influential person, sometimes elected to the village assembly. Tomosaku, however,
lacked an understanding of the need to educate his five children. He thought that
primary school was adequate for farmers. In opposition to his father, Naozo left the
village secretly with his mother’s support and went to a middle school in the city of
Hirosaki.
In 1896, he went to Dai-Ni High School (old) in Sendai, where he became
acquainted with Shinjo Shinzo, four years Naozo’s senior, and formed a friendship
that lasted the rest of their lives. In 1900 (at age 22), Ichinohe enrolled in the Science
College of Tokyo Imperial University and studied positional astronomy under Terao
Hisashi and Hirayama Shin. After graduation, he was hired as a technician in the
TAO in 1903. His duties at the observatory involved routine work on time keeping
and yearly calendar making. Freedom of scientific research was quite limited under
the bureaucratic system, to which Ichinohe was unaccustomed.
In his own work, he was strongly attentive to the progress of astronomical
observations in the USA.
The Harvard College Observatory changed from a traditional to a modern
astronomical observatory when E. C. Pickering was appointed its fourth director in
1876. Pickering took up two big survey projects: photographic photometry and
spectral classification of stars in the entire sky.
The Lick Observatory was constructed in 1888, through a bequest from James
Lick, a carpenter and piano maker. This observatory was the first permanent
mountain-top observatory at Mt. Hamilton near San Francisco. It was equipped
with a 91-cm (36-inch) refractor, the largest one in the world at the time. The first
discovery made with this telescope was a new satellite of Jupiter. Then spectroscopic
observations were promoted by W. W. Campbell (1862–1938), particularly on the
radial velocities of stars. The observatory’s first director was Edward S. Holden
(1846–1914).
The Yerkes Observatory was founded in 1897 by George Ellery Hale
(1868–1938) with funding from industrialist Charles T. Yerkes. The observatory,
located in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, was operated by the University of Chicago. It
houses a 102-cm (40-inch) refractor, the largest ever successfully used for
astronomy.
Hale was a pioneer of solar astrophysics in the USA, as well as a capable
administrator. He also succeeded at securing the construction funds for the Mount
Wilson Observatory. He was subsequently appointed first director of the observatory
in 1904.
With the development of these new modern observatories, the center of astrophysical observation essentially moved from Europe to the USA by the end of the
nineteenth century.
Ichinohe was conscious of the trend in astronomical research and made up his
mind to study astronomy in the USA. In the Meiji period, because governmental
grants for foreign study were limited to Western Europe, he saved his money for
travel expenses by writing several popular books. In 1904, he married Kikuchi Ine
(菊池イ子), and they had a daughter the following year. Leaving his family back
home, Ichinohe set out on his own for San Francisco (Fig. 2.14).
2.5 Ichinohe Naozo and the Plan for a New Observatory
37
lacked an understanding of the need to educate his five children. He thought that
primary school was adequate for farmers. In opposition to his father, Naozo left the
village secretly with his mother’s support and went to a middle school in the city of
Hirosaki.
In 1896, he went to Dai-Ni High School (old) in Sendai, where he became
acquainted with Shinjo Shinzo, four years Naozo’s senior, and formed a friendship
that lasted the rest of their lives. In 1900 (at age 22), Ichinohe enrolled in the Science
College of Tokyo Imperial University and studied positional astronomy under Terao
Hisashi and Hirayama Shin. After graduation, he was hired as a technician in the
TAO in 1903. His duties at the observatory involved routine work on time keeping
and yearly calendar making. Freedom of scientific research was quite limited under
the bureaucratic system, to which Ichinohe was unaccustomed.
In his own work, he was strongly attentive to the progress of astronomical
observations in the USA.
The Harvard College Observatory changed from a traditional to a modern
astronomical observatory when E. C. Pickering was appointed its fourth director in
1876. Pickering took up two big survey projects: photographic photometry and
spectral classification of stars in the entire sky.
The Lick Observatory was constructed in 1888, through a bequest from James
Lick, a carpenter and piano maker. This observatory was the first permanent
mountain-top observatory at Mt. Hamilton near San Francisco. It was equipped
with a 91-cm (36-inch) refractor, the largest one in the world at the time. The first
discovery made with this telescope was a new satellite of Jupiter. Then spectroscopic
observations were promoted by W. W. Campbell (1862–1938), particularly on the
radial velocities of stars. The observatory’s first director was Edward S. Holden
(1846–1914).
The Yerkes Observatory was founded in 1897 by George Ellery Hale
(1868–1938) with funding from industrialist Charles T. Yerkes. The observatory,
located in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, was operated by the University of Chicago. It
houses a 102-cm (40-inch) refractor, the largest ever successfully used for
astronomy.
Hale was a pioneer of solar astrophysics in the USA, as well as a capable
administrator. He also succeeded at securing the construction funds for the Mount
Wilson Observatory. He was subsequently appointed first director of the observatory
in 1904.
With the development of these new modern observatories, the center of astrophysical observation essentially moved from Europe to the USA by the end of the
nineteenth century.
Ichinohe was conscious of the trend in astronomical research and made up his
mind to study astronomy in the USA. In the Meiji period, because governmental
grants for foreign study were limited to Western Europe, he saved his money for
travel expenses by writing several popular books. In 1904, he married Kikuchi Ine
(菊池イ子), and they had a daughter the following year. Leaving his family back
home, Ichinohe set out on his own for San Francisco (Fig. 2.14).
2.5 Ichinohe Naozo and the Plan for a New Observatory
37