SHA Library accessions

The Birmingham & Midland Institute

Recent additions to the SHA Library include:

Purchases

Sanders, Robert H., The Dark Matter Problem: A Historical Perspective (2014)

Mollan, Charles, William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse: Astronomy and the Castle in 19th Century Ireland (2014)

Hoskin, Michael, Caroline Herschel Priestess of the New World: Princess of the New Heavens (2013)

Donations

Members will be gratified to hear that the family of our late colleague and former Chairman, Gilbert Satterthwaite, has very kindly offered to donate his library to the Society. Work to sort and catalogue this valuable acquisition will begin shortly.

A 76-page catalogue (October 2014) of the thousands of items held by the SHA Library is available on the Library page of this website.

The Sir Robert Ball Library of the SHA is located at the Birmingham and Midland Institute, 9 Margaret Street, Birmingham, B3 3BS – just 10 mins walk from New St and Snow Hill stations. It is open by arrangement and on open days only.

If you are a member of the SHA and you wish to consult or borrow any items, please arrange a visit in advance with the Librarian, Madeline Cox: library@shastro.org.uk

From the SHA eNews Oct. 2014

Forthcoming SHA Meetings

The first ever SHA meeting at Greenwich, 2003

The Society for the History of Astronomy offers a range of great value meetings throughout the year, some of which are also open to non-members.

2014 SHA AGM & Autumn Conference

Remaining in 2014 is the Annual General Meeting and Autumn Conference

This event will held at the Birmingham & Midlands Institute on 25 October 2014.

Talks will include:-

Doug Bateman on The Greenwich Time Ball
Lee Macdonald on the History of the Kew Observatory
Prof. Bill Leatherbarrow on The Amateur’s Moon: British Selenography and the BAA Lunar Section
Dr Allan Chapman on Copernicus, Galileo, the Telescope & the Church 1500-1700 (the subject of Allan’s latest book – due out Oct. 2014)

Registration begins at 9.30 for a start at 10.00. The Conference finishes at 17.00.

Book in advance if possible: £5 for members, £10 for non-members. Friends and family members welcome (Pre-register via roger.hutchins@btinternet.com).

For more details, see our Meetings page.

2015 Meetings in Outline

Outline details are now available of some of our meetings in the new year. Flyers etc will be appended to our Meetings page as they become available.

Joint Event:

SHA/British Astronomical Association Historical Section 2015 Conference

This joint meeting will be on Saturday 28 March 2015 at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, and will feature presentations by the following speakers:

William Sheehan on Mars: from the canals to Curiosity
Stuart Clark on Richard Carrington (and the Solar Flare of 1859)
Anthony Kinder on the BAA/SHA historical membership project
Bob Marriott on William Rutter Dawes
Roger Jones on The SHA Survey

For more information on the BAA Historical Section: http://www.britastro.org/history/

2015 SHA Summer Picnic

Next year’s summer picnic will be on Saturday 4th July 2015 at Woolsthorpe Manor (Sir Isaac Newton’s house) and will include a tour of the house and a visit to Colsterthorpe Church. Details to be announced.

2014 SHA AGM & Autumn Conference

The Annual General Meeting & Autumn Conference for next year will be held at the Birmingham & Midlands Institute on 31 October 2015.

Members are encouraged to give presentations, or exhibit posters relating to their research, at this and future SHA events and anyone wishing to do so should should contact Kevin Kilburn (kevinkilburn@sky.com) in the first instance.

Information from the SHA eNews Oct. 2014

SHA Chairman unveils blue plaque

SHA Chairman Madeline Cox (right) at the unveiling

SHA Chairman Madeline Cox recently unveiled a blue plaque in honour of astronomer, meteorologist and botanist Edward J Lowe (1825-1900) at Shirenewton Hall in Monmouthshire. Lowe spent his working life in Nottingham, but retired to Shirenewton in 1880.

Children of the local primary school were among the guests, and some of them are pictured here. Also in the picture, on the left, is Lowe’s great-great-granddaughter, Lisa Backhouse, who had travelled from Winchester to attend the ceremony.

A fuller report will appear in the Bulletin.

From the SHA eNews Oct. 2014

Historic celestial atlas to star on BBC

BBC presenter Tim Wonnacott and SHA officer Kevin Kilburn display the Bevis Atlas

The Great Antiques Map of Britain is a new BBC TV series due to air on BBC2 towards the end of the year.

Presenter Tim Wonnacott embarks on a nationwide journey to discover the people, the places, the antiquities and collectables that tell the story of Great Britain.

Before he arrives, Tim throws down the challenge to the locals to bring him their precious family heirlooms and antiques for an expert opinion and appraisal.

When a visit to their city was announced, Manchester Astronomical Society (MAS) seized the opportunity to bring along their rare copy of the mid-18th century celestial atlas of John Bevis – also known as ‘Uranographia Britannica’.

This was discovered in the Godlee Observatory by members of MAS in 1997 and is held at Chetham’s Library. Less than 30 copies are known to exist worldwide. During the show, which will be broadcast sometime in October or November, an auctioneer valued the atlas at between £30,000-£35,000.

