The latest issue of the E-News can be found by clicking on the link below:-

https://societyforthehistoryofastronomy.com/the-e-news/

There is much of interest if you have any interest in the History of Astronomy

Due to the recent bad weather the Birmingham and Midland Institute will be closed tomorrow (Monday 11th December) and possibly on Tuesday (12th December).

The SHA Library was scheduled to open on Tuesday but given the uncertainty of the weather and the BMI opening, the library will not open.

If anyone wishes to visit the library before the end of the year please contact me.

I’m sorry for the short notice of this.

Regards

James Dawson
SHA Librarian
library@shastro.org.uk

The Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge University, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA

The above programme offers an interesting mixed bag that should appeal to all.

Booking in advance, at £10.00 for members, £15.00 for non-members, buffet lunch £5.00

To pre-register please contact Dennis Osborne meetings@shastro.org.uk

If you would like to give a talk at the next conference, do please contact me.

The Society for The History of Astronomy’s Annual General Meeting and Autumn Conference was held on Saturday 28th October at the Birmingham and Midland Institute in Birmingham. It was a full packed day with delegates having the opportunity to listen to five talks alongside the AGM. It was to prove a busy meeting with over sixty members attending and eleven guests.

The day commenced with the opportunity to buy books from the bookstall, get refreshments or browse the SHA library which has one of the largest collection of historic astronomy books in the UK.

Bob Bower, Gerard Gilligan

Paul Haley

Bill Barton

Bob Bower, Chairperson, started the formal proceedings with his usual vigour and humour, thanking the many members of the society who have helped with the running of the Society during the past year. This hard work has resulted in a large increase in membership for the Society. The Societies’ prizes were awarded, firstly Paul Haley got the Madeline Cox award for his contributions to the Bulletin magazine, Bill Barton was awarded the Roger Jones award for his work on the survey and Gerard Gilligan was given the Peter Hingley award for his significant contribution towards the increase in membership during the past year. The SHA has indeed seen a record breaking influx of new members for the year, which after Saturday is now 50. Well over 200 in total.

The first talk of the day was by Roger Salt, he spoke about “The Antikythera mechanism”. This talk took the audience on a journey of the history of the mechanisms discovery. It considered the early work of Derek Price and later detections by Michael Wright. This fascinating object has had a significant amount of research on it leading to the latest discoveries. These show that the object was an advanced astronomical mechanism which was made by an expert in astronomy from Ancient Greece. Names such as Archimedes, Hipparchus or Posidonius were considered as possible makers of this device. We thank Roger Salt for his talk on what is a fascinating object, which has enthralled the world since its discovery.

Following this talk, we had a short interlude while Eddie Carpenter set up his Lantern Slide projector. Eddie arrived with an excellent array of lantern slides dating back as far as the early 19th century. He started his talk with a crowd-pleasing q and a which asked the members of the audience to identify astronomers and observatories from around the world. The highlight of his talk was him showing the mechanical magic lantern slides which date from 1840’s. An issue with the solar system slide was that it had been produced before the discovery of Neptune. When the outermost planet was discovered in 1846 they quickly painted the planet onto the slide but in the same orbit but on the opposing side to Uranus.

After the break for lunch, Dr Lee MacDonald gave a very interesting and topical talk on the history of the Isaac Newton Telescope. It is a telescope which is celebrating 50 years since it was situated at Herstmonceux Castle in Sussex. As Lee explained the telescope has a much longer history as the idea had been formulated in 1944 by the Royal Society. The whole project was beset by delay and disasters, including an inferior mirror which made the scope an f/3 focal ratio. This in time would become the scopes greatest strength. In 1984 the scope was moved to the Canary Islands. The f/3 focal ratio made it an excellent scope for wide angle imaging with CCD cameras, this allowed for large-scale supernovae hunting. It was a project led by Saul Perlmutter on this scope which would discover the presence of dark energy in the Universe. Lee’s topic was called “Cracked Mirror to Nobel Prize” which is a very fitting way to describe the changing fortunes of this once lamentable scope.

From Left: Don Kurtz, Lee McDonald, Allan Chapman, Eddie Carpenter

Professor Don Kurtz gave a very engaging talk about the meaning of time and how time has been understood, divided up and recognised through history. He took us around the world with different ideas about how time should be measured from different cultures. From the Babylonians early 12-hour day and the Roman 8-day week. We considered questions such as what makes a year? what is an Astronomical unit? and how is it measured? Why do we use a seven-day week? and how the calendar we use currently exists in its current form. Altogether this was a fascinating and thought-provoking talk.

