Tag Archives: Exhibitions

Reflections on “Explore the Universe” 2001-2012

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One of the jokes I inherited from my student years is the final exam question “Describe the Universe” which was followed by “and give two examples.” In the 1960s, this could be funny of course, at least to astronomers. Today, however, the answer might be, “Only two?”  Since the Explore the Universe gallery opened in September 2001, the appreciation that more than our universe may well exist has strengthened  If we were to revamp the gallery today, there would be some discussion of where the evidence might someday actually come from.  What we will probably do instead is utilize one of the various updatable features already in the gallery, when the time really comes.

Indeed, as the Museum contemplated a new astronomy gallery in the 1990s, we knew that we were dealing with a subject that is constantly changing.  We had formed a core group of scientists, historians, educators, and designers to craft a vision for the new presentation.  What emerged, after three Museum directors and many other staff changes, was a simple and hardly radical statement: “New Tools, New Universes.”  Of course, it was the same universe each time, but seen and understood more completely, and, typically, was found to be very unlike the conception that went before.  This single statement embodied others, like “New Universes tend to be larger and less homocentric” or “There are no final answers, only better informed questions.”

One of the most interesting themes, or threads, that we decided to incorporate, however, was how “Women have played significant roles in changing our view of the nature of the Universe.”  This last one, like the others, helped to guide the choices we made as to what instruments played a role in giving us new views, where did those instruments come from, and who were the people who either used those instruments or analyzed the data coming from them?

During the course of developing the gallery we well knew that astronomy has long been a male-dominated enterprise.  This is, happily, no longer the case. But even in past times, it is not difficult to point to women who played critical roles in revolutionizing our view of the nature of the Universe.

We therefore set about to portray some of these women in Explore the Universe, within the contexts in which they worked, and the roles they played making the new discoveries.  As you walk through the gallery located on the east end of the first floor of the Museum, here are some of the stories  you will encounter:

The First Room

The first universe you will encounter is human or earth-centered, “homocentric” in other words.  It was the view we constructed based upon observations by eye alone, aided only by pointing devices to determine positions of things in the sky, and over time, their motions.  The geometric earth centered view of the Greeks is depicted, together with the instruments that refined it, ending in a replica of Tycho Brahe’s great 16th Century equatorial armillary sphere being used by one of his assistants.  No women are depicted here.

Armillary Sphere

A view of the Tycho Armillary Sphere reproduction on display in “Explore the Universe.” The Sphere was built by Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe in the late 1500s to study the sky and to teach about the celestial coordinate system.

The Second Room

The second universe, brought by the advent of the telescope, led to the confirmation of a model suggested prior to Tycho: that the universe was centered on the Sun and not the earth.  Tycho’s tables and observations had given strong evidence of this, but in and of themselves were not sufficient to overthrow the Aristotelian universe.  Observations with Galileo’s telescope were sensational enough to bring about this revolution, enabled by his ability to dramatically portray his evidence (the Jovian satellites, the Venusian phases, the Sun’s spots, etc.) through visual representation.

Walking through this second room is a walk through telescopic history in a universe composed of stars, all contained within what we call the Milky Way.  Ever bigger and more powerful telescopes were built through the 18th and 19th centuries to probe this universe. Featured in the gallery is the grand 20-foot reflector of William Herschel in a diorama showing him at work gauging the heavens, with his sister Caroline both directing and recording his observing routine from an open window.  Caroline’s contribution to William’s legacy, producing the first observational map of the structure of the known universe, was in fact as more than his assistant.  It was she, according to recent scholarship, who made William’s work systematic, and it was she who also encouraged him to carefully catalog those fuzzy faint apparitions they were recording night after night, year by year.  These so-called nebular forms could be unresolved clusters of stars, or some ethereal shining fluid out of which stars someday would form.  But were they among the stars? Or beyond the stars?  Were they other universes, the Herschels asked?  The distribution of the nebulae was oddly different than the distribution of stars, or the shape of the universe as they found it.

Carolyn Herschel

Carolyn Herschel was an astronomer and researcher who became the first woman, and the only woman for well over a century, to be awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society of London. Her work was formally recognized in 1828.

