Walter baade, observational astrophysicist, (3): Palomar and göttingen 1948–1960 (Part B)

Journal for the History of Astronomy

Volumn 29, Issue 4, 1998, Pages 345-377

  Osterbrock, Donald E ^a  

^a University of California at Santa Cruz   (United States)

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EID: 84992862367     PISSN: 00218286     EISSN: 17538556     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/002182869802900404     Document Type: Article

References (87)

1. abbreviations used.
2. The following are additional to those listed on pp. 312–13 of vol. xxviii.
3. (a) Archival Sources.
4. ANU Australian National University, Canberra, A.C.T.
5. ATNF Australia Telescope National Facility, Epping, N. S. W.
6. CIW Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, D.C.
7. Institution Files.
8. GO Göttingen Observatory, Germany.
9. HHL Mount Wilson Observatory Collection, Huntington Henry E. Library, San Marino, California Henrietta H. Swope Papers.
10. (b) Individuals.
11. HB Johanna (“Hanni” or “Muschi”) Baade.
12. EBB Biesecker E. B.
13. JWB Boise John W.
14. MGB Bundy McGeorge.
15. LG Goldberg Leo.
16. JLP Pawsey Joseph L.
17. WB to CPG, 3 Feb., 27 Mar. 1947, OGC.
18. WB to [HH]S, 29 Feb. 1948, HHL.
19. Gaviola E. to WSA, 9 June, 10 Oct. 1942, WSA to Gaviola, 22 June, 21 Oct. 1942, HHL; WSA, “Algunas posibles investigaciones para un observatorio austral”, Revista astronomica, xiv (1942), 243–6.
20. Gaviola E. to ISB, 26 Nov. 1946, EH to Gaviola, 3 Jan. 1947, [WB] to Gaviola, [-15 Feb. 1947], ISB to Gaviola, 11 Jan., 5 Apr. 1947, Gaviola to ISB, 25 Mar. 1947, HHL.
21. HS to WB, 17 Mar. 1948, 10 Feb. 1949, 21 Nov. 1950, WB to [H]S, 9 Feb. 1949, HCO; WB to [JH]O, 19 Mar. 1948, 18 Apr. 1949, AIP.
22. HS to AHJ, 28 Oct., 25 Nov. 1949, AHJ to HS, 18 Nov. 1949, HS to WB, 11 July 1950, HCO.
23. WB to [JH]O, 2 June 1952, AIP.
24. Hoyle F., “Report of meeting” [of IAU Commission 28], Transactions of the IAU, viii (1954), 397–9; WB, “Basic facts of stellar evolution”, WB to [JH]O, 682–9.
25. Chandrasekhar S. to NUM, 10 Nov. 1952, NUM to Chandrasekhar, 12 Nov. 1952, SLO.
26. Science Service, “Yardstick of the universe needs to be shortened”, Future release, 16 Dec. 1952, HCO; Gray G. W. to ISB, 5 Jan. 1953, HHL; Federer C. A. to OS, 17 Jan. 1953 (two letters of same date), BL. See also Hoyle F., Home is where the wind blows: Chapters from a cosmologist's life (Mill Valley, 1994), 263, who characterizes Shapley's action as plagiarism without naming him. Hoyle was the acting secretary who took minutes of what Baade, Shapley and other speakers said at the IAU Commission 28 meeting.
27. WB to S[G], 13 Jan. 1953, HCO (there are three earlier, more extreme drafts of this letter, two dated 9 Jan. and one 10 Jan., HHL); WB to DHM, 29 Jan. 1953, GO; WB to [GP]K, 30 Jan. 1953, GPK to WB, 11 Feb. 1953, UAL; WB to [GW]G, 2 May 1953, HHL; WB to [GE]K, 14 June 1954, SLO.
