Astronomy, Observations And Techniques

The modern aspiring astronomer is faced with a bewil­ dering choice of commercially produced telescopes, including all the designs considered in the preceding chapter. Yet only four decades ago the choice for a small telescope would have been between just a refrac­ tor and a Newtonian reflector. That change has come about because of the enormous interest that has grown in astronomy since the start of the space age and with the mind-boggling discoveries of the past 30 or 40 years. Except for some of the very small instruments which are unfortunately often heavily promoted in general mail order catalogues, camera shops and the like, the optical quality of these commercially pro­ duced telescopes is almost uniformly excellent. Although one product may be slightly better for some types of observation, or more suited to the personal cir­ cumstances of the observer, than another, most of them will provide excellent observing opportunities. The same general praise cannot be applied, however, to the mountings with which many of these telescopes are provided, and those problems are covered in Chapter 6.

"Twenty-Five Astronomical Observations That Changed the World" takes twenty-five journeys through space, back in time and into human history. We begin with the simplest sight of the Tycho Crater on the Moon, through a repeat of Galileo's observations of Jupiter's moons, and then move out towards the nebulae, stars, and galaxies. The astronomical observations repeat the original groundbreaking discoveries that have changed our understanding of science and ourselves.

This is volume 2 of Planets, Stars and Stellar Systems, a six-volume compendium of modern astronomical research, covering subjects of key interest to the main fields of contemporary astronomy. This volume on “Astronomical Techniques, Software, and Data” edited by Howard E. Bond presents accessible review chapters on Astronomical Photometry, Astronomical Spectroscopy, Infrared Astronomy Fundamentals, Astronomical Polarimetry: Polarized Views of Stars and Planets, Sky Surveys,Techniques of Radio Astronomy,Radio and Optical Interferometry: Basic Observing Techniques and Data Analysis, Absolute Calibration of Spectrophotometric Standard Stars,Virtual Observatories, Data Mining, and Astroinformatics, Statistical Methods for Astronomy, Numerical Techniques in Astrophysics.

THE MOON IX PREFACE TO THE SPRINGER EDITION When this collection of Babylonian astronomical purpose of column of the lunar ephemerides (by texts was published in 1955 (a date omitted by Aaboe) and the explanation of the method of computing the eclipse text ACT No. 6o (by Hamilton mistake from the title page), it contained all texts of this type that I could lay my hands on. As was to be and Aaboe). Some of these advances I have tried to incorporate into my History of Ancient Mathematical expected, the past 25 years provided more fragments, identified by A. Sachs and A. Aaboe in the British Astronomy (1975), which should be used as a guide to Museum and listed below. Also, some new joins the more recent literature. could be made and some errors of mine corrected. My sincerest thanks go to Springer-Verlag for Nevertheless, I think one still can consider the making this work again available to students of material of 1955 to be representative of what has been ancient astronomy. The Institute for Advanced preserved of the mathematical astronomy of the Study, which together with Brown University has Seleucid period. supported my work for more than four decades, has In the meantime, far more progress has been made graciously given its permission for this reprint. in our understanding of Babylonian astronomy, mainly by the publications of Aaboe, Hamilton, Maeyama, Sachs, van der Waerden, and others. As an Princeton 0.

The collection of papers assembled here on a variety of topics in ancient and medieval astronomy was originally suggested by Noel Swerdlow of the University of Chicago. He was also instrumental in making a selection* which would, in general, be on the same level as my book The Exact Sciences in Antiquity. It may also provide a general background for my more technical History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy and for my edition of Astronomi­ cal Cuneiform Texts. Several of these republished articles were written because I wanted to put to rest well-entrenched historical myths which could not withstand close scrutiny of the sources. Examples are the supposed astronomical origin of the Egyptian calendar (see [9]), the discovery of precession by the Babylonians [16], and the "simplification" of the Ptolemaic system in Copernicus' De Revolutionibus [40]. In all of my work I have striven to present as accurately as I could what the original sources reveal (which is often very different from the received view). Thus, in [32] discussion of the technical terminology illuminates the meaning of an ancient passage which has been frequently misused to support modern theories about ancient heliocentrism; in [33] an almost isolated instance reveals how Greek world-maps really looked; and in [43] the Alexandrian Easter computus, held in awe by many historians, is shown from Ethiopic sources to be based on very simple procedures.

