Biennial History of Astronomy Workshop
Abstracts (listed alphabetically)

Peter Abrahams

“H. Dennis Taylor and the design and testing of astronomical instruments” (poster paper)

Harold Dennis Taylor was chief optical designer for Thomas Cooke & Sons of York, England, working from the 1880s to the 1920s. His long career resulted in many developments in optical instrumentation, and astronomical instruments were an early and favored specialty.

Taylor wrote the first published guide to the 'star test' of lenses and mirrors. The first triplet apochromatic telescope objective was the 'Cooke Photo-Visual Objective', a Taylor design. His 'Cooke Triplet' photographic lens, the most creative and influential of his designs, was extensively used by astrophotographers, and was modified by Taylor for the specific projects of various noted astronomers. Taylor introduced the first method of antireflection coatings for lenses. His eyepiece designs from the 1920s used the negative field lens that is the basis for 'modern style' telescope eyepieces.

The primary documents to illustrate the work of Taylor are the relevant United Kingdom patents. Contemporary astronomers were customers and correspondents of Cooke, and their work is also part of the record.

Wilbur Applebaum, Illinois Institute of Technology

“Galileo and Kepler on the sun as Planetary Mover”

It's commonly held that Galileo gave little or no attention to the problem of the cause of planetary motion. Some have taken the position that his principle of so-called “circular inertia” eliminated a need for a planetary mover. Galileo was certainly aware of Kepler's hypothesis of a quasi-magnetic force from a rotating sun as the means by which the planets were moved in their orbits, but he never directly commented on the astronomer's ideas on the causes of celestial motions. After the publication of Galileo's Sidereus nuncius, Kepler several times urged upon Galileo the notion of a rotating Sun as planetary mover. With his discovery and close observations of sunspots, however, Galileo concluded that the Sun indeed rotates, and went on to propose that the planets are moved by the rotation of the Sun. In this belief he was echoing positions taken earlier, not only by Kepler, but also by Giordano Bruno. All three were modifying and elaborating a position, now in a Copernican context, and after the dissolution of the celestial spheres, frequently enunciated during the Renaissance and going back to Plato's Timaeus.

Jorge Bartolucci, UNAM-Mexico

“Awakening Mexican Astronomy (1938-1945). The Harvard College Observatory and Mexican-American Relationships during the Second World War”

The creation of the National Astrophysical Observatory of Tonantzintla, Puebla, in 1942, marked the beginning of the later establishment of modern astrophysics in Mexico. Such a change was made possible through the support given by the Harvard College Observatory to a group of young Mexican scientists who worked very hard to integrate their country into the international scientific community. Despite the efforts made by Mexican politicians and astronomers before 1940 to build scientific institutions to promote the progress of science in the country, public and private support was sporadic, fragmented, weak and directionless. What happened in the forties that made it possible to overcome the earlier situation? According to the analysis done here, it can be explained as a consequence of the close interaction between Harlow Shapley and Luis E. Erro under very singular historical circumstances. Since the story took place within the context of the Second World War, the presence of geopolitical affairs must be underlined. As a case study, the paper exposes the presence of social and historical factors that particularizes the process of transference of modern science outside Western Europe and the United States throughout the wider world.

Julian Baum, Independent Computer Graphics Artist and Animator, and Richard Baum, Independent Scholar

“The Great Cordilleras of Venus”

From the eighteenth to the early twentieth century, and in some quarters until very much later, there existed in the astronomical mind a tradition of a Great Enlightened Mountain situated near the south pole of Venus. It was a reality to the people of that time, signifying to them the highest point of an immense cordillera whose profile was “relieved against planetary night in startling luminosity, its inner side ... fringed with a necklace of beads, representing to our fancy a bristling range of isolated peaks” high enough to tower “into the upper air to an altitude of over forty miles above the cloud canopy of the planet.”

Trudy E. Bell

“The 'American Method': The 19th-Century Telegraphic Revolution in Astronomy”

The invention of the telegraph revolutionized practical and positional astronomy. Its biggest contribution was simplifying and exacting the determination of longitude on the earth. Less than five years after the United States' first telegraph line was completed between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, the telegraphic 'American method' of determining longitude had become so accepted worldwide that, in the words of U.S. Coast Survey chief Alexander Dallas Bache, it 'may be considered to have passed into one of the regular methods of geodesy.' Indeed, virtually the first use of the first transatlantic telegraph cable laid in 1866 was to send star-transit timings between astronomers in Newfoundland and Great Britain, to nail down the exact longitude differences between points in Europe and North America. Telegraphic longitude determination was supplanted only in 1922 by radio navigation techniques.

Less well known, by mid-century, the chronograph had been invented, which simultaneously recorded both time signals and star signals using a pen-chart recorder. The chronograph was essential not only to longitude determinations, but also for providing an indelible and precise record of any astronomical observations that relied on timings--notably star transits and meridian-circle observations--thereby quadrupling an astronomer's productivity at the eyepiece (timings per hour). The telegraph and chronograph also sparked astronomers' first comprehensive discussions on measuring personal equation.

