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17000 results

Page 224 of 850

Popular Astronomy
  • A General Description of the Heavens
  • Camille Flammarion
  • Translated by John Ellard Gore
  • Published online:
    05 November 2014
    Print publication:
    13 February 2014
  • French astronomer Camille Flammarion (1842–1925) called the study of the heavens 'the science which concerns us most'. He believed that learning 'what place we occupy in the infinite' could delight and instruct, and might even promote an end to war and strife. Flammarion dedicated the present work to François Arago (1786–1853), author of earlier work on popular astronomy. Since Arago's time, the capabilities of telescopes and other instruments had vastly improved, advancing understanding in areas such as the composition of stars. Flammarion sought to bring this new knowledge to the public in a charming yet 'scrupulously exact' style. His highly illustrated introduction to astronomy succeeded in reaching a wide readership, selling over 100,000 French copies before this English translation appeared in 1894. The 1881 French version and Flammarion's work on the origins of the Earth, Le Monde avant la création de l'homme (1886), are also reissued in this series.

Greek Astronomy
  • Thomas L. Heath
  • Published online:
    05 November 2014
    Print publication:
    20 March 2014
  • From its beginnings in Babylonian and Egyptian theories, through its flowering into revolutionary ideas such as heliocentricity, astronomy proved a source of constant fascination for the philosophers of antiquity. In ancient Greece, the earliest written evidence of astronomical knowledge appeared in the poems of Homer and Hesiod. In the present work, first published in 1932, Sir Thomas Little Heath (1861–1940) collects some of the most notable essays and discussions of astronomical theory by Greek astronomers and mathematicians, presenting them in English translation for the modern reader. With chronological coverage, Heath's book features a thorough introduction, a doxography of what ancient authors said about the earliest theorists and longer excerpts exploring fundamental ideas. Among the pieces are extracts from Plato's Republic and Ptolemy's work on the impossibility of a moving Earth, alongside material from Aristotle, Euclid, Strabo, Plutarch and others.

Tycho Brahe
  • A Picture of Scientific Life and Work in the Sixteenth Century
  • John Louis Emil Dreyer
  • Published online:
    05 November 2014
    Print publication:
    13 February 2014
  • Famous for his metal prosthetic nose, and for being associated with 'unlucky' days in Scandinavian folklore, Tycho Brahe (1546–1601) made the most accurate naked-eye astronomical measurements of his day. Cataloguing more than 1,000 new stars, his stellar and planetary observations helped lay the foundations of early modern astronomy. John Louis Emil Dreyer (1852–1926) was a fellow Dane, but he spent much of his working life in Ireland. When he was fourteen, he had read a book about Brahe and this inspired him to 'be an astronomer and nothing else'. First published in 1890, Dreyer's biography of his hero remained the definitive work for more than a century. He sets out to illuminate not simply the life of his subject, but also the lives and work of Brahe's contemporaries and the progress of science in the sixteenth century.

Aedes Hartwellianae
  • Or, Notices of the Manor and Mansion of Hartwell
  • Volume 1
  • William Henry Smyth
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    20 February 2014
  • The astronomer John Lee (1783–66) inherited Hartwell House in Buckinghamshire in 1827. During its colourful history, the mansion had notably been occupied between 1809 and 1814 by the exiled court of Louis XVIII. Lee turned the house into something of a museum for his antiquarian and scientific interests, constructing an observatory to the design of the his close friend William Henry Smyth (1788–1865), after whom Lee named a lunar sea. A naval officer, Smyth had helped to found the Royal Geographical Society in 1830. His Sidereal Chromatics (1864) and The Sailor's Word-Book (1867) are also reissued in this series. This charming history and description of Hartwell, its grounds, buildings and contents, appeared in two volumes between 1851 and 1864, illuminating especially the practice of contemporary astronomy. Illustrated throughout, the first volume (1851) includes coverage relating to the locality, the lords of the manor, the collected antiquities and the observatory.