28. OS to WB, 13 Jan. 1953, WB to [O]S, 18 Jan. 1953, OS to BJB, 16 Jan., 22 1953, BJB to OS, 20 Jan. 1953, OS to Federer C. A., 20 Jan. 1953, BL; CPG to W[B], 16 Jan. 1953, OGC; B[J]B to D[HM], 20 Jan. 1953, HCO; ISB to DHM, 26 Jan. 1953, DHM to ISB, 26 Jan. 1953, DHM to WB, 2 Feb. 1953, HS to WB, 26 Jan. 1953, HHL; HS, “The distance of the Magellanic Clouds”, AJ, lviii (1953), 47; DHM to WB, 10 Feb. 1953, HHL.
29. “Harvard Observatory Council” [minutes], 15, 26, 30 Jan. 1953, DHM, “Interim report on Observatory problems” [11-page typed report], 13 Feb. 1953, HCO; WB to C[PG], 9 Feb. 1953, OGC; ISB to DHM, 17 Feb., 11 May 1953, DHM to ISB, 8 May 1953, HHL; OS to Oosterhoff P. Th., 3 Mar. 1953, BL; HS, “Magellanic Clouds. VI. Revised distances and luminosities”, PNAS, xxxix (1953), 349–57; OS, “The distance scale of the universe”, S&T, xii (1953), 203–5, 238–40; HS, “Note on the extragalactic distance scale”, AJ, lviii (1953), 227–8.
30. ISB to GWG, 9, 27 Jan., 10 Feb., 16 Mar., 18 May, 1 June 1953, GWG to ISB, 5 Feb., 6 Mar., 21 Apr., 11 May 1953, WB to [GW]G, 2 May 1953, GWG to WB, 8 May 1953, HHL.
31. Behr A., “Zur Entfernungskala der extragalaktischen Nebel”, AN, cclxxix (1951), 97–104; GG to [W]B, 12 May [1951], GO.
32. Dartayet M. Dessi Landi J., “Studies of variables in the Magellanic Clouds. I. Twenty new variables in a region in the Small Cloud”, ApJ, cxv (1952), 279–83; Thackeray A. D. Wesselink A. J., “Distances of the Magellanic Clouds”, Nature, clxxi (1953), 693.
33. WB, “The period-luminosity relation of the Cepheids”, PASP, lxviii (1956), 5–15.
34. Hynek J. A. to WB, 16 Feb., 6 Mar. 1951, ISB to Hynek, 14 Mar. 1951, [WB], “Swarthmore 1953” [folder containing notes for seven lectures in course and one Sigma Xi lecture], [March 1953], HHL; van de Kamp P., “Sproul Observatory, Swarthmore College” [annual report for 1952–53], AJ, lviii (1953), 265.
35. WB to [H]S, 29 May 1940, WB to [L]G, 23 Apr. 1943, HCO; WB to [JH]O, 5 Dec. 1952, AIP.
36. WB to [JH]O, 7 Jan. 1954, AIP; LG (ed.), Symposium on astrophysics (Ann Arbor, 1953) [mimeographed notes of the lectures at the Michigan symposium, prepared by the participants]; LG, “The Observatory, Ann Arbor” [Annual report for 1953–54], AJ, lix (1954), 346–50; Gingerich O., “The summer of 1953: A watershed for astrophysics”, Physics today, xlvii (1994), Dec. issue, 34–40. The last of these is an excellent article by a participant in the Michigan symposium, which gives the full flavour of the experience. I was also a participant and was inspired greatly by Baade's lectures, as I had been earlier by his invited paper at the dedication of the Michigan Schmidt telescope in 1950 (ref. 32).
37. WB to [O]S, 7 Feb., 1 Apr., 26 Apr., 1 June, 1954, OS to WB, 26 Feb. 1954, BL; [WB], “Hitchcock Lectures” [spiral notebook of his handwritten notes for the lectures], 4–24 May 1954, WB to ISB, 9 May 1954, HHL.
