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Electronic newsletter for the history of astronomy 52
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* *
* ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER FOR THE HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY *
* *
* Published by the Working Group for the History of Astronomy *
* in the Astronomische Gesellschaft *
* *
* Number 52, November 15, 2003 *
* *
* Edited by: Wolfgang R. Dick and Hilmar W. Duerbeck *
* *
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Contents
--------
1. Paul Bunge Prize 2002 awarded to Paolo Brenni
2. Einstein Archives available online
3. Andrew S. Cook: The Great Arc: Exhibition of Mapping of India
4. Commemorating the 375th birthday of Christiaan Huygens
5. IAU Colloquium "Transits of Venus"
6. 7th Oxford conference on archeoastronomy
Acknowledgement
Imprint
...........................................................................
Item 1 ENHA No. 52, Nov. 15, 2003
...........................................................................
Paul Bunge Prize 2002 awarded to Paolo Brenni
---------------------------------------------
Dr. Paolo Brenni of the University of Florence was awarded the Paul Bunge
Prize of the Hans R. Jenemann Foundation on May 10th in Potsdam on the
occasion of the General Assembly of the German Bunsen Society for Physical
Chemistry. This prize for exceptional research on the history of scientific
instruments is co-sponsored by the German Chemical Society (GDCh) and the
German Bunsen Society. This year was the 10th time this award has been
conferred.
The instrument historian Brenni is famous worldwide for his numerous works
and publications in the field of the restoration and preservation of
scientific instruments. Like no one other, he knows the historical
instrument collections of Europe and has taken care that these are properly
and historically researched and preserved for posterity. Exemplary of this
are his published catalogues, e.g. about the Museum for Science History in
Florence or the Instituto Tecnico Toscano. His more than 90 publications
cover the entire spectrum of scientific instruments, including especially
also astronomical instruments.
Brenni is moreover active in the preservation and restoration of anitique
scientific instruments that requires knowledge of chemistry and metallurgy.
He has published articles on this and has also organized symposia and
continuing education programs regarding this.
Finally, Brenni was decisively involved in coordinating the computer
networking of the heterogeneous and scattered community of scientists,
restorators, museum curators, collectors and antique dealers: the E-mail
list "Rete" is particularly concerned with the history of scientific
instruments.
Brenni was born in 1954 in Mendrisio, Switzerland. He studied physics at
the University of Zuerich and completed his doctorate in 1981 in the field
of NMR spectroscopy. Afterwards he directed his energies to the area of
instrument history. His career has led him from Padua to Florence and on to
Paris where he is currently working, insofar as other historical instrument
collections do not demand his expertise elsewhere. In the past year, Brenni
was a guest professor in Ghent, Belgium. Since 1999, he has been the
vice-president of the International Scientific Instruments Commission.
[Source: GDCh - Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker, Press Release 06a/02,
May 22, 2002, http://www.gdch.de/pubrelat/wpd06a02.htm]
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Item 2 ENHA No. 52, Nov. 15, 2003
...........................................................................
Einstein Archives available online
----------------------------------
(From: "Elektronische Mitteilungen zur Astronomiegeschichte" Nr. 64,
9. Nov. 2003, Item 5.)
More than 900 scientific and nonscientific documents of one of the most
influential intellects in the modern era, Albert Einstein, are available
online for the first time.
The Einstein Archives Online website, at
http://www.alberteinstein.info
will also be accompanied by an extensive database of archival information.
It was launched on May 19 during a daylong symposium on his life and work,
to be held at the American Museum of Natural History in New York (see:
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/einstein/)
The new website is the result of an ambitious cooperative effort between
the Albert Einstein Archives at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the
Einstein Papers Project at the California Institute of Technology. It
enables access to some 3,000 high-quality digitized images. Thirty-nine
documents are also provided (in PDF format) as they appear in The Collected
Papers of Albert Einstein, published in German by Princeton University
Press, with historical and scientific annotations in English; some of the
documents are accompanied by English translations.
An extensive archival database and finding aid allows for the direct
searching and browsing of more than 40,000 records of Einstein and
Einstein-related documents. These concern his scientific and nonscientific
writings, his professional and personal correspondence, notebooks, travel
diaries, personal documents, and third-party items.
