The Universe in a Mirror: The Saga of the Hubble Space Telescope and the Visionaries Who Built It

331 Pages·2010·4.02 MB·English

by  Robert Zimmerman

THE UNIVERSE IN A MIRROR

T H E U N I V E R S E
I N A M I R R O R
The Saga of the Hubble Telescope
and the Visionaries Who Built It
WITH A NEW AFTERWORD BY THE AUTHOR
Robert Zimmerman
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
Princeton & Oxford
Copyright2008byRobertZimmerman
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Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds—and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ing there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace,
Where never lark, or even eagle flew;
The high, untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
JOHN GILLESPIE MAGEE, JR.

CONTENTS
Illustrations ix
Preface xiii
1. Foggy Vision 1
2. Slow Start 20
3. Getting Money 47
4. Building It 77
5. Saving It 118
6. “New Phenomena Not Yet Imagined” 157
7. Abandonment 182
8. The Lure of the Unknown 209
Afterword to the Paperback Edition 235
Notes 243
Bibliography 261
Index 279

ILLUSTRATIONS
Fig. 1.1 Gaviola image of Eta Carinae 3
Fig. 1.2. Lyman Spitzer, c1950 9
Fig. 1.3. Lyman Spitzer mountain climbing 14
Fig. 2.1. Nancy Roman 27
Fig. 2.2. C. Robert O’Dell 38
Fig. 3.1. Bob O’Dell and his airplane, c1979 49
Fig. 3.2. John, Neta, and Dan Bahcall, 1971 61
Fig. 4.1. Kris Davidson’s SIT image of Eta Carinae 79
Fig. 4.2. Jim Westphal 85
Fig. 4.3. Diagram showing of null corrector mirror positions 109
Fig. 4.4. Jim Westphal, Ed Weiler, Richard Harms, Bob O’Dell 115
Fig. 5.1. Chris Burrows in 1986, holding his 18-month-old
son Richard 128
Fig. 5.2. Sandra Faber 131
Fig. 5.3. Comparison of simulated and real image 137
Fig. 5.4. Ed Weiler 142
Fig. 5.5. Diagram showing error in placing field mirror 146
Fig. 5.6. Musgrave and Hoffman working around Hubble 155
Fig. 6.1. Deconvoluted Eta Carinae image 159
Fig. 6.2. December 18, 1993, second light 160
Fig. 6.3. SN1987a 162
Fig. 6.4. Nova Cygni 1992 163
Fig. 7.1. Sean O’Keefe on the day of the Columbia accident 186
Fig. 7.2. Sean O’Keefe inspecting shuttle debris 189
Fig. 7.3. Steve Beckwith 198
Fig. 7.4. Michael Griffin 207
Fig. 8.1. Lyman Spitzer on Baffin Island 232