On the Determination of the Orbits of Comets
  • According to the Methods of Father Boscovich and Mr de la Place
  • Henry Englefield
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    27 June 2013
    First published in:
    1793
  • When this book first appeared in 1793, there had been no significant work on comets published in English since Edmond Halley's death some fifty years before. In Europe the field was dominated by French astronomers such as Pingré and Laplace, but their ornate styles were often difficult to translate. In this concise monograph, Sir Henry Englefield (c.1752–1822) draws both on this continental work and on his own correspondence with William Herschel to produce one of the few accessible manuals in English for the computation of cometary orbits. He includes mathematical examples as new formulae are introduced, along with detailed tables and appendices. Englefield's particular interest was in the development of scientific instruments suitable for travellers - he devised a portable telescope and lent his name to the Englefield mountain barometer - and his passion for efficiency shines through in this work, still valuable to researchers in the history of astronomy and comet science.

Astronomie populaire
  • Description générale du ciel
  • Camille Flammarion
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    20 March 2014
  • French astronomer Camille Flammarion (1842–1925) firmly believed that science should not be the preserve of elites. His passion for the discoveries of his time is palpable throughout this classic introduction to astronomy, which stands as a landmark in the history of popular science writing. It features 360 illustrations, including highly detailed maps of the Moon and Mars, the latter being of special interest for Flammarion as he compared and contrasted it with the Earth. Originally published in 1880, the work won the approval of the Académie Française and the Minister of Public Instruction. This reissue is of the version that appeared in 1881 after 50,000 copies had already reached an enthusiastic readership. Its translation into English as Popular Astronomy (1894) and another accessible work by Flammarion, Le Monde avant la création de l'homme (1886), are also reissued in this series.

Aedes Hartwellianae
  • Addenda to the Aedes Hartwellianae
  • Volume 2
  • William Henry Smyth
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    20 February 2014
  • The astronomer John Lee (1783–66) inherited Hartwell House in Buckinghamshire in 1827. During its colourful history, the mansion had notably been occupied between 1809 and 1814 by the exiled court of Louis XVIII. Lee turned the house into something of a museum for his antiquarian and scientific interests, constructing an observatory to the design of the his close friend William Henry Smyth (1788–1865), after whom Lee named a lunar sea. A naval officer, Smyth had helped to found the Royal Geographical Society in 1830. His Sidereal Chromatics (1864) and The Sailor's Word-Book (1867) are also reissued in this series. This charming history and description of Hartwell, its grounds, buildings and contents, appeared in two volumes between 1851 and 1864, illuminating especially the practice of contemporary astronomy. Illustrated throughout, the second volume (1864) serves as a supplement, recording Smyth's researches in the years since the first volume went to press.

The Scientific Papers of Sir William Herschel
  • Including Early Papers Hitherto Unpublished
  • Volume 2
  • William Herschel
  • Edited by John Louis Emil Dreyer
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    05 September 2013
    First published in:
    1912
  • By the time of his death, William Herschel (1738–1822) had built revolutionary telescopes, identified hundreds of binary stars, and published astronomical papers in over forty volumes of the Royal Society's Philosophical Transactions. This two-volume collection, which originally appeared in 1912, was the first to gather together his scattered publications. It draws also on a wealth of previously unpublished material, from personal letters to numerous papers presented to the Philosophical Society of Bath. Although Herschel is best known for his discovery of Uranus, this collection highlights the true range of his observations and interests. Focusing on his later work, Volume 2 includes notes on some of the moons of Uranus, studies of solar heat and the atmosphere of Saturn, and some practical experiments investigating the capabilities of contemporary telescopes. It also features an appendix of work compiled by his son, John Herschel, and sister Caroline.

Theoria motus lunae exhibens omnes eius inaequalitates
  • In additamento hoc idem argumentum aliter tractatur simulque ostenditur quemadmodum motus lunae cum omnibus inaequalitatibus innumeris aliis modis repraesentari atque ad calculum revocari possit
  • Leonhard Euler
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    02 January 2014
  • The problem of the moon's orbit was one that Leonhard Euler (1707–83) returned to repeatedly throughout his life. It provided a testing ground for Newton's theory of gravitation. Could the motion of the moon be entirely accounted for by Newton's theory? Or, as Euler initially suspected, did other forces need to be invoked? For practical purposes, if the moon's orbit could be accurately predicted, its motion would provide the universal timekeeper required to solve the longitude problem. In addition to the mathematical 'three-body problem', a topic still under investigation today, Euler was faced with the statistical problem of reconciling observations rendered inconsistent by experimental error. The present work, published in Latin in 1753, is Euler's triumphant solution. It may not be the last word on a subject which has occupied mathematicians and astronomers for over three centuries, but it showed that Newton's laws were sufficient to explain lunar motion.

