The General History of Astronomy

by Edited by Owen Gingerich

• ISBN13: 9780521135429
• ISBN10: 0521135427
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-03-04
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Volume 4 of The General History of Astronomy, originally published in 1984, concerns the birth of modern astrophysics in the nineteenth century, the growth of astronomical institutions to around 1920, and the development of instrumentation. The volume commences in the 1850s, with the first astronomical applications of photography and spectral analysis. It closes in the 1950s, before the explosive growth made possible by new electronic devices and computers. In Part A, there are eleven chapters, written by an international panel of eighteen authors, on subjects such as observatories, large telescopes, astronomy in the southern hemisphere, and early radio astronomy. Intended for general readership, this book formed part of an in-depth synthesis of the development of astronomy from the earliest times.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgements

The Birth of Astrophysics and Other Late Nineteenth-Century Trends (c.1850-c.1920)

The origins of astrophysics

The impact of photography on astronomy

Telescope building, 1850-1900

The new astronomy

Variable stars

Stellar evolution and the origin of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram

Observatories and Instrumentation

Astronomical institutions. Introduction Owen Gingerich, Greenwich Observatory

Building large telescopes, 1900-1950

Astronomical institutions in the southern hemisphere, 1850-1950

Twentieth-century instrumentation Charles Fehrenbach, with a section on 'Early rockets in astronomy'

Early radio astronomy Woodruff T. Sullivan III

Appendix: The world's largest telescopes, 1850-1950

Illustrations: acknowledgements and sources

Index

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