The work that has been carried out during the project includes research activities, dissemination, network, and training activities, as well as communication and public engagement activities. Special attention was paid to research in archives. The research results based on the analysis of the archival material have been disseminated in scientific publications, and in international conferences, workshops, and seminars. A book on the history of the foundation of the astronomical observatories in the Canary Islands is in progress. Networking initiatives resulted in the edition of a special issue on the history of general relativity, the organization of an international meeting on the history of astronomy and physics, and the organization of a number of interdisciplinary seminars at the investigator’s host institution.
The research results distinguish between two aspects of international scientific collaboration: observational practice on high mountains and science policies in post-WW II Europe. They are briefly described later on.
Regarding the research practice on high mountains, this historical reconstruction identifies the site-testing campaigns with what might be called “laboratories of internationalisation”. From the 1950s to the 1970s, European astronomers and solar physicists explored several sites in both hemispheres and tested the sky quality at high altitude. They experienced a number of practice transformations, which were brought about by scientists working in remote sites and which in fact favoured expertise exchange. Indeed, these scientists shared the elaboration and the results of different observation programmes, the adaptation of instrument techniques to new natural environments, and the diurnal and nocturnal observation tasks. This research suggests that such “high altitude scientific exchanges” played a remarkable role in moulding international groups of experts in astronomy and physics.
The history of the “travelling astronomers” also raises questions about national and international scientific concerns in post-WWII Europe. Scientific cooperation at the international level was a key aspect that inspired in fact a “big science” project such as the foundation of ESO. However, the road to make this transnational collaboration effective was rather rough and complicated by issues like, for example, the decision of the UK not to join ESO, the initial reluctance of the French government to finance the project, and the somehow tense relationship between ESO and AURA – the US Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy – in view of the possibility to operate facilities in nearby zones in Chile. The case of the observatories built at the Canary Islands also shows that international collaboration is not always a primary concern of scientific institutions and governments. The implementation of a multinational network for cooperation in astrophysics in La Palma and Tenerife was a necessary step, which was taken essentially to overcome the political obstacles and difficult negotiations between the British and Spanish government about the British site-testing campaigns in Spanish sites. At the same time, what might be called the “internationalisation of the sky” of the Canary Islands was instrumental in achieving the domestic scientific objectives of each country that formed the multinational network, namely Spain, the UK, Sweden, West Germany, and Denmark. This study therefore suggests that the borders between national and international scientific concerns became blurred. In other words, different “degrees of internationalism” can be perceived in the reorganisation of post-war European optical astronomy and solar physics, where the negotiations and the decisional processes were characterised by a certain oscillation between the opportunity and the necessity to implement or join multinational scientific projects.
