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Epilogue: Transnational Mirrors for the Stars

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Abstract

The Epilogue describes what happened with the observatory after the American scientists left, not imagining there was another chapter yet to be told for American Science in the south. Although there is no direct relationship, it connects this story to the further development in Astronomy, in the 1960s Chile, and sets the difference between how societies dealt with science in the early twentieth century, and then in the global sixties. Through the epilogue it is clear how this history of an observatory in the early twentieth century has much to say on the north-south approach. By analyzing this unique experience, and connecting it with the further development of astronomy in the sixties, we can open perspectives to understand the complexity of science and international relations.

This section is based in the research of the FONDECYT project num. 3170099, PI Bárbara Silva, Stars and Galaxies from the South: Chile and Its ScientificAstronomical Insertion in the Global Cold War , 19621973.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Erich Heilmaier, “Informaciones preliminares sobre la velocidad radial de β Crucis,” Revista Universitaria 23, no. 2 (1938): 187.

  2. 2.

    Andreas Reisenegger, “Estrella del pasado,” Revista Universitaria 116 (2012): 25.

  3. 3.

    David Reynolds, “Science, Technology, and the Cold War ,” The Cambridge History of the Cold War , Vol. 3, eds. Melvyn P. Leffler and Odd Arne Westad (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 399.

  4. 4.

    Nils Gilman, Mandarins of the Future: Modernization Theory in the Cold War America (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007), 7.

  5. 5.

    John Krige, “Embedding the National in the Global: US–French Relationships in Space Science and Rocketry in the 1960s,” Science and Technology in the Global Cold War , eds. Naomi Oreskes and John Krige (Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 2014), 230.

  6. 6.

    George Reisch, “When Structure Met Sputnik: On the Cold War Origins of the Structure of Scientific Revolutions,” Science and Technology in the Global Cold War, eds. Naomi Oreskes and John Krige (Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 2014), 371; Erik M. Conway, “Bringing NASA Back to Earth: A Search for Relevance During the Cold War ,” Science and Technology in the Global Cold War , eds. Naomi Oreskes and John Krige (Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 2014), 251.

  7. 7.

    “Convention Portant la Création d’une Organisation Européenne pour des Recherches Astronomiques dans l’Hémisphère Austral, signée à Paris, 5 Octobre 1962.” Archivo del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Chile, Fondo Organismos Internacionales, Vol. 400.

  8. 8.

    Hilmar W. Duerbeck, “National and International Activities in Chile 1849–2002,” Astronomical Society of the Pacific 292 (2003): 9.

  9. 9.

    “Letter J.W. Joyce, Acting Deputy to Paul A. Siple, “Scientific Attaché, American Embassy Canberra,” February 28, 1966, Record Group 59, Entry 3008D, Box 20 Folder SCI 21 Visits, Missions, Astronomy, National Archives College Park, USA.

  10. 10.

    Hernán Quintana and Augusto Salinas, “Cuatro siglos de astronomía en Chile,” Revista Universitaria 83 (2004): 55.

  11. 11.

    Frank K. Edmonson, AURA and Its US National Observatories (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 137.

  12. 12.

    Jürgen Stock, “Chile Observatory Project: Seeing Expedition,” Stock Reports, w/d, Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory Library, Coquimbo, Chile.

  13. 13.

    El Mercurio, November 24, 1962, 25.

  14. 14.

    Ricardo Leiva, “Atacama: a 100 años del informe Curtis,” Revista de Humanidades 3 (2010): 21.

  15. 15.

    J.H. Oort, “Documents Pertaining to the Secretariat of the ESO Committee,” quoted in Adriaan Blaauw, ESO’s Early History: The European Southern Observatory from Concept to Reality (München: ESO, 1991), 48.

  16. 16.

    Duerbeck, “National and International Activities,” 18.

  17. 17.

    Edmonson, AURA and Its US National Observatories, 202.

  18. 18.

    “Carta de Luis Cubillos, Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores a Otto Heckmann,” November 27, 1963, Fondo Organismos Internacionales, Varios, Vol. 308, file 366. Archivo del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Chile.

  19. 19.

    The Alliance for Progress was Kennedy’s strategy to contain the spread of communism in Latin America, after the Cuban Revolution. It was officially announced in the 1961 Punta del Este Conference, as a collaborative plan between the US government and Latin American states. It sought strategic reforms for the region, such as Agrarian Reform, Educational Reform, housing, trading modernization, among others.

  20. 20.

    “Apoyo a la investigación astronómica,” El Mercurio, May 6, 1967, 1.

  21. 21.

    “Panorama. Beca para astrónomos,” Las Últimas Noticias, March 20, 1969, 6.

  22. 22.

    Sebastián López, et al. “Astronomía,” Análisis y Proyecciones de la Ciencia Chilena (Santiago: CONICYT, 2005), 239–259.

  23. 23.

    Javiera Barandiaran, “Reaching for the Stars? Astronomy and Growth in Chile,” Minerva 53 (2015): 141–164.

  24. 24.

    Consejo de Monumentos Nacionales, Decreto 0352, September 3, 2010.

  25. 25.

    “Telescopio del San Cristóbal inaugurado hace mas de 100 años vuelve a abrir sus puertas,” La Tercera, May 22, 2012.

  26. 26.

    Anna Sidorenko, “The UNESCO Thematic Initiative ‘Astronomy and World Heritage’,” Astronomy in Focus, Vol. 1, XXIXth IAU General Assembly (August 2015): 83–88.

  27. 27.

    Michel Cotte, “What Makes Astronomical Heritage Vaulable? Identifting Potentias Outstanding Universal Value in Cultural Properties Relating to Astronomy,” Astronomy in Focus, Vol. 1, XXIXth IAU General Assembly (August 2015): 93–96.

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Silva, B.K. (2019). Epilogue: Transnational Mirrors for the Stars. In: Astronomy at the Turn of the Twentieth Century in Chile and the United States. Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17712-6_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17712-6_6

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