2011-2016
The main aim of the project has been to write the history of Swedish amateur astronomy, from the beginning of the 20th century, when a more organised amateur astronomy began to emerge, up until today. From an international perspective the history of amateur science is a topic that is quite under-researched, and when it comes to amateur astronomy, only a handful of historians have been working in the field. The same goes for Sweden, where very little research has been done on the history of amateur science, and none at all on the history of amateur astronomy. With this background we believe that the project has made a substantial contribution.

One central theme in our work has been the role of technology in the development of amateur astronomy. To take part, the amateur astronomer needs some kind of instrumentation; therefore telescope technologies and the developments in optics, mechanics, electronics, and lately digital technologies, are an important part of this history. In the 1940's, for example, amateur telescope making was developing quickly in Sweden thanks to a combination of local efforts by individuals and organizations and the appropriation of technical know-how from the so-called Amateur Telescope Making movement in the US. This movement, developed from the 1920's in close collaboration with the journal Scientific American, taught tens of thousands of Americans how to grind and polish telescope optics and construct the mechanical parts of telescopes. One effect was that telescopes, up until then costly and advanced instruments available only to the wealthy, came into reach for many amateurs. A second example is the introduction of the so-called Dobson telescope, a type of telescopes that provided larger apertures, making possible amateur observation of hitherto unreachable astronomical objects such as far away galaxies and faint nebulae. Further examples of the role of technologies in the history of amateur astronomy is the increasingly advanced electronics and computer controls of telescopes, as well as the introduction of cheap mass-produced telescopes from the 1960's and onwards, putting a well-constructed and large telescope within easy reach of just about anyone who wanted to try out amateur astronomy. The central role of instrumentation has manifested itself in a very lively hobbyist culture, full of enthusiasts that love to tinker with their telescopes, in the process learning about optics, mechanics, electronics and software. This technical side of amateur astronomy borders on hobbyist cultures such as ham radio.

Amateurs also need information. Without proper star atlases and catalogues showing the positions of the thousands upon thousands of objects visible in amateur telescopes, along with predictions of the future positions of comets, and rapidly disseminated news about transient events as for example exploding stars (novae and supernovae), the amateur would be lost. Therefore, amateurs have tried many different ways to gain access to such information, and then to circulate it among their fellow amateurs. During the early years amateurs approach the professionals directly, writing letters to learn what they needed. Later on amateur organisations began circulating information in magazines, mimeographed bulletins and news circulars, and in the 1980s Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) and telephone answering machines came on-line, providing up-to-date astronomical information helping the amateur find his or her way on the sky. Today's internet-based forums and astronomical databases, so important for amateur astronomy, thus have a rich history of precedents that this project has unearthed and discussed.

But information also find its way back to the professional astronomers. Some celestial phenomena are best studied by distributed efforts, where many observers spread over wide geographical areas are collaborating on time-scales that can involve years or decades, to document change in objects such as variable stars, meteor activity, sunspot activity and the aurora. In these fields amateurs provide important data, useful for the professionals. The project has studied the development of several programs for such observations, focusing on methods used to collect, validate, analyse, archive and publish datasets. Our study of several hierarchical networks of amateur observers -- parallels to what goes on in fields such as botany, ornithology, and geology -- has shown how amateurs perform large-scale empirical work, often in collaboration with professional astronomers. Even in the age of Big Science, the amateur astronomer can become part of the scientific knowledge production.

MAIN RESULTS

Besides unearthing the history of Swedish amateur astronomy, the project's main result is a furthering of the understanding of the concept of the amateur astronomer. Previous studies have often characterised the amateur astronomer as someone actively collaborating with professional researchers. Applied to what went on in Swedish amateur astronomy in the 20th century, we soon found out that this definition was way to narrow, excluding the lion's share of all Swedes engaged in astronomy. Instead, we have developed a concept that takes the do-it-your-self attitude that is prevalent in amateur astronomy, as it's starting point. To be an amateur astronomer is not to passively consume popular astronomy in books or on television, but to actively do astronomy oneself. In this perspective, producing scientifically useful data for professional astronomers is only one of several activities that amateurs engage in. They construct instruments and other equipment; they plan, build and run observatories; they engage in popularisation activity by giving lectures and showing the night sky to the public; they organize more or less advanced observing projects and sometimes even publish in peer-reviewed astronomical journals. Actually amateurs are engaged in most of the activities that professional astronomers are.

