Astronomical Work Research Articles

Copernicus and the Hypothetico-Deductive Method of Correspondence Thinking

This article is a development of my earlier papers entitled “Copernicus’ corres-pondence thinking” and “Copernicus’ astronomical works — A remarkable case of applying the methodological idea of correspondence” which were delivered at the XIXth International Congress of History of Science (22-29.08.1993, Zaragoza, Spain) and 10th International Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science (19-25.08.1995 Florence, Italy). To avoid misunderstandings at the very beginning of this article, let us explain here, that the term the ‘correspondence thinking’ has for us a special, methodological character that is closely connected, among other things, with the process of framing by theorists the theories which are linked by the correspondence principle. Regarding the linguistic form, the term ‘correspondence thinking" is comprehended by us as equivalent to Feyerabend’s German term “Korrespondenzdenken” that denotes the sort of thinking of Bohr, Kramers and Heisenberg, which was centered on Bohr’s correspondence principle (see Feyerabend [1962a] p. 203, p. 254 fn. 2). However, the term the ‘correspondence thinking’ will be comprehended by us in the broader sense on which we will say more below.

An overview of Michel Breger´s career

and that is impressive! (Although few of us have much idea what it all means.) He was born Michel (as pronounced in German with a guttural “ch”) and still is Michel to his university administration and to the Austrian Academy of Sciences; he is Mike (from his South African and American nick-name) to his many students past and present, and to most of the international astronomical community – this is even occasionally anglicized to Michael; he is even “Mi-shell Brezhair” in France and Quebec! Mike is a man of many names, but for his more than 35 postgraduate students and many others he is also known as “mentor”, and all of us know him as “friend” and “colleague”. I (DWK) was Mike’s first PhD student at the University of Texas over 30 years ago. When I say that today to his current students and postdocs, I get a look of utter disbelief! I can see in their eyes that they are thinking, “But Mike Breger is so young; how could he have supervised an old guy like you?” Well, Mike is 8 years older than I am, although he appears not to age. I can assure you that he does just at a much slower rate than most of the rest of us – and Fig. 1 proves this. Mike went to school in East Germany following the war; Fig. 8 shows him in a school picture at age 8 in 1949. Then in 1952 his family moved to Swakopmund, Namibia (then South West Africa) which at the time was an officially tri-lingual country where there was good German-language schooling. When it came time to go to university, Mike looked to the best university in Africa – the University of Cape Town (UCT) – where he studied mathematics and physics from 1960 − 1964. Fig. 2 shows his graduation picture. Mike was searching for an honour’s project for his final year at UCT, and a friend, Tony Fairall (now professor of astronomy at UCT), made a fateful suggestion. According to Tony: “We were both students in Driekoppen Res, though Mike was about 2 years senior to me. When he expressed an interest in astronomy, I volunteered to take him to the Royal Observatory. I rode on the back of Mike’s Vespa scooter, introduced him to Dick Stoy and David Evans, and the rest is history!” Mike was impressed particularly with Stoy, who was then the director of the observatory. He found, as he puts it, “Dick Stoy put students at the telescope!” And that lesson stuck. Mike Breger throughout his career with the many students he has supervised “puts students at the telescope”. That is still true today at a time when this is becoming harder as astronomers work in ever larger groups and much observing is service observing on large telescopes. During Mike’s honours year at UCT he not only got to observe, but he clearly showed that he likes to write and he likes to publish – four papers in the Monthly Notes of the Astronomical Society of South Africa (MNASSA) appeared in his final undergraduate year:

Giambattista Riccioli e il merito scientifico dei Gesuiti nell'eta Barocca (review)

