Dunsink Observatory Research Articles

Planetary Parallax: Ulysses, the Stars, and South Africa

Planetary Parallax: Ulysses, the Stars, and South Africa Cóilín Parsons (bio) Leopold Bloom is worried. What if Blazes Boylan has contracted a sexually transmitted disease? What if he gives it to Molly? The thought is shocking, and he tries to shake it off: “Think no more about that.”1 In an effort to distract himself, he raises his “troubled eyes,” and sees the timeball on the Ballast Office (Ulysses, 126). “After one. Timeball on the ballastoffice is down. Dunsink time. Fascinating little book that is of sir Robert Ball’s. Parallax. I never exactly understood. There’s a priest. Could ask him. Par it’s Greek: parallel, parallax” (126). This is a fittingly inauspicious entry into the novel of one of its most evocative words—“parallax” slips in on the back of an STD, serves as a nervous distraction from the main issue at hand, and is only imperfectly understood by Bloom. Indeed, how the timeball would make Bloom think of parallax is not clear, unless the reader happens to know that Sir Robert Ball was Astronomer Royal of Ireland, based at Dunsink Observatory (the site that determined when the ball would drop), from 1874 to 1892. Even then the connection is tenuous, for Bloom remembers later that the ball “falls at Greenwich time. It’s the clock is worked by an electric wire from Dunsink” (137). As Greenwich time was twenty-five minutes ahead of Dunsink time in 1904, Bloom’s original calculation of the time may have been wrong, for the ball would have fallen at 12:35 pm.2 He admits defeat shortly afterwards, agreeing that he will “Never know anything about it. Waste of time. Gasballs spinning about, crossing each other, passing. Same old dingdong always. Gas: then solid: then world: then cold: then dead shell drifting around, frozen rock” (Ulysses, 137). “Gas” is a word he has used before in “Lestrygonians,” but [End Page 67] in the sense of blowing off, making meaningless noise or chatter, and indeed “gas” is essentially what all of this is to Bloom (132, 134). This confusion over basic questions of astronomy is explained much later, when we learn that Bloom believes that “his tendency was towards applied, rather than towards pure, science” (559). For now, though, he continues to try to muddle his way through parallax, and thinks that perhaps he should go to the Dunsink Observatory and ask for clarification from Professor Joly, the Astronomer Royal in 1904. But he is worried that he will be kicked out if he approaches the subject too directly and in the process betrays his ignorance of the basic principles of astronomy (137) (fig. 1). Bloom’s ignorance does not signal a similar ignorance in Ulysses, which is replete with astronomical knowledge and references of all kinds. The novel is obsessed with the stars—just as much as Bloom is, but with more access to scientific knowledge—and its greatest obsession is with parallax. As many scholars of Joyce have argued, there is good reason for this, as parallax is a basic principle for understanding Ulysses’s delayed and refracted decodings. Yet it also appears in the novel, I will argue, in its original guise, as a technique for the measurement of the distance of the stars and planets, those “gasballs spinning about” that confuse Bloom so much.3 In this article I want to expand the scale of inquiry into astronomical allusions in Ulysses, insisting that they function not simply as a guide to reading practices, nor as a metaphor for structure or character relations, but also as a marker for the overlooked planetary ambitions of the novel and its gesture towards the larger geographical context in which it operates. In recent decades, Joyce’s work has largely been claimed by Irish studies, thanks to a much needed corrective to his earlier reception as either unproblematically British or a deracinated international modernist. The move has been revolutionary not just for Joyce studies but also for modernist studies, as it has allowed scholars to engage more fully with Joyce’s interest in history—in short, to make Joyce political. But it has also had the effect of understating Joyce’s...

