My Books
Czechoslovakia's Plight: Karel Hujer's Radio Broadcasts of his Homeland's Past and Future at the Unfolding of WWII — Published December 2023
Karel Hujer, Czech astronomer, lecturer, and world traveler, was on his second world tour and was wrapping up a two-month stay studying Incan astronomy in Peru in early September 1938. His plan was to winter over in Los Angeles before embarking by Greyhound Bus on a speaking tour across U.S. He would frequently stay with Czech emigres for whom his warm and engaging personality and fascinating conversation made a welcome guest of this fellow countryman. This last phase of his long trip would end in the spring of 1940, and he would return to his Bohemian hometown of Železný Brod and seek out a professorship somewhere in the Republic of Czechoslovakia.
At least that was the plan. Karel saw his free country disappear as a result of the Munich Agreement signed on September 30, 1938, by Neville Chamberlain, Édouard Daladier, Adolph Hitler, and Benito Mussolini. That notorious capitulation would strip away the so-called Sudeten region of Czechoslovakia as German territory. Five and a half months later, Hitler would strut onto the grounds of Prague Castle and coerce the puppet Czech government to become a German “Protectorate.”
With the demise of his free nation, Karel Hujer received a one-year extension on his U.S. visa. After that, he became a naturalized U.S. citizen and began his teaching career in America. In the spring of 1944, he obtained a position in the Michigan State College physics department. The MSC radio station WKAR invited Karel to present a weekly radio program with the title Czechoslovakia, Our Ally. This is a compilation of Karel’s personally typed scripts into a book enriched by his deep knowledge of Czech and European history and his command of the English language. The result is a series of heart-felt and gripping accounts of events, akin to William L Shirer's This is Berlin, as they were unfolding between May 4, 1944, and April 27, 1945.
The editors of this extensively annotated volume are an American astronomer who inherited Karel’s papers and a Czech physicist with a knowledge of Czech history that Karel would have admired.
Karel Hujer, Czech astronomer, lecturer, and world traveler, was on his second world tour and was wrapping up a two-month stay studying Incan astronomy in Peru in early September 1938. His plan was to winter over in Los Angeles before embarking by Greyhound Bus on a speaking tour across U.S. He would frequently stay with Czech emigres for whom his warm and engaging personality and fascinating conversation made a welcome guest of this fellow countryman. This last phase of his long trip would end in the spring of 1940, and he would return to his Bohemian hometown of Železný Brod and seek out a professorship somewhere in the Republic of Czechoslovakia.
At least that was the plan. Karel saw his free country disappear as a result of the Munich Agreement signed on September 30, 1938, by Neville Chamberlain, Édouard Daladier, Adolph Hitler, and Benito Mussolini. That notorious capitulation would strip away the so-called Sudeten region of Czechoslovakia as German territory. Five and a half months later, Hitler would strut onto the grounds of Prague Castle and coerce the puppet Czech government to become a German “Protectorate.”
With the demise of his free nation, Karel Hujer received a one-year extension on his U.S. visa. After that, he became a naturalized U.S. citizen and began his teaching career in America. In the spring of 1944, he obtained a position in the Michigan State College physics department. The MSC radio station WKAR invited Karel to present a weekly radio program with the title Czechoslovakia, Our Ally. This is a compilation of Karel’s personally typed scripts into a book enriched by his deep knowledge of Czech and European history and his command of the English language. The result is a series of heart-felt and gripping accounts of events, akin to William L Shirer's This is Berlin, as they were unfolding between May 4, 1944, and April 27, 1945.
The editors of this extensively annotated volume are an American astronomer who inherited Karel’s papers and a Czech physicist with a knowledge of Czech history that Karel would have admired.
Seeing the Unseen: Mount Wilson's Role in High Angular Resolution Astronomy — Published November 2020
This book tells the story of how stellar interferometry came to be in the early years of the 20th century and its subsequent development at Mount Wilson Observatory. Established in the San Gabriel Mountains of Southern California in 1904 by George Ellery Hale, Mount Wilson astronomers employed exquisite new instruments to create modern observational astrophysics. The 100-inch telescope, finished in 1919, was famously used by Edwin Hubble to define the expansion of the universe. On December 13, 1920, that telescope made the first measurement of the angular diameter of a star using the technique of interferometry developed by Albert Michelson and Francis Pease. This landmark accomplishment was a key step towards our understanding of the origin and evolution of the stars. Mount Wilson's role in this development would continue in fits and starts to the present day with the Observatory hosting the CHARA Array of Georgia State University, the world's highest-resolution stellar interferometer.