Reviewed by: Giambattista Riccioli e il merito scientifico dei Gesuiti nell’età Barocca Paul F. Grendler Giambattista Riccioli e il merito scientifico dei Gesuiti nell’età Barocca. Edited by Maria Teresa Borgato. [Istituto e museo di storia della scienza, Biblioteca di “Nuncius”: Studi e Testi XLIV.] (Florence: Leo S. Olschki. 2002. Pp. xviii, 484, and 29 illustrations. €51.00 paperback.) Giambattista Riccioli was born in Ferrara in 1598, entered the Society of Jesus in 1614, was ordained in the winter of 1627-28, and wanted to go to China as a missionary. Denied permission, he spent his life teaching in north Italian Jesuits schools, especially at Bologna. Combining excellent mathematical technique, great skill in designing experiments, and accurate observations, he made important contributions to the study of falling bodies (supporting Galilei), the pendulum, astronomy, geography, and cartography. This book is the result of a conference, probably the first devoted to Riccioli, held at Ferrara and Bondeno on October 15 and 16, 1998. It consists of twelve articles in Italian, and one each in English, French, and Spanish, plus valuable appendices. Although Riccioli is the focus, the volume offers a considerable amount of additional information about Jesuit scientific activity in Italy and the tension between Aristotelian natural philosophy and the new theories of Copernicus and Galilei. In the 1640's, the Jesuits tried to reconcile scientifically the two, but they later became more conservative, partly in order to safeguard religious doctrine. Four articles deal with Riccioli's astronomical works. Ugo Baldini, in a careful and comprehensive article, gives details about the help that Riccioli's younger Jesuit contemporary, Francesco Maria Grimaldi (1618-1663), known for his studies on optics, gave to the preparation of Riccioli's Almagestum novum (1651). Juan Casanovas argues that Riccioli accepted much of the work of Johannes Kepler. Fabrizio Bonoli speculates about the astronomical instruments that Riccioli used and provides some illustrations. Alfredo Dinis argues that Riccioli's views about Copernicus evolved. While he never accepted Copernican heliocentrism as more than a useful mathematical hypothesis, he was more open early in his career, but later feared that denying the literal interpretation of the Bible on astronomical matters might weaken belief in religious doctrine. Jacques Gapaillard analyzes Riccioli's geodesic studies, i.e., plotting the shortest line between two points on a curved surface, again with the collaboration of Grimaldi. Riccioli also taught and wrote about theology. Antonino Poppi analyzes his book on the logical distinctions between God and His creatures, an erudite but traditional work of Second Scholasticism. Cesare Preti uses documents found in the Archives of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to discuss the complicated history of Riccioli's other two theological works, one defending the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary against a Dominican who rejected it, and another defending the infallibility of popes in supporting the doctrine and proclaiming feasts honoring Mary. Opinions in the Congregation of the Index were divided, some arguing that the second book should not be printed because it defended papal infallibility with dubious arguments, and that there was no point to attacking the Dominicans. However, Riccioli went ahead and published the papal infallibility book with an altered permission to print, thus angering the Dominican inquisitor at Bologna. Then the Congregation of the Holy Office ordered the book placed on the Index of Prohibited Books and confiscated most of the copies. This episode confirmed an internal Jesuit evaluation of Riccioli in 1658 as a man of "ingenium optimum" but "iudicium mediocre, prudentia mediocris." [End Page 325] Denise Aricò discusses well the institutions (Jesuit college, university, and academies) which brought together scholars in Bologna. Renato Raffaelli analyzes the manual of Latin prose and poetry that Riccioli published in 1639. Veronica Gavagna analyzes a dialogue on meteorology of Paolo Casati. And Victor Navarro Brotóns discusses the influence of Riccioli's astronomical work in Spain. Three articles deal with Ferrara. Alessandra Fiocca looks at Riccioli's research on controlling the waters of the Po River, a perennial issue in Ferrara, and Giacomo Savioli uncovers the will of Riccioli's father in Ferrara, documenting family affluence. Luigi Pepe, who edited I gesuiti e i loro libri a Ferrara: Frontespizi...

