Astronomy

In 1870 Miles Rock was living in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania where he was employed as an instructor at his alma mater, Lehigh University, and working for the Pennsylvania Railroad around Philipsburg, New Jersey. At Lehigh, Rock was able to work with the newly constructed Sayre Observatory to develop his life-long interest in astronomy. Upon finding that leading American astronomer Dr. B.A. Gould was in need of astronomical assistants for the completion of a proposed star atlas of the Southern Hemisphere, Rock eagerly applied to the position. Gould had received assurances of support from the government of Argentina for the establishment of a national observatory at Cordoba. From 1870-1873, Miles Rock lived and worked at the Cordoba observatory on the project of mapping the naked eye stars of the southern hemisphere. The work resulted in the unprecedented 1879 publication of the Uranometria Argentina Mapas. Despite Rock’s eagerness and determination in the work at Cordoba, he fell seriously ill with an aggravation of his eyesight, brought about by long hours of dark squinting under the harsh direction of Dr. Gould. Rock’s ailment became the substance of a falling-out between himself and the elder astronomer, and Rock resigned his position in 1873 to return to the United States. Despite their personal differences, Rock and Gould parted on amicable terms after Rock and his wife overlooked their dispute with Gould in order to provide support and consolation to the Gould family when their children tragically drowned in the months before the Rock family’s departure from Argentina. Despite the tragic and painful associations with the astronomical work in Argentina, the assignment gave Miles Rock his first taste of life abroad as a professional astronomer and prepared him for a life at the frontiers of western science.