Just like a modern scientific disciplines can be analysed as a handful of relatively distinct scientific subcultures, each with its own set of instruments, technologies, methods, theories, and ideals, so can amateur astronomy be understood. In correspondence we have developed an analytic framework that views amateur astronomy as a set of subcultures, each with its own discernible identity, but all held together by an overarching love for astronomy.

NEW RESEARCH QUESTIONS

To understand the role of science amateurism in the history of the Swedish 20th century, our study can only be a start. Amateur astronomy is, and has always been, a relatively small enterprise, today engaging approximately 1500 amateurs. This can be compared to for example amateur ornithology, or bird watching, that engage at least ten or even twenty times as many Swedes. The history of Swedish amateur ornithology still remains to be written, as does histories of many other amateur science cultures. Further research along these lines would also provide the present citizen science movement with a necessary historical background. To enroll members of the public to help in scientific research is not as innovative as some seems to believe, but has a history that stretches back at least a century, often more.

INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS

When we launched this project we decided to use some of our time and resources to broaden and deepen our connections with the international community of historians of astronomy. To this end we arranged an international workshop in Stockholm (2012), to which we invited scholars from both Europe and USA with an interest in the history of amateur astronomy. The network thus formed was later used to organize sessions at the Biennial History of Astronomy Workshop, University of Notre Dame, USA (2013), and at the Science and Technology in the European Periphery meeting in Lisbon, Portugal (2014). In all of these setting we have tried to argue the importance for historians of astronomy to also include amateurs and amateur astronomy into their research agendas. During the project we have used the meetings with international peers as a test bench for our own ideas, and the network will be of vital importance for further research project.

OUTREACH

To raise interest for our project, especially among active amateur astronomers, we have run a project blog (www.amatorastronomi.wordpress.com). After three years the blog contains well over hundred articles, many quite substantial. The blog has been successful in reaching our intended audience, but has also generated important feedback into the project. Questions about missing documents, forgotten bulletins etcetera, has often been answered by our readers within a couple of hours. In addition we have also held a number of lectures and presentations at meetings with various amateur organisations, as for example Svensk Amatörastronomisk förening, Astronomiska Sällskapet Tycho Brahe and Värmland Star Party. We have also participated in Vetenskapsfestivalen, and even at an arrangement at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago (via Skype). Lastly we have on several occasions presented our research at seminars at our home departments, and at Swedish conferences on the history of science.

PUBLICATIONS

The main publication from the project will be a co-written monograph. We will do the final editing of the manuscript early this fall (2016). We plan to publish the book as both at paper book and as an E-book, the latter to secure open access. We have also published two articles, and have two more in the pipeline, one on the Swedish Amateur Telescope Making-tradition, and one on the concept of the amateur astronomer.

Publications

PUBLICERAT

Gustav Holmberg, ”Passion istället för profession: Ideal och identitet i amatörastronomins historia från 1700-tal till 1900-tal” i Olsson, Söderfeldt, Ohlsson och Ellerström (red.), Utopin i vardagen: sinnen, kvinnor, idéer: en vänbok till Elisabeth Mansén (Lund: Ellerström, 2014).

Johan Kärnfelt, ”Follow the Information: Comets, Communicative Practices and Swedish Amateur Astronomers in the Twentieth Century”, Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, vol. 18:2 (2015) 161-176,  http://www.narit.or.th/en/files/2015JAHHvol18/2015JAHH...18..161K.pdf

Gustav Holmberg & Johan Kärnfelt, projektblogg: www.amatorastronomi.wordpress.com


KOMMANDE

Gustav Holmberg & Johan Kärnfelt, Kärlek till stjärnorna: Om den svenska amatörastronomins historia, 1900 till idag.

Johan Kärnfelt, “The Reception and Dissemination of American Amateur Telescope Making in Swedish Amateur Astronomy”.

Gustav Holmberg, “Ideals and subcultures in 20th century Swedish amateur astronomy”.