PAN-AMERICA RELATIONS TO BE BOUND BY MEXICANS' VISIT

When a group of eminent Mexicans visits Boston and the University the week starting April 5, its presence will make another milestone in "good neighbor" relations as achieved through the medium of astronomy. Through these relations, fostered by the observatory at Tonanbintla in the state of Puebla.

When the director of the Tonanzintla project, Luis Enrique Erro, was first secretary of the Mexican embassy in Washington a decade ago, he had astronomy as his hobby. He made frequent trips to Cambridge to see the Observatory and under the tutelage of is director. Harlow Shapley, Paine professor of Practical Astronomy, he became an active amateur observer.

Erro conceived the idea of a new national observatory for Mexico and interested President Mannel Avila Camacho in the idea in December, 1940. Gouralo Bautista, governor of the state of Puebla, who is to be a member of the Mexican group coming here in April, gave the site at Tonanzintla and premised that the state of Puebla would care for construction of the buildings, improvement of nearby roads and landscaping of the grounds.

The Mexican organizers wanted a Schmidt telescope, similar in design to the Jewett telescope at the Oak Ridge Station. But war scarcities threatened to interface with their plans.

The University Observatory stepped, into the breach by constructing the mounting and tubing at cost in its shops while a Connecticut optical firm made the lenses in spare time, benveen work on war contracts. A truck carrying the telescope and all its fixings left Cambridge in January, 1942, on a 3300 mile journey to Tononzintla and arrived a week before the scheduled official dedication. George Z. Dimilreff research associate in Astronomy and associate set up the telescope in record time.

Twenty five American scientists helped celebrate the opening of the observatory by taking part in an inter-American under sponsorship of the Mexican governor.