Essays on Astronomical History and Heritage

Steven Gullberg holds a Ph.D. in astronomy from James Cook University (Australia) and is Professor of Cultural Astronomy at the University of Oklahoma (USA), where he is Lead Faculty for the School of Integrative and Cultural Studies. He is the University’s Director for Archaeoastronomy and Astronomy in Culture, serves as Chair of the International Astronomical Union’s Working Group for Astronomy in Culture, and serves as the Managing Editor of the Journal of Astronomy in Culture. He has conducted extensive field research on the astronomy of the Incas in the Peruvian Andes and has written many research papers. He is the author of Astronomy of the Inca Empire: Use and Significance of the Sun and the Night Sky (Springer Nature, 2020), co-editor of Education and Heritage in the Era of Big Data Astronomy (Cambridge University Press, 2021), and co-editor of Cultural Astronomy in Latin America (World Scientific, in press). At the University of Oklahoma, he ledthe development of an archaeoastronomy distance-learning program and courses designed to educate researchers around the world. Steven regularly presents papers at international conferences as he endeavors to globally advance the field of Cultural Astronomy. Peter Robertson holds a PhD in the history of astronomy from the University of Southern Queensland (Australia) and is currently an honorary research fellow in the Astrophysics Group at the University of Melbourne. Peter spent most of his career in science publishing, including over twenty years as the Managing Editor of the Australian Journal of Physics, published jointly by CSIRO and the Australian Academy of Science. Since his retirement in 2009, he has spent much of his time researching the development of radio astronomy in Australia. He is the author of three books: Beyond Southern Skies: Radio Astronomy and the Parkes Telescope (Cambridge University Press, 1992); Radio Astronomer:John Bolton and a New Window on the Universe (NewSouth Books, 2017); and Golden Years of Australian Radio Astronomy: An Illustrated History (Springer, in press). Peter is currently an Associate Editor of Journal of Astronomical History & Heritage.

• Chapter 1. COSMOS AND CULTURE: LINKING THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH.- Chapter 2. SWEDEN’S THIRTY DAYS IN FEBRUARY: CALENDAR REFORM.- Chapter 3. EARLY STAR CHARTS OF THE DUTCH EAST INDIA COMPANY.- Chapter 4. THE SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL CIVILIZATIONS:  A SCIENTIFIC, TECHNICAL, POLITICAL, SOCIAL, AND CULTURAL ADVENTURE.- Chapter 5. WHAT’S IN A NAME?  THAT WHICH WE CALL ANDERS’ EARTHRISE, AS ‘PASTEUR T,’ DIDN’T SOUND AS SWEET (ADVENTURES IN LUNAR EXPLORATION AND NOMENCLATURE ON THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF APOLLO 8).- Chapter 6.  THE LIFE AND SCIENCE OF LÉON FOUCAULT AS A MUSE.- Chapter 7. THE MERE FANCIFUL ABSTRACTIONS OF SCIENCE.- Chapter 8. HENRY NORRIS RUSSELL’S CAMPAIGN TO MAKE PHYSICS THE CORE OF ASTROPHYSICS.- Chapter 9. ASTRONOMICAL TRAVELS IN ASIA.- Chapter 10. THE DISCOVERY OF THE COMA CLUSTER OF GALAXIES.- Chapter 11. FROM AIRCRAFT CARRIERS TO THE COSMOS: COMPARING AND CONTRASTING THE CAREERS OF JOHN BOLTON AND JOSEPH WEBER.- Chapter 12. GROTE REBER IN TASMANIA.-Chapter 13. WAYNE ORCHISTON AND THE HISTORY OF RADIO ASTRONOMY.- Chapter 14. THE HOLE-IN-THE-GROUND TELESCOPE AND THE DISCOVERY OF THE GALACTIC CENTRE.- Chapter 15. REMAINS OF THE DAY: HISTORICAL REMNANTS OF THE CSIRO RADIOPHYSICS FIELD STATIONS.- Chapter 16. HISTORY OF COSMIC MAGNETIC FIELDS.- Chapter 17. ‘WHERE'S WALDO?’ LEONARD WALDO AND THE 1878 TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE IN FORT WORTH, TEXAS.- Chapter 18. THE EVOLUTION OF ‘METEOR’ AS AN ASTRONOMICAL TROPE 1560–1760.- Chapter 19. NEW ZEALAND OBSERVATIONS OF THE GREAT COMET OF 1881, C/1881 K1 (TEBBUTT).- Chapter 20. SOLAR ECLIPSES, WAYNE ORCHISTON, AND ME.- Chapter 21. POLITICS AND THE DIMENSIONS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM: JOHN WINTHROP’S OBSERVATIONS OF THE TRANSITS OF VENUS.- Chapter 22. INVESTIGATION OF SHANG DYNASTY ORACLE BONES AND ECLIPSES.- Chapter 23. ON JEAN-CHARLES HOUZEAU AND HILMAR DUERBECK: HOW TRANSITS OF VENUS MOLDED THEIR LATE PROFESSIONAL LIVES.- Chapter 24. WILLIAM HERSCHEL AND THE MOON.- Chapter 25. THE ‘NASHVILLE TRIO’ OF ASTRONOMERS AT THE DYER OBSERVATORY IN TENNESSEE: CARL SEYFERT, ROBERT HARDIE AND JOHN DEWITT.- Chapter 26. EARLY PHOTOMETERS AT THE ROYAL OBSERVATORY, CAPE.- Chapter 27. EVOLUTIONS IN THE HISTORY OF VISUAL TIME SIGNALS FOR MARINERS.- Chapter 28. CLOSING ENCOUNTERS: THE EFFORTS OF THE NSW BRANCH OF THE BRITISH ASTRONOMICAL ASSOCIATION TO SAVE SYDNEY OBSERVATORY.- Chapter 29. FINDING COLONIAL NEW ZEALAND’S PLACE IN THE WORLD: ASTRONOMY AND A GEODESICAL SURVEYOR.- Chapter 30. INCA CULTURAL ASTRONOMY.- Chapter 31. THE ASTRONOMY OF THE ABORIGINAL PEOPLES OF THE SYDNEY BASIN.- Chapter 32. USING THE SIGNIFICANT HORIZONS METHODOLOGY TO DETERMINE POTENTIAL ASTRONOMICAL USE OF ABORIGINAL STONE ARRANGEMENTS.- Chapter 33. ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA IN PREMODERN ARMENIAN AND GEORGIAN WRITTEN SOURCES.

“The book is well put together … and a useful index. Such a volume cannot possibly claim to be comprehensive, but as a taster of the topics currently being researched by the history-of-astronomy community, it cannot be beaten.” (Mike Frost, Journal of the British Astronomical Association, August 12, 2024)