William Rowan Hamilton and William Wordsworth: the Poetry of Science

DANIEL BROWN William Rowan Hamilton and William Wordsworth: the Poetry ofScience i L ooking back to his youth, william rowan Hamilton wrote in 1847 to his friend and fellow astronomer, mathematician, and poetJohn Herschel that “it would really seem to have been at one time a toss-up, whether I should turn out a rhymer or an analyst [i.e., a mathematician].”1 Hamilton elaborates upon his twin propensities for poetry and science in the early part ofhis poem “The Enthusiast,” which he wrote in 1826 when he was twenty-one. Describing his unrequited love for Catherine Disney, a young woman he had met through the novelist Maria Edgeworth and her family in August 1824, Hamilton quarantines the meditative autobiograph­ ical preoccupations ofhis opening lines from confessional intimacy by cast­ ing them in the third-person: He was a young Enthusiast. He would gaze For hours upon the face of the night-heaven, To watch the silent stars, or the bright moon Moving in her unearthly loveliness; And dream of worlds of bliss for pure souls hid In their far orbs. At other times he loved To listen to the mountain torrents roar, To look on Nature in her many forms, And sympathise with all: to hold sweet converse In secret with the genius of the stream, The fountain or the forest, and to pour His rapture forth in some fond gush of song; For the bright gift of Poetry was his; 1. Robert Perceval Graves, Life of William Rowan Hamilton, 3 vols. (Dublin: Hodges, Figgis, 1885), 2:591. Hereafter cited in the text as Graves, followed by volume and page. SiR, 51 (Winter 2012) 475 476 DANIEL BROWN And in lone walks and sweetly pensive musings He would create new worlds and people them With fond hearts and sweet sounds and sights of Beauty. He had been gifted, too, with sterner powers. Even while a child he laid his daring hand On Science’ golden key; and ere the tastes Or sports of boyhood yet had passed away Oft would he hold communion with the mind Of Newton, and with awed enthusiasm learn The Eternal Laws which bind the Universe, And which the stars obey. (Graves 1:183) The year after he wrote “The Enthusiast,” while still an undergraduate, Hamilton was made the Andrews Professor of Astronomy at Trinity Col­ lege, Dublin, a position that included with it the title of Astronomer Royal for Ireland and the directorship of the Dunsink Observatory, where he would live. There is, however, little evidence of such a precocious profes­ sional capacity for astronomy in the opening lines of his poem, where the persona’s gaze somewhat solipsistically meets “the face of the nightheaven ,” and its “far orbs” are seen to accommodate mythic or oneiric possibilities. Terrestrial nature is similarly anthropomorphized: in “con­ verse” with a “genius of the stream” or “[t]he fountain,” the speaker an­ swers them in poetry and indeed in kind, with hydrodynamic force, “pour[ing] / His rapture forth in some fond gush of song.” This “bright gift of poetry,” inspired here by the experience of wild nature and “lone walks and sweetly pensive musings,” is matched by another gift, the “sterner powers” of science that are identified with a precocious Prome­ thean daring and a “communion with the mind / Of Newton,” the genius of scientific reason who furnishes a counterpart to the poetic, pantheistic, “genius of the stream.” The earlier description of the night sky as accom­ modating the poet’s reverie, allowing him to “dream of worlds of bliss for pure souls hid / In their far orbs,” is at the end of the extract comple­ mented by a scientific apprehension of it, bound by “Eternal Laws.” Hamilton’s science finds its place in “The Enthusiast” amongst a cata­ logue of romantic stances, which are in turn presented in the third person, as phenomena to be considered with a measure of scientific detachment. Such early poems display his enthusiasm for poetry and science as comple­ mentary modes of appreciating the richness of phenomena and the inter­ pretations they can accommodate. This is most clearly demonstrated in his favorite early poem, “Ode to the Moon under Total Eclipse” (1823), which...

Discovery in 1960 of the Flare Nimbus Phenomenon and Changes with Time in Its Interpretation

During the International Geophysical Year (IGY, 1957/1958) Dunsink Observatory near Dublin in Ireland was a World Data Centre for Solar Activity. In this circumstance, Hα Lyot Heliograph records secured on a daily basis between 07:00 – 14:00 UT at the Cape of Good Hope (then an integral link in a network of similar instruments contributing during the IGY to global monitoring of solar chromospheric activity) were routinely sent to Dunsink for analysis and dissemination. The investigations carried out at Dunsink on these data resulted, inter alia, in the discovery of the Flare Nimbus phenomenon. The nimbus comprises a dark expanding halo seen in the plage regions around major flares at, or within a few minutes of, the time of flare maximum intensity in Hα light. It reaches its greatest extent about 30 minutes after flare maximum. Its maximum dimensions (estimated visually) lie in the range 2 – 4×105 km and its duration ranges from ∼ 1 – 2 hours. Within the nimbus the striation pattern is either completely destroyed or loses its pre-flare configuration. An account of this phenomenon and its interpretation appeared primarily, although not exclusively, in the locally produced Dunsink Observatory Publications which are not now easily accessible to the world community of solar researchers. Also, at around the time when the nimbus was first identified and recorded in Lyot Heliograph data at several observatories, techniques in solar physics shifted towards high resolution narrow field observations. Under these conditions no further examples of the nimbus were recorded and the subject has remained dormant over several decades. The present paper again places the scientific results obtained with regard to the nimbus in the public domain, together with an account of the evolution within the scientific community of an explanation of this phenomenon. It is suggested here for the first time, in the light of present day data concerning coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and coronal dimming, that the nimbus provides a signature of CME-related reorganization of the magnetic field in the chromosphere (such that the transverse magnetic field component decreases and transforms into the line of sight component as the vector field stretches out). Coronal dimming provides a complementary signature of CME-related mass depletion in the corona.

