Serene in sidereal time, above earth's battles, the astronomers of the world's belligerent nations have been communicating with each other regularly throughout World War II. This little-known fact was quietly revealed last week by famed Astronomer Harlow Shapley. His Harvard Observatory has served as the cosmic clearinghouse.
In the U.S., most professional astronomers have been too busy for stargazing. Some 80% of them, including most of Professor Shapley's staff at Harvard, have been drafted for work in ballistics, rockets and other wartime projects. But in Europe, notably in Germany and Russia, astronomers have...
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