Since its founding in 1839, the Harvard College Observatory has pioneered in the development of modern astronomy. Its first directors early recognized the potential of spectroscopy in revealing the constitution of the stars, and of photography in determining the positions and motions of celestial objects; the library of photographic plates made under their direction provides an invaluable history of the stellar universe for the period. The Observatory also pioneered in using the talents of women, several of whom became noted astronomers, and their monumental classification of stars from spectral records constitutes a fundamental contribution to astronomical knowledge.

The authors vividly portray the genesis, growth, and achievements of a major scientific institution and its relations with other observatories. Through the use of photographs and correspondence they also portray the men and women who played essential roles in the development of astronomy in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

This modern era has had many names: the golden age, the machine age, the atomic age, the electronic age, and so on. One further title, hitherto unpublicized, it eminently deserves: the age of noise. Man has compounded the natural noise that preceded his existence on the earth until no point on this globe is free from it. Even in the desert's hush, radio waves pervade the air and provide a source of potential noise. The shorter waves escape from the earth and fill interplanetary space with the mingled clamor of FM, TV, radar, and other insistent voices.

This book deals with the important problem of radio noise, its sources, whether manmade or natural, over the known range of frequencies. Certain of these contributions will interest the communicator, enabling him to estimate the potential interference from various types of sources. Other contributions deal mainly with scientific problems, such as the origins and significance of certain characteristic noise radiations.

The contributors to this book are experts on the various phases of radio noise. The individual chapters derive from papers presented at a Conference on Radio Noise, held at Harvard College Observatory, April 22, 1958.