196
THE MICHIGAN QUARTERLY REVIEW
37-inch reflector is still the University's
only optical instrument with sufficient lightgathering power to be used for moderately
high-dispersion stellar spectroscopic work.
BY THE TIME this article appears in print,
the Department of Astronomy will have
moved its offices from the Observatory to
the new Physics-Astronomy Building. The
present Observatory site is very desirable for
the expansion of the University Medical
Center. Hence it is only a question of time
(how much is still somewhat vague) before
the 37-inch reflector will have to be moved
to a new location-in all probability Peach
Mountain, where it will have the company
of the Schmidt camera, another 24-inch reflector, and the radio telescopes.
In spite of the unfavorable present location, there have been distinct advantages in
having the 37-inch telescope right in town.
Most important has been accessibility for
the observers. When some item on the program is urgent, an observer who lives anywhere in Ann Arbor can be readying the
telescope within fifteen minutes of the time
the sky clears. Even in winter it could rarely
happen that access would be difficult or
time-consuming-a statement that is not
always true of the Peach Mountain site. Another important advantage is accessibility
for maintenance and repairs. Until very recently the Observatory shop was in the same
building, and now it is only a few minutes'
walk from the Observatory (at the North
University Building). Mechanical or electrical troubles can be reported quickly and
remedied quickly. The proximity of the telescope to offices and library is a convenience
not to be minimized. I suspect that the gain
in efficiency of observing at a new site will
not be an unmixed blessing.
O NE OF THE VIEWS I encounter repeatedly is summed up in the question:
"Why not give up fighting the Michigan
climate and move the telescope to Arizona?"
One answer is that the expense could not be
justified for an instrument of the limited
power of the 37-inch, though it could very
well be for a much larger one. A still more
important consideration is that the tele
scope and the astronomers must be together
if observing is to be done. It follows that an
astronomer who teaches on the campus
three-fourths of the year must either have
a telescope accessible from the campus, or
he must give up observing except during
vacations and sabbaticals. For my money, he
might as well just quit being an astronomer!
There are certainly good arguments for a
distant field station in a good climate. For
purely routine programs the observing could
be done by a technician and masterminded
by the astronomers on the campus a couple
of thousand miles away. But such an arrangement would be unsatisfactory if new
programs were to be started, new techniques
experimented with. Moreover, a distant field
station is very expensive, for it must have
an adequate maintenance staff (mechanics,
electricians, electronics technicians, etc.) to
make it self-reliant, if it is located some
miles from an urban community that could
supply services. If it is located near enough
to get good services from electricians (for
example) in town, then it is also likely to be
close enough to town to have trouble from
lights. Any way it is managed, a distant station is expensive; if it is not expensive, it
soon goes into decay from lack of maintenance.
Another arrangement that I have heard
mentioned is that each astronomer in turn
could spend a few weeks at a time at the
field station, while his classes were taught
by his colleagues at home. To put the matter
succinctly, this is "for the birds," so far as
this author is concerned. It is one of the
surest ways to produce deterioration of the
quality of teaching.
Peach Mountain, some sixteen miles from
Ann Arbor, is about the best solution consistent with having the astronomers live at
home, teach on the campus, and yet carry
on productive research continuously and in
parallel with their teaching. If there is to be
a distant and elaborate field station in an
ideal location, it must only be in addition to
-not instead of-a respectable research installation close to home. It has been on
exactly this type of arrangement that Michigan's high standing as an institution for
graduate study in astronomy has rested.
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