Information Handling in Astronomy - Historical Vistas

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

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2. Half a Century of Intense Maturation

   • A. Heck

   Pages 1-13

3. Evolution of Time Measurement in Astronomy

   • E. Biémont

   Pages 15-34

4. Evolution of Data Processing in Optical Astronomy — A Personal Account

   • R. Albrecht

   Pages 35-60

5. IHAP: Image Handling and Processing System

   • P. Grosbøl, P. Biereichel

   Pages 61-70

6. FITS: A Remarkable Achievement in Information Exchange

   • E. W. Greisen

   Pages 71-87

7. The Munich Image Data Analysis System

   • K. Banse

   Pages 89-107

8. AIPS, the VLA, and the VLBA

   • E. W. Greisen

   Pages 109-125

9. Changes in Astronomical Publications During the 20th Century

   • H. A. Abt

   Pages 127-137

10. The Evolution and Role of the Astronomical Library and Librarian

    • B. G. Corbin

    Pages 139-155

11. The Development of the Astronomy Digital Library

    • G. Eichhorn, A. Accomazzi, C. S. Grant, M. J. Kurtz, S. S. Murray

    Pages 157-182

12. From Early Directories to Current Yellow-Page Services

    • A. Heck

    Pages 183-205

13. Pre-College Astronomy Education in the United States in the Twentieth Century

    • J. E. Bishop

    Pages 207-231

14. The Birth and Evolution of the Planetarium

    • C. C. Petersen

    Pages 233-247

15. The Changing Role of the IAU in Providing and Organizing Information

    • A. H. Batten, D. McNally

    Pages 249-266

16. Was the Carte du Ciel an Obstruction to the Development of Astrophysics in Europe?

    • D. H. P. Jones

    Pages 267-273

17. Amateur Data and Astronomical Discoveries in the 20th Century

    • S. Dunlop

    Pages 275-294

18. Back Matter

    Pages 295-298

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This book is dedicated to the memory of Gisèle Mersch whose life ended prematurely in June 2002. Back in the 1970s, when few people were using them, Gisèle introduced me to the arcane secrets of then advanced m- tivariate statistical methodologies. I was already involved in more classical statistical studies undertaken at Paris Observatory with Jean Jung: developing and applying maxim- likelihood algorithms to stellar photometric and kinematic data in order to derive absolute luminosities, distances and velocities in the solar neighb- hood. But what could be envisaged with those methodologies was something of another dimension: for the first time, I could really see how to extract information from massive amounts of data without calling for elaborated physical or mechanical theories. Several pioneering applications were developed under Gisèle’s guidance and with her collaboration to study the delicate interface between spect- scopic and photometric data. Thus errors in spectral classifications were investigated as well as predictions of spectral classifications from pho- metric indices (see Heck 1976, Heck et al. 1977, Heck & Mersch 1980 and Mersch & Heck 1980), with very interesting results for the time. Gisèle also took part in studies of period determination algorithms (see Mersch & Heck 1981, Manfroid et al. 1983 and Heck et al. 1985).

• Processing
• astronomy
• astrophysics
• computer
• data analysis
• instruments
• organization
• time

• Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory, France

  André Heck

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