Download or read book Cometography Volume 1 Ancient 1799 written by Gary W. Kronk and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1999-09-28 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cometography is the most complete and comprehensive collection of data on comets available. It comes in four self-contained sequential volumes and this, the first, covers ancient times through to the end of the eighteenth century. Cometography uses the most reliable orbits known to determine all the key parameters of each well observed comet. Cometography also provides nontechnical details to help the reader understand how the comet may have influenced various cultures at the time of its appearance. All the information in Cometography has been sourced directly from the original documents, including European monastic histories, Roman, Greek and Muslim texts, Chinese, Japanese and Korean scripts. In many cases, dates of important historical events can be corrected based on the appearance of a comet and identified using this book. Cometography will be valuable to historians of science as well as providing amateur and professional astronomers with a definitive reference on comets through the ages.
Download or read book Cometography Volume 1 Ancient 1799 written by Gary W. Kronk and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1999-09-28 with total page 586 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first in a set of four volumes that make up the most complete and comprehensive catalog of every comet observed throughout history.
Download or read book Hunting and Imaging Comets written by Martin Mobberley and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-10-08 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For many astronomers, the holy grail of observation is to discover a comet, not least because comets always bear the name of their discoverer! Hunting and Imaging Comets was written for comet hunters and digital imagers who want to discover, rediscover, monitor, and make pictures of comets using astronomical CCD cameras and DSLRs. The old days of the purely visual comet hunter are pretty much over, but this is not to say that amateurs have lost interest in finding comets. The books also covers the discovery of comet fragments in the SOHO image data, CCD monitoring of older comets prone to violent outbursts, the imaging of new NEOs (Near Earth Objects) that have quite often been revealed as comets - not asteroids - by amateur astronomers, and the finding of recent comets impacting Jupiter.
Download or read book Comets and How to Observe Them written by Richard Schmude, Jr. and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-09-20 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Comets have inspired wonder, excitement and even fear ever since they were first observed. But they are important members of the solar system, that contain material from early in the life of the system, held in deep-freeze. This makes them key in our understanding of the formation and evolution of many Solar System bodies. Recent ground- and space-based observations have changed much in our understanding of comets. Comets, and How to Observe Them gives a summary of our current knowledge and describes how amateur astronomers can contribute to the body of scientific knowledge of comets. This book contains many practical examples of how to construct comet light-curves, measure how fast a comet’s coma expands, and determine the rotation period of the nucleus. All these examples are illustrated with drawings and photographs. Because of their unpredictable nature comets are always interesting and sometime spectacular objects to observe and image. The second part of the book therefore takes the reader through the key observing techniques that can be used with commercially available modern observing equipment, from basic observations to more scientific measurements.
Download or read book The Wayward Comet written by Martin Beech and published by Universal-Publishers. This book was released on 2016-01-01 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Comets have not only blazed across the celestial vault throughout human history, they have embellished the night sky since the Earth itself formed some 4.5 billion years ago. Comets were among the first-born solid bodies in the solar system, and their frozen nuclei tell of the primordial chemistry and chaos that ultimately resulted in the formation of the planets, the evolution of life and us. For all this, however, comets have long been celestial oddities: they baffled our distant ancestors, and human society continues to marvel and speculate wildly at their appearance even to the present day. Cutting against the perceived constancy of the stars, comets seemingly present themselves at random times and they are often interpreted as harbingers of terrestrial change - both good and ill. How then are we to tame the comet: where do they form, how do they move, and can their appearances be predicted? Such questions have preoccupied astronomers for centuries but comets have only gradually allowed the secrets of their wayward flight to be revealed. In this book I explore the historical struggle to understand not only the place of comets within a societal context, but also the scientific quest to make their paths amenable to mathematical certitude. The latter narrative is the more technical in content, but it took tactile form with the invention, in 1732, of the cometarium, a mechanical device to demonstrate the first two of Kepler's planetary laws. And, this development was later paralleled, in the mid to late 19th century, by the development of various mechanical devices (analog computers) to help obtain solutions to Kepler's Problem - the problem which asks, exactly where in its orbit is a given comet at some specific set time. The telling of the wayward comets story covers the past two millennia of human history, and it takes us from the phenomenological musings of Aristotle, through the exactitude of Newton's gravitational theory and calculus, to the truly incredible study of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, by the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft, in the modern era.
Download or read book Michael Maestlin s Manuscript Treatise on the Comet of 1618 written by Miguel A. Granada and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2022-04-11 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Michael Maestlin was a main protagonist of the astronomical and cosmological revolution between Copernicus and Galileo. This book presents the first-ever edition of his German manuscript treatise on the Great Comet of 1618, accompanied by an English translation with a full introduction and commentary.
