Mirrors and Spectrographs between Chile and California. Reflections of the astronomical circulation in the early twentieth century

Abstract

In 1903, after a long trip across the Pacific Ocean, an expedition from theLick Observatory settled in Santiago de Chile and built an observatory that was a twinof the one they had in California. Through the modern technique of spectroscopy, thegoal was to measure the southern stars’ radial velocities and thereby to try to understandthe structure of the universe. One of the expedition’s most valued objects was the set ofmirrors of the astronomical equipment. In this paper, I understand the mirrors as scientificdevices, but also as metaphors that orientate the analysis of knowledge production, ofcollective identities, and of geographical similarities. In this way, I seek to rebuild part ofthis expedition’s story from its mirrors, and thus to understand how part of the scientificcirculation was generated in the early twentieth century, through the reflections of twoplaces that were spatially and culturally distant.