Peiresc and Censorship: The Inquisition and the New Science, 1610-1637

Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc (1580-1637) worked to transform ideas about natural philosophy by communicating information, patronizing research, and demonstrating the utility of scientific investigations. Although he did not achieve the status of contemporaries like Galileo and Kepler, he made significant contributions. He stressed practical applications of telescopic observations, developed a research program, and used persuasive strategies to ensure compliance for astronomical work. He did not want these efforts, some of which held implications for the traditional world view, to be obstructed by the Roman Catholic Church, and he actively involved the Church in projects requiring telescopic observations at the time of Galileo's sentencing. Peiresc fully understood the need to insulate research from the external controls of the Church and state. At the same time he needed the authority and patronage of these groups to carry out many of his investigations.1 Purpose Recent studies2 have suggested that the contributions of Peiresc as an innovator and organizer of science were embellished by his contemporaries and later historians. But even though Peiresc did not publish any scientific works and his investigations often lacked synthesis,3 he left a legacy of correspondence, an estimated 10,000 letters, of which half are extant.4 Approximately 3,200 of these exchanges have been published,5 most of which were sent to Paris and Rome, where correspondents likely had ties with the crown and the Church.6 These individuals kept Peiresc informed of policy and official views toward the New Science of observation and inquiry, and they often helped organize observation stations for work on longitude.7 Peiresc's central position in correspondence networks enabled him to manage a vast information retrieval system. Past research has focused on Peiresc's role in astronomical investigations8 and his ability to patronize scholarship9 and procure information and artifacts.10 The purpose of this study is to examine Peiresc's role in transforming ideas and attitudes about the new astronomy in the context of censorship and the Inquisition. More specifically I will document his development and extension of communication networks to obtain specific astronomical information, his use of persuasive techniques to legitimize telescopic observations to various publics, and his strategies to ensure the involvement of the Catholic Church in these endeavors. Context Prior to the publication of Copernicus' book On Revolutions of Heavenly Orbs in 1543, the texts of the scriptures, Aristotle, Plato, and Ptolemy provided the foundations for the conception of a finite and geocentric world. When Copernicus' lengthy text was circulated in clerical, literary, and university circles, it posed little threat to the traditional world view. The disclaimer in ad lectorem implied that Copernicus described a hypothetical system rather than a true system.11 Things changed, however, with the publication of The Sidereal Messenger (1610), in which Galileo detailed his telescopic observations of the pitted lunar surface, the moons of Jupiter, and the stars of the Milky Way.12 These observations were met with skepticism by some members of the emerging scientific community. Telescopes were rare and difficult to use; there was no optical theory to explain the operation, and lenses were thought to distort, not enhance the senses.13 While astronomers like Kepler accepted Galileo's observations on the basis of his reputation, some Jesuit astronomers still attempted to reconcile data with church dogma.14 In Rome Cardinal Robert Bellarmine asked Jesuit mathematicians to determine if these discoveries were apparent and not real.15 Until empirical proof could be furnished, the Church maintained that the Copernican world view should be classified as a hypothetical system.16 The Injunction of 1616 stated the Church's prohibition of teaching and support of the Copernican opinion in universities and Jesuit schools, and it placed Copernicus' book and a related text on the Index of Prohibited Books pending changes. …

San Agustín, san Gregorio y san Isidoro ante el problema de las estrellas: fundamentos para el rechazo frontal de la astrología

This article studies the thought of those Holy Fathers who most vigorously opposed Astrology (Saint Augustine, Saint Gregory, and Saint Isidore) as the primary source of negative arguments in the medieval Christian debate about the validity of Astrology until the arrival of translations of Arabic astronomical works.

The Optical/Infrared Astronomical Quality of High Atacama Sites. I. Preliminary Results of Optical Seeing

ABSTRACTThe region surrounding the Llano de Chajnantor, a high‐altitude plateau in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, has caught the attention of the astronomical community for its potential as an observatory site. Combining high elevation and extremely low atmospheric water content, the Llano has been chosen as the future site of the Atacama Large Millimeter Array. We have initiated a campaign to investigate the astronomical potential of the region in the optical/infrared. Here we report on an aspect of our campaign aimed at establishing a seeing benchmark to be used as a reference for future activities in the region. After a brief description of the region and its climate, we describe the results of an astronomical seeing campaign, carried out with a Differential Image Motion Monitor that operates at 0.5 μm wavelength. The seeing at the Llano altitude of 5000 m, measured over 7 nights in 1998 May, yielded a median FWHM of 1.″1. However, the seeing decreased to 0.″7 at a modest 100 m gain above the plateau (Cerro Chico), as measured over 38 nights spread between 1998 July and 2000 October. Neither of these represents the best seeing expected in the region; the set of measurements provides a reference base for simultaneous dual runs at Cerro Chico and at other sites of interest in the region, currently underway. A comparison between simultaneous measurements at Cerro Chico and Cerro Paranal indicates that the seeing at Cerro Chico is about 12% better than that at Paranal. The percentage of optically photometric nights in the Chajnantor region is about 60%, while that of nights useful for astronomical work is near 80%.