It is as much the story of those who rose to interferometry’s challenge as it is of how they met it. It is not an exhaustive compilation of all astronomical interferometers everywhere and shamelessly ignores the development of interferometry at radio wavelengths. It is not a highly technical overview of the field, a subject area presently well served by other books. My goal has been to provide detail of sufficient depth to see how an instrument works generally and explore the scientific results it produced. Extensive references are given for those wishing to dig deeper. And, as a kind of primer on interferometry, I’ve put together an appendix and frequently refer to relevant sections therein for those who want to know a little more on the spot. Any admirer of Mount Wilson Observatory will enjoy this book.
I am not a historian of science as was my mentor Karel Hujer. My lack of such training will be painfully apparent to many. Rather, I have spent my career pursuing high angular resolution astronomy along a path that led to a site famous for birthing our modern understanding of the universe. Along this path, I have gained unbounded respect for the enormous gift that George Ellery Hale gave to the world by what he created on Mount Wilson.
From the Foreword by William C. Wickes — In Seeing the Unseen, Harold McAlister, himself one of the key innovators and drivers of stellar interferometry, has given us a nicely multifaceted history of that discipline—the what, the where, and the who. Growing up in the Los Angeles suburbs, I was aware of Mount Wilson only as the place where our TV signals originated. Even during my later professional visits to the observatory, I was still mostly oblivious to the storied general history of the site and its telescopes. Reading Hal’s manuscript was a delightful education for me, and made me admire and appreciate the varied cast of characters who have created the Mount Wilson interferometry story. I believe that all readers will share these sentiments.
This book tells the story of how stellar interferometry came to be in the early years of the 20th century and its subsequent development at Mount Wilson Observatory. Established in the San Gabriel Mountains of Southern California in 1904 by George Ellery Hale, Mount Wilson astronomers employed exquisite new instruments to create modern observational astrophysics. The 100-inch telescope, finished in 1919, was famously used by Edwin Hubble to define the expansion of the universe. On December 13, 1920, that telescope made the first measurement of the angular diameter of a star using the technique of interferometry developed by Albert Michelson and Francis Pease. This landmark accomplishment was a key step towards our understanding of the origin and evolution of the stars. Mount Wilson's role in this development would continue in fits and starts to the present day with the Observatory hosting the CHARA Array of Georgia State University, the world's highest-resolution stellar interferometer.
It is as much the story of those who rose to interferometry’s challenge as it is of how they met it. It is not an exhaustive compilation of all astronomical interferometers everywhere and shamelessly ignores the development of interferometry at radio wavelengths. It is not a highly technical overview of the field, a subject area presently well served by other books. My goal has been to provide detail of sufficient depth to see how an instrument works generally and explore the scientific results it produced. Extensive references are given for those wishing to dig deeper. And, as a kind of primer on interferometry, I’ve put together an appendix and frequently refer to relevant sections therein for those who want to know a little more on the spot. Any admirer of Mount Wilson Observatory will enjoy this book.
I am not a historian of science as was my mentor Karel Hujer. My lack of such training will be painfully apparent to many. Rather, I have spent my career pursuing high angular resolution astronomy along a path that led to a site famous for birthing our modern understanding of the universe. Along this path, I have gained unbounded respect for the enormous gift that George Ellery Hale gave to the world by what he created on Mount Wilson.
From the Foreword by William C. Wickes — In Seeing the Unseen, Harold McAlister, himself one of the key innovators and drivers of stellar interferometry, has given us a nicely multifaceted history of that discipline—the what, the where, and the who. Growing up in the Los Angeles suburbs, I was aware of Mount Wilson only as the place where our TV signals originated. Even during my later professional visits to the observatory, I was still mostly oblivious to the storied general history of the site and its telescopes. Reading Hal’s manuscript was a delightful education for me, and made me admire and appreciate the varied cast of characters who have created the Mount Wilson interferometry story. I believe that all readers will share these sentiments.
Seeing the Unseen is available as an eBook or hardbound on Amazon.com. Members of the American Astronomical Society receive a 30% discount by ordering from the IOP Press online bookstore using the member discount code found here.
Policing Greene — Published August 2018 (Rated 5 out 5 stars by 32 Amazon readers)
In 1964 at age 48, Carlton Lewis took an abrupt turn in life to become a policeman in a rural Southern county - half white, half black - that must cope with new federal civil rights laws. He was a roughneck Son of the South whose grandfather owned slaves. How would he perform in his new role? Would he treat all Greene County citizens fairly and equally regardless of their color? This is the true story of an exceptional police officer at a turning point in U.S. history.
