Download or read book Astronomers Anonymous written by Steve Ringwood and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-07-05 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During more than four decades of involvement in amateur astronomy, I have enjoyed the privilege of rubbing shoulders with numberless amateur and professional astr- omers. In so doing I have encountered at first, second, and third hand many of the joys and pitfalls that sky watchers can experience in pursuit of the universe’s wonders. I have often howled at tall tales that would not disgrace a pirate’s tavern. Many of these astounding stories have become the kernels of my Dear Steve column items. Learning how to operate the technology for observing and imaging the universe is work enough for any aspiring astronomer; however, many have problems of their own making. Not only do they share these troubles with other astronomers, they are on the receiving end of colleagues and friends doing the same. With all these agonized communications flying about, it is hard to understand how anyone gets any real work done! For the amusement of my peers I have long fondly parodied these imagined literary exchanges. These fantasy ‘‘Agony Aunt’’ questions began appearing in the pages of the Loughton Astronomical Society’s monthly (and Christmas Special) journals about 30 years ago, in the guise of The astronomer’s problem page. This was by the kind indulgence of the then editor, namely myself. Happily, even when the magazine of the LAS evolved into something much better, under the tender and loving care of those who came after me, these problem letters were still in demand and even now occasionally appear.
Download or read book The Multinational History of Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory written by Andre HECK and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-04-04 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory is quite an interesting place for historians: several changes of nationality between France and Germany, high-profile scientists having been based there, big projects born or installed within its walls, and so on. Most of the documents circulating on the history of the Observatory and on related matters have however been so far poorly referenced, if at all. This made necessary the compilation of a volume such as this one, offering fully-documented historical facts and references on the first decades of the Observatory history, authored by both French and German specialists. The experts contributing to this book have done their best to write in a way understandable to readers not necessarily hyperspecialized in astronomy nor in the details of European history. Several appendices conclude the book: lists of council members and of Observatory scientific personnel, as well as a compendium of the institutional publications until the year 2000.
Download or read book Information Handling in Astronomy Historical Vistas written by Andre Heck and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-04-18 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a unique review of how astronomical information handling (in the broad sense) evolved in the course of the 20th century, and especially during its second half. It will be very useful for researchers, teachers, editors, publishers, librarians, computer scientists, sociologists of science, research planners and strategists, project managers, public-relations officers, plus those in charge of astronomy-related organizations, as well as by students aiming at a career in astronomy or related space science.
Download or read book Exploring the History of Southeast Asian Astronomy written by Wayne Orchiston and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-08-01 with total page 802 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited volume contains 24 different research papers by members of the History and Heritage Working Group of the Southeast Asian Astronomy Network. The chapters were prepared by astronomers from Australia, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Scotland, Sweden, Thailand and Vietnam. They represent the latest understanding of cultural and scientific interchange in the region over time, from ethnoastronomy to archaeoastronomy and more. Gathering together researchers from various locales, this volume enabled new connections to be made in service of building a more holistic vision of astronomical history in Southeast Asia, which boasts a proud and deep tradition.
Download or read book Observations and Predictions of Eclipse Times by Early Astronomers written by J.M. Steele and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-04-17 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eclipses have long been seen as important celestial phenomena, whether as omens affecting the future of kingdoms, or as useful astronomical events to help in deriving essential parameters for theories of the motion of the moon and sun. This is the first book to collect together all presently known records of timed eclipse observations and predictions from antiquity to the time of the invention of the telescope. In addition to cataloguing and assessing the accuracy of the various records, which come from regions as diverse as Ancient Mesopotamia, China, and Europe, the sources in which they are found are described in detail. Related questions such as what type of clocks were used to time the observations, how the eclipse predictions were made, and how these prediction schemes were derived from the available observations are also considered. The results of this investigation have important consequences for how we understand the relationship between observation and theory in early science and the role of astronomy in early cultures, and will be of interest to historians of science, astronomers, and ancient and medieval historians.
Download or read book Bibliography of Lunar and Planetary Research written by John W. Salisbury and published by . This book was released on 1963 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Astronomy for Landlubbers and Navigators written by David A. King and published by UC Biblioteca Geral 1. This book was released on 1984 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Companion to Byzantine Science written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-01-13 with total page 674 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Science in Byzantium has rarely been systematically explored. A first of its kind, this collection of essays highlights the disciplines, achievements, and contexts of Byzantine science across the eleven centuries of the Byzantine empire. After an introduction on science in Byzantium and the 21st century, and a study of Christianization and the teaching of science in Byzantium, it offers a comprehensive and up-to-date survey of the scientific disciplines cultivated in Byzantium, from the exact to the natural sciences, medicine, polemology, and the occult sciences. The volume showcases the diversity and vivacity of the varied scientific endeavours in the Byzantine world across its long history, and aims to bring the field into broader conversations within Byzantine studies, medieval studies, and history of science. Contributors are Fabio Acerbi, Anne-Laurence Caudano, Gonzalo Andreotti Cruz, Katerina Ierodiakonou, Herve Inglebert, Stavros Lazaris, Divna Manolova, Maria K. Papathanassiou, Inmaculada Pérez Martín, Thomas Salmon, Ioannis Telelis, Anne Tihon, Alain Touwaide, Arnaud Zucker.