38. Tifft W. G., “Baade — Extragalactic nebulae — Ay 212”, 61 pp. handwritten notes (rewritten soon after the lectures from rough notes taken in class), 23 Jan. —7 Mar. 1956. I am very grateful to Dr Tifft for lending me a copy of these notes, which are in his possession. I sat in this course for all the lectures I could, and the remarks on Baade's teaching skills are based on my own observation. They were corroborated by the former students in the course with whom I have been able to discuss them in 1996–97, Tifft Drs Bonsack Walter K. Ray L. Newburn.
39. WB to [JH]O, 20 Jan. 1956, AIP.
40. HCA, “Wilhelm Heinrich Walter Baade”, JRASC, lv (1961), 113–16; AS, “Wilhelm Heinrich Walter Baade”, QJRAS, ii (1961); AS to DEO, 19 Mar. 1992, 5 Dec. 1996, HCA to DEO, 31 Dec. 1996, 12 Mar. 1998. See also Schmidt-Kaler Th., “Walter Baades wissenschaftliche Genealogie”, Die Sterne, lxx (1994), 90–100.
41. [JHO] to WB, 23 June, 17 Oct., 29 Nov., 24 Dec. (2 letters) 1952, 20 Jan. 1953, WB to [JH]O, 5 Jan., 1 Apr., 20 Apr. 1953, AIP.
42. Blaauw A., (ed.), Co-ordination of galactic research (IAU Symposium no. 1, Cambridge, 1955).
43. [JHO] to WB, 24 July 1953, 10 Apr., 6 Sep. 1954, 30 Aug. 1956, WB to [JH]O, 17 Apr., 18 Sep. 1954, 16 Aug. 1956, AIP; van Rhijn P. J. to ISB, 23 Feb. 1955, Van Rhijn to WB, [10] Mar. 1955, Plaut L. to ISB, 4 Apr. 1955, HHL; Plaut L., “Variable stars in a field centered at 1 = 0°, b = +29°, BAN supplement, ii (1966), 105–76.
44. WB to [W.] Pauli, 6 Feb. 1954, 1 Nov. 1955, Pauli W. Papers, CERN Archive, Geneva, Switzerland; McCrea W. H., “Jubilee of relativity theory conference at Berne”, Nature, clxxvi (1955), 330–1; Mercier A. Kovaire M., Fünfzig Jahre Relativitätstheorie: Verhandlungen (Basel, 1956).
45. Schramm Jochen, Sterne über Hamburg: Die Geschichte der Astronomie in Hamburg (Hamburg, 1996); Heckmann O., Sterne, Kosmos, Weltmodelle: Erlebte Astronomie (Munich, 1976) [Heckmann dedicated this autobiography to Baade].
46. Heckmann O., “Der neue Schmidt-Spiegel der hamburger Sternwarte”, Mitteilungen der Astronomischer Gesellschaft, vi (1955), 57–60; “Vorträge der astronomischen Tagung in Hamburg-Bergedorf”, Sterne, Kosmos, Weltmodelle: Erlebte Astronomie, vii (1956), 11–88, esp. WB, “Wieweit sind Milchstrasse und Andromeda-Nebel im Aufbau Vergleichbar?”, 51–59.
47. Roman N. G., (ed.), Comparison of the large-scale structure of the galactic system with that of other stellar systems (IAU Symposium no. 5, Cambridge, 1958), esp. WB, “Large-scale structure of spiral nebulae”, 1–4.
48. WB to [JH]O, 18 Sep. 1954, AIP; WB, “Problems in the determination of distances of galaxies”, AJ, lxiii (1958), 207–10.
49. [WB] to Plaskett H. H., 30 Oct. 1956, Bondi H. to WB, 18 Dec. 1956, Lovell A. C. B. to WB, 15 Nov. 1956, Wooley R. V. D. R. to WB, 26 Mar., 13 Apr. 1957, HHL; “Meeting of the RAS, Friday 1957 May 10”, Observatory, lxxvii (1957), 117–21; WB, “Galaxies and their stellar population”, Observatory, lxxvii (1957), 165–71.