Download or read book The Crusades and Nature written by Jessalynn L. Bird and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Battle of Carham written by Neil McGuigan and published by Birlinn Ltd. This book was released on 2018-11-08 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Very little is known about the battle of Carham, fought between the Scots and Northumbrians in 1018. The leaders were probably Máel Coluim II, king of Scotland, and Uhtred of Bamburgh, earl or ealdorman in Northumbria. The outcome of the battle was a victory for the Scots, seen by some as a pivotal event in the expansion of the Scottish kingdom, the demise of Northumbria and the Scottish conquest of 'Lothian'. The battle also removed a potentially significant source of resistance to the recent conqueror of England, Cnut. This collection of essays by a range of subject specialists explores the battle in its context, bringing new understanding of this important and controversial historical event. Topics covered include: Anglo-Scottish relations, the political character and ecclesiastical organisation of the Northumbrian territory ruled by Uhtred, material from the Chronicles and other historical records that brings the era to light, and the archaeological and sculptural landscape of the tenth- and eleventh-century Tweed basin, where the battle took place.
Download or read book Investigating Life in the Universe written by Christopher K. Walker and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2023-11-16 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This textbook gives a lively introduction to the search for extraterrestrial life. It is a guidebook to understanding the possibility of life elsewhere, pointing out landmarks and providing background information to facilitate further exploration of those areas of most interest to the reader. We are a planet of winners – winners of a cosmic lottery that has been in play since the universe began approximately 13.7 billion years ago. Our winnings include sentience and an underlying unease that has driven us to contemplate our place in the universe and the possibility of finding kindred spirits in the cosmos spreading out before us. To understand our origins and the possibility of life beyond Earth, we must look back and retrace the steps that have brought us to this point in space and time. In doing so, we will find the investigation of life to be a unifying theme in nature, requiring us to touch on all branches of the tree of knowledge. Using the Drake Equation as a theme, we begin with an overview of the topic and then go into the story of how we have acquired, or plan to acquire, the knowledge to solve it. As we make our journey, we will encounter some very interesting people – some you will likely know, while others may be new to you. Keep an open mind and allow this text to be your guide. Written in an engaging style, this textbook provides a foundational understanding of the rapidly advancing fields associated with the search for life in the universe. Each chapter includes illustrative figures and review questions for self-study. It will appeal to professionals, researchers, instructors, and undergraduate students, as well as anyone with an interest in astrophysics or astrobiology.
Download or read book A History of Physical Theories of Comets From Aristotle to Whipple written by Tofigh Heidarzadeh and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-05-23 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although the development of ideas about the motion and trajectory of comets has been investigated piecemeal, we lack a comprehensive and detailed survey of ph- ical theories of comets. The available works either illustrate relatively short periods in the history of physical cometology or portray a landscape view without adequate details. The present study is an attempt to review – with more details – the major physical theories of comets in the past two millennia, from Aristotle to Whipple. My research, however, did not begin with antiquity. The basic question from which this project originated was a simple inquiry about the cosmic identity of comets at the dawn of the astronomical revolution: how did natural philosophers and astronomers define the nature and place of a new category of celestial objects – comets – after Brahe’s estimation of cometary distances? It was from this turning point in the history of cometary theories that I expanded my studies in both the pre-modern and modern eras. A study starting merely from Brahe and ending with Newton, without covering classical and medieval thought about comets, would be incomplete and leave the fascinating achievements of post-Newtonian cometology unexplored.
Download or read book The Pattern Seekers written by Simon Baron-Cohen and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2020-11-10 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A groundbreaking argument about the link between autism and ingenuity. Why can humans alone invent? In The Pattern Seekers, Cambridge University psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen makes a case that autism is as crucial to our creative and cultural history as the mastery of fire. Indeed, Baron-Cohen argues that autistic people have played a key role in human progress for seventy thousand years, from the first tools to the digital revolution. How? Because the same genes that cause autism enable the pattern seeking that is essential to our species's inventiveness. However, these abilities exact a great cost on autistic people, including social and often medical challenges, so Baron-Cohen calls on us to support and celebrate autistic people in both their disabilities and their triumphs. Ultimately, The Pattern Seekers isn't just a new theory of human civilization, but a call to consider anew how society treats those who think differently.