Download or read book Bibliography of Lunar and Planetary Research 1960 1964 written by John W. Salisbury and published by . This book was released on 1966 with total page 532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Pioneer of Galactic Astronomy A Biography of Jacobus C Kapteyn written by Pieter C. van der Kruit and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-12-28 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This non-technical biography of Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn (1851-1922) presents to the general reader the scientific life of the astronomer who pioneered the studies of the structure of the Milky Way Galaxy. In telling Kapteyn’s story the author weaves in astronomy basics and uses modern astronomical images to show the developments of astronomical research from Kapteyn’s times to the present. In particular the study of the distribution of stars in space has now culminated with spectacular new insights coming from the astrometric satellite GAIA, which is receiving much public attention today. The biography shows how Kapteyn’s ideas influenced prominent astronomers worldwide. He is prominent as designer of the Kapteyn Universe, the alternative to the large system found by Harlow Shapley. He is the discoverer of Kapteyn’s Star, still the second fastest moving star in the sky, which is now one of the nearest stars with a planet in the habitable zone. This fascinating hybrid of astronomy history and popular astronomy tells the story of the astronomy professor without an observatory who founded the first astronomical laboratory specializing in measuring photographic plates exposed elsewhere. Kapteyn took astronomy out of cataloguing stars to measuring distances and velocities in order to study their spatial distribution, systematic motions (Kapteyn’s Star Streams) and the equilibrium between their gravity and motions. His legacy includes, in addition to the first application of Galactic structure and dynamics, Jan Hendrik Oort, the famous astronomer from Leiden, who as a student was so impressed by Kapteyn’s lectures that he decided to become an astronomer.
Download or read book Bibliography of Lunar and Planetay Research written by and published by . This book was released on 1960 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Last Stargazers written by Emily Levesque and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2020-08-04 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of the people who see beyond the stars—an astronomy book for adults still spellbound by the night sky. Humans from the earliest civilizations through today have craned their necks each night, using the stars to orient themselves in the large, strange world around them. Stargazing is a pursuit that continues to fascinate us: from Copernicus to Carl Sagan, astronomers throughout history have spent their lives trying to answer the biggest questions in the universe. Now, award-winning astronomer Emily Levesque shares the stories of modern-day stargazers in this new nonfiction release, the people willing to adventure across high mountaintops and to some of the most remote corners of the planet, all in the name of science. From the lonely quiet of midnight stargazing to tall tales of wild bears loose in the observatory, The Last Stargazers is a love letter to astronomy and an affirmation of the crucial role that humans can and must play in the future of scientific discovery. In this sweeping work of narrative science, Levesque shows how astronomers in this scrappy and evolving field are going beyond the machines to infuse creativity and passion into the stars and space and inspires us all to peer skyward in pursuit of the universe's secrets.
Download or read book Science Time and Space in the Late Nineteenth Century Periodical Press written by James Mussell and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-05-15 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: James Mussell reads nineteenth-century scientific debates in light of recent theoretical discussions of scientific writing to propose a new methodology for understanding the periodical press in terms of its movements in time and space. That there is no disjunction between text and object is already recognized in science studies, Mussell argues; however, this principle should also be extended to our understanding of print culture within its cultural context. He provides historical accounts of scientific controversy, documents references to time and space in the periodical press, and follows magazines and journals as they circulate through society to shed new light on the dissemination and distribution of periodicals, authorship and textual authority, and the role of mediation in material culture. Well-known writers like H. G. Wells and Arthur Conan Doyle are discovered in new contexts, while other authors, publishers, editors, and scientists are discussed for the first time. Mussell is persuasive in showing how his methodology increases our understanding of the process of transformation and translation that underpins the production of print and informs current debates about the status of digital publication and the preservation of archival material in electronic forms. Adding to the book's usefulness are an extended bibliography and a discussion of recent debates regarding digital publication.