The website was developed in collaboration with the Information Technology
and Photo-Reprography Departments of the Hebrew University's Jewish
National & University Library (JNUL), the David and Fela Shapell
Digitization Project at the JNUL, and with Princeton University Press. The
archival database presents records for all items that have been edited and
annotated by scholars, and that have appeared since 1987 in The Collected
Papers. These include some 500 items that were not part of the original
collection, but that were uncovered during the past 25 years. The eight
volumes that are available so far contain Einstein's writings and
correspondence from his youth to age 40. They include his major papers on
the theory of special relativity, general relativity, the quantum theory of
light and matter, as well as a wealth of lesser-known contributions to many
aspects of science, education, international reconciliation, Zionism, and
pacifism.
Einstein's personal papers were bequeathed to the Hebrew University in his
last will and testament of 1950. The Albert Einstein Archives has been
housed at the Hebrew University's JNUL since 1982.
The Einstein Papers Project at Caltech is a multidisciplinary research and
editorial team engaged in the collection, selection, and scholarly
annotation of The Collected Papers, an edition of 25 planned volumes of
Einstein's writings and correspondence.
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem was envisaged by its founders as a
"university of the Jewish people." Its foundation stone was laid in 1918,
and its doors opened in 1925. Today, its student body totals around 23,000
and its tenured academic faculty numbers 1,200. The university is Israel's
leading academic center for research and postgraduate study.
Founded in 1891, Caltech has an enrollment of some 2,000 students, and a
faculty of about 280 professorial members, 65 research members, and some
560 postdoctoral scholars. Over the years, 30 Nobel Prizes and four
Crafoord Prizes have been awarded to faculty members and alumni.
The Jewish National & University Library is the central library of the
Hebrew University and the national library of the Jewish people and the
State of Israel. Founded in 1892 as a world center for the preservation of
books relating to Jewish thought and culture, it assumed the additional
functions of a general university library in 1920.
[Source: Caltech News Release, May 14, 2003. Contact: Mark Wheeler,
(626) 395-8733, wheel@caltech.edu]
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Item 3 ENHA No. 52, Nov. 15, 2003
...........................................................................
The Great Arc: Exhibition of Mapping of India
---------------------------------------------
By Andrew S. Cook, London, UK
(From: "Elektronische Mitteilungen zur Astronomiegeschichte" Nr. 64,
9. Nov. 2003, Item 8.)
The Government of India travelling exhibition on the bicentenary of William
Lambton and the start of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India has
opened in Cambridge, at the first of five locations in the UK this year. It
provides a unique opportunity to see historic instruments and archives from
the Survey of India Museum collections in Dehra Dun (including Ramsden's
Great Theodolite, last seen in Britain at the Science Museum Festival of
India exhibition in 1981). Visit www.thegreatarc.net for more information,
including the text of the GBP 5 book accompanying the exhibition. The
exhibition runs 15-23 July in a marquee on Jesus Green, Cambridge
(connecting with the quadrennial international Cambridge Conference of
surveyors), 5-24 August in Edinburgh, 4-20 September in Birmingham,
1 October-12 November in London, and 26 November-15 January 2004 in
Manchester. Though the mounting of the exhibition was devolved to Teamwork
Productions India, the Survey of India apparently intends to have an
official present at the exhibition sites, currently Charanjit Mamik, senior
librarian from Survey of India Geodetic and Research Branch, Dehra Dun, in
Cambridge. The exhibit is the centrepiece of the Festival of the Great Arc,
with performances of Indian dance and music in Britain, and also serves
very well as a didactic exhibition of the history of geodetic survey and
mapping in India over 200 years.
Author's address:
Andrew S. Cook MA PhD FRSA FRHistS
Map Archivist, India Office Records
The British Library
96 Euston Road
London NW1 2DB, UK
e-mail andrew.cook@bl.uk
Telephone/Voicemail 020 7412 7828, Fax 020 7412 7641
[Source: Andrew S. Cook to Rete Mailing List, rete@maillist.ox.ac.uk,
16 July 2003]
...........................................................................
Item 4 ENHA No. 52, Nov. 15, 2003
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Commemorating the 375th Birthday of Christiaan Huygens
------------------------------------------------------
(From: "Elektronische Mitteilungen zur Astronomiegeschichte" Nr. 64,
9. Nov. 2003, Item 3.)
Titan - From Discovery to Encounter
International Conference to commemorate the
375th birthday of Christiaan Huygens, born 14 April 1629
Christiaan Huygens was one of the most respected leading European
scientists in the 17th century. He was the first of what we would today
call a "scientific director" of the Academie Francaise. One highlight in
his carrier was the discovery of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, in 1655.
FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT
For ESA, the highlight of 2004 and early 2005 will be the arrival of the
NASA/ESA Cassini-Huygens spacecraft at Saturn and the release of the
Huygens probe into the atmosphere of Titan. The aim of the conference is to
bring together historians and space scientists to discuss:
o Christiaan Huygens, the person, the scientist, his relations with other
scientists in the 17th century, like Cassini,
o Descartes, Newton, etc.
o Observations of Saturn and its moons since the 17th century.
o The Cassini-Huygens mission and the latest observations on the way
to the encounter of Titan.
Dates: 13 to 17 April 2004
Location: ESTEC Conference centre
http://sci2.esa.int/huygens/conference/
Scientific Programme Committee (all to be confirmed)
Dennis Matson (dmatson@jpl.nasa.gov)
Cecille Ferrari (Cecile.Ferrari@cea.fr)
Tobias Owen (owen@ifa.hawaii.edu)
Fabrizio Bonoli (bonoli@bo.astro.it)
Fokko Dijksterhuis (f.j.dijksterhuis@wmw.utwente.nl)
Cees Grimbergen (grimberg@doge.nl)
Albert van Helden (A.VanHelden@phys.uu.nl)
Athena Coustenis (Athena.Coustenis@obspm.fr)
Jean Pierre Lebreton (Jean-Pierre.Lebreton@esa.int)
John Zarnecki (J.C.Zarnecki@open.ac.uk)
Local Organising Committee
Gonnie Elfering (Gonnie.Elfering@esa.int)
Jean Pierre Lebreton (Jean-Pierre.Lebreton@esa.int)
Clare Bingham (Clare.Bingham@esa.int)
Henk Olthof (Henk.Olthof@esa.int)
Programme
The programme will consist of invited papers, contributed papers, and
posters. The intention is to publish the proceedings in the ESA SP series.
Tuesday 13 April (pm):
Opening session
Invited talks
Musical intermezzos
Video presentation of the Cassini-Huygens mission
Wednesday 14 April:
Christiaan Huygens, the person, scientist and his relationships
with other scientists.
Invited talk
Contributing talks
Invited birthday lecture
Thursday 15 April (am):
The Cassini-Huygens mission in historical perspective
The contribution of Gerard P. Kuiper
Invited talk
Contributing talks
Afternoon: excursion
Conference dinner
Friday 16 April
Recent results of Saturn/Titan observations (ground- and space-based)
and theoretical studies
Invited talk
Contributing talks
Saturday 17 April
Public outreach day
Amateur astronomers' observations of Saturn and Titan
Public lectures
CONFERENCE FEE:
150 Euro for the entire conference covering, coffee breaks, excursions and
conference dinner, conference bag, proceedings, sandwich lunch on the
public outreach day.
35 Euro, students 10 Euro, for the public outreach day only, covering
coffee breaks, sandwich lunch, conference bag and proceedings.
SCHEDULE:
1st announcement: November 2002
Call for papers: April 2003
Deadline for paper submission: September 2003
Final Programme: December 2003
EXPRESSION OF INTEREST
Please send e-mail to Henk.Olthof@esa.int
[Source: Ron Baalke to HASTRO-L, The History of Astronomy Discussion Group,
HASTRO-L@LISTSERV.WVU.EDU, 28 Jan 2003]
...........................................................................
Item 5 ENHA No. 52, Nov. 15, 2003
...........................................................................
IAU Colloquium "Transits of Venus"
----------------------------------
We are very pleased to announce IAU Colloquium 196, "Transits of Venus: New
Views of the Solar System and Galaxy", to be held in Preston, Lancashire,
UK, 7-11 June 2004.
On 24 November 1639 (Julian Calendar) in the tiny Lancashire village of
Much Hoole, Jeremiah Horrocks made the first observations of a Transit of
Venus. He was one of the first Englishmen to appreciate the astronomical
revolution going on in Europe following the works of Tycho, Galileo and
Kepler. It was Horrocks who first proved that the orbit of the moon is an
ellipse, and Newton made good use of Horrocks' discovery. Horrocks, who
died at age 22, can be considered to be the father of British astrophysics
for the remarkable depth of his accomplishments. His legacy reverberates
today.