Little known aspects of the history of Georgian astronomy

The present paper reviews the fundamental achievements of ancient Georgian astronomy and the dynamics of the process by which the Georgian astronomical world view developed in the period from the sixteenth century <sc>BC</sc> to the eighteenth century <sc>AD</sc>. It is during this period that the Georgian astronomical world view both formed and became fully developed. The author of the present paper divides this extended period into three shorter periods: an archaeological period, a transitional period, and a period of systematics. The characteristics of these three periods are cited. The paper also presents various facts and other information that illuminate the life and work of Georgian astronomers as well as the functioning of ancient Georgian astronomical and other scientific institutions. Several Georgian astronomical manuscripts are mentioned and described in brief, and a number of other questions are also discussed.

Dark energy

The discovery that the Universe is speeding up and not slowing down was greeted with open arms by theorists. First, because the dark energy powering the acceleration provided the energy needed to make the Universe flat, in accord with a key prediction of inflation. Second, because theorists now have a new puzzle to solve, the nature of the mysterious dark energy. I have no doubt that the dark energy problem will be just as fundamental and just as interesting as the dark matter problem. Determining its nature will require the work of both astronomers and particle physics and will shed light on both fundamental physics and the fate of the Universe.

Hugh James Rose’s Anglican Critique of Cambridge: Science, Antirationalism, and Coleridgean Idealism in Late Georgian England

On Commencement Sunday in the summer of 1826, Hugh James Rose ascended the pulpit of the University Church at Cambridge to deliver a sermon. As Rose surveyed the assembled crowd, he would have been well aware that before him sat the future of English political, religious, and intellectual life—present and future members of Parliament, the leaders and local prelates of the Church of England, and the next generation of Cambridge scholars. While commencement addresses today are rather formulaic in their celebratory character, the sermon Rose had prepared for that day was far from uplifting. Rose had chosen to preach on Ecclesiastes chapter eleven, verse five: “No man can find out the work, which God maketh, from the beginning to the end.” Using this passage as a decree upon the limits of human knowledge, Rose launched into a blistering attack on the University and the educational philosophy that he believed it espoused. Far from praising the University and its graduates, Rose called into question much of what Cambridge had been doing to educate its students. The essence of Rose’s critique was that the University had lost its way as a religious institution and had become dominated by the search for “knowledge of the material Universe.” Pursuing this end, Rose warned, was a tremendous danger, because in so doing Cambridge was failing to provide a proper moral and religious foundation for those who would guide the nation. Naturally, Rose’s sermon came as a shock to many of those gathered before him, especially since it not only took the University to task but also implicitly seemed to indict some of Rose’s closest friends. His sermon battered one of the girders of Cambridge intellectual and religious life, and of Anglican theology more generally: the notion that natural philosophy was an appropriate handmaiden to religion. The tradition of reasoning up from nature to the Creator had long flourished at Cambridge in the hands of both men of science and theologians. Most at Cambridge took for granted the compatibility between the study of God’s creation and religious faith. For the previous three decades Cambridge had made the works of alumnus William Paley, replete with the ways nature manifested the wisdom and goodness of God, a cornerstone of undergraduate instruction. Ironically, many of Rose’s acquaintances from his own undergraduate days at Cambridge were themselves involved in scientific and mathematical pursuits and were generally sympathetic to Natural Theology. His dearest friend at the University was William Whewell, an intellectual polymath who excelled in mathematics, physics, and mineralogy, as well as moral philosophy, history, and theology. Rose also was a close associate of John Herschel and Charles Babbage, men who were renowned for their astronomical and mathematical work. Himself a fairly accomplished mathematician a decade earlier, Rose even had considered publishing some work to support Herschel and Babbage’s efforts to revitalize Cambridge mathematics during his undergraduate days.