In the second half of the 19th century, the telegraph provided steady income to astronomical observatories from railroads. Each noon, the observatory sent time signals to railroad masters for setting local station clocks; in the most sophisticated setups, the observatory's telegraph signals adjusted a railroad station's clock automatically. The telegraph was even used on solar eclipse expeditions seeking the hypothetical inner planet Vulcan: if observers in a western part of the path of totality thought they spotted Vulcan, they were to telegraph its position to colleagues waiting farther east.

This paper will outline some of the key inventions and telegraphic techniques used by 19th-century American astronomers.

Dennis Danielson, University of British Columbia

“Copernicus and the Enthronement of the Sun”

When Copernicus “removed” earth from the center of the universe, he was not, contrary to later popular opinion, “dethroning” the earth but rather freeing it from what the Middle Ages had seen as a state of cosmic exile in “the worst, most senseless, and drooping part of the world ... and farthest from heaven's cope” (Montaigne). However, if earth was thus promoted to “the dance of the stars” (Galileo), then how shall we interpret what Copernicus did to the sun? Must its “relocation” to the middle be seen as a demotion?

Of course not. Yet, to avoid making its new dwelling place appear a diminution of the sun's traditionally royal status--“in noble eminence enthroned” (Shakespeare)--required that Copernicus and his followers employ their poetic as well as scientific resources to “renovate” what had previously been thought a place of cosmic disrepute. By developing familial, social, biological, and architectural metaphors for the sun, both Copernicus and Kepler manage to support the appropriateness of the sun's central location in a manner consistent with the sun's royalty and nobility. Indeed, their very success in re-imagining the center of the world as a place worthy of the sun's enthronement may have provided anachronistic support for those who later saw Copernicus's achievement as entailing a dethronement of the earth.

Sven Dupré, Ghent University, Belgium

“Galileo, the Telescope, and the Light of the Planets and the Stars” (poster paper)

While Galileo's telescopic discoveries are mostly dealt with as evidence in the ongoing cosmological debate between the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic and the Copernican system, they also may be considered in the context of optico-astronomical questions regarding the light of the planets and the stars, going back to at least Alhazen. Taking up a suggestion of Roger Ariew, it will be shown that Galileo was concerned with the problem whether the planets and/or the stars shine with their own light or reflect solar light (or any combination thereof) as early as the appearance of the nova in 1604, criticizing Kepler's 'De stella nova', and again, in 1607, when studying moon light and mirror reflections, based on his acquaintance with 15th and 16th century optical literature. Eventually, it was to the telescope to decide that stars shine with their own light and planets only reflect light. However, taking into account that telescopic observation of planets and stars was problematic, Galileo's analysis shows that the light of the stars and the planets also decided about the working of the telescope, in particular its aperture stop. In turn, this influenced Kepler's dealing with the Galilean telescope in terms of light instead of vision.

Bernard R. Goldstein, University of Pittsburgh

“The Astronomical Tables of Judah Ben Verga of Lisbon”

Little is known about the life of Judah Ben Verga, other than that he was an astronomer in Lisbon, writing in Hebrew, who flourished from about 1455 to 1480. While there were many sets of astronomical tables in Hebrew produced in medieval Spain, Ben Verga's set is the earliest in Portugal. In several places he reports astronomical observations he made in Lisbon in 1456 and 1457 and, in the introduction (or canons) to his astronomical tables, he computes the circumstances of a lunar eclipse to take place in the future on March 22, 1475, as well as a solar eclipse to take place on July 29, 1478. As far as I have been able to determine, the only contemporary (or near contemporary) astronomer to cite Ben Verga was Abraham Zacut of Salamanca (d. 1515). In this presentation I will focus on Ben Verga's astronomical tables, based on manuscript sources. While most of his tables are similar in structure to those found in comparable works in Arabic, Latin, and Hebrew, some are unusual and worthy of special attention.

Robert Havlik, University of Notre Dame

“Arthur Joseph Stace (1838-1890), Philosopher, Astronomer, Scientist and Linguist and His Contribution to Early Astronomy Education”

Arthur Joseph Stace was a late 19th century Catholic educator and faculty member at the University of Notre Dame. With the exception of 2 or 3 interruptions he spent his entire academic life at Notre Dame. In 1867 he became the first faculty member to teach astronomy at the University. In 1886 he was appointed the first Dean of the Engineering College at the University. It was at this time he was instrumental in completing the planning for the Notre Dame Badin Observatory, to house our six inch Napoleon refractor. His eclectic career culminated his appointment, by President Grover Cleveland, as a United States Commissioner to the Universal Exposition of 1889 at Paris.