Fundamental Astronomy gives a well-balanced and comprehensive introduction to the various fields of classical and modern astronomy. While emphasizing both the astronomical concepts and the underlying physical principles, the text provides a sound basis for more profound studies in the astronomical sciences.

This book tells the comprehensive history of cosmography from the 15th Century Age of Discovery onward. During this time, cosmography—a science that combined geography and astronomy to inform us about our place in the universe—was deeply tied to ongoing developments in politics, exploration, culture, and technology.

This is volume 1 of Planets, Stars and Stellar Systems, a six-volume compendium of modern astronomical research, covering subjects of key interest to the main fields of contemporary astronomy. This volume on “Telescopes and Instrumentation” edited by Ian S. McLean presents, after a general Introduction to Telescopes, accessible review chapters on Robotic and Survey Telescopes, Segmented Mirror Telescopes, Honeycomb Mirrors for Large Telescopes, Active Thin-Mirror Telescopes, Optical and Infrared Interferometers, Submillimeter Telescopes, Radio Telescopes, Space Telescopes in the Ultraviolet, Optical, and Infrared (UV/O/IR), CMB Telescopes and Optical Systems, Very- High-Energy Gamma-Ray Telescopes, Instrumentation and Detectors, Silicon-Based Image Sensors, Long-Wavelength Infrared Detectors, and Astronomical Spectrographs.

Dear Friends, It seems like it was only yesterday that we drove the last of you to the airport. The memories and the spirit of the Scientific Detectors for Astronomy Workshop (SDW2002) remain fresh and strong. For us, this was a very special event, a great gathering of what may be one of the friendliest and most cooperative technical communities on our little planet. We have tried to capture the spirit of the Workshop in these Proceedings and we hope you are able to relive your week in Hawaii. For those readers who did not attend, we invite you into this community. As you probably noticed, there is a new name on the cover: Jenna Beletic was the ace up our sleeve for these Proceedings. As a summer intern at Keck, she took up the task of organizing, proofreading, editing and formatting the papers. She also made the graphics (her artistic talents shine on pages xxxiii and xxxv), contacted authors and prepared the mountain of paperwork which goes with producing a book. Jenna’s enthusiasm at learning, her passion for the job and creativity (e. g. find 100 ways to get Paola and Jim to do their jobs) have been a motivating addition to our team of “old workshop foxes”…… and a source for a good deal of paternal pride. We are honoured to have her as a fellow editor.

When we consider the ever increasing amount of astronomical data available to us, we can well say that the needs of modern astronomy are growing by the day. Ever better observing facilities are in operation. The fusion of infor­ mation leading to the coordination of observations is of central importance. The methods described in this book can provide effective and efficient ripostes to many of these issues. Much progress has been made in recent years on the methodology front, in line with the rapid pace of evolution of our technological infrastructures. The central themes of this book are information and scale. The approach is astronomy-driven, starting with real problems and issues to be addressed. We then proceed to comprehensive theory, and implementations of demonstrated efficacy. The field is developing rapidly. There is little doubt that further important papers, and books, will follow in the future. Colleagues we would like to acknowledge include: Alexandre Aussem, Albert Bijaoui, Franc;ois Bonnarel, Jonathan G. Campbell, Ghada Jammal, Rene Gastaud, Pierre-Franc;ois Honore, Bruno Lopez, Mireille Louys, Clive Page, Eric Pantin, Philippe Querre, Victor Racine, Jerome Rodriguez, and Ivan Valtchanov.