Reference Request
Finding Aids to Oral Histories in the Smithsonian Institution Archives
Record Unit 9543
International Ultraviolet Explorer Videohistory Collection, 1990
Historical Note
The International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) geosynchronous satellite, launched in 1978, was the creation of diverse interests in Europe (European Space Agency), the United Kingdom (Scientific & Engineering Research Council), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center. It was, until the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope in April 1990, the only astronomical telescope working in orbit. Many notable discoveries emerged from the IUE, including the detection of sulfur in the nucleus of a comet, the observation of a massive hot halo of gas surrounding our galaxy, and the continuous monitoring of Supernova 1987A.
Key participants were Carol Ambruster, Albert Boggess, Yoji Kondo, and George Sonneborn. Charles Loomis, Lloyd Rawley, and Mario Perez assisted during the observing session. Carol Ambruster, assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Villanova University was visiting IUE astronomer during the videohistory session. She used the IUE to detect activity of 10 million- and 100 million-year old stars. Ambruster received her Ph.D from the University of Pennsylvania in 1984. She held a number of teaching and research positions before arriving at Villanova in 1987, including a pre-doctoral research position at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., and was a post-doctoral research associate at the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics at the University of Colorado.
Albert Boggess was one of many architects of the IUE. He trained as an astronomer at the University of Michigan, and received his Ph.D in astronomy from there in 1954. He was appointed a fellow at the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University in 1954 and a year later began work as a physicist at the Naval Research Laboratory. He remained there until 1958. From 1959 through 1973 he held head positions at Goddard Space Flight Center with the Interstellar Medium Section, the Astronomy Systems Branch, and the Advanced Systems Development Branch. He also participated in the Sounding Rocket Program and the Orbital Astronomical Observatory. In 1983 Boggess was appointed associate director of science for the Space Telescope Sciences Directorate.
Yoji Kondo was appointed project scientist for the IUE in 1982 and in 1988 assumed additional responsibilities as the project scientist for the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUE) Satellite. He received a B.A. from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies in 1958, and a Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Pennsylvania in 1965. He was an assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania until 1968, when he joined NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, as an astronomer. He became an astrophysicist for the Goddard Space Flight Center in 1978.
George Sonneborn joined the IUE program in January 1982 as a supervisor for telescope operations and thereafter held a series of technical management positions. He was eventually appointed project scientist for the EUE. Sonneborn received a Ph.D. in astronomy in 1980 from Ohio State University.
Charles Loomis and Lloyd Rawley were technical assistants during the recording of the IUE observing session; Mario Perez was the on-duty resident astronomer. Loomis received a B.S. in physics and astronomy from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, researched old disk pulsating stars (type II Cepheids), and began as the telescope operator for the IUE in 1989. Rawley was in-training for a resident astronomer position. Perez received a Ph.D in physics and astronomy from Brigham Young University and an M.S. in electrical engineering from Universidad Santa Maria in Valparaiso, Chile. Before becoming resident astronomer for the IUE in 1988, Perez was a research and teaching assistant at Brigham Young University, and held engineering positions for various Chilean agencies and observatories.
Introduction
The Smithsonian Videohistory Program, funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation from 1986 until 1992, used video in historical research. Additional collections have been added since the grant project ended. Videohistory uses the video camera as a historical research tool to record moving visual information. Video works best in historical research when recording people at work in environments, explaining artifacts, demonstrating process, or in group discussion. The experimental program recorded projects that reflected the Institution's concern with the conduct of contemporary science and technology.
Smithsonian historians participated in the program to document visual aspects of their on-going historical research. Projects covered topics in the physical and biological sciences as well as in technological design and manufacture. To capture site, process, and interaction most effectively, projects were taped in offices, factories, quarries, laboratories, observatories, and museums. Resulting footage was duplicated, transcribed, and deposited in the Smithsonian Institution Archives for scholarship, education, and exhibition. The collection is open to qualified researchers.
Descriptive Entry
David H. DeVorkin, curator at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum (NASM), interviewed scientists about the creation, design, manufacture, administration, and use of the IUE. Interviews took place on March 2 and 5, 1990, at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. DeVorkin documented the IUE image processing lab and control center, recorded an observing session with a guest astronomer where data was collected and discussed, and examined specific pieces of equipment that formed the IUE. His general interest was in observational techniques and the effect of new technologies on astronomical data gathering.
This collection consists of two interview sessions, totalling approximately 6:40 hours of recordings and 185 pages of transcript.
Index Terms
This collection is indexed under the following access terms. These are links to collections with related topics, persons or places.
Name
- Boggess, Albert
- Kondo, Yoji
- Sonneborn, George
- DeVorkin, David H., 1944- , interviewer
- Armbruster, Carol
- Goddard Space Flight Center
- United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- IUE (Artificial satellite)
Subject
- Astronomy
- Science -- History
- Technology -- History
- Telescopes
- Comets
- Artificial satellites
- Oral history
- Interviews
- Astrophysics
Physical Characteristics of Materials in the Collection
Administrative Information
Preferred Citation
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 9543, International Ultraviolet Explorer Videohistory Collection