Gingerich, Owen.
Ad astra per aspera: from the sewers of Kansas to Harvard College Observatory.
In this essay, Owen Gingerich describes his path from his childhood interest in astronomy, through an after-school job cleaning sewers, to his career at Harvard College Observatory. He discusses: the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO); Virginia Nail; Fred Whipple; Bart Bok; assisting Harlow Shapley; Sky and Telescope magazine, and its editors Charile and Helen Federer; Donald Menzel; Cecilia Payne-Gsposchkin; Walter Baade; teaching; Miriam Gingerich (nee Sensenig); American University in Beirut; Chuck Whitney; the IBM 704 computer; the CIA.
Owen Jay Gingerich (1930-), a former Research Professor of Astronomy and of the History of Science at Harvard University, and a senior astronomer emeritus at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. In addition to his research and teaching, he has written many books on the history of astronomy.
Baade, Walter, 1893-1960
Bok, Bart J. (Bart Jan), 1906-1983
Federer, Charles, 1909-
Federer, Helen Spence
Gingerich, Owen.
Menzel, Donald H. (Donald Howard), 1901-1976
Nail, Virginia McKibben
Payne-Gaposchkin, Cecilia, 1900-1979
Shapley, Harlow, 1885-1972.
Whipple, Fred L. (Fred Lawrence), 1906-2004
Whitney, Charles Allen
American Association of Variable Star Observers.
American University of Beirut
Central Intelligence Agency
Harvard College Observatory.
IBM 704 (Computer)
Biography files.
Sky and telescope
AIP-ICOS
American Institute of Physics. Niels Bohr Library & Archives. One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA