Bryn Athyn College Alumni Magazine Fall/Winter 2017-18 | Page 14

OUR HISTORY
The Breeze, Nov 7, 1957:
Bryn Athyn Moonwatchers On the Job
MOONWATCH STATION at Bryn Athyn shown here as they listened to
radio contact with Russian Satellite II, this team of registered watchers
met with the success they hoped for when they both visually sighted and
picked up contact on their radio this Wednesday morning at 5 o'clock.
Since Sunday afternoon they have been picking up Satellite II on their radio,
morning and night. This is the same team that several times earlier sighted
Satellite I and its rocket, not below the horizon. Satellite II will become more
visible each morning, being at its best sometime between 5:30 and 5:45,
this coming Saturday morning. Here, with Mrs. Robert M. Cole, chairman
of the "Moonwatchers," are Kenneth Rose, at the dials; Kurt Simons,
with head phones; Alfred Sandstrom, jotting the information. Among the
spectators are Lyris Hyatt, time recorder; Morna Hyatt, deputy chairman;
Nancy Stroh; James Carr; Rey Cooper (who spotted the Satellite II); Mary
Alice Carswell, sec'y. Not shown, but a radio operator, is Robert Johns.
ments. Our report to Cambridge helped to settle the
uncertain knowledge of the orbit at that time.”
On October 24, 1957, two days after calling in
her findings, Wertha received a personalized letter
from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory,
saying, “Congratulations on the sighting of not only
the rocket but the satellite. That is just what we have
been waiting for.” Another letter stated, “Please ac-
cept for yourself and extend the team members my
hearty congratulations for their performance. They
have demonstrated that they can be depended upon.”
Bryn Athyn Team Sees Sputnik II
A week later, on November 1, 1957, Wertha called
an emergency meeting to let her team know that
she had received an urgent telegram. Russia planned
to launch a new and even bigger satellite that com-
ing week, and all Moonwatch teams were to be on
alert. Interestingly, this second satellite carried a dog
named Laika.
For the next few days, during the early mornings
and late evenings, the team waited and watched. This
time, the team had gained a crucial team member.
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Radio-savvy Keneth Simons could hear a satellite sig-
nal at least a minute before its appearance and could
then put the crew on high alert. On November 6, the
Bryn Athyn team spotted Sputnik II. They tracked
its course to a precise degree, using Keneth’s radio
signals. As Kenneth Rose wrote a couple weeks later
in a student newspaper, “This was our finest hour.
The simultaneous optical and radio tracking was a
self-confirming observation of just what we wanted.”
He added humbly, “If we have done well, we have to
admit that it’s largely because we were so thoroughly
enjoying the challenge of this novel job.”
The next day’s local newspaper, the Evening Bul-
letin, read: “Sputnik II zoomed across Philadelphia’s
skies on schedule before dawn today. …The satellite
was tumbling end over end. …Ground observers had
some trouble spotting the sputnik while it was at its
dimmest. But their annoyance was probably nothing
compared with the dizzying plight of the acrobatic
Red Fido riding inside the satellite. The Russians still
insist that their dog is all right, but of course nobody
has as yet interviewed the dog.”
During the last three months of 1957, the Bryn
Athyn Moonwatch team held 29 observing sessions,
and had 13 total satellite sightings. Kenneth pointed
out, “Only three other teams in the world were more
active during that period, among them one at Cam-
bridge, run by the personnel at Moonwatch Head-
quarters.”
Glimpsing America's First Satellite
In the spring of 1958, the team participated in yet an-
other historic event. The U.S. had just launched its
first satellite. Up on Benade Hall’s roof, Moonwatch
team member 18-year-old Kurt Simons (AA ’60) held
a small radio, listening for the voice of his father and
BAC alumnus, Keneth Simons, who sat in his base-
ment a mile away, ear tuned to a separate radio device.
Suddenly Keneth’s eager voice came through his
son’s radio: “It’s just about south now, according to
my antennae. It’s about the strongest I’ve ever heard
it.” Moments later, the first U.S. satellite, Explorer I,
zipped across the night sky, and the Bryn Athyn team
again made newspaper headlines for their precise re-
cordings of the event.
Bryn Athyn Team Sees
Sputnik II Crash
On April 14, 1958, the front page of the Harvard
Crimson newspaper reported that Russia’s rocket