Dictionary of minor planet names

Minor planet astronomy began on 1 January 1801 when the first minor planet was discovered. During the subsequent almost 200 years, approximately 5000 minor planets have been numbered, once their orbits have been accurately computed. The privilege of naming minor planets traditionally belongs to the discoverers. In addition to being of practical value for identification pruposes, minor planet names also provide a most interesting historical insight into the work of astronomers. Until recently, minor planet name citations were scattered in the astronomical literature and the origin of many names remained obscure. IAU Commission 20 in 1988 established a Study Group in order to elucidate the meanings of asteroid names. Under the chairmanship of the author, some 20 scientists took part in the preparation of a names data base. The dictionary comprises the list of all 5000 minor planets, together with information on the discovery circumstances an the corresponding citations. Extensive indexes and cross references facilitate the use. The book will be of interest not only to astronomers who are connected with minor planet work, but also to scientists in other areas of this science, as well as historians and amateur astronomers.

Astronomers fume over night light

Washington Light pollution by the parent company of the specialist science cable channel - Discovery Communications - threatens the work of local astronomers in Washington.

The Welcoming of Copernicus's De revolutionibus: The Commentariolus and its Reception

was published in 1543, the sun-cen tered universe it described was hardly novel. He had announced it some thirty years before in the brief account known as the Commentariolus that had circulated in manuscript over the decades between. This was strictly an astronomical work. To appreciate it and understand how he came by his ideas requires some knowledge of astronomical phenomena and of the geometrical models that Ptolemy used and Copernicus remodelled to account for them. Those models are sketched here in detail, as well as the plausible path by which he was led to remodel the universe.

Women in the History of Astronomy

We think about the History of Astronomy as the History of men. As the History of a few men: Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler, Newton,...- men who have changed our way of looking at the sky. But the History of Astronomy is more than that, it is the History of thousand of people whose daily work has allowed the development of knowledge and scientific theories at the time they lived. This, sometimes, "tedious work" permitted the big steps. Many of these people were women, as Theano who married Pythagoras and taught mathematics and astronomy in his school, Hypatia who managed the Library of Alexandria and wrote several astronomical treatises, Hildegard of Bingen who developed a theory on the origin and structure of the Universe in the 12th century, or Sofie Brahe who, worked with her famous brother. And so many privileged women who after a long process of study, were able to develop their scientific interests in spite of been excluded from most of the educational installations and formal and informal groups of men scientist. Most of the works done by these women have been ignored, or wrongly attributed to men throughout History. It often happens that although they have been recognized as good scientists in their own times, women have been discredited by posterior historians who refused to believe that important women scientist ever existed. Here we intend to make a short summary on the lives of some of these women and their astronomical works.

A New Museum of Astronomy in Korea

The construction of a new museum of astronomy is planned by the present author in Yecheon Prefecture (λ = 128°28’ E, (ϕ&gt; = 36°39’ N), Korea, with the openning date set in October, 1999. The aims of the museum directed in three area: (1) to exhibit astronomical works available in Korea, China, Japan and other regions of the Far East; (2) to serve the publics with written material for the study of history of Oriental astronomy; and (3) to operate a 40-cm reflecting telescope for researches of both professionals and amateur astronomers. A long-term project of the reconstruction of King Sejong’s instruments, which were made in the 15th century in the Kyongbok Palace, Seoul, is also an important subject of this museum.

Introduction

Over the last few decades phenomena involving high energy particles (mostly electrons) and/or photons have become increasingly part of the astronomical work. Opening new spectral windows has revealed many phenomena that have deeply changed our perception of the Universe. High energy astrophysics, as this field of astronomy is known, is now very well integrated in the astronomical research. This is shown by the fact that the high energy astrophysics results are published in the leading astronomy and astrophysics journals of the world rather than anywhere else. Nonetheless, this still young field has not yet quite found its way in the structure and working of the IAU.