Arthur J. Stace did much to enhance the University's early programs in astronomy, science, mathematics and civil engineering. His eccentric and eclectic attitude made him one of the more colorful figures in the early history of the university.

Elizabeth E. Hayes, University of Notre Dame

“David Rittenhouse and the Politics of Astronomy”

David Rittenhouse was the most famous astronomer of the Early American Republic. A noted mathematician, clockmaker and astronomer, Rittenhouse was a member of the American Philosophical Society, and brought that society international attention with his careful observation of the Transit of Venus in 1769. Interestingly, Rittenhouse was not only the colonies' most famous scientist (after Ben Franklin); he was also a revolutionary. As part of a small group of politicians (including Thomas Paine and Benjamin Rush) who led the radical revolution against the established anti-independence party in Philadelphia, Rittenhouse sat on the committee that created the most democratic of all of the state constitutions of the Revolutionary era. In 1775, a year before this internal revolution took place, David Rittenhouse gave an oration on the history of astronomy in front of the American Philosophical Society. The purpose of my paper will be to explore the arguments for American Independence that are the subcontext of an otherwise straightforward discourse on the history of astronomy.

J. Christopher Hunt, Prince George's Community College and Virginia Tech

“Dennis W. Sciama and the Steady State Cosmology”

In his 1932 Guthrie Lecture to the Physical Society of London, Max Planck made the following remarkable statement regarding the nature of scientific change: “An important scientific innovation rarely makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents: it rarely happens that Saul becomes Paul. What does happen is that its opponents gradually die out and that the growing generation is familiarized with the idea from the beginning....” If “Planck's Principle” (as it has come to be known) is true, it has profound implications for science, essentially denying traditional, rationalist views of theory change. In this paper, I examine the abandonment of the steady state model of the universe by the cosmologist Dennis W. Sciama. The reasons for Sciama's initial passion for the steady state are examined (including aesthetic factors), as are the reasons for his conversion. I show that Sciama's case presents a clear counterexample to Planck's Principle.

Nick Kollerstrom, University College, London

“The Elusive British Claim for Neptune's Co-Prediction”

After being 'lost' for three decades, the Royal Greenwich Observatory's 'Neptune file' finally resurfaced in Chile in 1999 and has now been recovered. Some of the historic manuscripts are the worse for wear, and I have a Royal Society grant for collating these manuscripts, over 1845-6. Earlier accounts were somewhat coloured by the intense national passions kindled by this debate, in which Britain's Astronomer Royal Airy had a key role.

I have the assistance of celestial mechanist David Harper to try and sort out what Adams really did achieve and to what extent he can be said to have co-predicted Neptune's position as was averred by Challis and Airy. Or, were these two merely trying to save their own skins after the ruinous failure of their six-week sky-search at Cambridge for the new planet, conducted rather secretly, following its discovery at Berlin in half an hour?

What status has a retrospective claim to a prediction as having been made a year earlier? I take the view that the dated sections of Adams manuscripts offer us the best option of answering these questions; of which there are seven in the year preceding Neptune's discovery.

I have located a section of Adams' diary for the years 1846 and 1845 unmentioned by any previous scholars (it turned up due to improved computer indexing at the John's college library) which throws important light on how close Challis and Adams were in this key period.

Circumstantial evidence indicates that the undated, unaddressed note which Airy produced in November 1846 before the Royal Astronomical Society, with details of Adams' prediction, is unlikely to be that which Adams gave to him in October of the previous year.

Keith Lafortune, University of Notre Dame

“Almanac Science and the Geography of American Astronomical Knowledge”

Historian Stephen J. Harris defines the “geography of knowledge” as “the logically and chronologically prior stages of scientific practice that involve the collecting, transporting, and collating of all the things that go into the making of scientific knowledge.” Put simply, the geography of knowledge answers the questions “who knew what, when, and for what reason?” Harris' aim is to study travel and the corporations that stood to profit from the transportation of knowledge during the Age of Discovery. The geography of knowledge can also be used to study the spread of scientific knowledge among the general public through printed media. That is the focus of this paper.

The almanac was one of the most important forms of American media during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Not only did almanacs predict the weather and advise the farmer about when to plant his crops, but they were also a source of entertainment and current events. Entertainment and current events mixed in the popular science essays included in many early American almanacs. These essays give the historian an opportunity to ask “who knew what, when, and for what reason” about advances in astronomy?

A quick glance at the almanacs shows that the astronomical content of the essays was diverse, providing the prominent ideas of Ptolemy, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton alongside the more obscure arguments of William Gilbert and Olaus Roemer. To understand how the American almanac reader received these astronomical essays, I explore a number of questions: Who read these almanacs? How important was the almanac to its reader? How did the reader use the almanac? How current were the astronomical theories described in the almanacs' essays? How might religious beliefs have influenced the reception of the almanacs' essays? How might almanac humor have influenced this reception?