This meeting will have history running through it, linking modern research
topics on: high precision determination of the solar parallax; distances in
the Solar System and in the Galaxy; precise determination of the motions of
planets, realisation of a dynamical time scale and fluctuations in Earth's
rotation. It will examine critically the remaining uncertainties in
currently available parallaxes, how they can be further reduced, and the
implications for stellar physics and Galactic structure studies. This will
include the galactic distance scale, and will look at the future of
astrometry from the ground and especially from space, including Gaia and
Jasmine.
This meeting provides an opportunity to observe an extremely rare
astronomical event in its prime historical venue while having discussion of
its current context and relation to modern science. This will allow experts
to present the most recent and future developments in the scientific topics
linked to this astronomical phenomenon and exchange ideas on the most
important issues for the future.
The morning of Tuesday, 8 June (the 2nd day of the meeting) will be devoted
to observing the Transit of Venus beginning just after 05:19 UT (06:19 BST)
and lasting for nearly 6 hours. Live observations will be conducted through
the telescopes of the University of Central Lancashire's Alston Observatory
near Preston, and live video links to other observing sites will be
displayed. There will also be visits in small groups throughout the transit
to Carr House (built 1613) in Much Hoole where Horrocks made his seminal
1639 observations. After an afternoon's rest, the day will finish with a
conference banquet at the beautiful Hoghton Tower, a 16th-century manor
house overlooking the rolling green hills of Lancashire where it is claimed
Shakespeare worked for 3 years and where in 1622 James I was served a loin
of beef that he so liked, he knighted it on the spot, Sir Loin. Our top
table for the banquet will be the very table where the deed was done!
The meeting will have multi-disciplinary threads of science and history
running throughout the sessions. An ancillary historical meeting for
students will be held with some participation by this colloquium's invited
speakers.
Following the first relatively precise determination of the a.u. from the
opposition of Mars in 1672 by Richer and Cassini, the great scientifically
competitive expeditions to observe the Transits of Venus in 1761 and 1769
were the first examples of modern "big science"; those expeditions have
given us some of the most colourful stories in all astronomy. With the
length of the astronomical unit known, and with the discovery of stellar
parallax in the 1830s, our view of the universe was fundamentally changed.
It is fair to say that modern astrophysics blossomed from these
determinations.
Transits of Venus were observed again in 1874 and 1882 for refinement of
the value of the a.u.
No living person has ever seen this rare event. Many astronomers from
around the globe will want to experience seeing this historic event, and
Carr House in Much Hoole, Lancashire, is the prime historic site. We are
sure they will appreciate the historical connections planned in the
sessions and during the transit itself.
Scientific topics are:
* Transits of Venus: their history and science
* Transits of Mercury
* Observations of transits of extra-solar planets
* Modern and historical determinations of the a.u.
* Precision measurement of time and rotation of the Earth
* New discoveries in the solar system
* Astrophysics from high precision parallaxes from space and from the
ground
* Hipparcos parallaxes and the Galactic distance scale
* The scientific promise of future astrometric space missions: Gaia
and Jasmine
The meeting has wide IAU support from Divisions I (fundamental astronomy),
Division III (solar system) and Commission 41 (History) and is supported by
the Royal Astronomical Society.
Presentations will include invited reviews, contributed talks and poster
papers. The second announcement and the call for scientific papers will be
sent out in November 2003.
The conference will be hosted by the Centre for Astrophysics and be held on
the campus of the University of Central Lancashire in Preston, Lancashire,
UK. The University of Central Lancashire, in its various forms as a
teaching and research institution, is 175 years old in this year. It
currently has 35,000 students and has strong astronomy research in its
Centre for Astrophysics. Preston is a small city (awarded city status by
the Queen in 2002) of 135,000 with large green spaces within the city. The
university in integrated with the city and is within easy walking distance
of central Preston. It is easily reached by direct train from Manchester
airport, the UK's third largest airport serving many international
airlines, and by direct train service from London.