Caroline, of course, worked in astronomy by virtue of her brother’s interests, and they both were supported by a king’s pension, provided by George III  after William had discovered the planet Uranus in 1781.

The Third Room

The question the Herschels posed (“what was the nature of the nebulae?”) was answered in the early 20th century when photography was applied to increase the power of the telescope.  The eye is a very sensitive detector of light energy, but it accumulates that energy for only a very small fraction of a second, depending upon the light level.  Photographic emulsions can collect and accumulate light energy for many hours, providing a vast increase in sensitivity.  This is why, once photographic emulsions came available, they were quickly adapted to telescope cameras to replace the eye.  Now, also, information could be stored on these photographic plates and be available permanently, housed in protected chambers astronomers called vaults, and brought out for examination day and night.

By 1900, photographic astronomy had shown that most of the faint nebulae Herschel had glimpsed were in fact spiral in structure, reminiscent of whirlpools.  And there were many many thousands of them.  Meanwhile, women working at Harvard College Observatory, like Henrietta Swan Leavitt, were making some very valuable observations and coming to powerful conclusions examining many photographs over time of  nearby star clusters like the Clouds of Magellan, visible only from the southern hemisphere.

Henrietta Swan Leavitt

Henrietta Swan Leavitt examined photographs of both the Small and the Large Magellanic Clouds taken over many weeks and months and found over 2,500 stars that varied in brightness in the two clouds, now known as companion galaxies to the Milky Way. She was the first to show that the variations in brightness were a measure of the intrinsic brightnesses of these stars, thus providing a powerful new distance indicator for astronomy.

There were many stars in these clusters that did not radiate constantly, but varied in brightness over great ranges.  Leavitt’s contribution, between 1908 and 1912, was to realize that for a certain class of these light-varying (or variable) stars, the period of their variation was in proportion to their mean brightnesses.  The brighter ones had longer periods (a matter of days) than the fainter ones.  Since all the stars were in the same cluster, and therefore at the same distance, she had discovered an intrinsic property of these stars.  Without even knowing why these stars varied in brightness, she showed that they constituted a new and valuable means for determining the distances to stars, if their intrinsic brightnesses could be ascertained.  Her conclusion was quickly picked up by a astronomers both in Europe and the United States.  The Mount Wilson astronomer Harlow Shapley calibrated this class of variables and found bunches of them in globular clusters. By 1920, he had determined their distribution and from it deduced the size of the Milky Way Galaxy, finding it so vast he felt nothing could be outside of it.

Soon after Shapley’s work, Edwin Hubble, also working at Mount Wilson with the new 100-inch reflecting telescope, used Leavitt’s variables and Shapley’s calibrations, modified by others, to determine the distance to the Andromeda nebulae, one of the largest and brightest spirals in the sky. He found that its distance was at least 10 times greater than Shapley’s estimate for the size of the Milky Way. In others words, it lay outside the Milky Way and hence was an island universe.  Thus Leavitt, employed as an assistant at the Harvard College Observatory (not included through an accident of family as Caroline Herschel had been) produced a distance-determining tool that once again revolutionized the universe.  We live in a universe of galaxies, not stars.

Magellanic Clouds

Magellanic Clouds. Credit: AURA/NOAO/NSF.

Neither Leavitt or Caroline Herschel worked as independent astronomers, setting their own course of investigation. Although Leavitt was given a certain degree of freedom to search out anything that might be interesting, she was directed to this work by others.  As you continue to walk through the gallery, you will encounter other women, in more recent times, who designed their own research programs and carried them out. These include Vera Rubin in the fifth room, who found in the 1970s that dark matter dominates galaxies like Andromeda, and Margaret Geller, who found in the 1980s that the universe is not uniform, but clumpy on a huge scale that may well outline the distribution of dark matter in the universe.

So if and when we find evidence that, indeed, universes other than our own exist, and have left their marks on our own universe in deep time, what role will women play in that realization?  Only time, and larger telescopes on the ground and in space, will tell.

David DeVorkin is a curator in the Space History Division at the National Air and Space Museum.

Filming the Story of Getting from Here to There

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The central theme of the Time and Navigation exhibition is the connection between timekeeping and determining position. The main point is this: “If you want to know where you are, you need an accurate clock.”  Centuries ago, accurate chronometers were required to determine longitude at sea. In recent years, global satellite navigation systems require accurate atomic clocks to synchronize their transmissions. These navigation tools would not function without accurate clocks.