Download or read book Islamic Astronomy and Geography written by David A. King and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-02-13 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume of 12 studies, mainly published during the past 15 years, begins with an overview of the Islamic astronomy covering not only sophisticated mathematical astronomy and instrumentation but also simple folk astronomy, and the ways in which astronomy was used in the service of religion. It continues with discussions of the importance of Islamic instruments and scientific manuscript illustrations. Three studies deal with the regional schools that developed in Islamic astronomy, in this case, Egypt and the Maghrib. Another focuses on a curious astrological table for calculating the length of life of any individual. The notion of the world centred on the sacred Kaaba in Mecca inspired both astronomers and proponents of folk astronomy to propose methods for finding the qibla, or sacred direction towards the Kaaba; their activities are surveyed here. The interaction between the mathematical and folk traditions in astronomy is then illustrated by an 11th-century text on the qibla in Transoxania. The last three studies deal with an account of the geodetic measurements sponsored by the Caliph al-Ma'mûn in the 9th century; a world-map in the tradition of the 11th-century polymath al-Bîrûnî, alas corrupted by careless copying; and a table of geographical coordinates from 15th-century Egypt.
Download or read book Rational Consensus in Science and Society written by Keith Lehrer and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: TItis book is the joint project of a philosopher, Lehrer, and a mathematician, Wagner. The book is, therefore, divided into a first part written by Lehrer, which is primarily philosophical, and a second part written by Wagner that is primarily formal. The authors were, however, influenced by each other throughout. Our book articulates a theory of rational consensus in science and society. The theory is applied to politics, ethics, science, and language. We begin our exposition with an elementary mathematical model of consensus developed by Lehrer in a series of articles [1976a, 1976b, 1977, 1978]. Chapter 3 contains material from [1978]. Lehrer formulated the elementary model when he was a Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Be havioral Sciences, Stanford, in 1973 with the invaluable mathematical assist of Kit Fine, Gerald Kramer and Lionel McKenzie. In the summer of ance 1977, Lehrer and Wagner met at the Center in a Summer Seminar on Freedom and Causality supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Wagner read the manuscript of Lehrer [1978] and subsequently solved some mathematical problems of the elementary model. After discussions of philosophical prob lems associated with that model, Wagner developed the foundations for the extended model. These results were reported in Wagner [1978, 1981a].
Download or read book A Bridge between Conceptual Frameworks written by Raffaele Pisano and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-06-30 with total page 621 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyzes scientific problems within the history of physics, engineering, chemistry, astronomy and medicine, correlated with technological applications in the social context. When and how is tension between disciplines explicitly practised? What is the conceptual bridge between science researches and the organization of technological researches in the development of industrial applications? The authors explain various ways in which the sciences allowed advanced modelling on the one hand, and the development of new technological ideas on the other hand. An emphasis on the role played by mechanisms, production methods and instruments bestows a benefit on historical and scientific discourse: theories, institutions, universities, schools for engineers, social implications as well. Scholars from different traditions discuss the emergency style of thinking in methodology and, in theoretical perspective, aim to gather and re-evaluate the current thinking on this subject. It brings together contributions from leading experts in the field, and gives much-needed insight into the subject from a historical point of view. The volume composition makes for absorbing reading for historians, philosophers and scientists.
Download or read book Astronomy and Astrology in al Andalus and the Maghrib written by Julio Samsó and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-05-31 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new volume of papers by Julio Samsó deals with the development of astronomy and astrology in al-Andalus and the Maghrib between the 10th and the 19th centuries. Opening with a survey of the social history of the exact sciences in al-Andalus, the book then looks at astronomical tables: the first stages of the introduction of al-Khwarizmi's and al-Battani's tables through the school of Maslama al-Majriti, the development of Ibn al-Zarqalluh/ Azarquiel's theories in Maghribi zijes (Ibn al-Banna' and Ibn Azzuz) and the abandonment of this tradition towards the end of the 14th century. From this period onwards new Eastern zijes (Muhyi al-Din al-Maghribi, Ibn al-Shatir, Ulugh Beg) are introduced in the Maghrib and, towards the beginning of the 17th century, a translation of Abraham Zacut and José Vizinho's Almanach Perpetuum (end of the 15th century) becomes well known in the whole Islamic world, from Morocco to the Yemen. As well as zijes themselves, the author also deals with theoretical astronomy (the use of an elliptical deferent for Mercury in Ibn al-Zarqalluh's equatorium and the criticisms of Ibn al-Haytham and Jabir b. Aflah on Ptolemy's determination of the parameters of the same planet), and with the use of zijes for the calculation of horoscopes, and an experimental astrological method for the correction of mean motion planetary tables (Ibn Azzuz).