Preston is ideally situated for day trips to the English Lake District, the
Yorkshire Dales, the Peak District, North Wales and the Forest of Bowland
with the most beautiful scenery in England: National Parks, 900-year-old
Cistercian monasteries, stone circles >3500 yr in age, lakes, rivers,
mountains, forests (including the one where Tolkien walked as he imagined
the Lord of the Rings), stately homes, lovely old stone villages, canals
and canal-boats, traditional English Pubs, puffins, and unlimited
historical sites.
The weather in Preston in early June is temperate. Daytime temperatures are
likely to be in the range 15-25 C with overnight minima of 5-15 C. The
total rainfall is about 1 m per year spread throughout the year with an
average of 75 mm in June, so light rain is always possible. There will be a
live video link at the Alston observatory to other observing sites, in case
of cloud on the day of the transit. Of course, in 1639 Horrocks had to
contend with this, too, and he successfully observed the transit. Let
history be your guide!
For more information on the University of Central Lancashire see:
http://www.uclan.ac.uk
and for Preston City see:
http://www.transit-of-venus.org.uk/conference/local.html#about
At this time you are invited to send expressions of interest by using the
form provided at the conference's web site or available on request.
We look forward to seeing you in Preston next year!
Don Kurtz and Gordon Bromage (Co-chairs, SOC)
...on behalf of the Scientific Organizing Committee:
* co-chair: Don Kurtz - UK
* co-chair: Gordon Bromage - UK
* Nicole Capitaine, France
* Mikhail Marov, Russia
* Steven Dick, USA
* Mike Feast, South Africa
* Wayne Orchiston, Australia
* Jay Pasachoff, USA
* Dale Cruikshank, USA
* Naoteru Gouda, Japan
...and the Local Organising Committee:
* Gordon Bromage, chair
* Barbara Hassall
* Peter Hingley, RAS librarian
* Don Kurtz
* Paul Marston
* Gillian Saunders
* Robert Walsh
For more information about the conference, please email to
tov@uclan.ac.uk or see
http://www.transit-of-venus.org.uk/conference/ .
[Source:
http://www.transit-of-venus.org.uk/conference/announcements.html#first]
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Item 6 ENHA No. 52, Nov. 15, 2003
...........................................................................
7th Oxford Conference on Archeoastronomy
----------------------------------------
(From: "Elektronische Mitteilungen zur Astronomiegeschichte" Nr. 64,
9. Nov. 2003, Item 4.)
This is to announce the public release of the website for the Seventh
Oxford Conference on Archaeoastronomy, to be held from June 20-27, 2004 in
Flagstaff, Arizona. The conference is being sponsored by a number of
organizations, including the Museum of Northern Arizona, the Pueblo Grande
Museum (Phoenix AZ), Lowell Observatory, the Coconino County Board of
Supervisors, the City of Flagstaff - Flagstaff Cultural Partners, Northern
Arizona University College of Arts & Sciences / Physics and Astronomy
Department, the NAU-NASA Space Grant Program, and the Roden Crater Project.
The Web site is being hosted by Lowell Observatory at the URL
http://www.lowell.edu/Public/ox7/index.html
On the Web site, you will find program information and instructions for
submitting abstracts, as well as local information.
Please direct all questions and correspondence regarding the conference to
Oxford7@earthlink.net.
On behalf of the Oxford 7 Local Organizing Committee,
Jeffrey Hall
Assistant Research Scientist
Associate Director, Education and Special Programs
Lowell Observatory
Flagstaff, AZ 86001
...........................................................................
Acknowledgement
---------------
For sending us information directly we thank Jeffrey Hall.
...........................................................................
Imprint
-------
Electronic Newsletter for the History of Astronomy (ENHA)
Published by the Working Group for the History of Astronomy in the
Astronomische Gesellschaft
Editors: Dr. Wolfgang R. Dick <wdick@astrohist.org> and Dr. Hilmar
W. Duerbeck <hduerbec@vub.ac.be>
All items without an author's name are editorial contributions.
Articles as well as information for the several sections are appreciated.
Subscription for ENHA is free. Readers and subscribers are asked for
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Astronomy:
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Chairman: Prof. Dr. Peter Brosche, Observatorium Hoher List der
Sternwarte der Universitaet Bonn, D-54550 Daun, Germany,
Tel.: +49(0)6592 2150, Fax: +49(0)6592 985140
Secretary: Dr. Wolfgang R. Dick, Vogelsang 35 A, D-14478 Potsdam,
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