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Bart Jan Bok, The Astronomer’s Universe (1958)

Bart Jan Bok was a famous astronomer, renowned for his work on the structure and evolution of the Milky Way Galaxy and for his study of ‘Bok globules’, small dark clouds observable against the background of bright nebulae.

Born in the Netherlands in 1906 as the elder son of a Dutch army major, Bok attended school at The Hague and quickly showed an aptitude for mathematics and science. He soon developed a passion for astronomy, which he studied at the universities of Leiden and Groningen, receiving a PhD in 1932. His talents were picked up by the Americans, and he was awarded a fellowship to Harvard College Observatory in Massachusetts under the astronomer Harlow Shapley, and by 1938 Bok had been naturalised as an American citizen.

In 1941 Bok published The Milky Way which he co-authored with wife and fellow astronomer Priscilla (nee Fairfield). Despite this book becoming one of the most popular and impactful astronomical studies of all time, Bok was passed over for the position of director of Harvard College Observatory, and instead accepted a position as director of the Mount Stromlo Observatory and professor of astronomy at the Australian National University, Canberra in 1956.

At the time, Australia was already a world leader in radio astronomy, but Bok determined to make it a leader in his preferred field of optical astronomy as well. Bok’s prestige attracted many other scientists to come to Australia, and by the early 1960s Mount Stromlo had become the leading centre for optical astronomy in the Southern Hemisphere. However, Bok felt that the site could be much improved upon, and set his sights on building a new observatory at Siding Spring Mountain, near Coonabarabran, New South Wales.

Luckily for Bok, Prime Minister Robert Menzies took a keen interest in his work, and developed a personal friendship with the scientist, which would lead to the Federal Government investing large amounts of money into first thoroughly refurbishing Mount Stromlo and then building the Siding Spring Observatory. It is often forgotten that in the early 1960s Menzies served briefly as the Minister in charge of the CSIRO, and was therefore very invested in Australia’s contribution towards scientific advancement. It also helped that Bok was something of a celebrity in his own right, delivering public lectures, radio broadcasts, and publishing numerous articles in magazines and newspapers, all of which served to ignite the Australian public’s curiosity about our galaxy. Bart’s tenure coincided with the launching of Sputnik and the early space race, so interest in astronomical affairs was already extremely high and easy to cultivate further.

Even with this public interest and friends in high places, negotiations to build the massive 150-inch telescope for Siding Spring Mountain took years, and ultimately required collaboration with the British Government. The announcement of an agreement would finally come in 1967, after both Menzies and Bok had moved on from their respective positions. It would eventually be opened by then Prince Charles on 17 October 1974, and to this day remains ‘Australia’s premier optical and infrared astronomical observatory’.

Despite this long gestation period, Siding Spring Observatory can still be considered as a product of the fruitful relationship forged between our longest serving prime minister and the famous astronomer. Menzies’s copy of The Astronomer’s Universe, which Bok gifted him in March 1959, is a tangible memento of that relationship.