Sidney Charles Bartholemew "Ben" Gascoigne (11 November 191525 March 2010) was a New Zealand-born optical astronomer and expert in photometry who played a leading role in the design and commissioning of Australia's largest optical telescope, the Anglo-Australian Telescope, which for a time was one of the world's most important astronomical facilities. Born in Napier, New Zealand, Gascoigne trained in Auckland and at the University of Bristol, before moving to Australia during World War II to work at the Commonwealth Solar Observatory at Mount Stromlo in Canberra. He became skillful in the design and manufacture of optical devices such as telescope elements.
Following the war, Gascoigne and astronomer Gerald Kron used newly modernised telescopes at Mount Stromlo to determine that the distance between our galaxy and the Magellanic Cloud dwarf galaxies had been underestimated by a factor of two. Because this measurement was used to calibrate other distances in astronomy, the result effectively doubled the estimated size of the universe. They also found that star formation in the Magellanic Clouds had occurred more recently than in the Milky Way; this overturned the prevailing view that both had evolved in parallel. A major figure at Mount Stromlo Observatory, Gascoigne helped it develop from a solar observatory to a centre of stellar and galactic research, and was instrumental in the creation of its field observatory in northern New South Wales, Siding Spring Observatory. When the British and Australian governments agreed to jointly build the Anglo-Australian Telescope at Siding Spring, Gascoigne was involved from its initial conception and throughout its lengthy commissioning, taking its first photograph. Gascoigne was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for his contributions to astronomy and to the Anglo-Australian Telescope.
Gascoigne and his wife, artist Rosalie Gascoigne, had three children. After he retired, Gascoigne wrote several works on Australian astronomical history. He acted as Rosalie's photographer and assistant, using his technical skills to make her artworks resilient for public display.
Early life Gascoigne's parents met and married in Levin, New Zealand, just before the First World War. They soon moved to Napier, where Gascoigne was born in 1915. He attended Auckland Grammar School, and won a scholarship to Auckland University College (now the University of Auckland) a year before he was due to finish high school. Faced with a choice between studying history or the sciences, he chose the latter because he had a severe stammer and thought that it would be less of an impediment. He completed both a Bachelor's degree and a Master's qualification in science, securing Honours in both mathematics and physics, finishing his studies in 1937. Despite these achievements, he did not consider himself to be practically trained, saying: "I was still very much a theorist, with no practical physics at all. The professor in Auckland used to wince when I walked past the cupboard in which the good instruments were kept!"
In 1933, while studying at the university, he met his future wife Rosalie Norah King Walker, although they did not marry for another decade. Rosalie completed a Bachelor of Arts while Gascoigne was studying in Auckland; she also studied at Auckland's teacher training college while he was in Bristol.
Although Gascoigne had always intended to study mathematics at Cambridge, an event occurred that significantly shaped his career. In 1931, an earthquake in New Zealand killed Michael Hiatt Baker, a young traveller from Bristol, and his parents established a postgraduate scholarship in his memory, for study at the University of Bristol, which Gascoigne won and took up in 1938. During his thesis studies at Bristol, Gascoigne developed a diffraction theory of the Foucault test that is used for evaluating the shape of large telescope mirrors. He completed his doctorate in physics in 1941, but by then war had broken out in Europe, and he had already returned to New Zealand on the last available ship.
War service 1940–1945 Returning to a job in the physics department at Auckland, Gascoigne worked on military optics, developing gun sights and rangefinders, although he did not remain there for long. Richard van der Riet Woolley, director of the Commonwealth Solar Observatory in Canberra (now Mount Stromlo Observatory), sought out Gascoigne because his "experience in optical work [was] unique" and Gascoigne was "trained in a way that no one else in Australia has been qualified".Frame & Faulkner, p. 81 When in 1941 Gascoigne was offered a research fellowship by Woolley, he moved to Canberra. The Solar Observatory staff had similar responsibilities to those Gascoigne had held in New Zealand. His first task was to design an anti-aircraft gun sight, and he was also involved in a range of other military optical projects. In 1944, the Melbourne Observatory, home to the Commonwealth Time Service, was closed. Gascoigne reestablished the Time Service at Mount Stromlo, using two Shortt-Synchronome clocks and astronomical observing equipment that he and his colleagues adapted; the Time Service remained at Mount Stromlo until 1968.Frame & Faulkner, p. 98 The knowledge and experience Gascoigne gained during the war proved valuable. He was at the only facility in Australia where optical work could be done, from design and manufacture to assembly and testing. Gascoigne developed a wide range of skills and "finished up quite practical, especially with a screwdriver."
A decade after Gascoigne first met Rosalie in New Zealand, she travelled to Canberra, and on 9 January 1943 they were married. Their first son, Martin, was born in November, and their second, Thomas, was born in 1945.