This paper is a suggestion for further research on the subject of almanac science and its reception among the American public.

Rudi Paul Lindner, University of Michigan

“From Podium to Print: Curtis and Shapley Prepare the 'Great Debate' for Publication”

After their talks in Washington, Heber D. Curtis and Harlow Shapley revised their presentations for a wider audience, and within a year extended versions of their papers appeared together. During the months after their meeting, they exchanged letters and drafts, continuing their discussion, modifying their emphases, and establishing what each would and would not yield. Further, they discussed the work with others, and in Shapley's corner we can follow the suggestions of his mentor, Henry Norris Russell. This talk is about the development of their final essays as a measure of the rhetorical strategies once popular in scientific prose.

Kurt Locher (Switzerland)

“Ancient Egyptian Astronomy: A Century of Text Studies, with Emphasis on the Last Two Decades”

The largest corpus of preserved texts from writing cultures prior to classical Greece is that from Ancient Egypt. This applies not only to the total amounts of these texts but also to the roughly 3% out of them with astronomical content. As in almost any autochthonous astronomical culture, the observation and understanding of the apparent yearly rhythms of the fixed stars was achieved in Egypt long before concepts of the lunar and planetary motions were developed. The details of the annually repeated phenomena were recognized by the Egyptians before the Babylonians, Greek, Chinese, and Protoarabians by 4 to 24 centuries respectively, and less closely connected to divination and weather phases than in these other cultures, but rather to religion.

Almost all relevant ancient Egyptian astronomical texts known by 1960 were at that time re-discussed in Neugebauer and Parker's huge monograph, so that a comprehensive knowledge of these texts can be acquired by simply using this and the scattered studies published since. The later publications go beyond that monograph because of 3 reasons, namely (1) the newly discovered sources, (2) the progress of hieroglyphic philology, and (3) the abandon of Neugebauer's reserve against identification of constellations beyond the 3 already uncontested in classical Antiquity (the counterparts of UMa, Ori, and CMa).

Howard Margolis, University of Chicago

“How Copernicus discovered that in a heliocentric world the retrogressions of the planets are not actual loops in the paths of the planets”

It is usually taken as obvious that in a heliocentric world, the planet do not actually travel on what Kepler invidiously called “pretzel-shaped” paths. But the heliocentric possibility had been known to astronomers for 1800 years (since Aristarchus) with no hint that anyone before Copernicus noticed this. It really could hardly be done without Ptolemaic astronomy to work from. But that still leaves 1400 years of no one noticing. I give an account of how Copernicus seems to have done it, which has large consequences for the wave of discoveries produced by Copernicans at the turn of the next century. This issue plays a large role in my forthcoming book, The Discovery of Discovery.

James A. Marshall, Independent Scholar

“What the Archaeoastronomers Have Missed” (poster paper)

This researcher has instrumentally surveyed and mapped more than 230 sites of prehistoric constructions in eastern North America since 1965. From these he has selected 6 very large geometric earthworks. He will compare each in size to the Notre Dame campus. These works and mid-19th century drawings of such have been bases of many archaeoastronomical claims.

What they have missed is the use, in the design and layout of these works, of true north by the stars, the interesting patterns created by placing the plan of one of these works over the plan of another, and the historical implications of such. The pattern is that key points and lines on these works coincide, two works, high Banil and Newark Golf course consist each of an octagon and a circle on an axis. If placed over the other works, their respective axes point toward hilltops or other works a few miles away. One implication is that native American Indians as early as 300 BC had to have had permanent records of the plans of these works.

Durruty Jesus de Alba MartÌnez, Universidad de Guadalajara

“First Astrophysics Textbook in Mexico”

In the 19th century, astronomy was included in curricula of educational institutions in Jalisco state, Mèxico along with arithmetic, geometry and other similar topics of a situation which reflected the educational priorities of the medieval world, the level that we know as quadrivium. Lay centers of education were classified according to who was in power: they were called “university” if conservative governments nor “science institute” by liberal-leaning politicians.

In this context we are also far from clear which spaces were to be included investigation and how this research would be reflected in teaching activities. In 1853 however, there appeared a book titled “Lecciones de astronomÌa” (astronomy lessons), by AgustÌn de la Rosa y Serrano (1824-1907), secular priest who had earned his doctoral degree in theology at the old Universidad de Guadalajara in 1850 and who eventually became rector of Guadalajara's seminary in 1867. In 1882, furthermore he also published the “Adiciones a las lecciones de astronomÌa” (astronomy lessons additions) which may be considered first astrophysics textbook in Mèxico. This book and its content is described giving some indication of how modern astronomy started in Mèxico.

