Cosmic Clearinghouse

Serene in sidereal time, above earth's battles, the astronomers of the world's belligerent nations have been communicating with each other regularly throughout World War II. This little-known fact was quietly revealed last week by famed Astronomer Harlow Shapley. His Harvard Observatory has served as the cosmic clearinghouse.

In the U.S., most professional astronomers have been too busy for stargazing. Some 80% of them, including most of Professor Shapley's staff at Harvard, have been drafted for work in ballistics, rockets and other wartime projects. But in Europe, notably in Germany and Russia, astronomers have been allowed to stay at their telescopes. At the height of the German military tide, a Russian astronomer in the Caucasus electrified Muscovites with the news, radioed across enemy lines, that he had found a new nova.

Astronomers whose countries are at war with each other have kept in touch through neutrals--and through Professor Shapley, who has collected and distributed astronomical news in a mimeographed Monthly Astronomical Newsletter, edited by crack Harvard Astronomer Bart J. Bok. Shapley also has a well-organized worldwide system for telegraph reporting of spot news; Germans cable their discoveries to Harvard via Denmark and Sweden.

Naturally, Professor Shapley has run into some censor trouble. When he cabled instructions to Harvard's South African Observatory to "shoot nightly using whole battery" (meaning: watch Nova Puppis nightly with all telescopes), censors ordered him to mend his language. His most troublesome message was one announcing the discovery of Diamaca's Comet. Diamaca, a Rumanian amateur, cabled his news to Harvard by way of Denmark and Switzerland. A U.S. Navy officer promptly called on Professor Shapley. What, the Navy wanted to know, was the meaning of the last two words in the cable: "Popovici Stroemgren." After a long, exhausting grilling. Professor Shapley finally convinced the suspicious officer that the two names were merely the signatures of the royal astronomers of Rumania and Denmark, respectively.

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