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Maurice Thaddeus Brackbill

The Astra-Guide for the Northern Hemisphere , Harrisonburg - USA 1934

L’astrolabio che presento in questa pagina relativo all’Emisfero Celeste Boreale con guida e relative carte è stato messo in vendita da

The Astra-Guide for the Northern Hemisphere by Maurice Thaddeus Brackbill, Harrisonburg, VA: For the Author, 1934

White paper covered box with a printed label on the front cover. Heavy duty card with star charts to 40 degrees south on either side, one with the constellation figures in red and blue on white. A planisphere-type overlay is provided to place onto the card. 4pp pamphlet. 4to. (Note that some star names have been added by hand later).

"Center the mat upon the chart and rotate it until the desired hour, standard time, is opposite the desired date. Hold the Astra-Guide, face down, horizontally above your head, with the north point of the chart to the north. The stars visible at that hour will be shown within the ellipse."

A lovely plansipheric instrument by the Mennonite professor Maurice Brackbill (1891 - 1962). He is remembered as a poetic and imaginative person with interests in pretty much everything. The M.T. Brackbill Planetarium in the Suter Science Centre, Virginia, unfortunately closed in 2007. He termed his pupils his astronomical ‘congregation’, or 'Eastern Mennonite School Astralites'.

Recently we met a small group of charming Mennonite ladies holidaying in the Cotswolds and one of them had heard of Brackbill, which was great.

Maurice T. Brackbill (1891-1962) was a Professor of Mathematics at Eastern Mennonite College, a private Mennonite liberal arts university in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Born on May 11, 1891, near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the son of Aldus and Lizzie Brackbill, he received a BA at Hesston College and a BS and MA in Astronomy at the University of Virginia. He also undertook graduate work in Astronomy at the Universities of Kansas and Michigan. Prof. Brackbill joined the faculty of Eastern Mennonite College in 1919. He taught a wide variety of courses ranging from Agriculture to Zoology in the fledgling institution. He was appointed head of the department which he designated Physastromath and was Chairman of the Division of Natural Sciences until he suffered a stroke in January 1956, which ended his teaching career. He joined the American Scientific Affiliation (ASA) in 1949 and later was elected to the grade of fellow. He served as host to the 9th convention which met on the EMC campus in 1954. Although most of his education was in mathematics and astronomy, he held a special interest in literature and became a writer, publishing Heaven and the Glory of the Sunset (1924) and The Heavens Declare (1959), as well as a number of articles for the Youth’s Christian Companion (YCC). Prof. Brackbill was married to Ruth Mininger (1906-1962) in 1932. The couple had no children. He passed away in Harrisonburg City, Virginia on September 18, 1962, aged 71.