Comets, Cosmology and the Big Bang

COntents Acknowledgments 18 Preface 21 1 From the Beginning to 1700: The Origins of Astronomy The origins of astronomy 26 The earliest astronomers 27 What made the Greek experience 29 central to Western thought? Medieval consolidation 32 Europe's astronomical Renaissance 35 2 Cosmology Begins at Home: Captain Edmond Halley, 41 FRS, RN, Astronomer, Geophysicist, and Adventurer The schoolboy scientist 42 Early adventures: St Helena, Danzig, and across 44 Europe: the making of a physical scientist Edmond Halley, the father of meteorology 47 and geophysics Later adventures: Captain Halley RN takes 50 HMS Paramore among the icebergs Professor Halley and the Great Aurora Borealis 51 of 1716 Halley studies the nebulae and ponders 53 cosmological vastness 3 Could a Comet Have Caused Noah's Flood? Changing views about comets, 1580-1720 57 Dr Robert Hooke takes comets into the chemical 59 laboratory in 1677 Comets tamed at last: 1680-1705 61 Noah's Flood, the ancient earth, comets, 62 and the saltiness of the sea Edmond Halley: the Astronomer Royal 64 and the longitude, 1720-42 Religion and politics, a merry life and a 69 sudden death 4 Let there be more light. How Telescope Technology Became the Arbiter in Cosmological Research Long telescopes on tall poles 73 All done with mirrors: the early reflecting telescope 77 John Hadley and his Newtonian 79 reflecting telescope A golden guinea an inch: James Short turns the 81 reflecting telescope into big business John Dollond perfects the refracting telescope 84 c. 1760 Every gentleman must have one! 86 Benjamin Martin, lecturer, and entrepreneur, makes scientific instruments fashionable 5 The Rector and the Organist: Gravity, Star Clusters, and the Origins of the Milky Way Thomas Wright of Durham and eighteenth-century 89 speculative cosmologies The Revd John Michell: the Pleiades Cluster, dark 91 stars , and gravitational black holes in 1783 Charles Messier: comet hunter and nebula 93 cataloguer of the Ancien Regime in Paris The enterprising oboist: Herschel comes 94 to England Herschel the fashionable church organist 97 and musical impresario of Bath From organ pipes to telescopes, from acoustics 98 to optics, and on to cosmology Bath, 13 March 1781: William Herschel 100 discovers a comet 6 William and Caroline Herschel Fathom the 104 Construction of the Heavens from an English Country Garden William Herschel's telescope technology 106 Observing with a Herschel telescope 107 Stars, the Milky Way, and the Construction of 109 the Heavens after 1784 Oh Herschel! Oh Herschel! Where do you fly? 112 To sweep the cobwebs out of the sky Shining fluids , glowing rings of light, star 113 clusters, and gravity: the Herschelian universe Observatory House, 1784: an account by a 116 visiting French savant Sir William Herschel, Knight Guelph 118 A Herschel telescope postscript 119 7 Measuring the Heavens and the Earth in Eighteenth- Century Europe Part 1: In Pursuit of Venus: Astronomy's First Great International Adventure In pursuit of the solar parallax 122 Venus in transit, June 1761 125 Venus transits the sun in 1769 129 Le Gentil and the 1769 transit 133 Practical observation, Venus, and the longitude 134 8 Measuring the Heavens and the Earth in Eighteenth- Century Europe Part 2: Pendulums, Planets, and Gravity: Creating the Science of Geodesy The curious behaviour of M. Richer's clock: 140 Cayenne, Brazil, 1672 Geophysics by degrees and the shape of the earth 142 The Astronomer Royal, the mountain, and 147 the village fiddler Geophysics goes to the laboratory: 149 Henry Cavendish and the torsion balance experiment, 1797-98 9 Cosmology and the Romantic Age 152 From daffodil fields to starry fields: a universe of 152 awe and wonder Laws of wonder: Herschel, Laplace, 153 and the laws of gravitation Mysteries beyond the spectrum: 156 Sir William Herschel discovers the dark spectrum in 1800 Science for Georgian ladies and gentlemen 157 The London physician, the Bavarian orphan, 160 and the wonders of light Professor Bessel and the distance of the stars 163 Caroline the comet hunter 166 10 Sir John Herschel: The Universal Philosopher of 168 the Age John Frederick William Herschel: a genius 168 in the making John Herschel inherits the cosmological 170 family business Optics, chemistry, photography, and a gift 172 for friendship Slough, marriage, then the Cape of 174 Good Hope The Herschel cosmos of 1850 178 The size of the stars and their absolute brightness 180 Sir 11 There Must Be Somebody Out There! 