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  • Keep Watching the Skies!: The Story of Operation Moonwatch and the Dawn of the Space Age by W. Patrick McCray
  • Emily A. Margolis
Keep Watching the Skies!: The Story of Operation Moonwatch and the Dawn of the Space Age. By W. Patrick McCray. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008. 344 pages. Hardcover, $45.00.

While the title of W. Patrick McCray's book invites readers to "keep watching the skies," the author's interest lies at the other end of the telescope with the participants, administrators, and detractors of Operation Moonwatch. McCray offers an engaging account of the history and significance of this international amateur satellite-tracking initiative, which was born from the imagination of astronomer Fred Whipple, director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, during the early years of the Space Age. As he tracks the life cycle of Operation Moonwatch from its inception in 1956 through its conclusion in 1975, McCray challenges the narrative of professionalization and specialization that dominates the historiography of twentieth-century American science, reminding his readers of the rightful place of amateurs in this enterprise.

McCray locates Operation Moonwatch within an evolving nexus of postwar events and cultural forces, mapping the character of the program onto the contours of American science and society. He argues that the story of Operation Moonwatch is inextricably linked to Whipple's ambitions for the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, postwar federal patronage of astronomy as space was increasingly recognized as an issue of national security, and the 1957-1958 global program of earth and atmospheric research known as the International Geophysical Year (IGY). Whipple conceived of Operation Moonwatch as an integral component of his strategy for establishing his institution as the center of the nation's IGY satellite-tracking efforts. He imagined recruiting teams of amateur observers to form a "global dragnet for satellites" that would provide rough celestial coordinates to professional astronomers equipped with precision tracking instrumentation (20). The program would draw on the public's growing interest in science and space, in particular, as well as the spirit of civic engagement characteristic of the late 1950s.

McCray shows how the function and organization of the program changed throughout its two decades of operation. Despite the program's early triumph in scouting Sputnik when the professional tracking network was not yet online, the value of Operation Moonwatch, and the role of amateur scientists more broadly, [End Page 186] were frequently debated at the highest levels of the American scientific community. In response to these concerns, as well as to improved tracking technologies, advances in orbital mechanics, and reduced federal funding as the Apollo era came to an end, Operation Moonwatch was restructured and restricted. The program shed its early rhetoric of civic responsibility and the accessibility and joy of science; its new emphasis was precise measurement. This push towards professionalization fundamentally changed participant demographics, excluding many keen but casual observers.

Keeping Watching the Skies! is much more than an administrative history of Operation Moonwatch. Through archival research, work with oral history transcripts from the American Institute of Physics, and personal communication with former Moonwatchers, McCray gives voice to the individuals who sacrificed their time and comfort to contribute to the program's mission. While he offers anecdotal evidence from observers scattered across the United States and the globe, the experiences of teams in Albuquerque, New Mexico, led by Vioalle Heffernan, Walnut Creek, California, founded by Jack Borde and Don Charles, and North Canton, Ohio, guided by Richard Emmons, drive McCray's narrative. McCray shows how local conditions, affiliations, and personalities shaped each Moonwatch team. He captures the spirit of the trials and triumphs as teams were formed and financed, acquired or constructed instruments, and engaged with communities of amateur observers, professional scientists, and curious citizens.

For McCray's actors, participation in Operation Moonwatch was a central feature of their social lives and professional identities. Not all participants, however, were equally invested in the program. The written materials that teams and program administrators generated, which were later collected and preserved in various archives, privilege the experiences of the most active, successful Moonwatch teams. These "hard-core" observers, as they were known at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, doubled their historical...

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