Open houses on hold at Jacobsen Observatory

Photo: Greg Scheiderer

The first of this year’s semimonthly open houses at the Theodor Jacobsen Observatory on the University of Washington’s Seattle campus was scheduled for today. Like many events, the series has been halted by our “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” response to the coronavirus pandemic.

In normal years the events are held on the first and third Tuesdays of each month from April through September, but the observatory’s website notes that the open houses “are suspended until all classes are being held in their regular classrooms and our undergraduate volunteers are back on campus.” Undergrads give talks about astronomy at the events, and volunteers from the Seattle Astronomical Society staff the observatory’s vintage 1892 telescope, which features a 6-inch Brashear objective lens on a Warner & Swasey equatorial mount.

The website notes that organizers hope to welcome students back and to resume the open house series “soon.”

Watch this space for updates.

New mystery novel set at Jacobsen Observatory

The University of Washington’s Theodor Jacobsen Observatory is the setting for some of the scenes in a new mystery novel from local author Bernadette Pajer. A celebration of the release of The Edison Effect, the fourth title in Pajer’s series of Professor Bradshaw mysteries, was held recently at the observatory.

Pajer’s protagonist Benjamin Bradshaw is a fictional professor of electrical engineering at the UW and solver of mysteries involving electricity. Seattle needs his expertise; the books are set in the early 1900s, and electricity is still something of a puzzle to people and the police. The tagline for the series is “Seattle in the time of Tesla.”

“It’s a very exciting time period to research,” Pajer says, “not only the city where I was born and raised, all of those details, but the scientific history, where we came from and how quickly.”

A happy coincidence brought Professor Bradshaw to the Jacobsen Observatory. In 2012 Pajer participated in a panel discussion about mysteries at the Taproot Theatre in Seattle, which was performing a stage version of the Dorothy Sayers story Gaudy Night. One of the people who attended the event was George Myers, whose great-great-grandfather was Joseph Taylor, the UW’s first math professor and first director of the observatory. After the discussion Myers emailed a photo of Taylor to Pajer.

Joseph Taylor, the first director of
the UW’s Theodor Jacobsen Observatory,
is a character in Bernadette Pajer’s new
mystery novel The Edison Effect.

“I just knew instantly when I saw that photo that professor Bradshaw knows this guy, and, not only that, they’re friends, so I wove him into The Edison Effect,” Pajer says. She notes that no astronomy happens in the book, but several key scenes occur at the observatory.

Myers and other relatives of Taylor attended the book launch at the observatory, and enjoyed learning a few new things that Pajer’s research turned up about their ancestor. For example, Taylor laid the cornerstone at Denny Hall, which was the first building on the current UW campus, known then as the Administration Building. Its basement is where Professor Bradshaw has his electricity lab. Interestingly, the Jacobsen Observatory was constructed of materials left over from the building of Denny Hall.

“It was fun!” Pajer says of the launch event. “I had the ghost of Bradshaw, and the real ghost of Joseph Taylor that were at the observatory. It was a really cool way that fact and fiction were mingling.”

The character of Bradshaw came to Pajer in part because of her own interest in science. She studied civil engineering at the UW, but dropped out to get married. Twenty years later she went back and earned an interdisciplinary degree in culture, literature, and the arts at UW Bothell.

“It just turned out that I was much better at writing about science than actually doing it,” Pajer says, adding that she finds it fascinating to blend art and science. “I think it makes it more entertaining. Peer science can often be very dry, but when you can present it in an entertaining way, it’s a great way to learn.”

Pajer takes pride in the scientific accuracy of her books. She consults experts during her research and writing, and the volumes have earned the stamp of approval after peer review by the Washington Academy of Sciences. She also works hard to get the historical details of Seattle and the UW right.

The first book in the Professor Bradshaw series was A Spark of Death, published in 2011, followed by Fatal Induction in 2012, Capacity for Murder in 2013, and then The Edison Effect this year. Pajer is just beginning to noodle on her next story, which she thinks may be set in 1907 at the time of the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition.

The books are great for lovers of mysteries and science. Check ’em out!

Preserving history at UW observatory

The semimonthly open houses at the Theodor Jacobsen Observatory at the University of Washington are over for the year. When they resume again in the spring the observatory may include a little more local history. The UW Astronomy Department has recently regained jurisdiction over the one-time office of the late professor after whom the facility is named, and is looking to spruce up the room with historical artifacts and interactive exhibits.

The long-time UW astronomy professor’s name
is still on the door of his former office in the
namesake Theodor Jacobsen Observatory. Efforts
 are under way to make the office a historical exhibit.
Photo: Greg Scheiderer.

While Jacobsen’s name remains painted on the door of the office, it had for a number of years been used as a check-in space for custodians university-wide. Occasional efforts over the years to return the office to historical astronomical uses came to naught, according to Dr. Ana Larson, UW lecturer and Jacobsen Observatory director who heads up the public outreach program at the observatory. Recently, Larson said, custodians scored space in the new Paccar Hall nearby and observatory buffs swooped in to return the Jacobsen office to astronomical uses.