Explaining the connection between time and location can be complex. During the development of the exhibition, we realized it was not enough to show devices for accurately measuring time and position. We wanted visitors to grasp why it’s true that “If you want to know where you are, you need an accurate clock.”  We wanted it to be easy to understand and, hopefully, fun. We developed the idea of a portrait gallery. Each portrait would depict a person from a different time period engaged in navigation. But this will be no ordinary set of portraits. Each will appear to be a painting or photograph, but in reality they will be large video screens. At regular intervals, the characters depicted in the portraits will “come to life” and interact with each other, telling the story of navigation from their point of view.

We planned five characters. The “Sea Navigator” would explain how he used a chronometer, sextant, and other tools to determine position while crossing the ocean in the 1830s. An “Air Navigator” would respond by explaining how he used similar tools, along with radio transmissions, to navigate aircraft during the World War II era. We’d then introduce an “Astronaut” to explore how to navigate spacecraft across the solar system, also using radio transmissions. A “Military Person” would speak about the details of the Global Positioning System and its military applications. Finally, a character we called the “Museum Visitor” would enter the scene. She would explore these topics from the point of view of an everyday user of global navigation with her mobile phone. Each of the characters reflected the topics in the sections of the Time and Navigation exhibition: Navigation at Sea, Navigation in the Air, Navigation in Space, Inventing Satellite Navigation, and Navigation for Everyone.

Actors

All five cast members before shooting begins. The astronaut character is in costume to the left, with the remaining actors ready to read their lines.

To bring this idea to reality, the Smithsonian selected a contractor to produce videos for Time and Navigation. The exhibition team worked with them over a period of months to develop the look and feel of the portraits, refine the script, and select the cast. We also had several decisions to make regarding props and wardrobe. Finally it was time to shoot the video.

During the last week of October, I traveled to southern California to be there during the shooting. The filming was planned to take place over two days in a sound stage in Orange, California. We met the evening before over dinner with the cast and crew for introductions. Over Mexican food, we completed a preliminary reading of the script.

The filming of the “portrait” characters was complex. The timing of each line needed to be precise, because the characters will interact with each other. Physical objects are even passed between two of the characters. The actors began by reading the entire script without a camera, giving us a recording of the program with a good pacing. Once the filming began, one actor at a time was filmed in costume, responding to the other actors as they spoke. By the time it was all over, the actors had read through the script at least 40 times.

Sea Navigator

The sea navigator prepares to begin his performance in front of a green screen.

Special attention was paid to how the actors looked at each other. Because they will appear next to each other on a wall, the eye lines between each character were determined before filming began. Each actor must look to the eyes of the character they address for each line. This required actors to sit or stand in their correct orientation, as if they were already within the portrait frames.

The Astronaut was the only character we filmed with props and a backdrop. The actor stood behind a table with a space shuttle model and a globe. The other four characters were filmed in front of a green screen so the background could be digitally added in production. During the filming, I sat next to the director to provide guidance. I was required to make several decisions, some important and others very minor. We made a few last-minute script changes and I occasionally provided pointers for which words to emphasize.

There were a few unexpected adventures. We had an issue with an insect flying onto a couple of the scenes. During a lunch break, it was announced that a reward would be given for its capture. This did the trick. The assistant director captured the offending insect and humanely release it outside.

Another surprise was that the legs of each character were visible. This was a serious problem because the chosen wardrobe did not include pants for two of the actors!  In the original plans, we thought the actors would be visible only above the waist.

The Air Navigator wore a flight jacket and khaki shirt. The actor wore casual shorts for comfort, because the jacket was hot and we had to turn off the whirring air conditioning. He even wore an ice vest under the flight jacket to stay cool. But now we needed a pair of matching khaki pants. Everyone looked around. I looked down at the khaki pants on my own legs. So did the director, sitting next to me. “Those look good,” he said.  ”What’s your waist size?” I asked the actor. He was a 33, a match. So that is how, while representing the Smithsonian at a filming in southern California, I lost my pants. Fortunately another crew member had a pair of shorts I could borrow. I looked ridiculous but I must admit I was comfortable.

