Papers of John Guy Porter

Two copies of Porter's script for 'The Night Sky in May' on the planet Venus being invisible, Mars becoming a morning star, and Jupiter and Saturn being bright in the night sky, both in retrograde motion, with Jupiter at opposition on 20 June, and Saturn on 7 July; Jupiter and Saturn coming close together in the sky, so that in February 1961 Jupiter will pass Saturn in a conjunction happening only once in 59 years; optical observations of the planets having reached their limit, with new lines of research in radio astronomy now open; the mystery of radio emission from Jupiter; the composition of Jupiter's atmosphere - hydrogen, ammonia and methane, with clouds of these gases being the only part visible; the similarity of Jupiter and Saturn, Saturn's size and the brightness of its rings, recent theories on the core sizes of these planets and the optimum size and temperature of a planet to maintain life; the impossibility of discovering planets outside the solar system with present day equipment, although very massive dark bodies have been detected; the likelihood of finding other planetary systems even within 100 light years; the possibility of finding other intelligent life, present American efforts to detect intelligent radio signals, the logic behind this experiment, the signal strength and type of receiving aerial required, with Green Bank being a steerable dish, and the directionality of this receiver; and the types of nearby stars which are suitable for inhabited systems, the 42 possibilities within 15 light years, and the two similar to the Sun - Tau Tauri and Epsilon Eridanus.