"Reuben Flynt lay sprawled on the floor, as still as the rest of the house. A thickening and darkening pool of blood haloed his head. Carlton had seen a lot in his nine years as a Deputy Sheriff of Greene County, Georgia, and more recently as Union Point Chief of Police - things he would not relate in any detail to his wife Eleanor. Those past acts of inhumanity paled in comparison with the violence that had befallen Reuben. His face was a pulverized facsimile of the bank vice president long held in the highest regard by his customers and community. Holstering his revolver, Carlton slowly shook his head. How in God's good world could such cruelty be visited upon this kind man?"
I wrote this book in collaboration with my good friend and Georgia State colleague Thomas Carlton Lewis whose father is the book's centerpiece. As Carlton's retirement as Police Chief of Union Point, Georgia loomed in early 1986, Tom talked his father into sitting down for a several-hour taped interview about his late-career switch to law enforcement. Carlton died unexpectedly just weeks later. From this rich set of audio tapes come the stories recounted here. Anyone interested in Southern history during this critical time will be fascinated by how a small-town police chief dealt with the travails of his neighbors, of all colors, without fitting into the Bull Connor stereotype of the day.
Praise for Policing Greene:
2009 Station Fire Threat to Mount Wilson Observatory — Published July 2019
On the afternoon of August 26, 2009, an arsonist lit a fire alongside the Angeles Crest Highway just up the road from – ironically – a U.S. Forest Service fire station. The "Station Fire" quickly got out of control and would consume more than 160,000 acres of Southern California's Angeles National Forest. Two firefighters would lose their lives. For a month, historic Mount Wilson Observatory would be threatened with destruction. The arsonist has never been caught.
This expanded edition of my 2011 book about the fire that might have destroyed this world-heritage class observatory was produced on the tenth anniversary of what remains the largest fire in Los Angeles County history. Originally created as a blog I produced in my capacity as Director of Mount Wilson Observatory, the new edition includes color photographs taken by Susan McAlister during our week spent on the mountain during the fire. Susan and I witnessed the persistent bravery and determination of firefighters from all over the western U.S. who had come to battle the Station Fire. The heroics of several Hotshot crews who clambered down steep slopes burdened with heavy equipment to hack fire line around the Observatory grounds is permanently stamped in our minds. The nights were lit up with fires sterilizing the slopes of distant mountains while the days were packed with the activity of those who came to protect the Observatory. We witnessed and photographed the fantastic aerial combat undertaken by skilled crews dropping water and fire retardant on the slopes of Mount Wilson.
In 1964 at age 48, Carlton Lewis took an abrupt turn in life to become a policeman in a rural Southern county - half white, half black - that must cope with new federal civil rights laws. He was a roughneck Son of the South whose grandfather owned slaves. How would he perform in his new role? Would he treat all Greene County citizens fairly and equally regardless of their color? This is the true story of an exceptional police officer at a turning point in U.S. history.
"Reuben Flynt lay sprawled on the floor, as still as the rest of the house. A thickening and darkening pool of blood haloed his head. Carlton had seen a lot in his nine years as a Deputy Sheriff of Greene County, Georgia, and more recently as Union Point Chief of Police - things he would not relate in any detail to his wife Eleanor. Those past acts of inhumanity paled in comparison with the violence that had befallen Reuben. His face was a pulverized facsimile of the bank vice president long held in the highest regard by his customers and community. Holstering his revolver, Carlton slowly shook his head. How in God's good world could such cruelty be visited upon this kind man?"
I wrote this book in collaboration with my good friend and Georgia State colleague Thomas Carlton Lewis whose father is the book's centerpiece. As Carlton's retirement as Police Chief of Union Point, Georgia loomed in early 1986, Tom talked his father into sitting down for a several-hour taped interview about his late-career switch to law enforcement. Carlton died unexpectedly just weeks later. From this rich set of audio tapes come the stories recounted here. Anyone interested in Southern history during this critical time will be fascinated by how a small-town police chief dealt with the travails of his neighbors, of all colors, without fitting into the Bull Connor stereotype of the day.