An infuriating geniusAnita McConnell, Jesse Ramsden (1735–1800): London's leading scientific instrument maker . Ashgate Publishing Limited, Aldershot, 2007. pp. 340, £60.00 (hardback). ISBN 978-0-7546-6136-8.

Anita McConnell, Jesse Ramsden (1735–1800): London's leading scientific instrument maker . Ashgate Publishing Limited, Aldershot, 2007. pp. 340, £60.00 (hardback). ISBN 978-0-7546-6136-8. Scientific instrument makers are rarely afforded the limelight by historians. Yet, as Martin Rees's foreword

SIR ROBERT STAWELL BALL (1840-1913): ROYAL ASTRONOMER IN IRELAND AND ASTRONOMY'S PUBLIC VOICE

Nineteenth-century Ireland, and especially Dublin, had a vibrant scientific tradition. And astronomy in particular was seriously cultivated, being part of an Irish tradition extending back to early medieval times. This paper examines principally the career of Sir Robert Stawell Ball, who, while holding three prestigious posts in Ireland, namely those of Andrews Professor at Trinity College, Dublin, Royal Astronomer of Ireland, and Director of the Dunsink Observatory, became famous for his genius as a popular astronomical interpreter, lecturer, and writer. The paper looks at Ball's wider career, the circumstances that provided a receptive market for astronomical information across the English-speaking world, and his massive outreach as both a lecturer and a writer.

Wordsworth and the Ordnance Survey in Ireland: "Dreaming O'er the Map of Things"

Previous articleNext article No AccessWordsworth and the Ordnance Survey in Ireland: "Dreaming O'er the Map of Things"Rachel HewittRachel Hewitt Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Wordsworth Circle Volume 37, Number 2Spring 2006 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/TWC24044134 Views: 1Total views on this site © 2006 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Irish Observatory to Close

Astronomers worldwide are protesting a plan to shutter Ireland's only astronomical observatory, which has operated for 220 years. Dunsink Observatory, in the Dublin suburb of Castleknock, houses a historic 30-centimeter telescope and conducts research on topics such as high-energy astrophysics. Last summer, however, the board of the School of Cosmic Physics of the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies, which runs Dunsink, decided to close it by the end of the year (a date since pushed back, probably to spring 2005). Although its staff of 10 will be moved to a new building in Dublin, scientists worry that the government will reduce funding for astronomy once this national symbol is gone. Astronomers want Ireland's Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin, to persuade the publicly funded institute to reconsider its decision and to consult with staff on the future of the observatory. “Dunsink might be used for outreach purposes, but without our involvement, it probably won't happen in the best possible way,” says observatory director Evert J. A. Meurs. Meanwhile, 440 astronomers from around the world have signed an online petition to save the observatory ([www.petitiononline.com/save_obs][1]) and planned to present it to Hanafin this week. [1]: http://www.petitiononline.com/save_obs

Frequency of X‐ray transients in galactic nuclei

Astronomische NachrichtenVolume 324, Issue 1-2 p. 140-140 Original Paper Frequency of X-ray transients in galactic nuclei J. Cunniffe, J. Cunniffe jc@dunsink.dias.ie Search for more papers by this authorE.J.A. Meurs, E.J.A. Meurs Dunsink Observatory, Castleknock, Dublin 15, IrelandSearch for more papers by this author J. Cunniffe, J. Cunniffe jc@dunsink.dias.ie Search for more papers by this authorE.J.A. Meurs, E.J.A. Meurs Dunsink Observatory, Castleknock, Dublin 15, IrelandSearch for more papers by this author First published: 14 February 2003 https://doi.org/10.1002/asna.200310039AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume324, Issue1-2February 2003Pages 140-140 RelatedInformation

Horizon and the question whether galaxies receding faster than light are observable : T. Kiang Dunsink Observatory, Dublin 15, Ireland