Mary Quinlan-McGrath (Northern Illinois University)

“Picturing Science, Rectifying Art: Case studies from the Italian Renaissance”

Artworks of the Italian Renaissance often represent astronomical or astrological understandings that were prevalent in Italy between 1400-1600. This workshop presentation will consider problems in research methodology that arise when painters and architects used mathematical and scientific information as part of their art. How did artists balance the requirements of beauty against the requirements for mathematical accuracy? What can these art examples tell us about scientific practices as these were understood at a more popular level? What scientific standards are necessary for art historians in this field?

Sepp Rothwangl, Graz, Austria

“Consideration about the origin of the common yearly counting in the Julian and Gregorian calendar with special attention to the ancient astronomy and world view”

The official tradition of the Catholic church describes the following: Dionysius Exiguus in his Liber de paschate indicates he made a new calculation of the Easter data. The old calculation made by the Alexandrinian Cyrill had concluded and needed to be renewed and resumed for the future. According to Dionysius Exiguus, the cycle created by Cyrill ended in the Diokletian Year 247 (531 CE) Dionysius Exiguus synchronized the subsequent year with of his new 532 year lasting lunisolar Easter cycle and so created a new yearly counting. “D.E.” calls this new cycle 'anni ab incarnatione Domini nostri Jesu Christi' (A.D.), since he does not want to count the years any more after the “Christian pursuer.” As a consequence, this yearly counting became until today the usual in the Gregorian and Julian calendar.

The actual cause of the definition of the yearly counting might be the combined result of three other factors:

1. The conjunction of all naked eye planets as a “Greatest Year”: In the antique astronomy the conjunction of all planets had great importance. On the one hand it was a mythical astrological event which was symbolically linked with the Symposium (Gathering) of the Olympic Gods and with the creation of humans by Prometheus. On the other hand, the conjunction was a temporal astrological orientation, an orientation which one assumes was used to derive terrestrial rule from the celestial run. An example is quoted from Aristotle: “... there is a yearly unit, which Aristotle rather calls the Greatest Year than a large year. It concerns the period, in which the circular paths of Sun, Moon and the five planets will pass through in such a way that all these heavenly bodies are located in the same constellation” (Censorinus, De die natale, ch. 18)

2. In the year 531 CE, the previous year of the new Dionysian cycle, such a close conjunction of all planets took place and was used by the Indian astronomer Aryabhata and others as a base for the back calculation of such a conjunction and the dating of the Kali Yuga or the Deluge on 17th February 3102 BCE. See: B. L. van der Waerden (Das groþe Jahr und seine ewige Wiederkehr) and E.S. Kennedy. Until May 2000 there was only in 1524 one more such close alignment of all naked eye planets.

3. The Platonic month (precession) as cause of religious ages: The precession of the equinoxes brings about the change of the spring constellations, whose progression is expressed by the constant of precession (modern value: 71.66 years per 1°). It's falsely assumed antique value was 100 years as reported by Hipparchos and Ptolemaios, which would result 30° in 3000 years . Secretly and by later Arab constants delivered, its progressing in the ending antiquity however might have been assumed to be “faster” with a value of 66.6 years per 1° of the zodiac (Number of the animal- “beast”). This results in the number of 2000 years each 30°, which led to the late antique acceptance that due precession every 2000 years ends and begins an age (spring constellation)

Conclusion: It is maintained that Dionysius Exiguus, by incorporating these three factors, pre-calculated the planet conjunction of May 2000 with the help of planet boards and determined the year 1 A.D. exactly 1999 years before it and thus linked “Platonic Year” with “Greatest Year.” He did this in order to fulfill the Christian faith conceptions of the return of the Lord during a planetary position which is adequate to the former Betlehem Star (triple alignment of Jupiter and Saturn in Pisces in 7 BCE). D. E. determined the yearly counting in such a way that in the year 2000 (2nd millennium) of his counting, because of the precalculated sky positions, should mark in his late antique religious and astronomical conception of the world the end of the age of Pisces (ICHTHYS) and the religiously prophesied Christian end time.

Steven W. Ruskin, University of Notre Dame

“The Great Garden of the Universe: Alexander von Humboldt's Cosmos and William Herschel's Cosmogony”

In 1845 Alexander von Humboldt published the first of his five-volume Cosmos.

The Cosmos was an attempt to demonstrate the “chain of connection, by which all natural forces are linked together, and made mutually dependent on each other.” Sections of the five volumes of Cosmos that deal with cosmology reveal striking similarities to the theories of William Herschel. As it turns out, to write the Cosmos Humboldt borrowed heavily from the work of others, often without acknowledging their contributions. John Herschel, long an advocate of his father William's cosmological theories, was one of Humboldt's biggest British “contributors.” Thus the appearance of William Herschel's cosmology in the Cosmos is partially explained.

More generally, however, in the Cosmos Humboldt was advocating a view of nature which had long been his trademark: a romantic conception of the Universe that aimed to replace the clockwork cosmos of the Enlightenment. John Herschel was quite sympathetic to Humboldt's world view. This paper explains why, for Humboldt's romantic Cosmos, the cosmology of the Herschels played a necessary role.

