The Great Copernicus Chase and Other Adventures in Astronomical History
The Great Copernicus Chase and Other Adventures in Astronomical History
Out of Print
The Great Copernicus Chase is an anthology of 36 incidents drawn from the history of astronomy. The chapters range from Stonehenge and ancient Egypt, to the Great Comet of 1965, and to Albert Einstein. In this series of articles, arranged roughly chronologically, Professor Gingerich covers all the important periods and developments in astronomy. The book is generously illustrated throughout, and opportunity has been taken to add illustrations to articles that originally had none. The curious reader will learn of the origin of the zodiac, Islamic astronomy, fake astrolabes, the foundation of modern astronomy in the USA, and the discovery of the spiral arms of our Galaxy. Although Professor Gingerich prepared this material primarily for readers interested in the historical background to astronomy, there are many original research discoveries and insights. This is popularization and intellectual history combined. The Copernicus Chase refers to Owen Gingerich's attempt to make a census of all extant copies of De Revolutionibus. Some of the many adventures that have befallen him in this quest feature in the book. The majority of the chapters originally appeared in Sky and Telescope, the monthly astronomy magazine published by Sky Publishing Corporation of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
- Profusely illustrated with delightful historical illustrations
- Covers all main periods of astronomical history
- Presents new research insights
- Lucidly and entertainingly written
Reviews & endorsements
'The essays are beguiling and well written … well worth reading and the book will bring them to a wider audience …' Nature
'It is anecdotal and eminently readable, but underneath its racy and unstructured exterior it makes some strong historical points with authority that such popular writing usually lacks.' The Times Literary Supplement
' … potential readers should be warned that … this book is difficult to put down … a book to read, to dip into in odd moments, to use for reference; above all, it is a book to enjoy.' Contemporary Physics
Product details
November 1992Hardback
9780521326889
316 pages
261 × 183 × 24 mm
1.042kg
176 b/w illus.
Unavailable - out of print July 2003
Table of Contents
- 1. Ancient Egyptian sky magic
- 2. The origin of the zodiac
- 3. The basic astronomy of Stonehenge
- 4. Some puzzles of Ptolemy's star catalog
- 5. Ptolemy and the maverick motion of Mercury
- 6. How astronomers finally captured Mercury
- 7. Islamic astronomy
- 8. The astronomy of Alfonso the Wise
- 9. From Aristarchus to Copernicus
- 10. The Great Copernicus Chase
- 11. The Tower of the Winds and the Gregorian calendar
- 12. Tycho Brahe and the Great Comet of 1577
- 13. Galileo and the phases of Venus
- 14. The Galileo affair
- 15. Johannes Kepler and the Rudolphine Tables
- 16. An astrolabe from Lahore
- 17. Fake astrolabes
- 18. Newton, Halley and the comet
- 19. Eighteenth-century eclipse paths
- 20. The 1784 autobiography of William Herschel
- 21. The great comet that never came
- 22. Unlocking the chemical secrets of the cosmos
- 23. The discovery of the satellites of Mars
- 24. The first photograph of a nebula
- 25. The great comet and the Carte
- 26. James Lick and the founding of Lick Observatory
- 27. Atget's eclipse watchers
- 28. Faintness means farness
- 29. The mysterious nebulae 1610-1924
- 30. Harlow Shapley and the Cepheids
- 31. A search for Russell's original diagram
- 32. Dreyer and Tycho's world system
- 33. Robert Trumpler and the dustiness of space
- 34. The discovery of the spiral arms of the Milky Way
- 35. The great comet of 1965
- 36. Albert Einstein: a laboratory in the mind.