We had the same problem with our military character. She wore the uniform of the US Air Force 807th Expeditionary Air Support Operations Squadron, which was deployed to Afghanistan. Once again, we needed to find matching pants. We got very lucky. Right around the corner was a military surplus store. They had an exact match for the camouflage pattern. The pants were too large for the actor, but with a few binder clips to hold the extra fabric in place we were good to go.

In the end, we got all the video we needed to produce the portraits. Over the next few months we’ll be reviewing preliminary versions of the video to prepare for installation. Thanks to the whole crew at Aperture Films. You can see the end result when we open Time and Navigation in March.

Andrew Johnston is a geographer in the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies at the National Air and Space Museum.

Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 Extravehicular Gloves and Visor

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Extravehicular gloves and visor worn by Neil Armstrong when he took his first steps on the Moon on July 20, 1969.

There is a new display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington Dulles International Airport.  Along the south wall of the James S. McDonnell Space Hanger, in a large storefront case, are the extravehicular (EV) gloves and visor that Neil Armstrong wore when he first stepped on the surface of the Moon on July 20, 1969.  These three components of Armstrong’s A7-L spacesuit are a small portion of what hundreds of millions of people saw on the television broadcast of his first steps on the lunar surface.  But they are also the most immediately identifiable.  The gloves have the blue silicone fingertips and the stainless steel fabric that wraps the hands with the long white gauntlet with instructions printed on the left one.  The visor is the giant sun goggles that astronauts needed to survive in absence of the Sun-filtering effects of the Earth’s atmosphere.  These objects were placed on display on Tuesday afternoon as part of the Museum’s memorialization of Neil Armstrong’s life.

Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 Visor

Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 EV Gloves

The first question that might come to mind to many of the visitors seeing the gloves and visor is why these components and not the rest of his spacesuit?   The short answer to that question is that the Museum is trying to preserve Armstrong’s suit and all the other spacesuits in the national collection for generations to come.  When the news of Neil Armstrong’s death was released to the public, I was shopping for a swim team picnic and immediately began to text our spacesuit conservator, Lisa Young.  We both immediately recognized that the significance of Armstrong’s life and his role in the space program called for a significant action on the part of the Museum.  The components of Armstrong’s spacesuit that he returned from the Moon have been on display almost continuously from the time in 1973 when NASA transferred them to the Museum until 2001 when my predecessor Amanda Young made the very difficult decision to remove them for conservation purposes.  Objects in the spacesuit collection are rotated on and off display based on their individual needs as determined by Museum collections specialists. The climate and display conditions in the existing display were not ideal for preserving the spacesuit for decades.  The natural deterioration processes of the synthetic materials; interactions between components of the suit, humidity, light and the traditional upright display position were all contributing to a worsening condition of the suit.  By 2001, Lisa Young had determined that storage conditions of a moderate temperature (60 degrees Fahrenheit or 15.5 degrees Celsius) and low relative humidity (<30%)  are the ideal conditions to maximize the stabilization of the materials in the suit. Once removed from display, Neil Armstrong’s suit was stored under those conditions for 10 years, first at the Museum’s Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility in Suitland, Maryland, and more recently at the Museum’s modern storage facility at the Udvar-Hazy Center. Lisa and I decided that these three of all the suit components were the best able to withstand the hazards of display outside of their storage containers for a brief period of time.

Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 spacesuit, currently in storage at the Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA. Photo credit: Mark Avino

Once we made that decision, a remarkable number of Museum divisions had to come into play to make the display happen.  The Exhibits Design and Exhibits Production units had to approve a design and location including approving, editing, and producing exhibit labels.  The Smithsonian’s Office of Protection Services had to ensure that the display conditions met the Institution’s monitoring requirements.  Our chief conservator, Malcolm Collum, swung into action in the midst of moving his laboratory from Suitland to the Udvar-Hazy Center and produced a detailed condition report prior to display.  Our mount maker, Glenn Rankin, had to build new mounts to fit the glove and the visor that met both conservation and exhibit requirements.  Then Samantha Snell, Jeannie Whited, and Jennifer Stringfellow of the Collections Division worked to assure that the transport of the artifacts from storage to the Conservation lab and finally to display went smoothly and without incident.