History of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1820-1920
  • John Louis Emil Dreyer, H. H. Turner
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    20 March 2014
  • Founded as the Astronomical Society of London in 1820, this illustrious organisation received its royal charter in 1831. It has counted some of the world's greatest astronomers among its members, most notably its first president, Sir William Herschel, whose family archive forms part of its extensive library. Now based in Burlington House in Piccadilly, it continues to publish journals, award medals and prizes, and support education and outreach work. Following the society's centenary, this survey of its history appeared in 1923 and comprises contributions from leading astronomers of the early twentieth century. The extracts from primary sources include the diary entry of Sir John Herschel, son of William, recording the dinner at which the society's formation was discussed. The work also provides insights into how the society was able to take advantage of imperial expansion to collect observations and data from around the world, fuelling the Victorian pursuit of scientific knowledge.

The Moon
  • Considered as a Planet, a World, and a Satellite
  • James Nasmyth, James Carpenter
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    05 September 2013
  • The movement of the moon in space had been well documented by the second half of the nineteenth century. In this monograph, which first appeared in 1874, James Nasmyth (1808–90) and James Carpenter (1840–99) pay closer attention to the lunar surface, notably illustrating their work with photographs of accurate plaster models. At this time, many questions about the moon's properties were still open. Could the moon support life? Did it have an atmosphere? How had its craters been formed? Marshalling the latest available evidence, Nasmyth and Carpenter provide their answers in a text accompanied by explanatory diagrams. Also included are theories on planetary formation, a discussion of lunar volcanism, and a vivid imagining of a day on the moon's surface, describing everything from low lunar gravity to the sudden, monthly sunrise. The work remains an instructive resource, reflecting the state of contemporary astronomical knowledge.

The Scientific Papers of Sir William Herschel
  • Including Early Papers Hitherto Unpublished
  • Volume 1
  • William Herschel
  • Edited by John Louis Emil Dreyer
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    05 September 2013
    First published in:
    1912
  • By the time of his death, William Herschel (1738–1822) had built revolutionary telescopes, identified hundreds of binary stars, and published astronomical papers in over forty volumes of the Royal Society's Philosophical Transactions. This two-volume collection, which originally appeared in 1912, was the first to gather together his scattered publications. It draws also on a wealth of previously unpublished material, from personal letters to numerous papers presented to the Philosophical Society of Bath. Although Herschel is best known for his discovery of Uranus, this collection highlights the true range of his observations and interests. Focusing on his early work, Volume 1 includes notes on the discovery of Uranus, unpublished papers on electricity, and studies of the lunar mountains and the poles of Mars - both of which he believed to be inhabited. It also features a biographical account by the historian of astronomy J. L. E. Dreyer.

An Introduction to Practical Astronomy
  • Containing Tables for Facilitating the Reduction of Celestial Observations, and a Popular Explanation of their Construction and Use
  • Volume 1
  • William Pearson
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    05 September 2013
  • Although astronomical guides were available in the early nineteenth century, they tended to come from continental presses and were rarely in English. This two-volume work by the clergyman and astronomer William Pearson (1767–1847) aimed, with brilliant success, to compile data from extant sources into one of the first English practical guides to astronomy. Most of the tables were updated and improved versions, and some were wholly reconstructed to streamline the calculation processes. Sir John Herschel dubbed it 'one of the most important and extensive works on that subject which has ever issued from the press', and for his efforts Pearson was awarded the gold medal of the Astronomical Society. First published in 1824, Volume 1 chiefly comprises extensive tables to facilitate the reduction of a range of astronomical observations, including solar and sidereal movements, alongside thorough instructions. In the history of science, Pearson's work reflects the contemporary challenges of celestial study.