With the space in hand, the big stumbling block for turning it into an historical exhibit is cash. Larson figures the budget for the project is at about -$200; she recently purchased an old oak desk for $70 out-of-pocket and installed it in the office. It is certainly not Jacobsen’s desk, but fits with the period. A mini-exhibit is already up in the office, including an old briefcase of Jacobsen’s, a star-atlas notebook, and an armillary on the desk.

A small exhibit with a few artifacts of
Theodor Jacobsen is already up in the late
professor’s former office. Photo: Greg Scheiderer.

It seems most fitting to set up a tribute to Jacobsen. For nearly four decades he was the only professor in the UW astronomy department, which he served from 1928 until his retirement in 1971. Retirement didn’t mean that Jacobsen quit working. He published his final book just a few years before his death in 2003 at age 102.

The observatory already is listed on the state register of historical buildings. It is the second oldest structure on the UW campus, and was built in 1895 with sandstone blocks left over from the construction of Denny Hall. The observatory’s six-inch Warner and Swasey telescope with Brashear objective, built around 1892, is still functional, having been restored in the late 1990s by members of the Seattle Astronomical Society, volunteers from which still operate the scope on open house nights. Light pollution and the large trees that have grown up around the observatory limit the scope’s use somewhat, but it is an effective outreach tool; the open houses at the observatory, featuring observing when weather permits and talks by astronomy students, have proven to be popular.

The office project has a modest price tag. Larson figures as little as $1,500 would get them going with some decent display cases, other furniture, posters, and interactive exhibits. She plans to pitch the university for funds, but budgets are tight. She may also consider some sort of crowdfunding effort. If you would like to donate to help with the project, visit the Jacobsen Observatory website to find out how.

UW observatory celebrates 10 years of outreach programs

For more than 100 years observers used the Theodor Jacobsen Observatory at the University of Washington to view planets and stars and other celestial orbs, but a decade ago the sphere most on astronomers’ minds was the wrecking ball, as the vintage telescope and building, now of no use for serious astronomical research, faced demolition. A spirited letter-writing campaign by alumni and friends of the observatory saved it. Wednesday, in celebration of 10 years back in use for public outreach, TJO held an open house with lectures, solar system tours, telescope making, and stories about the historic instruments housed there.

As is par for Seattle, it was a cloudy evening and there was little to see through the 1892 refracting telescope, which has a 6-inch Brashear objective lens and sits on a Warner & Swasey equatorial mount, save for the flashing red lights atop a couple of nearby construction cranes or the leaves of the trees that now block much of the scope’s potential field of view. Yet a modest but steady stream of visitors dropped by to check it out, and promised to return some night soon when the sky is clear. (Open houses are held at the Jacobsen Observatory on the first and third Wednesdays of the month, March through November.)

The Bamberg Transit Telescope is in the transit room of the
Theodor Jacobsen Observatory at the University of Washington.
Photo: Greg Scheiderer.

On this particular visit to the observatory I took interest in a piece of equipment I had never really had a look at before: The UW’s Bamberg Transit Telescope, which dates back to about 1904. Fortunately Alan Whiting, an astronomy Ph.D. and member of the Seattle Astronomical Society, was on hand to explain what the scope is all about. (Had Whiting not been on hand this paper by Katherine Blair gives a good account of the history and operation of the scope.) The German-made instrument sits in the observatory’s transit room, where doors can open on the ceiling and north and south walls. The setup was used to make precise measurements of the transits of stars across the meridian, which was how we kept our clocks set on the exact time until atomic clocks came about with their incredible precision.

The scope still looks cool, as you can see by the photo above at right, but closer examination and a peek through it reveal it is badly in need of a little TLC. In fact, all of the gear, and the building, and the Theodor Jacobsen Observatory, could use a little attention.

The facility is worthy. The second-oldest building on campus, it’s on the register of historic buildings, and the outreach is effective, drawing thousands of visitors each year. UW students provide lectures at the open houses, and volunteers from the Seattle Astronomical Society tell about the history of the telescope and treat visitors to a look through it when the skies are clear. The latest evidence that the effort is useful is the birth of the Protostars group, a mentorship program at the UW run by female astronomy undergraduate volunteers and geared toward 12-16 year old girls enamored with astronomy. Protostars will learn the basics of telescope operation, data reduction and gain public speaking skills.

An effort is under way to restore Dr. Jacobsen’s original office at the observatory, which scandalously is in use as a janitorial office. While certainly the custodians need an office, restoring this particular one to astronomy would be a fitting nod to the history, add 300 square feet of badly needed exhibit space, and contribute mightily to the outreach mission of the department. Supporters of the idea can write in here to make their opinions heard, or donate to the Friends of the Observatory or Friends of Astronomy funds to back these efforts.