Praise for Policing Greene:
- "Wonderful book full of excitement moderated with compassion" - Former Georgia Governor Joe Frank Harris
- "A real page turner about a man who found his destiny" - Carey Williams, Editor & Publisher of The Greensboro Herald-Journal
- "Most of us living there weren't aware of the many dangerous situations he handled on our behalf, while giving out bubble gum to any child he saw! This terrific book at last tells his wonderful story." - Trey Rhodes, State Representative & Governor's Floor Leader Georgia House of Representatives.
2009 Station Fire Threat to Mount Wilson Observatory — Published July 2019
On the afternoon of August 26, 2009, an arsonist lit a fire alongside the Angeles Crest Highway just up the road from – ironically – a U.S. Forest Service fire station. The "Station Fire" quickly got out of control and would consume more than 160,000 acres of Southern California's Angeles National Forest. Two firefighters would lose their lives. For a month, historic Mount Wilson Observatory would be threatened with destruction. The arsonist has never been caught.
This expanded edition of my 2011 book about the fire that might have destroyed this world-heritage class observatory was produced on the tenth anniversary of what remains the largest fire in Los Angeles County history. Originally created as a blog I produced in my capacity as Director of Mount Wilson Observatory, the new edition includes color photographs taken by Susan McAlister during our week spent on the mountain during the fire. Susan and I witnessed the persistent bravery and determination of firefighters from all over the western U.S. who had come to battle the Station Fire. The heroics of several Hotshot crews who clambered down steep slopes burdened with heavy equipment to hack fire line around the Observatory grounds is permanently stamped in our minds. The nights were lit up with fires sterilizing the slopes of distant mountains while the days were packed with the activity of those who came to protect the Observatory. We witnessed and photographed the fantastic aerial combat undertaken by skilled crews dropping water and fire retardant on the slopes of Mount Wilson.
Much was at risk. Mount Wilson is arguably the most important astronomical observatory ever built. It was there that modern astronomy and astrophysics was born in the early decades of the twentieth century and where human awareness of a vast and expanding universe began. In addition to my stewardship of the Observatory at the time, I was also the founder and director of Georgia State University's CHARA Array, a $40M facility that my group at GSU as well as partners from around the world had by then devoted nearly three decades of our professional lives. A century of astronomical heritage and progress was at stake.
In the long run, the enormous efforts of fire crews and the vagaries of the fire itself spared Mount Wilson Observatory. In 2020, the mountain was once again visited by a serious fire – the Bobcat Fire, which potentially posed an even greater risk to the mountain as it approached through fuel-rich areas that hadn't burned for decades. But, once again, massive fire fighting efforts saved the site.
The Unfolding Universe: Karel Hujer's Physical and Spiritual Reflections on the Cosmos — Published April 2019
I first met Karel Hujer in 1958, less than a year after the momentous launch of Sputnik 1. My much older brother Jimmy was taking Dr. Hujer's astronomy class at the University of Chattanooga and asked me if I'd like to tag along on a class visit to UC's Clarence T. Jones Observatory, which happened to be only a few blocks from our home in the Brainerd area of Chattanooga. In looking back at dates, Karel would have been 56 at the time while I was nine. Here it is now, 60 years after what would be to me the fateful evening of my life when I succumbed to the lure of astronomy that would permit me to embark on my life's calling. It would also lead to Karel and Harriet Hujer taking on a role second only to that of my natural parents.
Born on September 18, 1902 to a family of nurserymen in the Bohemian village of Zelezny Brod, Karel Hujer must have revealed a precocious and sensitive nature at an early age. His family's business imbued him with a love of nature and of plants that he carried throughout his life. That focus likely led him as a boy to the natural wonders of astronomy. Karel attended secondary school in the neighboring town of Turnov and went on to study at the Astronomical Institute of Charles University in Prague where he earned a doctorate in 1932. In the process, he landed a pre-doctoral research associateship at the Yerkes Observatory of the University of Chicago. Yerkes was among the top tier of astronomy centers worldwide, and Karel worked there during 1926-28 under the direction of the great Otto Struve, one of the world's leading pioneers in the field of stellar spectroscopy.
Karel traveled around the world several times in the 1930s before taking faculty positions at Iowa Wesleyan and Michigan State. Shortly after the War he came to Chattanooga to take charge of the University's new Observatory (now a historic landmark). During the years I knew him, he was continually writing articles on the history of astronomy and on world politics. He was also working on a book. Regrettably, he never completed the book and I assumed it was lost until many years later when I found chapters in various degrees of completion in his files that I had inherited. The result is this book, which was a labor of love to me in preserving the perspective on the development of human understanding of our Universe from a unique man that would have otherwise been lost. I'm guessing that Karel regarded it as insufficiently finished as to merit publication. I'd like to think he would be pleased. I know that Harriet would.