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s spacesuits were formerly on display together, pictured here in 1999. Buzz Aldrin’s suit is currently on display in “Apollo to the Moon.” Photo credit: Eric Long

The gloves and visor will be on display for about two weeks.  When they return to storage, we hope that it will not be for another decade.  Neil Armstrong’s death has emphasized to all of us at the Museum the importance of sharing our precious collections related to the Apollo program with the public.  The Museum plans to complete a renovation of its Apollo to the Moon gallery on display at the Museum in Washington, DC.  The new gallery, which is planned for 2018, will tell the story of how the United States built the Apollo program in eight years on the basis of 15 minutes of human spaceflight experience.  In that gallery, visitors, including those who have no personal memory of seeing Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon in 1969, will see his spacesuit kit and other personal materials on display.  At that time, the suit and its components will be displayed under conditions that will come close to our storage standards.  Once we have established these new display standards for our spacesuit collection, we will be able to share more of our collection with the public while preserving it so that visitors will be able to view it for generations.

Neil Armstrong in his Apollo 11 spacesuit with visor on the table in front of him. Photo credit: NASA

 

Cathleen Lewis is a curator in the Space History Division of the National Air and Space Museum.

All photos by Dane Penland, National Air and Space Museum, unless otherwise noted.

Because of the fragility of the suits, the Air and Space Museum joined with the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) to create Suited for Space based on Amanda Young and Mark Avino’s book, Spacesuits: The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Collection.  Near full-sized images of spacesuits from the Museum’s collection bring you up close, and x-rays give you the inside-look at some suits and their components. The exhibit is currently showing at the Center for Earth and Space Science in Tyler, Texas and will open at the National Air and Space Museum on the Mall in July 2013.

Look! In the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s…a flying beer keg?

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RQ-16A T-Hawk

This T-Hawk was donated to the National Air and Space Museum by the Honeywell International Corporation for use in the Time and Navigation exhibition, scheduled to open in March of 2013.

Well, not exactly, but that is the nickname some have given to the RQ-16 T-Hawk (short for Tarantula Hawk, a wasp that preys on the large spiders).  The T-Hawk micro air vehicle (MAV) is a small unmanned aircraft that has been making a name for itself in both military and civilian circles since it was developed by Honeywell International Corporation starting in 2003.  Weighing only about 20 pounds, the T-hawk relies on a small gasoline-powered engine (like a lawn-mower) and a ducted fan to allow it to take off and land vertically (like a helicopter), fly up to 46 miles per hour for about 50 minutes, and reach heights of 10,000 feet!  All this flying technology is used to carry some very high-tech cameras, including regular daytime cameras, as well as infrared cameras.    But wait, there’s more!  It is also programmable to use pre-set GPS coordinates to fly autonomously through an area without any need for a manual control.  These unique characteristics have allowed the T-Hawk to be used to “hover-and-stare” both on and off the battlefield.

RQ-16A T-Hawk

The RQ-16A T-Hawk propels itself from the ground, beginning a demonstration highlighting some of its abilities at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan.

Originally developed at the request of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the T-Hawk found a place amongst ground troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan.  The Army issued some of the highly mobile units, which are small enough to be carried by a soldier in a backpack, to military units in Iraq where they were sent ahead of a convoy or group of soldiers to scout.  With real-time video sent with the T-Hawk’s cameras, field commanders can have a bird’s-eye view of an area before troops arrive to look out for any traps or ambushes along the way.  The US Navy has also made use of the T-Hawk and assigned them to explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) units in both Iraq and Afghanistan.  The T-Hawk can take off quickly and hover over a suspicious-looking area or item to give EOD technicians a close-up view without putting them in harm’s way.  The “hover-and-stare” ability has proven invaluable to spotting road side bombs before US troops arrive in an area.

The T-Hawk, however, is not just useful to those in the military.  Recently, the Miami-Dade Police Department purchased a T-Hawk to assist with situations such as standoffs with armed suspects.  More importantly, the T-Hawk was used to help during the nuclear crisis Japan faced in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami that struck the country on March 11, 2011.  Using the T-Hawk, US Department of Defense personnel at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant were able to get the first detailed video of the exterior of damaged reactor vessels in an environment that was too radioactive for humans.