50. O'Connell D. to WB, 15 Dec. 1955, 31 May, 11. Oct., 12 Nov. 1956, 4 Mar. 1957, WB to O'Connell, 4 May, 5 June, 2 July, 21 Nov., 10 Dec. 1956, 18 Jan. 1957, HHL.
51. O'Connell D. J. K., (ed), Stellar populations: Proceedings of the Conference sponsored by the Pontifical Academy of Science and the Vatican Observatory, May 20–28, 1957 (Amsterdam and New York, 1958).
52. WB to [JH]O, 25 Nov. 1956, 18 Jan., 22 Apr., 17 Sep. 1957, [JHO] to WB, 14 Dec. 1956, 16 Apr. 1957, ULL.
53. Blaauw A., ESO's early history: The European Southern Observatory from concept to reality (Garching bei München, 1991). This excellent book is the source for much of the section on ESO; however, Dr Blaauw was naturally not aware of Oort and Baade's earlier discussion of this concept.
54. Babcock H. W. Beckers J. M., 22 Jan. 1993. I am greatly indebted to Dr Babcock for telling me of his recollection, and sending me a copy of this letter. He thought their conversation was “in 1953 (or possibly in the preceding year)” since Oort was not in Pasadena in 1953 but was for nearly three months in early 1952 it must have been then. At least partial corroboration is in WB to [JH]O, 14 Oct. 1957, ULL, a retrospective letter Baade wrote after learning from Oort that the ESO project would go ahead. In it Baade said he was enthusiastic as he was when they discussed it on the automobile trip from Amsterdam (when Baade arrived by air in May 1953) through the tulip fields to Leiden. Its seems unlikely that this topic would have come up spontaneously under those circumstances, but quite natural if Oort were reminding Baade of their early discussion, and telling him that now was the time to go ahead with it.
55. WB to the Higher Educational Authorities in Hamburg, [-1 July 1927], HHL.
56. Schoenberg E., “Astronomische Arbeiten in Sudwestafrika”, AN, cclvii (1935), 201–10; Sandig H.-U., “Uber Extinktion und Himmelshelligkeit in Windhuk, Sudwestafrika”, AN, cclxii (1937), 385–98; Schoenberg E. to [W]B, 13 July 1939, HHL.
57. [JHO] to WB, 16 Nov. 1954, 4 Oct. 1956, WB to [JH]O, 25 Jan. 1955, 1 Oct. 1956, AIP; Lindblad B. to [W]B, 15 Nov. 1954, HHL.
58. WB to [JH]O, 24 Mar., 17 Nov., 8 Dec. 1957, [JHO] to WB, 4 Nov. 1957, ULL.
59. La structure et l'évolution de l'univers: Onzième Conseil de Physique tenu a l'Université de Bruxelles du 9 au 13 juin 1958 (Brussels, 1957); Mehra J., The Solvay Conferences in Physics: Aspects of the development of physics since 1911 (Dordrecht, 1975); [WB], “Vortrag in Brussel: The basic obsevational data” (handwritten notes, in English, for his report at the Solvay conference), [≈1 June] 1958, HHL.
60. “Program of the One Hundredth Meeting of the AAS, …, Madison, Wisconsin, June 29–July 2, 1958” [Madison] Wisconsin State journal 30 June, 1 July 1958. I was at the AAS meeting in Madison and remember Baade's Russell Lecture well. At midnight on 30 June he, Whitford Albert E., who at that same instant was officially transferring from the University of Wisconsin faculty to the University of California (as director of Lick Observatory), and I, moving from Caltech to Wisconsin (as an assistant professor), were talking over a few quiet glasses of beer in Baade's motel near the campus.
61. JWB to WB, 15 Apr., 31 July 1958, WB to CIW, 5 June 1958, CIW.
62. WB to C[PG], 29 Mar. 1957, DHM to WB, 4 Apr., 27 Sep. 1957, MGB to CPG, 10 Apr. 1957, DHM to MGB, 25 Feb., 15 July 1958, MGB to DHM, 10 Mar. 1958, HCO.