A few outtakes from The Unfolding Universe:
I first met Karel Hujer in 1958, less than a year after the momentous launch of Sputnik 1. My much older brother Jimmy was taking Dr. Hujer's astronomy class at the University of Chattanooga and asked me if I'd like to tag along on a class visit to UC's Clarence T. Jones Observatory, which happened to be only a few blocks from our home in the Brainerd area of Chattanooga. In looking back at dates, Karel would have been 56 at the time while I was nine. Here it is now, 60 years after what would be to me the fateful evening of my life when I succumbed to the lure of astronomy that would permit me to embark on my life's calling. It would also lead to Karel and Harriet Hujer taking on a role second only to that of my natural parents.
Born on September 18, 1902 to a family of nurserymen in the Bohemian village of Zelezny Brod, Karel Hujer must have revealed a precocious and sensitive nature at an early age. His family's business imbued him with a love of nature and of plants that he carried throughout his life. That focus likely led him as a boy to the natural wonders of astronomy. Karel attended secondary school in the neighboring town of Turnov and went on to study at the Astronomical Institute of Charles University in Prague where he earned a doctorate in 1932. In the process, he landed a pre-doctoral research associateship at the Yerkes Observatory of the University of Chicago. Yerkes was among the top tier of astronomy centers worldwide, and Karel worked there during 1926-28 under the direction of the great Otto Struve, one of the world's leading pioneers in the field of stellar spectroscopy.
Karel traveled around the world several times in the 1930s before taking faculty positions at Iowa Wesleyan and Michigan State. Shortly after the War he came to Chattanooga to take charge of the University's new Observatory (now a historic landmark). During the years I knew him, he was continually writing articles on the history of astronomy and on world politics. He was also working on a book. Regrettably, he never completed the book and I assumed it was lost until many years later when I found chapters in various degrees of completion in his files that I had inherited. The result is this book, which was a labor of love to me in preserving the perspective on the development of human understanding of our Universe from a unique man that would have otherwise been lost. I'm guessing that Karel regarded it as insufficiently finished as to merit publication. I'd like to think he would be pleased. I know that Harriet would.
A few outtakes from The Unfolding Universe:
- On astronomy – "The history of astronomy may well be described as the story of passing delusions, in which one world system replaced the other, each finally found to be only one of many ways of interpretation of our sensory perception."
- On quantum mechanics – "How could the colors of our rainbow arise without the cascading of energy provided by the quantum? Where can we trace the why of the gamut of musical symphonies?... The quantum is the hand of creative wisdom changes chaos into into cosmos, random into constructive motion, which in the macrocosmic super-structures burst open into the miracle of a lily blossom, the glory of a sunrise, or the mystery of a newborn child.."
- On the space-time framework – "Reality can never be apprehended so long as we are the prisoners of space and time. Truth is timeless and unbound by space; it is not in the category of the space-time framework without which history cannot exist. History and the description of the physical world exist only within the bounds of space and time. That is why the pictures as described in these chapters are ephemeral. They are inevitably subjected to change as the frames of our perception move through the beam of a projecting lens producing an illusion of an image on a screen."
- On the Unfolding Universe – "It is the story of humanity at its best for it is the history of the growing human mind and expanding consciousness. It is the most glorious adventure toward grasping an understanding of the greatest event that could occur in this universe."
Photographs from an Astronomer's Travels: Volume 1, Karel Hujer's 1937–38 Tour of the Americas — Published March 2019
As a boy in Bohemia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Karel Hujer developed a passion for astronomy coupled with a dream to see the world. He fulfilled both desires, making his first major excursion outside Europe already in his 20s and obtaining his doctorate in cosmic physics and astrophysics from Charles University in Prague in 1932. From his earliest journeys in the 1920s and on through the Depression years, he explored the continents, always with camera in hand. Fortunately, he carefully preserved and documented his photographic record of places and people.