Fukushima Daiichi

This photo was taken by a T-Hawk over the ruins of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant shortly after the plant suffered a partial meltdown following an earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011. The T-Hawk provided authorities with some of the first detailed images of the plant from areas which were too dangerous for humans.

So why is the T-Hawk so important to the National Air and Space Museum?  Well, besides its awesome capabilities, and its similarity to a flying WALL-E, it will also be seen in an upcoming exhibition at the Museum.  The gallery, called Time and Navigation is set to open in March of 2013, and will showcase the importance of time-keeping to navigation.  The T-Hawk has recently arrived at the Museum as part of the permanent collection and will be on display in a section of the exhibit discussing the importance of GPS to the military.  Stop by and see it then!

Thomas Paone is a museum specialist at the National Air and Space Museum.

The Untold Story of Getting from Here to There

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I work behind the scenes as part of a team of museum specialists supporting the upcoming exhibit Time and Navigation: The Untold Story of Getting from Here to There opening in March, 2013. I am the person who shepherds the objects themselves through the process. I photograph them, take their measurements, build specialized containers for them, bring them to their appointments and generally hover over them like a nanny to her charges.  Yes, indeed, they have appointments — with the exhibit designer, the conservator, and mount maker — all of whom play a big role in getting them ready for their big day when the exhibit opens.   Spending as much time with them as I do, I have learned a few of their secrets and I would like to share some of them with you.

 

Hemispherical Resonator

Hemispherical Resonator. Photo by Ben Sullivan and Charles Gosse.

 

The tiniest object in the exhibit – not much bigger than a dime – is this part of a Hemispherical Resonator shown above in a series of three snapshots.  Plato said that “all science begins with astonishment;” so it is for the child who gazes upon a ringing wine glass resting on a dinner table.  Haven’t we all run a wet finger along the rim of a wine glass to make it sing?  I know I have.  You may never have thought about this, but every material has a frequency at which it vibrates or “resonates.” The Hemispherical Resonator sings in much the same way as a wine glass. Onboard a space vehicle, a Hemispherical Resonator assists with extremely fine positioning.  And of course, in space no one tells the Resonator to cut it out.  While its form is meant to be purely functional, when we photographed it our studio lights passed through it and revealed an elegance as compelling as any object of art.

This LORAN-C or long-range navigation unit for general aviation aircraft, was the first of its kind in 1980.  What we didn’t realize until we looked closer was that the engineers, scientists, and technicians who designed it actually signed their work.  How cool is that?

 

LORAN-C

Long Range Navigation (LORAN) Unit. Photo by Charles Gosse and Ben Sullivan.

 

This is the compass which was onboard Winnie Mae when Wiley Post flew solo around the world.  The damage to the glass (a separate piece from the main unit, itself) is from a crash on takeoff on August 15, 1935 near Point Barrow, Alaska.  We needed to know what the fluid was inside the compass but we could not open the sealed unit.  After some careful research, I discovered that the company which made the compass was still in business and got in touch with them and gave them its serial number.  They looked it up in their old company registers (extract below), found its manufacture date, and told us that the fluid was either alcohol or mineral spirits as well as the date it was made and for whom.

 

compass

Aperiodic Compass

 

R.S. Ritchie Company log records

R.S. Ritchie Company log records. Photo courtesy of Steve Sprole

 

This model of a Dornier Super Wal flying boat is made of nickel over brass.  Beautiful at a distance, we discovered just how beautiful it is up close, as well, where the detail is extraordinary, both externally as well as inside where gangways, seats, and tables are lovingly reproduced.  A tiny metal plate was attached to the co-pilot’s seat at some point with the name of the craftsman who had made needed repairs to the model.

 

Model of a Dornier Super Wal Flying Boat

Model of a Dornier Super Wal Flying Boat. Photo by Charles Gosse

 

These are just some of the stories behind these beautiful and important objects, which will appear in the upcoming Time and Navigation exhibit opening in March, 2013.

Charles Gosse is a part of the team behind Time and Navigation: The Untold Story of Getting from Here to There coming March, 2013 to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC