Roberts, Walter Orr, 1966

Oral history interview with Walter Orr Roberts, 1966. One sound cassette (ca. 1 hr.) : analog, mono. Two physical versions (one master, one copy). Transcript (24 pgs.). Forms part of the UCAR/NCAR Oral History Collection. In this interview Walter Orr Roberts discusses the war time (World War II) and working in isolation at the observatory in the mining community of Climax, Colorado. He talks about observing the Sun’s corona, using the chronograph and doing special cosmic ray work with gold. The observatory was eventually incorporated jointly with the University of Colorado. Roberts wanted to get the Climax Company’s permission to name the observatory the Climax Solar Observatory, but timing was not on his side. Jack Evans and Roberts decided on a different name, the High Altitude Observatory (HAO). Roberts talks about a visit from members of the Soviet Union to Climax after the war. The Russians were interested in building a chronograph and Roberts and Evans discussed the principles of design and operation with them. The visit sparked a lot of discussion on what the post-war chronograph would look like, what would be the next big step in chronograph development. Roberts concludes by discussing the plans for building a new chronograph and site development at HAO.