The authors have scanned several thousand of these negatives in order to further preserve and share them and have selected some 100 images from a 1937-38 trip to North America and Peru. After traveling from his home town to Prague, where he witnessed the funeral procession of Czechoslovakia's first president Tomas Maseryk, he visited the widow of the famous popularizer of astronomy Camille Flammarion at her husband's observatory outside Paris. Crossing the channel to London, he sailed for Quebec in late October 1937 before starting his trip down the U.S. northeast corridor visiting Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington. He then headed through the midwest, pausing in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Chicago. Then on to Cedar Rapids and Omaha before taking the long bus ride to Albuquerque. From there Karel visited Flagstaff and its famous Lowell Observatory and then down to Tucson. Southern California was next, and he was back and forth between LA and San Diego until on July 14, 1938 when he sailed from Los Angeles to Lima, Peru where he would spend two months studying Inca astronomy in the vicinity of Cuzco. Karel's photographs presented here open a time capsule from a period closer to the Civil War than to today.
As a result of the Munich Pact and the Nazi intentions regarding the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia, Karel Hujer never returned to live in his native land. His visa was extended to permit him to remain in the U.S. and eventually become a citizen and settling down as a professor of astronomy at the University of Chattanooga, which later became the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He continued his travels for as long as he could, always in the company of his beloved wife Harriet. He passed away in 1988 at age 86. This book is the first of several anticipated volumes of photographs from his travels during the 1920s and 1930s.
As a boy in Bohemia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Karel Hujer developed a passion for astronomy coupled with a dream to see the world. He fulfilled both desires, making his first major excursion outside Europe already in his 20s and obtaining his doctorate in cosmic physics and astrophysics from Charles University in Prague in 1932. From his earliest journeys in the 1920s and on through the Depression years, he explored the continents, always with camera in hand. Fortunately, he carefully preserved and documented his photographic record of places and people.
The authors have scanned several thousand of these negatives in order to further preserve and share them and have selected some 100 images from a 1937-38 trip to North America and Peru. After traveling from his home town to Prague, where he witnessed the funeral procession of Czechoslovakia's first president Tomas Maseryk, he visited the widow of the famous popularizer of astronomy Camille Flammarion at her husband's observatory outside Paris. Crossing the channel to London, he sailed for Quebec in late October 1937 before starting his trip down the U.S. northeast corridor visiting Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington. He then headed through the midwest, pausing in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Chicago. Then on to Cedar Rapids and Omaha before taking the long bus ride to Albuquerque. From there Karel visited Flagstaff and its famous Lowell Observatory and then down to Tucson. Southern California was next, and he was back and forth between LA and San Diego until on July 14, 1938 when he sailed from Los Angeles to Lima, Peru where he would spend two months studying Inca astronomy in the vicinity of Cuzco. Karel's photographs presented here open a time capsule from a period closer to the Civil War than to today.
As a result of the Munich Pact and the Nazi intentions regarding the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia, Karel Hujer never returned to live in his native land. His visa was extended to permit him to remain in the U.S. and eventually become a citizen and settling down as a professor of astronomy at the University of Chattanooga, which later became the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He continued his travels for as long as he could, always in the company of his beloved wife Harriet. He passed away in 1988 at age 86. This book is the first of several anticipated volumes of photographs from his travels during the 1920s and 1930s.
Mount Wilson Observatory: A Self-Guided Walking Tour — Published February 2019
In the first half of the 20th century, unimagined advances were made in astronomy from Mount Wilson Observatory that inspired our current understanding of the origin and evolution of stars, galaxies, and the Universe. Great discoveries were made here using telescopes of revolutionary design that set a new standard and launched the quest for ever-larger telescopes that continues today. The Mount Wilson 100-inch telescope is perhaps second only to Galileo's first telescopes in importance to astronomy.
With its close proximity to one of the world's major population centers and easily accessible via the Angeles Crest Highway, it is a wonder that the Observatory is not swamped with folks on weekends. But here, a mile above sea level in the pine and fir forest, one discovers tranquility befitting the cathedral-like presences of the big telescope domes and towers. I've been on the mountain hundreds of times and am always swept away by the serene beauty of this Southern California landmark whose heritage is a world-class scientific treasure.
There are many ways to see the Observatory - take a weekend guided tour (Saturdays & Sundays only), book a special tour, or explore on your own. For those opting to discover this wondrous place at their own pace, there are display boards around the Observatory grounds that provide a wealth of information. My goal is to provide you with a coherent story of the Observatory's past and present that complements those displays with words and pictures. I'll do this by directing you to specific Stops at which you'll learn all about what you see right there in front of you as well as what you can't see because of access restrictions. I may also tell you about things you'll pass along the way.
Be sure to check out the Observatory's website (click on "Links" above) to find out about other visiting opportunities, including observing through the incomparable 60-inch and 100-inch telescopes. There is nothing so exciting as putting your eye up to an eyepiece at the very telescope where Edwin Hubble delineated the expansion of the Universe almost a century ago.
