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A History of Astronomy

from 1890 to the Present

  • Book
  • © 1995

Overview

Authors:
  1. David Leverington
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Table of contents (17 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xii
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  2. The Sun

    • David Leverington
    Pages 1-22

  3. The Moon

    • David Leverington
    Pages 23-30

  4. The Origin of the Solar System

    • David Leverington
    Pages 31-36

  5. The Terrestrial Planets

    • David Leverington
    Pages 37-61

  6. The Gas Giants

    • David Leverington
    Pages 62-95

  7. Small Bodies of the Solar System

    • David Leverington
    Pages 96-119

  8. Stellar Evolution and Stellar Structures

    • David Leverington
    Pages 120-153

  9. Variable and Double Stars

    • David Leverington
    Pages 154-170

  10. Young Stars, Old Stars and Stellar Explosions

    • David Leverington
    Pages 171-207

  11. The Milky Way

    • David Leverington
    Pages 208-229

  12. Galaxies

    • David Leverington
    Pages 230-251

  13. Cosmology

    • David Leverington
    Pages 252-258

  14. Optical Telescopes and Observatories

    • David Leverington
    Pages 259-282

  15. Tools and Techniques

    • David Leverington
    Pages 283-309

  16. Radio Astronomy

    • David Leverington
    Pages 310-319

  17. Space Research

    • David Leverington
    Pages 320-354

  18. Modern Astronomy in Context

    • David Leverington
    Pages 355-360

  19. Back Matter

    Pages 361-367
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Keywords

About this book

The history of astronomy is, like most history, a multidimensional story, and when writing about a specific period, the author has to decide how to handle all the developments of earlier times in order to set the scene. I have done this by starting most chapters of the book with a summary of astronomical knowledge at the beginning of our chosen period, together with a brief review of how such knowledge had been gained. This story is not only interesting in itself, but it will also assist those readers that would appreciate a brief reminder of some of the basic elements of astronomy. It is also necessary to decide when to start our history. Should it be the year 1900 or 1890, or should it be linked to some key development or investigation, e. g. the discovery of the electron by J. J. Thomson in 1897, or the discovery of spectroscopic binary stars by Pickering and Vogel (independently) in 1889, or maybe the year 1890 in which Thomas Edison tried unsuccessfully to detect radio waves from the Sun and Johannes Rydberg published his formula for atomic spectra? I have, in fact, decided to start this history at about 1890, as it was the year of publication of the Draper Memorial Catalogue of stellar spectra which, together with its updates, provided essential data for the understanding of stellar spectra until well into the twentieth century. This date also gives a clear hundred years up to the present.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: A History of Astronomy

  • Book Subtitle: from 1890 to the Present

  • Authors: David Leverington

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-2124-4

  • Publisher: Springer London

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: Springer-Verlag London Limited 1995

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-540-19915-1Published: 06 November 1995

  • eBook ISBN: 978-1-4471-2124-4Published: 06 December 2012

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XII, 388

  • Number of Illustrations: 69 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Astronomy, Observations and Techniques, Astrophysics and Astroparticles

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