Horizon and the question whether galaxies receding faster than light are observable : T. Kiang Dunsink Observatory, Dublin 15, Ireland

Period Changes in Magellanic Cloud Cepheids

It has been found possible to obtain information on period change in data on 115 cepheid variable stars in the Magellanic Clouds (84 LMC cepheids and 31 SMC cepheids). Harvard Observatory data of the period 1910 to 1950 (collated by Payne-Gaposchkin and Gaposchkin) are combined with Dunsink Observatory observations carried out by C.J. Butler in 1966/67 and with South African Astronomical Observatory observations covering the years 1975–1977 by Martin, Thomas, Carter and Davies to derive mean periods for the intervals between the various data sets. Using these new periods in conjunction with the very accurate Harvard periods, seperate estimates of the time averaged fractional change of period per day, d/dt (ln P), with corresponding estimated errors, could be evaluated for two epochs, one around 1950 and the other around 1971. It was found that 70 stars give rates of change of period that are not significantly different from zero, that 20 stars have two values of rate of change of period that are in agreement at the two epochs (indicative of secular period change), while 22 stars give two disparate values of rate of change of period (indicative of irregular period changes).

Photometry of Long Period Variables in the Magellanic Clouds

A photographic survey of variable stars in the Magellanic Clouds is currently in progress at Dunsink Observatory, using photographic material obtained with the ADH telescope. In the course of this investigation a number of Long Period Variables have been measured, most of which lie in the LMC. Several are previously known Harvard Variables (prefixed HV) but some are new discoveries (prefixed DV). The co-ordinates of the new Long Period Variables are listed in Table I.

Effect of Intermittent Operation of Flare Patrols on Observed Flare Frequency.

view Abstract Citations (1) References Co-Reads Similar Papers Volume Content Graphics Metrics Export Citation NASA/ADS Effect of Intermittent Operation of Flare Patrols on Observed Flare Frequency. Acton, Loren Abstract It is not required that an observing station observe a solar flare throughout its entire lifetime in order to report the flare. For this reason it is necessary to consider the breaks in observing time as well as the actual observing time when calculating flare frequency. This consideration has been neglected in most earlier studies involving the occurrence frequency of solar flares. We used the following method, similar to that of Svestka (Bull. Astron. Inst. Czech. 7, 9-18, 1954), in calculating the "effective observing time" (E.O.T.) for flares of each importance for each observing station. E O T =A O T $Zt tB + t0N, where A.O.T. actual observing time; Bj number of breaks in observing of duration tj t0 N total number of breaks with duration t#t0 t0 mean lifetime of flares of a given importance. After analyzing some 300 flares, each reported by two or more observing stations, we adopted the mean flare lifetimes given in Table I. The percentage changes in observing times range from a low of 4% for 1-flares observed at Capetown to a high of 243 % for 3+ flares observed at the Dunsink Observatory. The mean value for importance 2 flares is about 60%. The application of these corrections yields significant changes in calculations involving the fre- TABLE I. Mean flare lifetime as a function of importance. Imp 1- 1 1+ 2- 2 2+ 3- 3 3+ to (min) to 20 35 50 60 65 70 75 80 quency of occurrence of solar flares. Two examples of such changes are: (1) The shape of the curve of flare frequency vs flare importance is changed, the percentage decrease in flares per hour being larger for the larger flares. (2) The disparity of reported flares per hour between different observing stations (Dodson and Hedeman, J. Ceophys. Research 65, 123, 1960) is considerably lessened when one considers the number of flares per "effective" observing hour rather than the number of flares per actual observing hour. % for 1-flares observed at Capetown to a high of 243 % for 3+ flares observed at the Dunsink Observatory. The mean value for importance 2 flares is about 60%. The application of these corrections yields significant changes in calculations involving the fre- TABLE I. Mean flare lifetime as a function of importance. Imp 1- 1 1+ 2- 2 2+ 3- 3 3+ to (min) to 20 35 50 60 65 70 75 80 quency of occurrence of solar flares. Two examples of such changes are: (1) The shape of the curve of flare frequency vs flare importance is changed, the percentage decrease in flares per hour being larger for the larger flares. (2) The disparity of reported flares per hour between different observing stations (Dodson and Hedeman, J. Ceophys. Research 65, 123, 1960) is considerably lessened when one considers the number of flares per "effective" observing hour rather than the number of flares per actual observing hour. % for 1-flares observed at Capetown to a high of 243 % for 3+ flares observed at the Dunsink Observatory. The mean value for importance 2 flares is about 60%. The application of these corrections yields significant changes in calculations involving the fre- TABLE I. Mean flare lifetime as a function of importance. Imp 1- 1 1+ 2- 2 2+ 3- 3 3+ to (min) to 20 35 50 60 65 70 75 80 quency of occurrence of solar flares. Two examples of such changes are: (1) The shape of the curve of flare frequency vs flare importance is changed, the percentage decrease in flares per hour being larger for the larger flares. (2) The disparity of reported flares per hour between different observing stations (Dodson and Hedeman, J. Ceophys. Research 65, 123, 1960) is considerably lessened when one considers the number of flares per "effective" observing hour rather than the number of flares per actual observing hour. Publication: The Astronomical Journal Pub Date: 1962 DOI: 10.1086/108623 Bibcode: 1962AJ.....67Q.109A full text sources ADS |