In the first half of the 20th century, unimagined advances were made in astronomy from Mount Wilson Observatory that inspired our current understanding of the origin and evolution of stars, galaxies, and the Universe. Great discoveries were made here using telescopes of revolutionary design that set a new standard and launched the quest for ever-larger telescopes that continues today. The Mount Wilson 100-inch telescope is perhaps second only to Galileo's first telescopes in importance to astronomy.
With its close proximity to one of the world's major population centers and easily accessible via the Angeles Crest Highway, it is a wonder that the Observatory is not swamped with folks on weekends. But here, a mile above sea level in the pine and fir forest, one discovers tranquility befitting the cathedral-like presences of the big telescope domes and towers. I've been on the mountain hundreds of times and am always swept away by the serene beauty of this Southern California landmark whose heritage is a world-class scientific treasure.
There are many ways to see the Observatory - take a weekend guided tour (Saturdays & Sundays only), book a special tour, or explore on your own. For those opting to discover this wondrous place at their own pace, there are display boards around the Observatory grounds that provide a wealth of information. My goal is to provide you with a coherent story of the Observatory's past and present that complements those displays with words and pictures. I'll do this by directing you to specific Stops at which you'll learn all about what you see right there in front of you as well as what you can't see because of access restrictions. I may also tell you about things you'll pass along the way.
Be sure to check out the Observatory's website (click on "Links" above) to find out about other visiting opportunities, including observing through the incomparable 60-inch and 100-inch telescopes. There is nothing so exciting as putting your eye up to an eyepiece at the very telescope where Edwin Hubble delineated the expansion of the Universe almost a century ago.
Policing Greene — Published August 2018 (Rated 5 out 5 stars by 30 Amazon readers)
In 1964 at age 48, Carlton Lewis took an abrupt turn in life to become a policeman in a rural Southern county - half white, half black - that must cope with new federal civil rights laws. He was a roughneck Son of the South whose grandfather owned slaves. How would he perform in his new role? Would he treat all Greene County citizens fairly and equally regardless of their color? This is the true story of an exceptional police officer at a turning point in U.S. history.
"Reuben Flynt lay sprawled on the floor, as still as the rest of the house. A thickening and darkening pool of blood haloed his head. Carlton had seen a lot in his nine years as a Deputy Sheriff of Greene County, Georgia, and more recently as Union Point Chief of Police - things he would not relate in any detail to his wife Eleanor. Those past acts of inhumanity paled in comparison with the violence that had befallen Reuben. His face was a pulverized facsimile of the bank vice president long held in the highest regard by his customers and community. Holstering his revolver, Carlton slowly shook his head. How in God's good world could such cruelty be visited upon this kind man?"
I wrote this book in collaboration with my good friend and Georgia State colleague Thomas Carlton Lewis whose father is the book's centerpiece. As Carlton's retirement as Police Chief of Union Point, Georgia loomed early 1986, Tom talked his father into sitting down for a several-hour taped interview about his late-career switch to law enforcement. Carlton died unexpectedly just weeks later. From this rich set of audio tapes come the stories recounted here. Anyone interested in Southern history during this critical time will be fascinated by how a small-town police chief dealt with the travails of his neighbors, of all colors, without fitting into the Bull Connor stereotype of the day.
Praise for Policing Greene:
In 1964 at age 48, Carlton Lewis took an abrupt turn in life to become a policeman in a rural Southern county - half white, half black - that must cope with new federal civil rights laws. He was a roughneck Son of the South whose grandfather owned slaves. How would he perform in his new role? Would he treat all Greene County citizens fairly and equally regardless of their color? This is the true story of an exceptional police officer at a turning point in U.S. history.
"Reuben Flynt lay sprawled on the floor, as still as the rest of the house. A thickening and darkening pool of blood haloed his head. Carlton had seen a lot in his nine years as a Deputy Sheriff of Greene County, Georgia, and more recently as Union Point Chief of Police - things he would not relate in any detail to his wife Eleanor. Those past acts of inhumanity paled in comparison with the violence that had befallen Reuben. His face was a pulverized facsimile of the bank vice president long held in the highest regard by his customers and community. Holstering his revolver, Carlton slowly shook his head. How in God's good world could such cruelty be visited upon this kind man?"
