< Citizen Scientists Track the Skies

Creating "Citizen Scientists Track the Skies"
by Clare Moran, Anh-Thu Ngo, and Laura Neuhaus

Our exhibit explores how the public used amateur astronomy and radio practices to engage with the first man-made objects in a newly politicized space. The final product is the culmination of many brainstorming sessions, archival digging, creative object sourcing, and long afternoons mounting LEDs with a ladder and levels.

Starting Point
The kernel we started from was Jeremy Blatter's and Chris Phillips' upcoming fall exhibit on science pedagogy in the classroom during the Cold War. A few seed materials were temporarily installed in the third floor exhibit space, including amateur radio instruments and paraphernalia, a chemistry set, a few classroom chemistry textbooks, and calculating devices. We were encouraged to build our project within the Cold War paradigm to explore how science and its everyday practice evolved during the period.

After some searching we turned to investigate the groups at the fringes of big science: amateurs and hobbyists who tinkered with their own instruments. In researching how everyday citizens engaged with scientific pursuits, we discovered Operation Moonwatch. It was a national effort to recruit citizens into a corps of amateur astronomers to watch for the first artificial satellites, including the launch of the Soviet satellite, Sputnik, in October 1957. We were intrigued by Operation Moonwatch's public outreach to educate and mobilize citizens around the new frontier -- space. The practice of amateur scientists could serve as a useful platform to explore popular attitudes toward science during the Cold War.

Research & Sourcing Materials
We plumbed the Harvard University Archives, the Harvard Film Archive, and Wolbach Library to find source materials on the Moonwatch project, since it was started in Cambridge, MA, by the astronomer Fred Whipple. We also wanted to get a sense of how the beginning of the Space Race was depicted to the general public. From the University Archives, we made digital scans of relevant articles from Sky & Telescope, an important publication for the astronomy community, once housed in Cambridge. From the Film Archives, we obtained digital versions of newsreels and a short film about moon travel, all from the Somerville High School Collection of the late-1950s to mid-1960s.

To collect objects, our primary resource was eBay. Except for Fred Whipple's telescope, the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments didn't have many objects that were used by amateurs. With our budget we purchased a variety of items from Ebay, including print materials about Sputnik's launch and the Moonwatch program, photographs, pertinent scouting manuals on space science, popular magazines, and even a star-finder chart.

With the assistance of Sara Schechner, the Curator of the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, we also contacted the Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston (ATMoB). We attended one of their monthly meetings to inquire about items or stories that current members might be able to contribute, related to our Sputnik and Moonwatch focus. We talked to a couple of members who were active in Operation Moonwatch around the time of Sputnik's launch and audio recorded an interview with one person. One of the ATMoB members, Ken Launie, kindly offered many objects from his personal collection that ultimately made it into the exhibit. Though Ken was too young to participate in Moonwatch, he has amassed a number of objects from the era, especially items owned by amateurs.

In the exhibit, we feature three telescopes, some star-finder charts, astronomy toys, a magazine cover of the first man in space, among other objects from Ken"s collection.

We also interviewed Owen Gingerich, Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and History of Science, who was an amateur telescope-maker in addition to his professional pursuits. He graciously offered a set of three books that were considered the "Bible" for amateur astronomers at the time, to add to our exhibit.

Designing the Exhibit
After getting an idea of what kinds of materials and stories we had to work with, we started to think about how we wanted the exhibit to come together. Because we had rich, evocative objects, we wanted to make them the centerpiece of the third floor lobby space to develop a wunderkammer-like effect, where the visitor is immersed in the physicality of the materials. We chose to emphasize wonder over understanding to produce a feeling in the exhibit that pointed to the practices and sensibilities of citizen scientists instead of a direct, unambiguous narrative.

As for the organization of the materials, our idea was to focus on the paraphernalia from the era to capture the socialization and politicization of space to set the tone. The physical instruments -- the telescopes and radios -- would provide a context for how observations on the satellites were carried out. These objects were grouped together -- visual astronomy materials in one case and radio devices in another. Print materials such as "how to build your own telescope" and popular literature on early space exploration asked the visitor to slow down and read.

inally, widely distributed educational films about new space technologies projected onto the wall enlivened the exhibit, particularly through the recognizable voice of a narrator of the 1950-60s. We also wanted to design an experiential part of the exhibit that would echo amateur astronomers" act of observing the night sky, searching for Sputnik. One of the first ideas we had was to install a multi-person viewing station. At first we planned to use a program called Stellarium which could render the night sky from October 4, 1957 (Sputnik's launch). However the program could only be displayed on a single monitor, and we wanted to encompass the entire space with the interactive element. To achieve these dimensions, we decided to build our own abstract, handmade version. We decided to go with a rudimentary setup that would represent Sputnik flying across the sky: the “sky” was a black foamboard with red LEDs poking through on the inside of the exhibit. On the opposite wall, outside the exhibit, we planned to have a group of cardboard telescopes which were each trained on an individual LED. The LEDs are powered by an arduino, which we had help programming from friend David Nunez. He designed a simple program that directed the LEDs to turn on in sequence, thus suggesting a red object streaking across the black sky. This setup made use of the odd configuration of our exhibit space -- a narrow rectangular area with a high ceiling, enclosed on three sides by glass. The glass wall separating our exhibit space from the outside hall became a feature by which we could invite passersby to engage with our project. We signaled the interactive dimension of the cardboard telescope tubes by mounting them against a panel of black vinyl to partially obscure parts of the exhibit on the other side of the glass wall. People could sit on the bench in the hall, below the vinyl panel, and look through the telescope tubes to wait for a 'Sputnik sighting.'

Installation Process
With invaluable help from the curatorial staff in the History of Science Department, we began the installation process. Sara Schechner advised us on the placement of objects in suitable cases. With her, we worked out a way to leave some materials (specifically a number of print acquisitions from eBay) on one marked shelf accessible for the public's perusal, in the spirit of "Tangible Things." Visitors could flip through one of the "Bibles" of amateur astronomy or play with a starfinder chart. They could open the drawers of the period desk/workstation we put in place to find a Sputnik blueprint and a LIFE magazine from the era, among other materials. Sammie Van Gerbig took digital photos of Sky & Telescope articles that we wanted to put on display and designed labels and photos with the appropriate style and colors of the period in mind. Marty Richardson and Richard Wright assisted by making tools available for mounting and lending a hand with some of the grunt work. We got the LED-night sky panels up at a height of eight feet but struggled more with applying the adhesive vinyl to the glass wall without wrinkling the material or creating bubbles in it. Another challenge was finding a way to make the cardboard telescope tubes and mounting them at the right angle for a Sputnik sighting. Ultimately, the project came together with lots of hands working hard in the last days before the opening event.

We have been receiving positive feedback about the exhibit space and look forward to it being integrated into the Cold War Classroom exhibit that Jeremy Blatter and Chris Phillips will put on in fall 2011.