The final talk of the day was from our Societies President Dr Allan Chapman. His talk was about the enigmatic Joseph Norman Lockyer. Born to a well to do family Lockyer at first was a grand amateur astronomer. He soon was commissioning equipment which allowed him to make great discoveries within his own back garden. This was mainly in the field of solar spectrography. This, in turn, allowed him to become one of the leading people in this field at that time. He spent the next part of his life in the academic community within London but later returned to his amateur roots. He set up and ran the Norman Locker Observatory located in Sidmouth in Devon. Allan gave a wonderful talk to end a great day which was enjoyed by all. We wish to thank all the members and guests for coming and hope to see them at the SHA spring conference which is on April 21st 2018 at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge.

‘If you wish to contribute to, or find out more about the History of Astronomy, then I would strongly encourage you to join the SHA’

Dr Allan Chapman

SHA President

Acceptance Article Nov ’02

Picture Credit: Helen Fairweather

The annual summer picnic for the Society for the History of Astronomy this year was held in Liverpool, on Saturday 1st July 2017.

The picnic is an annual feature in the Society’s calendar and aims to combine an opportunity to socialise with other SHA members a chance to visit somewhere pertinent to the history of astronomy.

This year the meeting was organised by the SHA’s Membership Secretary, Gerard Gilligan, who arranged for the picnic attendees to get a unique behind the scenes look at two of Liverpool’s iconic institutions, the newly rebuilt Central Library and its archives, and the internationally renowned World Museum.

The day commenced in the museum’s planetarium which was opened especially for the SHA. Patrick Kiernan, the planetarium’s educational demonstrator and SHA member, gave a fascinating talk on the history of globes and planetaria using the dome to project his slides onto. Following this, he played an educational video on astronomy so we all had an opportunity to observe the night sky and in all its glory above our heads; a really spectacular feeling. The party was then divided into two much smaller groups for unique tours behind the scenes of both the World Museum and the Central Library.

Wendy Simkiss, Assistant Curator of Earth and Physical Sciences, took us into the bowels of the museum, well away from public areas, and showed us various items she had prepared for us. Amongst these was a model of William Lassell’s observatory (the actual observatory was erected in 1840 and a report appears in the MNRAS), and the finder scope of his original 24″ speculum mirror telescope. The museum also had the 24″ mirror on loan and we had an opportunity to marvel at this. Wendy took us to see how other artefacts are stored and catalogued and talked to us about restoration and preservation of artefacts.

The second behind the scenes tour was undertaken on the third floor of Liverpool’s Central Library, the neighbouring building to the museum. There we met Helena Smart, Senior Archivist for Liverpool City Council, who showed us the public areas where records and archives are accessed and described the types of materials within the library’s archives. Helena then took us into behind the scenes. The first stop was into the restoration and preservation laboratory; climate controlled, clinically clean with machines and devices to allow staff to rebuild torn pages, crumbling paper, and even to fumigate infested materials. Next, we went into one of the stores, with rows and rows of electronically moving shelves and a much cooler ambient temperature; Helena talked about how the types of materials being submitted to the archives are changing and not uncommonly hard drives are handed over which poses a myriad of issues for the archiving staff. The next stop was back to the reading room where Helena had pulled out various astronomical treats from the archives relating to Liverpool Astronomical Society, and to the wider field of astronomy in general. The library tour finished with a look at the older parts of the building, and the circular Picton Reading Room, in particular, appealed to me, though the acoustics amplify even the slightest of sounds which shatter the otherwise silence amongst the readers.

Liverpool isn’t a place I’ve explored before but this day out has whetted my appetite to go back. A wonderfully educational and inspiring day and great to catch up with old friends.

James Dawson FRAS
SHA Librarian
Nottingham

A warm spring day greeted the attendees of the Society for the History of Astronomy annual spring conference at The Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge on the 22^nd April 2017. Attendees were given a warm greeting by the SHA meetings organiser Dennis Osborne and members were presented with their new SHA lapel badge.

After a brief welcoming talk by Bob Bower the societies Chairperson, the first talk of the day was given by Howard Carlton. Titled John Pringle Nichol, the Nebula Hypotheses, and Nineteenth Century Cosmogony. Howard explained how Nichol a Scottish professor of astronomy at Glasgow university was one of the first people to support the nebula hypothesis. He was an accomplished speaker and his enthusiasm for the theory was evident in the lectures he held as well as the books he wrote on the subject. This was a theory that was in its development and objections and alternate ideas were being fronted by people such as theologian Thomas Chalmers. Chalmers had argued that the universe was born fully formed. Critics also came in the form of observational evidence. This was particularly evident by the observations made from the Leviathan telescope at Birr castle in Ireland. This was the largest scope and it was hoped that observations here would give a definitive answer on the theories involved. Observations were and made and it was concluded that nebula could be resolved into individual stars. Robinson working with Lord Rosse declared that M1 could be resolved and that M42 was also resolvable. They invited Nichol to see the evidence for himself, which he did in 1845. The resolvability of the Orion nebula was a problem for the hypothesis, but Nichol refused to give up the nebula hypothesis and he gradually challenged the observations made. We thank Howard Carlton for a fascinating talk.