63. C[PG] to W[B], 20 July 1958, HHL; W[B] to N[UM], 9 Oct. 1958, SLO.
64. WB to [HH]S, 6 Dec. 1958, WB, “Harvard Lectures (Fall Term 1958–59)” [a spiral notebook containing his detailed notes for the first 19 lectures, plus outlines on sheets of paper for the rest], HHL; WB, Evolution in stars and galaxies: Lectures delivered at the Harvard College Observatory, transcribed from tape recordings by Richard S. Rodman (Cambridge, 1959) (typed, mimeographed notes, 432 pp., later published as a facsimile (Ann Arbor, 1980)).
65. WB, “Supernovae and californium 254”, PASP, lxviii (1956), 296–300; WB to [HH]S, 1 Dec. 1958, WB, “Lectures at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton [:] The observational basis for our present ideas about the evolution of stars and galaxies” [his hand-written notes for four lectures, 23 Jan., 30 Jan., 6 Feb., 13 Feb. 1959], HHL; WB to [EB]B, 10 Jan 1959, CIW.
66. BJB to WB, 28 May 1958, HHL; WB to Registrar, ANU, 4 June 1958. ANU; JLP to WB, 11 Nov. 1958, WB to JLP, 13 Dec. 1958, ATNF.
67. BJB to WB, 19 Feb. 1939, BJB to Westley D., 3 Mar. 1959, ANU; JLP to WB, 18 Mar. 1959, BJB to I[S]B, 14 Apr. 1959, HHL; WB to D[HM], 28 Apr. 1959, HCO.
68. BJB to JLP, 2 Jan. 1959, JLP to BJB, 9 Jan. 1959, BJB to WB, 30 Jan. 1959, ATNF; Programme, “Symposium on cosmology”, 2–3 April 1959, ANU; BJB, “Mount Stromlo Observatory annual report for 1959”, 18 Jan. 1960, Tifft W. G. Collection.
69. WB to [JH]O, 29 June 1959, OLL; WB to H[HS], 17 July 1959, OLL, WB, “7 Lectures at the Australian National University July 2–Aug. 13, 1959” (his notes), HHL. The attitudes of the young astronomers and graduate students are based on my interviews of Roger Bell and John Whiteoak (students) in 1994 and on a memo from Alex Rodgers (research associate), written in May 1995.
70. “Visit to Western Australia by Mount Stromlo astronomers and visitors from the United States” (press release), 24 July 1959, Tifft W. G. Collection; WB to [EB]B, 26 May 1959, CIW; Whiteoak J. B., “Student memories of Bart Bok, an astronomical godfather”, Proceedings of the Astronomical Society of Australia, v (1984), 608–10.
71. JLP to WB, 28 May, 25 June, 26 Aug. 1959, WB to JLP, 2 June 1959, JLP to [B. Y.] Mills, [C. M.] Wade, 14 Sep. 1959, ATNF; WB, “First Sydney lecture” (actually notes for several lectures he gave there), [∼1 Sep. 1959], [C. E.] Mees K. to BJB, 20 Apr. 1959, WB to H[HS], 29 July 1959, HHL.
72. [HHS] to [W]B, 4 Dec. 1958, 6 Jan. 1959, WB to H[HS], 21 Oct. 1959, HHL.
73. Nassau J. J. to WB, 16 Sep. 1958, GO; “Astronomie und Astrophysik, Vorlesungsankundingung für das Winter-Semester 1959/60” [mimeographed one-page course announcement including WB, “Entwicklung von Sternen und Sternsystem”], “Göttingen, Klassifikation der Sternsystem nach Typus” [Baade's notes in German for only one lecture, closely following his notes for his second lecture at Harvard in the autumn of 1958], HHL.
74. WB to [EB]B, 26 May 1959, HB to [EB]B, 10 June, 31 July 1959, WB to [JW]B, 14 Jan. 1960, CIW; WB to D[H]M, 3 Jan. 1960, HCO.