184 A fascination with aliens 184 The Revd Dr Thomas Dick of Broughty 186 Ferry, Dundee New York, August 1835, and the 188 Great Lunar Hoax Jules Verne: from the earth to the moon in 1865 191 Pity the poor Martians dying of thirst: 1877 193 The Martians turn nasty 195 So is there really anybody out there? 196 12 Mary Somerville: Mathematician, Astronomer, and 198 Gifted Science Communicator Miss Mary Fairfax, the independent-minded 198 admiral's daughter Two contrasting husbands 200 Continental travel and international 201 mathematical fame Mary Somerville, astronomy, and the Herschels 202 Early mathematical and physical works 205 Mary Somerville, the physical sciences expositor 206 On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences, 208 Physical Geography, and On Molecular and Microscopic Science Natural laws, religion, and her final voyage 211 13 Sir George Biddell Airy of Greenwich: Astronomer 212 Royal to the British Empire Sir George Biddell Airy (1801-92): 213 early life and achievements New instruments, chronometers, time, 217 and the electric telegraph Airy the scientific civil servant 222 Airy and the discovery of Neptune, 1846 223 The Astronomer Royal and his staff 225 John Herschel, the universal philosopher 182 14 Barristers, Brewers, Peers, and Engineers: Paying for 228 Astronomical Research: the British Grand Amateur Tradition Funding astronomy in Great Britain: 228 the roots of a tradition The Grand Amateur astronomical world 231 The Liverpool brewer and the Manchester 234 steam-engine builder The Irish nobleman who discovered the 240 whirlpools of deep space The Royal Astronomical Society: 246 a Grand Amateur creation Postscript: Grand Amateur astronomy today 247 15 The Camera Does Not Lie: The Birth of Astronomical Photography Monsieur Louis Daguerre, Sir John Herschel, 249 and Mr William Henry Fox Talbot Dr John William Draper of New York: 252 the first astronomical photographer The miracle of the wet collodion 253 photograph, 1851 Warren De La Rue: the Guernsey-born paper 255 manufacturer and pioneer of astronomical photography The first custom-designed photographic 258 telescope James Nasmyth's The Moon (1874): 260 photographing the moon at second hand The dry gelatin plate and new possibilities 262 Isaac Roberts: photographer of the galaxies 262 16 Unweaving the Rainbow Part 1: Sunlight, Sunspot Cycles, and Magnetic Storms 266 Understanding the Sun, Our Nearest Star 266 The great solar storm of 1859 268 Rice grains , granules , and the solar surface 270 Solar knowledge by 1860: a resume 271 17 Unweaving the Rainbow Part 2: Cosmologists and Catholic Priest Pioneers of Astrophysics An afternoon walk in Heidelberg in 1859 275 Sir William and Lady Margaret Huggins discover 277 gaseous nebulae from a south London garden Father Angelo Secchi of Rome: 281 the Jesuit pioneer of astrophysics The Stonyhurst College Jesuit Observatory 282 The sun and the spectroscope 284 Our American cousins and our Irish friends 287 18 The Revd Thomas William Webb and the Birth 291 of Popular Astronomy The Revd Mr Webb of Hardwicke, 291 astronomer and popularizer Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes and 293 Webb's telescopes The modest amateur astronomer and the 295 new reflecting telescope Victorian clergymen-astronomer-engineers 297 Astronomical societies and The English Mechanic 300 magazine Popular astronomy in France 303 John Jones of Brangwyn Bach and other 303 working-men astronomers 19 Ladies of the Night : The Astronomical Women in Great Britain and America 310 Scientific education for women 310 Professional astronomy for women in the 312 Old World Agnes Mary Clerke of Skibbereen, 316 the Irish historian of astronomy Women in the new amateur astronomical 319 societies after 1881 Florence Taylor: from Leeds to Minnesota 320 Elizabeth Brown, the sun, and the eclipse-chasers 322 The first women Fellows of the Royal 325 Astronomical Society 20 Astronomy for the Masses in the Victorian Age and Early Twentieth Century The age of self-improvement: Sunday schools, 327 Mechanics' Institutes, and the Victorian knowledge industry Lord Henry Brougham: pioneer of popular 329 education Astronomy shows, demonstrations, 331 and lectures Richard Anthony Proctor and Sir