The second talk was given by Dr James Hannam titled “Dancing to the Music of the Spheres: Medieval Visions of the Heavens. Hannam’s enthusiasm for this period was evident. He announced that he was to put right to rest the misconceptions that no astronomical advances were made during the medieval period in western Europe. The ideas being formed in that period were not just a rehashing of ideas from the ancient Greeks. Important advances included the design and manufacture of the Astrolabes, although these are difficult to date a number of these were made and the design perfected in this period. The escapement and mechanical clock were also invented in the thirteen century. Astronomical tables were calculated, these were used not only for the determination of the calendar, but also for use in astrology and medical fields. Hannam went on to discuss the position of astronomy within the curriculum at universities, the earliest examples being from Oxford, Bologna and Paris. This was a wonderful introductory look at the role astronomy played in the medieval period. If interested more information can be found within his book God’s Philosophers.

During the break for lunch, we were lucky enough to be given a guided tour by Mark Hurn the Institutes librarian of the grounds and the historic Northumberland and Thorrowgood telescopes. Mark took the time to regale us with stories from the history of the scopes including the infamous search for the planet Neptune through the Northumberland scope conducted by Challis in 1846. The lunch break held a well received raffle in which a number of books and prizes were on offer.

The afternoon talks started with Dr Simon Mitton who spoke about the “History of Planetary Science – Discovering the Dynamic Planet Beneath our Feet”. This story was focused on the Earth, with many of the discoveries in this field made by geologists and Earth scientists. Simon’s fascinating talk took us on a journey of discovery with the important historic characters of this field. He spoke about the accomplishments of William Gilbert, Robert Hooke and Adam Sedgwick to name a few. It only being the latter of the 20^th century that planetary science has seen significant developments. Many of the processed found on the earth are starting to be seen replicated throughout the solar system. Simon’s current research is within this field.

Following this was Dr Stewart Moore well researched and highly topical look at the life and achievements of Charles Messier. Messier was never considered an academic astronomer, which makes his achievements all the more impressive. Born in Batonvillier on the 26^th June 1730, his move to Paris came with the need to search for work. He originally worked as a clerk, but had been inspired at a young age by the impressive Comet de Chéseaux in 1744. He became an astronomer working at the Paris observatory of Joseph Nicolas Delisle. He discovered 43 of the items from the Messier catalogue, along with a number of comets during his lifetime. Particularly enjoyable were all the photographs that Stewart had taken in France showing us where Messier had been born and had lived during his working life.

The afternoon break gave the attendees their final opportunity to look around the book sale that James Dawson the librarian had organised. There were a large number of books for sale, all from the field of astronomy, with many of them about the history of astronomy. This was a well received and great addition to the spring conference.

The final talk of the day was by Mark Robinson, this was a talk which looked at the life of George Henry With, mirror maker. Marks depth of knowledge in the topic shone through, with the discussion of With’s life, his mirror making abilities and friendships made within the astronomical community all discussed. We were also fortunate that Mark brought along with him many diagrams of the processes involved and an example of a George Henry With mirror. The SHA would like to thank all the speakers for their informative and extremely enjoyable talks.

It was lovely to catch up with lots of familiar faces and also to welcome 4 new members who signed up on the day. We look forward to seeing you all again at the summer picnic on the 1^st July in Liverpool.

Text Courtesy: Carolyn Kennett

Pictures Courtesy: Carolyn Kennett, Mark Hurn and Len Adam.

The SHA will be at the International Astronomy Show this weekend at Stonleigh Park in the Midlands near Leamington.

See http://www.ukastroshow.com/ for further details of the main event.

We will be on Stand 27.

Come and learn more about the fascinating History of Astronomy, by doing several fun things to do.

Perhaps you may even join us.

On Saturday 10th September 2016, as part of the national Heritage Open Day programme, The Birmingham & Midland Institute will be opening its doors to the public and the SHA’s Library will also be open and SHA members will on hand to talk about the Society and the Library. We also hope to have some books on sale which we no longer need. For further information on the event following this link:

https://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/…/the-birmingham-midlan…