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Sputnik at SCSU: We saw it here, first!

The first sighting of Sputnik in the US, and one of the first in North America, was right here on campus.

Sputnik at SCSU

Astronomy History: New Haven astronomers are first in the continental US to spot Sputnik! (1957)
- New Haven Watchers Sight Russian Rocket. The Hartford Courant : Oct 11, 1957 (SCSU login required)
- Amateur Scientists, the International Geophysical Year, and the Ambitions of Fred Whipple (see the section "The Month of New Moons"). W. Patrick McCray. Isis, 2006, 97:634-658
- What did they see? Scroll down through this article for a picture, taken in Canada the night before the New Haven sighting: Meteoric Image (SCSU login required). Marshall, Debbie. Beaver: Canada's History Magazine, Aug/Sep2007, Vol. 87 Issue 4, p16-21. And here is a video taken from Baltimore the next night.
- The 40th anniversary celebrations: SCSU's Sputnik Forum; Sputnik & Southern (Southern Life, Oct. 2007); Siting Sputnik First (Hartford Courant, Oct. 3, 2007), Yes, Yes, It's Sputnik! (New York Times, Oct. 21, 2007).
- That's the first Continental US sighting. The first US sighting was...in an unlikely place.

David Hoffman shares his Sputnik mania | Video on TED.com
A good overview of the reaction to Sputnik in the US. The sighting at SCSU happened in those first few days of fascination.