Download or read book Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia written by Renée Jeffery and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2018-10-26 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Elisabeth of Bohemia (1618–1680) was the daughter of the Elector Palatine, Frederick V, King of Bohemia, and Elizabeth Stuart, the daughter of King James VI and I of Scotland and England. A princess born into one of the most prominent Protestant dynasties of the age, Elisabeth was one of the great female intellectuals of seventeenth-century Europe. This book examines her life and thought. It is the story of an exiled princess, a grief-stricken woman whose family was beset by tragedy and whose life was marked by poverty, depression, and chronic illness. It is also the story of how that same woman’s strength of character, unswerving faith, and extraordinary mind saw her emerge as one of the most renowned scholars of the age. It is the story of how one woman navigated the tumultuous waters of seventeenth-century politics, religion, and scholarship, fought for her family’s ancestral rights, and helped established one of the first networks of female scholars in Western Europe. Drawing on her correspondence with René Descartes, as well as the letters, diaries, and writings of her family, friends, and intellectual associates, this book contributes to the recovery of Elisabeth’s place in the history of philosophy. It demonstrates that although she is routinely marginalized in contemporary accounts of seventeenth-century thought, overshadowed by the more famous male philosophers she corresponded with, or dismissed as little more than a “learned maiden,” Elisabeth was a philosopher in her own right who made a significant contribution to modern understandings of the relationship between the body and the mind, challenged dominant accounts of the nature of the emotions, and provided insightful commentaries on subjects as varied as the nature and causes of illness to the essence of virtue and Machiavelli’s The Prince.
Download or read book Unifying Heaven and Earth Essays in the History of Early Modern Cosmology written by Miguel Á. Granada and published by Edicions Universitat Barcelona. This book was released on 2016-05-26 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most significant events in the history of Western civilization was the cosmological revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries. Among the most salient factors in this change, described by Alexandre Koyré as the ‘destruction of the cosmos’ inherited from ancient Greece, were Copernican heliocentrism and the substitution of a homogeneous universe for the hierarchical cosmos of the Platonic and Aristotelian tradition. Starting with a new approach to the issue of the presence of Islamic astronomical devices in Copernicus’ work and a thorough reappraisal of the cosmological views of Paracelsus, the book deals mainly with the abolition of cosmological dualism and the ways in which it affected the decline of astrology over the 17th century. Other related topics include planetary order and theories of world harmony, the cause of planetary motion in the Tychonic world system or the discussion on comets in Germany through the first presentation of a manuscript treatise by Michael Maestlin on the great comet of 1618.
Download or read book e The Book of Tribulations e The Syrian Muslim Apocalyptic Tradition written by Nu'aym b. Hammad al-Marwazi and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2017-06-29 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is an annotated translation of the 9th-century Islamic apocalyptic work 'The Book of Tribulations' - the earliest complete Muslim apocalyptic text to survive.
Download or read book Meteor Showers and Their Parent Comets written by Petrus Matheus Marie Jenniskens and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2006-09-14 with total page 14 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Publisher description
Download or read book Wonders in the Sky written by Jacques Vallee and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2010-10-28 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most ambitious works of paranormal investigation of our time, here is an unprecedented compendium of pre-twentieth-century UFO accounts, written with rigor and color by two of today's leading investigators of unexplained phenomena. In the past century, individuals, newspapers, and military agencies have recorded thousands of UFO incidents, giving rise to much speculation about flying saucers, visitors from other planets, and alien abductions. Yet the extraterrestrial phenomenon did not begin in the present era. Far from it. The authors of Wonders in the Sky reveal a thread of vividly rendered-and sometimes strikingly similar- reports of mysterious aerial phenomena from antiquity through the modern age. These accounts often share definite physical features- such as the heat felt and described by witnesses-that have not changed much over the centuries. Indeed, such similarities between ancient and modern sightings are the rule rather than the exception. In Wonders in the Sky, respected researchers Jacques Vallee and Chris Aubeck examine more than 500 selected reports of sightings from biblical-age antiquity through the year 1879-the point at which the Industrial Revolution deeply changed the nature of human society, and the skies began to open to airplanes, dirigibles, rockets, and other opportunities for misinterpretation represented by military prototypes. Using vivid and engaging case studies, and more than seventy-five illustrations, they reveal that unidentified flying objects have had a major impact not only on popular culture but on our history, on our religion, and on the models of the world humanity has formed from deepest antiquity. Sure to become a classic among UFO enthusiasts and other followers of unexplained phenomena, Wonders in the Sky is the most ambitious, broad-reaching, and intelligent analysis ever written on premodern aerial mysteries.
Download or read book Publishers Censors and Collectors in the European Book Trade 1650 1750 written by Ann-Marie Hansen and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2024-03-18 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited volume explores the development of the European book world between 1650 and 1750, concentrating on changes in publishing strategies, practices of censorship, the circulation of second-hand books and the building of libraries. Its essays discuss this critical, but much neglected period of print history through case studies from Spain, Italy, France, the Holy Roman Empire, Britain and the Netherlands. Ranging from the posthumous publication of Galileo to the regulation of the book auction market, this volume demonstrates that the century between 1650 and 1750 was a transformative period for the history of the printed book.