Voula Saridakis, Virginia Tech

“Who was Elisabetha Hevelius? A Study of a Seventeenth-Century Woman Astronomer”

Who was Elisabetha Hevelius? In a number of current scholarly works, an image of her appears in which she is using a sextant and compiling measurements together with her husband, the famous European astronomer, Johannes Hevelius of Danzig. But how extensive was her astronomical knowledge? And what role did she play as a woman astronomer in the seventeenth century? In this paper, I briefly discuss her life and involvement with her husband's work. I then draw some general conclusions concerning the involvement of women in seventeenth-century astronomy. I argue that the opportunities for women like Elisabetha had diminished after the formation of scientific societies in the late seventeenth century, even though these societies were supposed to promote the 'democratization' of science.

David L. Seim, Iowa State University

“Measuring the Stars: John Herschel, Norman Pogson, and the Selection of a Standardized Scale for Expressing a Relation between Magnitude and Relative Apparent Brightness of Stars”

I introduce and explore the route by which Norman Pogson proposed and gained acceptance for a standardized logarithm scale for classifying the increasing brightness of stars. The standardized scale, first published in 1856, is known today as “Pogson's rule.” John Herschel had been the leading proponent of a need by astronomers for an objective scale to foster progress in observational astronomy. Herschel not only had repeatedly published professional callings for a standardized scale, but also was (in the 1840s) the person who was first to offer a candidate for a compact measurement rule that could be imposed on the apparent brightness of stars to enable a standard star classification scheme according to a scale of magnitudes.

Herschel's rule and Pogson's rule may be compared and contrasted. First, where the quantity “x” represents the variable of apparent brightness of a star, the most reduced form of Herschel's rule is that magnitude equals x raised to the negative two, where x may go from one to infinity. In this inverse-square rule the power is held constant while the base is the input variable. Even though Herschel seems never to have directly said as much, I am interested in arguing that he may have been influenced toward his rule by a naturalist impulse that he felt could help him rationalize an imposition upon material nature of an artificial categorization scheme analogous to Isaac Newton's inverse-square law of universal gravitation.

Second, where the quantity “x” again represents the apparent brightness of a star, the most reduced form of Pogson's rule is that magnitude equals 2.512 raised to the x, where x may go from zero to infinity. In this logarithm rule the base is held constant while the power is the input variable. Even though Pogson seems never to have directly said as much, I am interested in arguing that he may have been influenced toward his rule by a kind of naturalist impulse to help rationalize an imposition upon material nature of an artificial categorization scheme analogous to Gustav Fechner's 1850 threshold principle in sensory psychology called “the just noticeable difference.”

John Sisko, College of William and Mary

“Worlds within Worlds within the One: Anaxagoras' Parmenidean Cosmology”

It is said that the Greek atomists (Leucippus and Democritus) were the first cosmologists to posit the existence of a plurality of worlds. This is correct, but only in a qualified way. For the atomists were the first to posit the existence of a plurality of spatially distinct worlds. Before the atomists, however, Anaxagoras posited the existence of a plurality of concentric, or nested, worlds. Anaxagoras' cosmology was developed in response to Parmenides' theory of the 'One'. Parmenides had posited the existence of a single static material plenum. Against Parmenides, Anaxagoras argued that cyclical (or vortex) motion is possible in a voidless plenum and he argued that such motion is responsible for the emergence of our (geocentric) world within the plenum. However, Parmenides held that change requires a 'first event' and such an event is impossible, since there is no sufficient reason for its occurring at one particular time as opposed to its occurring at some earlier time. Anaxagoras, circumvented the problem of a 'first event' by positing the existence of an eternal and ever-expanding vortex. This vortex expands through infinitely divisible and infinitely extended space, repeatedly bringing structure to the plenum. Thus, the vortex is not only responsible for the emergence of our word within the 'One', it is also responsible for the emergence of worlds within worlds within the 'One'.

Christopher S. Turner

“Prehistoric Native American Calendrical-Monumental Architecture in Ohio: Chronology, Form, and Motive”

Building convincing arguments in archaeoastronomy is not about whimsical map work or developing arcane numeracies. Contextual cultural syntheses are paramount. Careful mathematical modeling, cultural archaeology, paleobotany, comparative ethnology, concepts involving monumental architecture, and calendar histories are examples of the topics woven into any perspicacious overview. This poster demonstrates both winter and summer solstice rise events at a Hopewell geometric enclosure, development of these monuments from earlier Adena forms, as well as similar sightlines at other Hopewell sites. The intensification of agriculture (c.200BC) in the Eastern Woodlands was synchronous with the creation of the Hopewell earthwork calendars.