The Royal Observatory Greenwich
  • A Glance at its History and Work
  • E. Walter Maunder
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    22 August 2013
  • When this highly illustrated work first appeared in 1900, the day-to-day business of an astronomer was prone to misapprehension; the reality tended to be clouded by the temptation to imagine observatories as preoccupied with making awe-inspiring discoveries and glimpsing distant worlds. Describing himself as a hybrid between an engineer and an accountant, astronomer Edward Walter Maunder (1851–1928) explodes the romantic myths and takes the reader on an entertaining tour of the history and real purposes of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. Founded with the sole aim of advancing navigation at sea, the observatory originally confined its activities to the accurate compilation of celestial charts. In exploring the observatory's various departments and the lives of its Astronomers Royal, Maunder shows how its remit slowly expanded into heliography, meteorology, spectroscopy and the study of magnetism, which transformed it from a tool of the Navy to a major institution in contemporary astronomy.

Volcanism on Io
  • A Comparison with Earth
  • Ashley Gerard Davies
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    09 August 2007
  • The most powerful volcanoes in the Solar System are not on Earth, but on Io, a tiny moon of Jupiter. Whilst Earth and Io are the only bodies in the Solar System to have active, high-temperature volcanoes, those found on Io are larger, hotter, and more violent. This, the first book dedicated to volcanism on Io, contains the latest results from Galileo mission data analysis. As well as investigating the different styles and scales of volcanic activity on Io, it compares these volcanoes to their contemporaries on Earth. The book also provides a background to how volcanoes form and how they erupt, and explains quantitatively how remote-sensing data from spacecraft and telescopes are analysed to reveal the underlying volcanic processes. This richly illustrated book will be a fascinating reference for advanced undergraduates, graduate students and researchers in planetary sciences, volcanology, remote sensing and geology.

  • Prologue

  • Fredric W. Taylor, University of Oxford
  • Book:
    The Scientific Exploration of Venus
    Published online:
    05 September 2014
    Print publication:
    22 September 2014, pp xiii-xvi

  • Summary

    Venus is the closest planet to the Earth and, with the obvious exceptions of the Sun and Moon, it is easily the brightest object which regularly appears in our sky. Near inferior conjunction, the time of closest approach when the two planets are separated by a mere 40 million kilometres, a modest telescope will reveal Venus as a brilliant, featureless crescent. The crescent-shaped appearance is characteristic of a body that is closer to the Sun than the observer, as Galileo realised when he turned his primitive telescope on Venus four centuries ago.

    Modern values for the basic physical characteristics of the planet are very close to Earth’s, with Venus having about 82 per cent of the mass, 95 per cent of the diameter, and about the same density, suggesting a similar internal composition and structure of a rocky mantle with an iron-nickel core. No other planet matches ours so closely: Mars, for instance, has only about a tenth of Earth’s mass, and just over half the diameter. Mercury is even smaller, weighing in at only 5 per cent of the mass of Earth, and the Moon at just over 1 per cent. So the Earth’s nearest neighbour is also its only real twin in our solar system.

  • Part III - Plans and visions for the future

  • Fredric W. Taylor, University of Oxford
  • Book:
    The Scientific Exploration of Venus
    Published online:
    05 September 2014
    Print publication:
    22 September 2014, pp 235-236

  • Summary

    Plans and visions for the future

    The last American mission to Venus was in 1991 (Magellan), and the last from the Soviets in 1985 (Vega). Europe has its first spacecraft to the twin planet still operating in Venus orbit at the time of writing, having arrived there in 2006 (Venus Express), but so far the Europeans show little political will to follow up on this success. Japan still hopes to get something from its Akatsuki probe when it meets Venus again six years after its failed attempt to enter orbit in 2010. What happens next?

    In seeking to answer that question, armed with a mass of unsolved scientific questions from Part II, we must enter the murky and uncertain world of politics, budgets and planning, or ‘programmatics’ as it is euphemistically called in the space agencies. We are helped by the long-term planning process operated by the scientists in their institutes and universities, by the learned societies and national academies, and by the agencies themselves. But these produce wish lists (usually called ‘roadmaps’ these days) and not real predictions. Even the most optimistic planetary scientist knows that most of what they plan will not be carried out. So what will?

Page 224 of 850