I wrote this book in collaboration with my good friend and Georgia State colleague Thomas Carlton Lewis whose father is the book's centerpiece. As Carlton's retirement as Police Chief of Union Point, Georgia loomed early 1986, Tom talked his father into sitting down for a several-hour taped interview about his late-career switch to law enforcement. Carlton died unexpectedly just weeks later. From this rich set of audio tapes come the stories recounted here. Anyone interested in Southern history during this critical time will be fascinated by how a small-town police chief dealt with the travails of his neighbors, of all colors, without fitting into the Bull Connor stereotype of the day.
Praise for Policing Greene:
- "Wonderful book full of excitement moderated with compassion" - Former Georgia Governor Joe Frank Harris
- "A real page turner about a man who found his destiny" - Carey Williams, Editor & Publisher of The Greensboro Herald-Journal
- "Most of us living there weren't aware of the many dangerous situations he handled on our behalf, while giving out bubble gum to any child he saw! This terrific book at last tells his wonderful story." - Trey Rhodes, State Representative & Governor's Floor Leader Georgia House of Representatives.
Sunward Passage (a novel) — Published in paper July 2018 (Rated 4.4 out of 5 stars by 21 Amazon readers)
Walker Ransom, a fortyish astronomer who lost his young wife in a car accident while still in graduate school, teaches at a small college in western North Carolina and lives with his Airedale terrier in a cabin on Clickrattle Creek. A comet specialist, Ransom is plucked off the mountainous summit of Kitt Peak Observatory in southwest Arizona in the middle of a miserably unsuccessful observing run and taken under protective custody by uniformed troops to Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson. He learns that an old colleague of his in the former East Germany, Joachim Schmidtler, has been found under the red light of a darkroom awash in a black pool of his own blood. Schmidtler's dying words to his wife caution her to protect the "secret library" and warn that only one man - Walker Ransom - can "determine the elements."
Ransom embarks on a two-week chase against time to decipher Schmidtler's cryptic words only to come full circle back to his own scientific quest. With the assistance of Kitt Peak staffers Alyssa Kennedy and Paul Collins and pseudo-cowboy Duke Wayne, Ransom's team sniffs out leads in Germany that eventually take them to the Big Island of Hawaii where all the pieces of the puzzle come together under potentially apocalyptic circumstances.
From page 299: "The sky had become a blizzard of shooting stars. Nothing like this had ever been recorded in human history. He knew their number could build to the ultimate crescendo of Comet Hall striking the Earth. At this rate, it might happen in minutes. But, again, it might not. He would not resign himself to death by comet. He had to do something about the men now descending the cliff, whose probability of inflicting death was 100%. The comet might kill a good fraction of the Earth’s population, but these bastards would with absolute certainty kill the four of them!"
Sunward Passage is a science-based thriller that deals with the international politics, ethics, and fanatical religious aspects surrounding the potential civilization-altering Earth impact by an astronomical body.
Walker Ransom, a fortyish astronomer who lost his young wife in a car accident while still in graduate school, teaches at a small college in western North Carolina and lives with his Airedale terrier in a cabin on Clickrattle Creek. A comet specialist, Ransom is plucked off the mountainous summit of Kitt Peak Observatory in southwest Arizona in the middle of a miserably unsuccessful observing run and taken under protective custody by uniformed troops to Davis Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson. He learns that an old colleague of his in the former East Germany, Joachim Schmidtler, has been found under the red light of a darkroom awash in a black pool of his own blood. Schmidtler's dying words to his wife caution her to protect the "secret library" and warn that only one man - Walker Ransom - can "determine the elements."
Ransom embarks on a two-week chase against time to decipher Schmidtler's cryptic words only to come full circle back to his own scientific quest. With the assistance of Kitt Peak staffers Alyssa Kennedy and Paul Collins and pseudo-cowboy Duke Wayne, Ransom's team sniffs out leads in Germany that eventually take them to the Big Island of Hawaii where all the pieces of the puzzle come together under potentially apocalyptic circumstances.
From page 299: "The sky had become a blizzard of shooting stars. Nothing like this had ever been recorded in human history. He knew their number could build to the ultimate crescendo of Comet Hall striking the Earth. At this rate, it might happen in minutes. But, again, it might not. He would not resign himself to death by comet. He had to do something about the men now descending the cliff, whose probability of inflicting death was 100%. The comet might kill a good fraction of the Earth’s population, but these bastards would with absolute certainty kill the four of them!"
Sunward Passage is a science-based thriller that deals with the international politics, ethics, and fanatical religious aspects surrounding the potential civilization-altering Earth impact by an astronomical body.