Can I read Big and Bright: A History of the McDonald Observatory (HISTORY OF SCIENCE SERIES) on EtoBox?

Big and Bright: A History of the McDonald Observatory (HISTORY OF SCIENCE SERIES) by Evans, David Stanley; Mulholland, J. Derral (John Derral), 1934- is a book available to read on EtoBox.

What is Big and Bright: A History of the McDonald Observatory (HISTORY OF SCIENCE SERIES) about?

By day, every year over 40,000 visitors pour in. Across the Rio Grande, a hundred miles away, Mexican mountaineers use the white domes as landmarks. By night, perched almost 7,000 feet above the sleeping, earthbound world, astronomers probe the secrets of the night sky. This is the University of Texas McDonald Observatory, one of the world's largest university-operated astronomical installations. Big and Bright: A History of the McDonald Observatory is the story of a remarkable collaboration between two major universities, one a prestigious private school, the other a growing southwestern state institution. The University of Chicago had astronomers, but its Yerkes Observatory was aging and underfunded; the University of Texas had money for an observatory but no working astronomer to staff it. Out of their mutual need, they formed a thirty-year compact for a joint venture. Unusual in its day, the Yerkes-McDonald connection presaged the future. In this arrangement, one can see some of the beginnings of today's consortium "big science." Now the McDonald Observatory's early history can be put in proper perspective. Blessed with a gifted and driving founding director, the world's (then)

Author

Evans, David Stanley; Mulholland, J. Derral (John Derral), 1934-

Publisher

Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press

Published

1986

Language

EN

ISBN

9780292707627

Subjects

Science, History, Astronomy