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Astronomy at the Turn of the Twentieth Century in Chile and the United States pp 1–11Cite as

Introduction: Look Up to Southern Stars

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Abstract

The introduction opens with remarks on how astronomy connects us with our past; every human being, in every time or place, has done the same gesture: looking up, to those lights within the darkness. The introduction presents the development of astronomy in Chile before the Mills Expedition arrival. There was only one previous initiative in the mid nineteenth century, also led by Americans—in this case, by Lt. James Melville Gilliss. Afterwards, I present the background of James Lick, the donor of the Lick Observatory. Lick’s life takes us to South America in the 1830s, in his longing to become wealthy and get the love of his life.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Consejo de Monumentos Nacionales de Chile, Decree number 0352, September 3, 2010.

  2. 2.

    Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2012 [1962]), 111.

  3. 3.

    Lissa Roberts, “Situating Science in Global History: Local Exchanges and Networks of Circulation,” Itinerario 33, no. 1 (2009): 9–30.

  4. 4.

    Jesus Galindo, Arqueoastronomía en la América Antigua (Madrid: Sirius, 1994).

  5. 5.

    Edward Grant, Physical Science in the Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977), 60ff; Jacques Le Goff, Los intelectuales en la Edad Media (Barcelona: Gedisa, 1990), 139–149.

  6. 6.

    René Taton and Curtis Wilson, eds., Planetary Astronomy from the Renaissance to the Rise of Astrophysics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989).

  7. 7.

    With this statement, the intention is to recall initiatives related to modern science, and not those of ancestral concerns and knowledge regarding the stars. Indigenous people of Chile certainly studied stellar movements. Although fascinating, that is part of another story and I do not include it in this book.

  8. 8.

    Alonso de Ovalle, Historica relacion del Reyno de Chile y de las missiones y ministerios que exercita en la Compañía de Jesus (Roma: Francisco Cavallo, 1646).

  9. 9.

    Hernán Quintana and Augusto Salinas, “Cuatro siglos de astronomía en Chile,” Revista Universitaria 83 (2004): 54.

  10. 10.

    Ricardo Leiva, “Atacama: a 100 años del informe Curtis,” Revista de Humanidades, 3 (2010): 12.

  11. 11.

    Sebastián López et al., “Astronomía,” Análisis y Proyecciones de la Ciencia Chilena (Santiago: CONICYT, 2005), 240; Patricio Rogers, “La Astronomía en Chile durante la segunda mitad del siglo XX,” Revista Chilena de Historia y Geografía 150 (1982): 30.

  12. 12.

    Diego Barros Arana, Un decenio de la historia de Chile 1841–1851 (Santiago: Universitaria, 1905–1906), 405.

  13. 13.

    Barros Arana, Un decenio, 406.

  14. 14.

    Arturo Aldunate Phillips, Los grandes observatorios astronómicos instalados en Chile (unpublished, 1977), 10.

  15. 15.

    Augusto Salinas, La ciencia en Chile y en los Estados Unidos de Norteamérica: un análisis histórico comparado (1776–1976) (Santiago: CONICYT, 1976), 119.

  16. 16.

    Rogers, “La Astronomía en Chile”, 29.

  17. 17.

    Salinas, La ciencia en Chile, 119.

  18. 18.

    In fact, afterwards Gilliss was appointed in charge of the United States Naval Observatory, where he experienced the civil war. Steven J. Dick, Sky and Ocean Joined. The U.S. Naval Observatory 1830–2000 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 140ff.

  19. 19.

    James M. Gilliss, The US Naval Expedition to the Southern Hemisphere (Washington, DC: A.O.P. Nicholson Printer, 1855); Hilmar W. Duerbeck, “National and International Astronomical Activities in Chile,” Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series 292 (2003): 4.

  20. 20.

    Salinas, La ciencia en Chile, 118–119.

  21. 21.

    Barros Arana, Un decenio, 408.

  22. 22.

    Duerbeck, “National and International Astronomical,” 5.

  23. 23.

    Leiva “Atacama: a 100 años,” 14.

  24. 24.

    Rosemary Lick, The Generous Miser: The Story of James Lick of California (Los Angeles: The Ward Ritchie Press, 1967).

  25. 25.

    Donald E. Osterbrock, John R. Gustafson, and Shiloh Unruh, Eye on the Sky: Lick Observatory First Century (Oakland: University of California Press, 2010), 3. Authors detail a series of adventures Lick experienced when going back to Argentina from a trip to Europe, including nearly sinking in the ocean and the escape from the Brazilian army.

  26. 26.

    Lick, The Generous Miser.

  27. 27.

    Bárbara Silva y Josefina Cabrera, Chile, 100 días en la historia del siglo XX (Santiago: Planeta, 2015), 57ff.

  28. 28.

    Andrés Reséndez, “Guerra e identidad nacional,” Historia Mexicana 47, no. 2 (1997): 412–413

  29. 29.

    Fernando Purcell, ¡Muchos extranjeros para mi gusto! Mexicanos, chilenos e irlandeses en la construcción de California, 1848–1880 (Santiago: FCE, 2016), 51.

  30. 30.

    H.W. Brands, The Age of Gold: The California Gold Rush and the New American Dream (New York: Anchor, 2003), 103–121.

  31. 31.

    Lick, The Generous Miser.

  32. 32.

    Donald E. Osterbrock, James E. Keeler: Pioneer American Astrophysicist and the Early Development of American Astrophysics (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 38.

  33. 33.

    Deed of trust of James Lick , dated September 21, 1875, and recorded in the Office of the Recorder, of the County of San Francisco , State of California, November 10, 1875. B1464518x, San Francisco Public Library, California, 17.

  34. 34.

    Lick grave is actually under one of the Lick Observatory’s domes. With an amazing system of gears and pulleys, the ground moved up and down the base of the telescope , which allowed a more precise observation. On this way, there was a space below the dome, some sort of basement, where Lick’s remains still lie, under the telescope he never got to see.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Bárbara K. Silva

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Silva, B.K. (2019). Introduction: Look Up to Southern 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_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17712-6_1

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