Abell by Spencer Weart, November 14, 1977.
266 Ira Bowen was appointed instead, a decision that simply stunned Hubble: Sandage (2004), p. 530.
267 When Grace was about to make a turn into their driveway, though, she noticed Edwin breathing shallowly: Dunaway (1989), p. 247.