Mount Stromlo
Following the end of the war Woolley redirected the Commonwealth Observatory from solar research towards the study of stars and galaxies. It took time to get the old and unused telescopes back up to working condition: they had to be overhauled and refurbished, and in one case rebuilt from scrap. Woolley got funding approval from the Prime Minister for construction of a 74-inch telescope, but it would not be finished for years. Gascoigne began to work in the nascent field of photoelectric photometry, using electrical devices to measure the brightness of stars more accurately than had been possible using photographic techniques. In 1951, with equipment brought by visiting astronomer Gerald Kron from California's Lick Observatory, he observed Cepheid variable stars, which are used to measure astronomical distances. Granted nine months of observing time on the Observatory's Reynolds 30-inch reflector telescope – an extraordinary opportunity – Gascoigne, Kron and others surveyed Cepheid stars in both the Small Magellanic Cloud and, later, the Large Magellanic Cloud. They also examined the colours of star clusters in the Small Cloud. The research produced remarkable results: "it meant that the Magellanic Clouds were twice as far away as was previously thought, and if then the baseline is twice as long, the size of the universe is doubled." It also showed that star formation in the Magellanic Clouds had occurred more recently than in the Milky Way. The results overturned the prevailing view that our galaxy and the Magellanic Clouds had evolved in parallel.Haynes et al., p. 168 Gascoigne said of his work: Subsequent research confirmed what were described as pioneering results, arrived at through very innovative techniques.Freeman & McNamara, pp. 96–98
In 1949, the Gascoignes' third child, daughter Hester, was born. Like many Observatory personnel, the Gascoignes lived in a staff residence on Mount Stromlo, which was a long difficult trip away from Canberra. It was cold and lonely, particularly for Rosalie, but they enjoyed the outdoors, and the landscape inspired Rosalie's creativity and later her artistic career. In 1960 they relocated to Deakin in suburban Canberra, and in the late 1960s they moved to another suburb, Pearce.
In 1957, administrative responsibility for the Commonwealth Observatory was transferred from the Australian Government's Department of the Interior to the Australian National University (ANU), a move supported by both its director, Richard Woolley, and Gascoigne.Bhathal, p. 50 This was an era of significant change at Mount Stromlo: in January 1956 Woolley had resigned as director of Mount Stromlo to take up a position as Astronomer Royal and director of the Royal Observatory Greenwich.Haynes et al., p. 171 He was replaced by Dutch-American Bart Bok, whom Gascoigne liked and under whose directorship he played a significant role.Bhathal, p. 52 Also in 1957, the Mount Stromlo team began searching for a new field observatory site, due to the increased light pollution from Canberra's growth.Frame & Faulkner, p. 140 The search was vigorously promoted by Bok, and after an examination of 20 possible locations, two were shortlisted: Mount Bingar, near Griffith, New South Wales, and Siding Spring, near Coonabarabran, New South Wales.Haynes et al., p. 175 Gascoigne was one of a group of scientists who visited Siding Spring Mountain as part of the search,Frame & Faulkner, p. 141 and he was one of those who advocated this choice:
In 1962, Siding Spring was selected, and by 1967 Siding Spring Observatory was fully operational.Gascoigne et al., p. 49
At the end of Woolley's directorship, the 74-inch telescope he had initiated finally came online. Gascoigne, looking for a new research project and keen to use the new telescope, took up the study of globular clusters, compact groups of tens of thousands of ancient stars of similar age. With a new design of photometer, he was able to measure the exceptionally faint stars in these clusters. Gascoigne determined that the clusters in the Magellanic Clouds were both young and old, and had quite different characteristics to those in the Milky Way: this information was important for modelling the evolution of galaxies.Haynes et al., pp. 168, 187
In 1963, Gascoigne developed a device, known as an optical corrector plate, which allowed wide field photography on the new 40-inch telescope at Siding Spring. Such corrector plates were subsequently used on many telescopes and became known as Gascoigne correctors. During this period he was also active in supporting the establishment of a national research organisation for astronomers, the Astronomical Society of Australia. It held its first meeting in 1966, and Gascoigne was made its first vice-president.Frame & Faulkner, p. 163
When Bok retired as Stromlo's director in early 1966, Gascoigne became acting director for three months until the arrival of Bok's replacement, American astronomer Olin J. Eggen.Bhathal, p. 55 Like Bok Eggen was a productive scientist,Frame & Faulkner, p. 164 but he was "enigmatic", "somewhat gruff" and selective in the friendships he formed.Frame & Faulkner, p. 161 Although Eggen and Gascoigne had previously collaborated on research projects, when Eggen arrived to take up the post, he and Gascoigne did not get on well, in contrast to Gascoigne's relationships with other astronomers. Gascoigne said of Eggen: "he made it clear I had no further part in running the Observatory. I was given no information, saw no documents, attended no meetings, and was asked for no advice, not even in optical matters."Bhathal, pp. 52–55
Anglo-Australian Telescope
In 1963 Gascoigne published an article in the journal Nature titled "Towards a Southern Commonwealth Observatory".