RT Journal Article
T1 Revealing observatory networks through object stories: Observatory audiences
A1 Rebekah Higgitt
A1 Susana Biro
A1 Pedro M P Raposo
YR 2023
VO 
IS Autumn 2023
K1 artwork
K1 astrographic
K1 astronomy
K1 Audiences
K1 Carte du Ciel
K1 Models
K1 networks
K1 object stories
K1 observatories
K1 observatory sites
K1 Royal Observatory Edinburgh
K1 scientific lectures
K1 telescopes
K1 time ball
K1 time gun
K1 time signals
K1 timekeeping
K1 world fairs
K1 Yerkes Observatory
AB Like the contributions to the other papers in this collection (‘Object itineraries’ and ‘Instrumental networks’), those in this final section explore instrumental networks and object itineraries in order to tell new histories of observatory sites and their associated networks. (For a discussion of the genesis and thinking behind the collection of papers see the ‘Introduction’). Here, however, they focus on object stories that highlight the opportunities for and importance of communicating with those outside the scientific community. They show, however, a wide range of potential and actual audiences to be mediated between, from closely associated scientific institutions and those holding the purse strings within government, to groups making up the local civic society and a wider and more diffuse audience for scientific outputs and achievements. The objects explored here are an 1850s model of electrically triggered time signals, associated with those at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh; a late nineteenth-century astrographic telescope that, with approval of scientific and governmental audiences, brought the National Astronomical Observatory of Mexico into an international project and subsequently found new audiences through public display and artistic intervention; and a photoelectric relay that advertised the Yerkes Observatory to the Chicago and visiting public by forming part of a stunt, whereby the light of a distant star triggered the lighting of the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition.
NO This object has since been moved to the first-floor landing and has received a registration number: SH.2023.001.
NO I would like to thank Nico Tyack, Collections Information Officer for Museums & Galleries Edinburgh, for looking into this and suggesting possible routes by which the model may have entered the collections, as well as for taking photographs to accompany this piece.
NO Information from Alison Morrison-Low, current President of the RSSA.
NO Hewat was a silk mercer and a Director of the Chamber of Commerce: Anon, 1861a, pp xv, xix.
NO An 1856 advertisement in The Scotsman gives his address and offers chemical and philosophical apparatus for school laboratories, Bunsen burners, microscopes, medical galvanic apparatus and gas stoves.
NO National Museums Scotland (NMS): T.1856.19 and T.1858.235
NO There are examples of such cannon, or noon, dials at the National Maritime Museum: AST0179 and AST0432.
NO Maria Short’s popular observatory had begun life on Calton Hill, before moving to Castlehill: see Loader (2018) for its, and her, fascinating history. I have not found mention of a time ball/gun model at the observatory under Hart’s tenure. He lived there with his family until his death in 1893. The year before, the building had been acquired by Patrick Geddes and it was subsequently developed into his Outlook Tower.
NO NMS: T.2005.75
NO NMS: Science & Technology departmental files
NO See Gillen, 2021, pp 189–195 on the differing views about accuracy and audience for audible time signals.
NO A copy of this map was included amongst other papers and objects in a sealed glass jar placed under the foundation stone of the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art on 23 October 1861 (Tate, 2011).
NO Geographical engineers in Mexico at that time were dedicated to cartography and for this purpose used astronomy, geodesy and topography. 
NO Report from Guillermo Beltrán y Puga to the Director, 4 December 1887, Fondo Observatorio Astronómico Nacional, box 14. 
NO In 1929, the Observatory became part of the newly established National Autonomous University (UNAM).
NO Mostly spectroscopy
NO Letter from Haro to Hiltner, 6 May1952; Letter from Hiltner to Haro, 19 February 1953; Letter from Haro to Hiltner, 9 December 1954; Guillermo Haro Archive, William Hiltner File. This archive is in possession of Haro’s family, who have kindly permitted access. 
NO As a reward to Luis Enrique Erro for his participation in the Revolution.
NO Interview with Rafael Costero, 21 September 2015, Oral History Project, Institute of Astronomy, UNAM.
NO Interview with Oscar Chapa, 13 December 2022.
NO Interview with José Peña, 12 December 2022.
NO On the history of photoelectric photometry, see David S Liebl, Christopher Fluke, ‘Investigations of the interstellar medium at Washburn Observatory, 1930–58’, Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage 7 (2004): 85–94.
NO F R Moulton, ‘Report of the Committee on Astronomy – National Research Council Science Advisory Committee of the Chicago Century of Progress – 1933’, 28 December 1929, Adler Planetarium archives, APIR Series XIV – Century of Progress, Box 1, Folder 2. 
NO On the representation of astronomy and cosmology in world fairs, see Brodherson (2021).
NO The Arcturus stunt has been the subject of doubt and even mockery among the planetarium and observatory communities. The historian of Yerkes Observatory Donald E Osterbrock suggested that ‘perhaps it was just cloudy there [in Williams Bay] but Elvey shone a light up on the dome’ (Osterbrock, 1997, p 138). An online account makes reference to the possibility of light from Arcturus having been collected with a telescope placed in the balcony of the Hall of Science: https://www.universetoday.com/100799/the-curious-and-confounding-story-of-how-arcturus-electrified-chicago/ (accessed 5 March 2023). 
PB The Science Museum Group
SN 2054-5770
LA eng
DO 10.15180/232006
UL https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/revealing-observatory-networks-through-object-stories-observatory-audiences/
WT Science Museum Group Journal
OL 30