Islamic Astronomy in China: Two New Sources for the Huihui Li (“Islamic Calendar”)

In this talk we will discuss some aspects of the exchange of astronomical knowledge that took place between the Muslim world and China in the thirteenth and fourteenth century. In that period both the eastern part of the Muslim world, consisting of Persia and surrounding countries, and China, ruled by the Yuan Dynasty, were part of the Mongol world empire. In particular in the period between 1260 and 1280, astronomers as well as astronomical books and instruments were exchanged between Persia and China. As a result, extensive descriptions of a Chinese luni-solar calendar can be found in Arabic and Persian astronomical works from the Mongol period, whereas a Chinese text entitled Huihui Li (“Islamic Calendar”) can be seen to be a translation of a typical Islamic astronomical handbook with tables and explanatory text, in Arabic and Persian called zīj. Islamic astronomy had a good name in China because of its accurate prediction of eclipses, and the Huihui li was used parallel with the official Chinese calendar for almost 300 years.

Levi ben Gerson's Astronomical Work: Chronology and Christian Context

The ArgumentLevi ben Gerson, also known as Gersonides or Leo de Balneolis, was one of the most original Jewish thinkers of the Middle Ages, and he wrote on logic, philosophy, biblical exegesis, mathematics, and astronomy. During the last years of his life he maintained relations with the papal court of Clement VI (1342–52) at Avignon, and collaborated in the translation into Latin of his Sefer Tekhuna (Book of Astronomy). The object of this paper is to establish the main stages of the redaction of the Hebrew and Latin extant versions of his astronomical work. Although Levi declares that the work was finished in 1328,1 argue that this text was the preliminary draft of the preserved one, most of which was composed after 1338. A thorough revision of the work was undertaken at an indeterminate date before 1344. It is also argued that the final form of the work was probably due to the request of solar and lunar tables made to Levi by “great and noble Christians” around 1332.

Astronomy and Astrology in the Works of Abraham ibn Ezra

Abraham ibn Ezra the Spaniard (d. 1167) was one of the foremost transmitters of Arabic science to the West. His astrological and astronomical works, written in Hebrew and later translated into Latin, were considered authoritative by many medieval Jewish and Christian scholars. Some of the works he translated from Arabic are no longer extant in their original form, and on occasion his treatises provide information about earlier sources that is otherwise poorly preserved, if at all. Ibn Ezra seems to be the earliest scholar to record one of the seven methods for setting up the astrological houses, and this method was subsequently used by Levi ben Gerson (d. 1344) in southern France.

Electronic publishing at the American Astronomical society

Electronic communication is changing the way astronomers work and how they communicate. By forming teams of people with a wide variety of expertise, taking small steps, being flexible and soliciting the opinion of users, the American Astronomical Society has been successful in several electronic publishing projects. Experience has shown that electronic publishing entails as much effort as the paper counterpart, but that many benefits accrue to the user. Only by remaining open to new ideas and incorporating new tools as they become available will the true benefits of the connectivity provided by the World Wide Web be brought to the community.

A new configuration for spectral survey telescope

In this configuration the main mirror is made up of a number of elemental component mirrors. It is 12.4 metres long in the east-west direction and 4 metres wide. It can rotate about the east-west axis. Optical fibre is used to make multi-object spectral observation, each object using the light from a 4-metre diameter area of the main mirror. Because we adopted a large focal ratio of 4, the corrector needed for each fibre has a diameter of only 20 mm, so a vast number of correctors and fibres can be installed in the focal plane. The observing room is fixed, with a semicircular shutter in the meridian plane, along which a tracking frame can move. During observation, four 1 m × 1 m plates equipped with optical fibres mounted on four carriages track the stars by means of the tracking frame. The tracking lasts one hour or more and about 2400 objects are simultaneously observed. Such a telescope, when completed, will be the most powerful telescope in the world for spectral survey work, yet the cost of the telescope itself will only be about 25 Million Chinese Yuan. With some modification this configuration can also be used in general astronomical work, including high resolution work.