Petra van der Heijden, Leiden Observatory, The Netherlands

“Frederik Kaiser (1808-1872) and the modernisation of Dutch astronomy”

Frederik Kaiser was the director of Leiden Observatory from 1837 until his death in 1872. His contributions to astronomical practice include the foundation of a new, completely up-to-date observatory building in Leiden, and the introduction of statistics and precision measurements in daily practice at the observatory. Moreover he was the author of several bestselling books on popular astronomy.

Preliminary research indicates that Frederik Kaiser played a crucial role in the revival of Dutch astronomy in the second half of the 19th century.

I will give a short introduction into my project, which aims at analysing and explaining Kaiser's activities in the context of national and international developments in 19th-century astronomy and scientific culture.

Craig B. Waff, Encyclopedia Americana, Grolier Educational

“From What Meridian Shall We Count Our Longitudes?: The Debate over Charles Henry Davis's 1849 Proposal to Establish an American Prime Meridian”

U.S. Navy Lt. Charles Henry Davis's 1849 proposal to have the United States adopt a prime meridian located within the borders of the country is important in several respects. It prompted the newly formed American Association for the Advancement of Science to appoint what may have been the first broadly national committee of American scientists to be asked to debate the pros and cons of a scientific issue--an issue that in this case involved astronomy, geography, cartography, and navigation. The issue involved more than just science, however, and the debate and resolution of this issue was not contained within the developing American scientific community. A large part of the maritime community involved in oceangoing commerce vocally opposed the proposal, and the U.S. Congress as a consequence imposed a compromise that continued to affect the form of the newly authorized American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac (whose publication Davis had just been appointed to superintend) until the early 20th century. This paper will discuss the arguments presented in support of and against Davis's proposal, and also survey the prime meridians that were actually employed by American mapmakers in the early 19th century.

Barbara Welther (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA)

“The Development of Harvard's Astronomy Department: A Matter of Serendipity and Philanthropy”

This paper will draw on documents in the Harvard Archives to examine briefly the funding and research of some of the HCO PhD candidates in the Shapley Era (1921-1955) and will highlight their subsequent contributions to 20th-century American Astronomy.

Although Harvard offered a course or two in astronomy from its inception in the 17th century, it was slow to develop an observatory or a curriculum in the field. It was not until the 20th century, when Harlow Shapley assumed the Directorship of Harvard College Observatory in 1921, that Harvard finally took an interest in training the next generation of astronomers.

In 1923, using the Pickering Fund for women assistants, Shapley serendipitously hired a young English woman, Cecilia Payne, to work on stellar spectra. Just two short years later, Payne completed her research and wrote a celebrated thesis on stellar atmospheres. Because the physics department at Harvard was not prepared to confer a PhD degree on a woman at that time, Payne had to present her thesis to Radcliffe College. Thus, in 1925 she became the first person to receive a PhD in astronomy for a research project at HCO.

Nevertheless, it took three more years for Harvard to see the light and establish an Astronomy Department. The turn of events came about because a young man from Toronto, named Frank Scott Hogg, needed some financial help to finish his PhD and Shapley found a great philanthropist in George Russell Agassiz. Hogg became the second person to present a thesis on research at HCO. In his case, the University decided it could, indeed, confer a PhD in astronomy on a man.

Barbara Welther (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA)

“The First PhDs in Astronomy at Harvard: A Gallery of Pictures” (poster paper)

This poster paper will draw on early photographs, primarily from the Harvard Archives, to show the images of PhD candidates in the Shapley Era (1921-1955). Short biographical sketches will accompany each picture.

Patricia S. Whitesell

“Nineteenth-Century Longitude Determinations in the Great Lakes Region: Government-University Collaborations”

The longitude problem--determining geographic position with precision on land or at sea--was one of the greatest scientific problems of all time. Yet, this fascinating history was virtually forgotten until 1993 when William J H Andrewes at Harvard University organized an international symposium and Dava Sobel wrote her best-selling book Longitude (1995). But, this recent attention stopped short of chronicling the important contributions made by nineteenth-century astronomical observatories in determining the longitude across America. University observatories collaborated on longitude determinations with government agencies such as the United States Lake Survey to enable them to perform accurate surveys of land and coastal areas. My paper, which was published in the Journal of Astronomical History & Heritage in December 2000, provides the historical context of nineteenth-century longitude determinations in America. Specific examples and details are drawn from Great Lakes longitude determinations performed through collaborations between the United States Lake Survey and academic astronomers at the Hudson Observatory at Western Reserve College, Harvard College Observatory, Hamilton College Observatory, and the University of Michigan Detroit Observatory.

