What's Up 2006 - 365 Days of Skywatching


Book Description

What's Up 2006: 365 Days of Skywatching presents the highlights you can see in the night sky for every day in 2006. With a small telescope, binoculars, and sometimes just your eyes, you'll track down features on the Moon, planets, meteor showers, bright and double stars, open and globular clusters, and distant galaxies.Astronomers Tammy Plotner and Jeff Barbour are your guides to the wonders of the night sky.







Advancing Cultural Astronomy


Book Description

This collection of essays on cultural astronomy celebrates the life and work of Clive Ruggles, Emeritus Professor of Archaeoastronomy at Leicester University. Taking their lead from Ruggles’ work, the papers present new research focused on three core themes in cultural astronomy: methodology, case studies, and heritage. Through this framework, they show how the study of cultural astronomy has evolved over time and share new ideas to continue advancing the field. Ruggles’ work in these areas has had a profound impact on the way that scholars approach evidence of the role of sky in both ancient and modern cultures. While the papers span many time periods and regions, they are closely connected by these three major themes, presenting methodological investigations of how we can approach archaeological, textual, and ethnographic evidence; describing detailed archaeoastronomical case studies; or stressing the importance of global heritage management. This work will appeal to researchers and scholars interested in the history and development of cultural astronomy.




The Story of Astronomy


Book Description

Journey through time and space with the greatest astronomers in history. Astronomy is one of the oldest of all the sciences. And yet, its history is also so much more than the history of a science, reflecting our entire culture and providing insight into the evolution of humankind's ideas and ideals over the centuries. This fascinating book tells the amazing story of the development of astronomy, through the key characters in its history from Copernicus to Hubble and Halley, the excitement of new discoveries and the ways in which the history of the skies has affected our lives and how we look at the planet on which we live.The Story of Astronomy celebrates changing perspectives (from the Ancient Greeks to the latest scientific advances) as different cultures, philosophers and scientists sought to come to terms with their, and earth's, place in the Cosmos.Exhaustively researched and containing interviews with many of the world's leading astronomers, including Stephen Hawking, this is the ultimate history of how the universe has revealed itself to us over the millennia.




Marriage and Divorce of Astronomy and Astrology: A History of Astral Prediction from Antiquity to Newton


Book Description

This is a study of the union of astronomy and astrology, and relations to astral worship, from early Babylonian times, through medieval European times, up to and including the time of Isaac Newton, especially in relation to prediction, and with extensions into more recent times. There is also discussion of related matters in other cultures, such as Chinese, Indian, Native American and African.




The Dawn of Astronomy


Book Description

A pioneer in the fields of astrophysics and astro-archeology, J. Norman Lockyer believed that ancient Egyptian monuments were constructed "in strict relation to the stars." In this celebrated study, he explores the relationship between astronomy and architecture in the age of the pharaohs. Lockyer addresses one of the many points already extensively investigated by Egyptologists: the chronology of the kings of Egypt. All experts are in accord regarding the identity of the first monarch, but they cannot agree upon the dates of his reign within a thousand years. The author contends that by applying a knowledge of astronomy to the actual site orientation of the region's pyramids and temples, accurate dating can be achieved. In order to accomplish this, Lockyer had to determine the level of the ancient Egyptian ideas of astronomy. Some of his inferences have been invalidated by subsequent scholarship, but many of his other conclusions stand firm and continue to provide sensational leads into contemporary understanding of archaic astronomy.




Information Handling in Astronomy - Historical Vistas


Book Description

This book offers a unique review of how astronomical information handling (in the broad sense) evolved in the course of the 20th century, and especially during its second half. It will be very useful for researchers, teachers, editors, publishers, librarians, computer scientists, sociologists of science, research planners and strategists, project managers, public-relations officers, plus those in charge of astronomy-related organizations, as well as by students aiming at a career in astronomy or related space science.




Observational Astronomy


Book Description

The long-awaited second edition of this well-received textbook gives a thorough introduction to observational astronomy. Starting with the basics of positional astronomy and systems of time, it continues with charts and catalogs covering both historically important publications and modern electronic databases. The book builds on a fundamental discussion of the basics of light and the effects of the atmosphere on astronomical observations. Chapters include discussions of optical telescopes, detectors, photometry, variable stars, astrometry, spectroscopy, and solar observations. This edition contains new discussions of measurements with CCDs and appendices give basic statistical methods, useful astronomical software and websites, and sources of accurate time-calibration signals. Observational Astronomy is the perfect textbook for upper level undergraduate or beginning graduate courses on astronomy. Examples based on real astronomical data are placed throughout the text. Each of the well-illustrated chapters is supported by a set of graduated problems and suggestions for further reading.




The Adventure of the Human Intellect


Book Description

The Adventure of the Human Intellect presents the latest scholarship on the beginnings of intellectual history on a broad scope, encompassing ten eminent ancient or early civilizations from both the Old and New Worlds. Borrows themes from The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man (1946), updating an old topic with a new approach and up-to-date theoretical underpinning, evidence, and scholarship Provides a broad scope of studies, including discussion of highly developed ancient or early civilizations in China, India, West Asia, the Mediterranean, and the Americas Examines the world view of ten ancient or early societies, reconstructed from their own texts, concerning the place of human beings in society and state, in nature and cosmos, in space and time, in life and death, and in relation to those in power and the world of the divine Considers a diversity of sources representing a wide array of particular responses to differing environments, circumstances, and intellectual challenges Reflects a more inclusive and nuanced historiographical attitude with respect to non-elites, gender, and local variations Brings together leading specialists in the field, and is edited by an internationally renowned scholar




Accessory to War: The Unspoken Alliance Between Astrophysics and the Military


Book Description

“Extraordinary.… A feast of history, an expert tour through thousands of years of war and conquest.” —Jennifer Carson, New York Times Book Review In this far-reaching foray into the millennia-long relationship between science and military power, acclaimed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and co-author Avis Lang examine how the methods and tools of astrophysics have been enlisted in the service of war. Spanning early celestial navigation to satellite-enabled warfare, Accessory to War is a richly researched and provocative examination of the intersection of science, technology, industry, and power that will introduce Tyson’s millions of fans to yet another dimension of how the universe has shaped our lives and our world.