75. [H]B to J[HO], 5 Feb. 1960, ULL; Heckmann O. to LRS, 18 July 1960, P. ten Bruggencate to [LRS], 28 July 1960, SLO. The last two letters were originally written in German to Baade's old friend the Marine chaplain, who understood the language well but was not familiar with medical terminology. Schmieder sent his own translations into English to Mayall (and Bowen), and these translations are all that I have seen. They are the main sources for most of the details of Baade's illness and death.
76. Keller G. to WB, 25 Aug. 1959, Haskins C. P. to ISB, 3 Feb. 1960, ISB to WB, 19 Feb. 1960, [HHS] to W[B], 19 Feb. 1960, HB to [EB]B, 1 Mar. [1960], H[HS] to [IS]B, 25 Apr. 1960, HB to [IS]B, 7 July 1960, HHL.
77. DHM to MGB, 24 Nov. 1959, MGB to DHM, 1 Dec. 1959, DHM to WB, 7 Dec. 1959, HCO.
78. JHO to WB, 15 Feb., 14 June 1960, ULL; Fowler W. A. to WB, 6 May 1960, GO.
79. [H]B to [JW]B, 2 Dec. 1963, 25 July 1965, 1 Oct. 1967, 12 Sep. 1976, U. Albrecht to CIW, 18 Sep. [19]82, 17 Sep. 1988, CIW.
80. [JHO] to HB, 12 July 1960, ULL; HHS to W[B], 6 Mar., 2 Apr., 2 June, 1960, H[HS] to [HB], 5 May, 6 July 1960, HHL.
81. ISB to [H]B, 27 June 1960, JHO to ISB, 19 Aug., 15 Sep. 1960, ISB to JHO, 26 Aug., 25 Oct. 1960, HHL.
82. HB to [JH]O, 15 July, 21 Aug., 1 Sep., [∼16 Sep.] 1960, 26 Feb. [19]61, JHO to HB, 27 Aug., 14 Sep. 1960, 31 Jan. 1961, ULL; ISB to JHO, 28 Sep., 1 Dec., 20 Dec. 1960, R[M] to H[HS], 7 Oct. 1960, RM to ISB, 21 Oct. 1960, HHL.
83. WB HHS, “The Draco system, a dwarf galaxy”, AJ, lxvi (1961), 300–47; WB and HHS, “Variable star field 96′ south preceding the nucleus of the Andromeda galaxy”, AJ, lxviii (1963), 435–69; WB and HHS, “Variables in the Andromeda galaxy — fields I and III”, AJ, lxx (1965), 212–68; WB and HCA, “Positions of emission nebulae in M 31”, ApJ, cxxxix (1964), 1027–44; HCA, “Spiral structure in M 31”, ApJ, cxxxix (1964), 1045–57.
84. van Agt S. L. Th. J., “A discussion of the Ursa Major dwarf galaxy based on plates obtained by Walter Baade”, BAN, xix (1968), 275–302; Trimble V., “Motions and structure of the filamentary envelope of the Crab nebula”, AJ, lxxiii (1968), 535–50.
85. Plaut L. to H[HS], 12 Aug. 1960, HHL; Rubin V. C., “Structure and evolution of the galactic system”, Physics today, xiii (1960), Dec. issue, 32–35.
86. Wright F. W. to Gaustad J., 8 Aug. 1960, JHO to CPG, 12 Oct., 22 Nov. 1960, CPG to JHO, 14 Nov. 1960, 16 Mar. 1961, JHO to HB, 22 Nov. 1960, HB to [JH]O, 24 Nov. 1960, 12 Apr. [19]61, JHO to Wilson T., 6 Apr. [19]61, ULL; C[PG] to D[HM], 24 Oct. 1960, DHM to CPG, 1 Nov., 16 Nov. 1960, Federer H. S. to DHM, 2 Nov. 1960, HCO.
87. WB, ed. by CPG, Evolution of stars and galaxies (Cambridge, Mass., 1963); Fisher M. G. to DEO, 14 Aug. 1997.