MAS will soon be publishing a new CD with high resolution digital images of the entire atlas. Watch out for purchasing details.

From the SHA eNews Oct. 2014

SHA Autumn Conference Programme amendment

The Royal Observatory, Greenwich and its famous Time Ball

Members and others proposing to attend the SHA Autumn Conference in Birmingham on 25 October 2014 are requested to note a change to the lecture programme, whereby Madeline Cox’s talk has been replaced with The Greenwich Time Ball by Doug Bateman, FBHI. Doug is an horological researcher and former Secretary of the British Sundial Society.

An amended flyer is available from the Meetings page of the SHA website as a pdf download.

SHA e-News April 2014 published

The SHA’s electronic newsletter, the SHA e-NEWS for April 2014, has been published and circulated by email to members.

It includes the latest Society news in detail, including meetings details, ass well as more general news which will be of interest to members – and prospective members!

You can download all issues up to date via this separate website:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/24095066/contents/enews.html

The next issue of the e-NEWS is due in early July. If you know of any meetings, publications, exhibitions or events pertaining to the history of astronomy that might interest other members, please email brief details to the editor, David Sellers via: enews@shastro.org.uk

New SHA Honorary Vice-President

Sir Arnold Wolfendale, courtesy Jim Cornmell via Wikimedia Commons

We are delighted to announce that SHA member Prof. Sir Arnold Wolfendale, FRS, has accepted the post of Honorary Vice-President of the Society for the History of Astronomy.

Sir Arnold replaces the late Sir Patrick Moore (who was an Hon. Vice President and supporter of the SHA since the Society’s founding in 2002) and takes his place alongside our Honorary President, Dr Allan Chapman, and our other Honorary Vice-President, Dr Michael Hoskin.

Sir Arnold has had a distinguished career as an academic and astronomer and was the Astronomer Royal from 1991 to 1995.

He was elected a member of the Royal Society in 1977. He is currently Emeritus Professor of Physics at Durham University, where he taught for many years.

You may remember his splendid talk at our York conference last April, on the history of cosmic ray astronomy.

We welcome Sir Arnold in this new role and hope he will be able to represent us for many years to come.

Madeline Cox, FRAS

Chairman, SHA

SHA Library Catalogue update

SHA members and others will be interested to know that an update to the SHA Library Manual and Catalogue – for March 2014 – has been posted on the Library page of the SHA website.

See http://www.shastro.org.uk

The SHA’s Sir Robert Ball Library is located in the Benson Room at the Birmingham and Midland Institute (BMI), 9 Margaret Street, Birmingham, B3 3BS, England (see: http://www.bmi.org.uk/ for a location map etc). Located in Birmingham city centre, the BMI is within a 10 minute walk from Birmingham New Street and Snow Hill railway stations.

PLEASE NOTE: Access is by arrangement ONLY with Library staff and the Library is supervised by SHA volunteer staff. The Library is securely double locked and intruder-alarmed. Toilets are nearby, and there is a café on-site.

If you are a member of the SHA and you wish to consult or borrow any items, please arrange a visit in advance with the Head Librarian, James Dawson. Email: library@shastro.org.uk

Enquiries

For general enquiries about the SHA Library Service and the Sir Robert Ball Library, please contact James Dawson.

SHA Meetings News

The latest details available of the Society for the History of Astronomy meetings programmes for 2014 and also the separate 2014 SHA Council meetings programme are now available, with flyer downloads where applicable, from the Meetings page of the SHA website.

If there are any changes to these details in future, they will always appear here.

Please note that, while non-members are welcome to attend SHA meetings, meeting attendance fees will always be on the most advantageous terms to Members – an incentive to join, if you have not already done so, to reap the benefits of membership as well as to support the aims and work of the SHA.

We look forward to seeing you at any or all of our meetings next year!

The Antiquarian Astronomer – News

The most recent issue of The Antiquarian Astronomer, volume 7, was circulated to members during May. If you have not received a copy and believe that you should have done then please contact Bob Bower in the first instance (contact details on the Council page).

The next issue of The Antiquarian Astronomer, volume 8, is scheduled to be published in the spring of 2014. Preparation of the issue is in progress and it is anticipated that it will contain at least six papers.

Kevin Johnson, the current Editor of The Antiquarian Astronomer, will be stepping down after the publication of volume 8. He has edited the journal since 2010, following an extended period as Assistant Editor. Kevin took over the editorship in difficult circumstances and has maintained the journal’s high standards as an authoritative publication presenting peer-reviewed original research in the history of astronomy. He is owed a very considerable debt of gratitude for this work.

We are pleased to announce that Ian Ridpath has kindly volunteered to take over as Editor of The Antiquarian Astronomer. He will be producing volume 9 and has already been co-opted to the Society’s Council in anticipation.

Ian needs no introduction and brings a wealth of experience to the post. We welcome him most warmly and look forward to working with him.

Papers for consideration for publication in The Antiquarian Astronomer are always welcome. Papers should present original research in the history of astronomy and are externally refereed prior to publication. If you are interested in submitting one then please contact the current Editor, Kevin Johnson, who will be pleased to advise (contact details on the Council page).

This item first appeared in the SHA eNews Oct. 2013.