October 24, 1939 through August 31, 1991
[Operated by Carnegie Institute
from January, 1987 through
February, 1994]
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With this issue, The Sky, predecessor to Sky & Telescope magazine, became the "official bulletin of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City and of the new Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science in Pittsburgh, Pa."(see page 23). At the same time, The Sky became the "official publication of the Amateur Astronomers' Association" in New York City(see page 2). At this time, the management of The Sky was interested in extending such arrangements "to include other institutions and organizations"(see page 2). This was also the beginning of Sky Publishing Corporation; for the previous three years, The Sky had been published by the Hayden Planetarium, American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Click here for a "A Brief History of Sky & Telescope."
Page 9 includes an article about the special elevator, which Buhl's Zeiss II Planetarium Projector is mounted on; Buhl was the first planetarium in the world to mount the main projector on an elevator. Page 9 also includes a monthly column by Arthur L. Draper, Assistant Curator of the Hayden Planetarium; within two years, Mr. Draper would become the second Planetarium Director of the Buhl Planetarium and remain in that position until his death, nearly thirty years later.
Pages 3 and 12 give articles about shows in the Buhl Planetarium, during the month of January, 1940. Note that pages 12 and 13 are scanned-in as three image pages, for easier reading.
Page 22 includes an advertisement by the J.W. Fecker Company of Pittsburgh. The Fecker Company was the direct descendent of the John Brashear Company, which made telescopes and other fine optical and scientific instruments for customers throughout the world. The address given, for the Fecker Company, was the location of the Brashear Company, which was founded in 1881. This building(which still exists) on Old Observatory Hill, is only a couple blocks from the site of the original Allegheny Observatory(in which John Brashear was acting Director for a time) and only a block from the former campus of the Western University of Pennsylvania, now the University of Pittsburgh (in which John Brashear was acting Chancellor for a time); although the original Observatory and other University buildings are gone(some outside walls and steps, from the original campus, remain), this site is now the campus of Triangle Technical School. Brashear LP, located in the RIDC industrial/office park in O'Hara Township, northeast of Pittsburgh, is the current successor to the Brashear and Fecker optical companies.
Page 23 lists the major staff members of the Buhl Planetarium and the Hayden Planetarium, as of January, 1940. Only two Planetarium Lecturers are listed in the Buhl staff list: Nicholas E. Wagman, Ph.D. and Leo J. Scanlon.
At this time, Nicholas E. Wagman was the Director of the Allegheny Observatory and on the faculty of the University of Pittsbugh. The Nicholas E. Wagman Observatory, operated by the Amateur Astronomers' Association of Pittsburgh, was named in Dr. Wagman's memory; it is located in Deer Lakes Regional County Park, northeast of Pittsburgh.
Leo J. Scanlon(who passed-away on November 27, 1999, at age 96) was the co-founder of the Amateur Astronomers' Association of Pittsburgh in 1929. In 1930, he built the world's first astronomical observatory with an all-aluminum dome, next to his home on Pittsburgh's North Side; a Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission marker, erected at the urging of the Amateur Astronomers' Association of Pittsburgh on McKnight Road just north of the City line, is located just a few blocks from the former site of this historic observatory. In addition to being his private observatory, which he named Valley View Observatory, this installation was also used by many members of the Amateur Astronomers' Association of Pittsburgh. Although the Valley View Observatory was razed on August 23, 1997, the dome is in storage; the Amateur Astronomers' Association of Pittsburgh plans to use this historic dome to construct a new Valley View Observatory, near the Nicholas E. Wagman Observatory, in a few years. Also, in 1930, Leo Scanlon visited the newly-opened Adler Planetarium in Chicago, America's first major planetarium. For much of the 1930s, Mr. Scanlon and the Amateur Astronomers' Association of Pittsburgh lobbied foundations, and the City of Pittsburgh, for construction of a local planetarium. These efforts were rewarded in 1937, when the Buhl Foundation agreed to construct a planetarium as a gift to the City of Pittsburgh.
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