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John Bolton, Gordon Stanley, Bruce Slee and the Riddle of the ‘Radio Stars’

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Exploring the History of New Zealand Astronomy

Part of the book series: Astrophysics and Space Science Library ((ASSL,volume 422))

Abstract

New Zealand’s role in unravelling the true nature of ‘radio stars’ during the 1940s is recounted, and more recent studies of galactic and extra-galactic radio emission undertaken in New Zealand are summarized.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In a useful review of the history of New Zealand radio astronomy, Marilyn Head (2010: 9) proudly identifies Bernie Mills as a New Zealander. While Bernie was happy to employ a ‘genuine’ New Zealand radio astronomer (e.g. Bruce McAdam), he was by birth, domicile and sentiment entirely Australian, even if his mother was a New Zealander. He was born in Manly, a well-known seaside suburb of Sydney, and studied engineering at the University of Sydney, before joining the CSIR’s Division of Radiophysics in 1948.

  2. 2.

    Peter Robertson (personal communication 2014) has suggested that

    … one factor in the ‘NZ lost opportunity’ is that, in contrast to the statutory body CSIRO, DSIR was part of the public service. There was a fair amount of freedom to carry out fundamental research in CSIRO, but less so in DSIR.

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Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the following people for the assistance: J.B. Buchanan (The New Zealand Herald, Auckland, NZ), the late John Bolton (Queensland, Australia), Dr Jessica Chapman (CSIRO Astronomy and Space Sciences, Sydney), Dr Dan Lewis (Huntington Library, San Marino, USA), Professor Alan Maxwell (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, USA), Dr Bruce Slee (CSIRO Astronomy and Space Sciences, Sydney), Professor Woody Sullivan (University of Washington, USA) and especially Peter Robertson (University of Melbourne). I also wish to thank Peter Robertson for reading and commenting on the first draft of this chapter, and CSIRO Astronomy and Space Sciences, the Huntington Library  and Bruce Slee for kindly providing Figs. 24.2, 24.3, 24.4 and 24.8.

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    Wayne Orchiston

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Orchiston, W. (2016). John Bolton, Gordon Stanley, Bruce Slee and the Riddle of the ‘Radio Stars’. In: Exploring the History of New Zealand Astronomy. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 422. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22566-1_24

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