Robert 337 Stawell Ball: stars of the astronomical lecture circuit Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington and 341 Sir James Hopwood Jeans: astronomy's first Knights of the airwaves 21 Under New World Skies: The Great American Observatories North America's first big observatories 345 The Harvard astrophysicists 348 The ladies of the Harvard Observatory 348 Alvan Clark and Sons, opticians of Boston, Massachusetts 350 American Liberal Arts Colleges and astronomy 352 Percival Lowell, the canals of Mars, 353 and Flagstaff, Arizona, in the west America's two giant refractors: the Lick and 355 Yerkes Observatories America's giant reflecting telescopes 358 Conclusion 360 22 On the Eve of the Watershed: Astronomy and Cosmology c. 1890-1920 The universe: a steady, stately place? 363 The Michelson-Morley Experiment, 1887 364 Twinkle, twinkle, little star; now we know just 367 what you are : the birth, life, and death of stars The Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram, 1910-13 371 Henrietta Swan Leavitt and the Cepheid stars 373 Harlow Shapley, the spiral galaxies, and the 375 Milky Way The Great Debate: Smithsonian Museum, 379 Washington DC, 26 April 1920 23 It's All Relative. The Alice in Wonderland World of 381 Early Twentieth-Century Physics The physics quake of the 1890s: X-rays, 382 atoms, and radiation The mighty atom 385 Mercury, Vulcan, and the problems of gravity 387 The patent clerk of Bern: Albert Einstein and 388 relativity Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, Einstein, and the 392 solar eclipse of 1919 Albert Einstein the affable celebrity 394 Postscript 397 24 Crossing the Watershed: Edwin Hubble, the Celebrity Astronomer of the Galaxies From small-town Missouri to self-created 398 English gentleman Hubble, red shifts, and the extra-galactic universe 400 Hubble's Law and Constant 403 The subsequent development of Hubble's cosmos: 405 Milton Humason, Walter Baade, and Allan Sandage Milton Humason 406 Walter Baade 407 Allan Sandage 408 Edwin Hubble and the stars of Hollywood 410 25 The Belgian Priest-Cosmologist and the Cosmic Egg 412 Father Georges Lemaitre of Leuven 412 Making sense of modern cosmology: 414 the Royal Astronomical Society discussion meeting, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, 10 January 1930 Father Lemaitre and Sir Arthur Eddington 416 It's all a 'big bang' : Sir Fred Hoyle and his 417 steady state cosmology of 1948 Return to the stars 420 Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and the 422 white dwarfs Lemaitre, Pope Pius XII, and the big bang 426 Stephen Hawking and the black hole 426 26 Sir Bernard Lovell and the Radio Universe 428 Karl Jansky's merry-go-round and the birth of 429 radio astronomy The radio window and how the radio telescope 431 works Grote Reber of Wheaton, Illinois: an amateur leads 433 the way - yet again! Sir Alfred Charles Bernard Lovell and 435 Jodrell Bank, Cheshire Other great radio telescopes 441 The achievement of radio astronomy 443 Sir Bernard Lovell: a recollection 446 27 Fly Me to the Moon : The Birth of the Space Age 449 Rockets into space 449 The rocket men 451 The first space flights 455 Yuri Gagarin (1934-68), the first space man, 1961 457 The Apollo missions 457 Touchdown: the Sea of Tranquillity, 20 July 1969 459 The Book of Genesis goes to the moon: 460 Christmas 1968 The end of manned missions 460 The unmanned space probes 461 The Hubble Space Telescope 463 Exploring the surface of Mars 464 Terra-forming Mars 467 28 A Universe for the People: Sir Patrick Moore and the 468 New Amateur Astronomy Popular astronomical fallacies 469 Television and astronomy's new popular audience 472 Sir Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore and 473 The Sky at Night, 1957-2012 Moonstruck: amateur astronomy and the moon 476 after 1950 Transient lunar phenomena, or TLP s 478 Good telescopes for all 479 The researches of modern amateur astronomers 481 The post-1950 amateur astronomy movement 483 Carl Edward Sagan and Cosmos, 1980 484 Sir Patrick Moore: the man and the astronomer 485 29 Postscript: Creation Revisited: Where Do We 489 Stand Today? Life on other worlds and space travel, 490 twenty-first-century style Creation, cosmology, and the mind of God 493 Appendix: The Cock Lane Ghost, or the 496 Ghost Catch Notes 497 List of In-text Illustrations 508 Further Reading 513 Index 545