Yaakov Zik , University of Haifa, Israel

“Mathematical Instruments, Optics and Telescopes”

Optical instrument design is a complex, non-linear game of strategy as well as a science and engineering. An image forming system is complex not only because of elements such as tubes, lenses and diaphragms, but also because each element placed there for a certain need. The Galilean telescope, in which the converging eyepiece is replaced with a diverging one, gives a virtual erect image and narrow field of view. The diameters of the entrance and exit pupils are proportional to the focal lengths of the objective and eyepiece respectively, so the angular magnification can be expressed by the ratio of the entrance pupil to the exit pupil. Those relationships determine the practical limits of magnification and aperture. Therefore, magnification by its own, would not be the primary factor by which the performance of the instrument should be evaluated. Variables such as field of view, lens quality, light gathering, corrections for the various aberrations, and losses in light transmission through the optical system are also involved in the construction of the telescope.

By the end of the 16th century, as reflected in the treatises of Alhazen, Witelo and Porta and in the voluminous treatises and commentaries relating to practical geometry, instrument manuals and astronomy, optics developed to a level in which new and perplexing questions as well as solutions could have been proposed. It grew into a fair platform from which modern optics could be launched. Retrospectively, its theoretical features bore most of the knowledge needed for the refinement of the telescope. From that point of view I would like to make some comments with regard to mathematical instruments, Kepler, Galileo, the science called optics and the refinement of the telescope.

Huib J. Zuidervaart, Museum Boerhaave, Leiden, The Netherlands

“Dutch Astronomy in the 18th Century: A Neglected and Undervalued History”

The history of Dutch astronomy in the eighteenth century is an episode in the history of science which has hitherto remained underexposed. Until recent times it has been suggested that after Huygens there was 'no continuous tradition in the Netherlands as far as astronomy is concerned'. Only in the 19the century--so was told--astronomy in the Netherlands acquired 'enough status' to be able to 'present valuable contributions at an international level'.

My study has proved that this picture is incorrect. In the 18th century a lot of interesting work was done in the field of astronomy; research was carried out in a scholarly way and the results were exchanged with fellow astronomers both in the Netherlands and abroad. However, astronomical research was not carried out by scientists at universities (as in later years), but mainly by a group of amateurs outside the universities, who used to call themselves “konstgenoten.” Because they published little, or only in the Dutch language, their impact on astronomy as a international science was rather modest.

Extended summary:

Two important astronomical topics of the time gave the opportunity to study the work of these Dutch astronomers. First, there was the research on the orbits of comets. Dutch astronomers produced the first critical cometography and the first supplement to Halley's well-known work Synopsis of the astronomy of comets. They also were skillful observers. Of the total of 34 comets observed in the period 1715-1770 eighteen were observed independently by Dutch astronomers, eleven of them being the first registered observer. These “amateurs” were also skilled in calculating the orbital elements of cometary orbits. A number of their findings are still mentioned in the modern Catalogue of Cometary Orbits.

Also the Dutch search-table to trace Comet Halley (published in 1755) was among the first of this kind. Even the use of the name Comet Halley in the Netherlands preludes the official international name-giving of the comet. In 1756 a Dutch wine-merchant even produced a study on the problem of planetary perturbations on the comets orbit, which at the time was sent to the French astronomer Clairaut.

The famous transits of Venus in 1761 and 1769 were the second topic of astronomical investigation. As astronomers all over Europe were preparing expeditions for astronomical observations all over the world, the Dutch government was not willing to support similar efforts. Only after the encouragement of French astronomers, it became possible to carry out some small scale observations in Batavia in the Dutch East Indies. The Dutch province of Friesland forms the exception. The Frisian Stadholder inspired the Provincial Government to provide both financial and material support to a local mathematician. So in 1761 Friesland was the only place in the Netherlands where preparations were made and as a result a value for the solar parallax (10.23”) was established independently. Initially, things had looked more favourable. On the occasion of the Mercury transit of 1743, a Dutch booklet was published that dealt extensively with the problem of the solar parallax. Observations were also made, both in 1743 and in 1753. In 1751 support was also given to the French expedition of De la Caille to Dutch territory in South Africa. The newly appointed stadtholder, William IV supported the expedition personally. The prince himself had created in 1748 the honorary position of Stadhouderlijk Astronomus. Efforts were made to establish a network of local Dutch astronomers to cooperate with the French expedition on taking coordinated observations. Nevertheless, their attempts failed. As the 1761 transit was observed in the Dutch Republic from several places, the 1769 transit of Venus could not be observed at all, due to severe weather conditions. Yet one successful observation was made from Batavia in the Dutch East Indies. A local vicar especially built a large and well equipped astronomical observatory. His observations were eventually published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.

So the Dutch “konstgenoten” tried to make real contributions to astronomy. That their efforts were hardly noticed is to be credited to the institutional weakness of Dutch society, with a lack of a strong central government. Nevertheless these amateurs contributed to a climate in which people realized the importance of scientific knowledge. Further a number of important Dutch astronomers of the nineteenth century, who took part in shaping the Dutch scientific landscape, had their roots in these circles of “konstgenoten.” In this way the “konstgenoten” contributed in a sense for giving astronomy in the Netherlands a modern, professional basis.