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Origin of the Bartlesville Astronomical Society
The Bartlesville Astronomical Society has a long and rich history, which began as a consequence of a Cold War citizen defense project called “Operation Moonwatch”.
In the United States, there was a thriving culture of amateur scientists including thousands of citizens who did astronomy for an avocation. During the Cold War, the United States also encouraged thousands of citizens to take part in the Ground Observer Corps, a nationwide program to spot Soviet bombers. Moonwatch brought together these two activities and attitudes, melding curiosity and vigilance into a thriving activity for citizens. – Wikipedia
Moonwatch stations arranged lines of small telescopes, each looking at a slightly different spot in the night sky, watching for anything suspicious.
A Bartlesville Moonwatch station was officially established by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in 1958.
The Examiner-Enterprise article from Sunday, January 26, 1958, announcing the establishment of the Bartlesville Moonwatch station. It describes the details of the project, how it came about, and the future plans.
Local youth were responsible for the creation of the Bartlesville Moonwatch station.
The Examiner-Enterprise article states that establishment of the local Moonwatch station was the result of the perseverance of 12 to 14 high school students.
Another interesting quote from that 1958 article explains the importance of having a dark observing site, with a wide open view of the sky, for the Moonwatch station.
Ken Willcox, a past president of BAS and a member of the Moonwatch team when he was in high school, described the location of the Moonwatch station as a dark site in the country southeast of town. The 1958 Bartlesville Moonwatch Station ‘dark' site is now the location of Food Pyramid (2018).
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