Report of proceedings of Dunsink Observatory

Report of proceedings of Dunsink Observatory

Directorship of Dunsink Observatory: Dr. M. A. Ellison

Directorship of Dunsink Observatory: Dr. M. A. Ellison

Dunsink Observatory: Work during 1950

Dunsink Observatory: Work during 1950

Photo-electric Observations of the Scintillation of Stars

IN a recent article on the “Scattering of Electromagnetic Waves by Atmospheric Turbulence”1, Dr. E. C. S. Megaw points out that a study of the scintillation of stars is also a study of the average properties of turbulence in the atmosphere. He reviews the rather scanty observational data that are available on the subject. It is in this connexion that some records of stellar scintillation, that have been made recently with a photo-cell at Dunsink Observatory, and which extend the observed upper frequency-limit of the light fluctuations to about 500 cycles a second, may be of interest.

AN ARMAGH-DUNSINK-HARVARD TELESCOPE

PLANS for the setting up of a Baker-Schmidt telescope on the site of the Boyden Station of the Harvard Observatory, Bloemfontein, South Africa, are now complete. It will be the first instrument of its kind in the world, and will also be a noteworthy example of inter-country international co-operation. The instrument will be operated jointly by the Armagh Observatory, Northern Ireland ; the Dun-sink Observatory, Dublin, Eire ; and the Harvard Observatory, Cambridge, U.S.A. It will be known as the Armagh-Dunsink-Harvard Telescope. The Governments of Northern Ireland and of Eire have each promised to contribute £5,000 towards the cost of the new instrument, and Harvard Observatory will provide the rest of the funds. Harvard will also provide appropriate caretaking and maintenance service, the necessary power and light for the proper operation of the instrument, and access to library and dark-rooms for all observers. The observing time with the instrument will, however, be shared equally by all three Observatories.

On the latitude problem with three relative altitudes

Astronomische NachrichtenVolume 192, Issue 16 p. 273-274 Miscellaneous On the latitude problem with three relative altitudes H. C. Plummer, H. C. Plummer Dunsink Observatory, CastleknockSearch for more papers by this author H. C. Plummer, H. C. Plummer Dunsink Observatory, CastleknockSearch for more papers by this author First published: 1912 https://doi.org/10.1002/asna.19121921605AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume192, Issue161912Pages 273-274 RelatedInformation

Additional note on the corrections for refraction to measures of stellar photographs

Astronomische NachrichtenVolume 136, Issue 15 p. 245-248 Miscellaneous Additional note on the corrections for refraction to measures of stellar photographs Arthur A. Rambaut, Arthur A. Rambaut Dunsink Observatory, DublinSearch for more papers by this author Arthur A. Rambaut, Arthur A. Rambaut Dunsink Observatory, DublinSearch for more papers by this author First published: 1894 https://doi.org/10.1002/asna.18941361504AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume136, Issue151894Pages 245-248 RelatedInformation

Note concerning the Meridian Observations of Victoria‐Stars 1889

Astronomische NachrichtenVolume 122, Issue 3 p. 45-46 Article Note concerning the Meridian Observations of Victoria-Stars 1889 Arthur A. Rambaut, Arthur A. Rambaut Assistant Astronomer Dunsink Observatory, Co. DublinSearch for more papers by this author Arthur A. Rambaut, Arthur A. Rambaut Assistant Astronomer Dunsink Observatory, Co. DublinSearch for more papers by this author First published: 1889 https://doi.org/10.1002/asna.18891220309AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume122, Issue31889Pages 45-46 RelatedInformation