Chasing the Stars by Lattis and Tyrrell
An observatory is a place to look at familiar stars in the night sky and can also be dedicated to deepening our knowledge of the universe. Madison’s Washburn Observatory at the University of Wisconsin, open for research since 1888, has been both. Science writers James Lattis and Kelly Tyrell offer a lively summation of the institution’s history, collecting interesting stories along the way.
The observatory’s first director, James Craig Watson, was hired in a bidding war with the University of Michigan. As the discoverer of asteroids, Watson was among the best-known astronomers in America. On the look-out for new worlds, he “discovered” a new planet, Vulcan, orbiting closer than Mercury to the sun, and built a solar observatory on the Wisconsin campus to prove his claim. Watson collapsed and died only a year and a half into his tenure at Madison and Vulcan proved to be—like the canals of Mars—an optical illusion.
Since those early days, the Washburn Observatory has often been an important player in verified discoveries. With the dawn of the space age, the Washburn and its associated research programs has benefited from its collaboration with NASA.
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