*************************************************************************** * * * ELEKTRONISCHE MITTEILUNGEN ZUR ASTRONOMIEGESCHICHTE * * * * Herausgegeben vom Arbeitskreis Astronomiegeschichte * * in der Astronomischen Gesellschaft * * * * Nr. 35, 7. Dezember 1998 * * * * Redaktion: Dr. Wolfgang R. Dick * * * *************************************************************************** Inhalt ------ 1. James Caplan: Historical Conservation at the Marseille Observatory 2. Eric S. Hutton: Meteors and Meteorites: A Historic Archive of Articles, Books and Catalogues on CD-ROM 3. Reinhard E. Schielicke: Modell von Keplers "Mysterium cosmographicum" 4. Michael Oates: Uranographia Britannica 5. Julio Gonzalez Cabillon: HISTORIA MATEMATICA - a new mailing list 6. Fifth International Conference on the History and Foundations of General Relativity Impressum ........................................................................... Item 1 EMA Nr. 35, 7. Dezember 1998 ........................................................................... Historical Conservation at the Marseille Observatory ---------------------------------------------------- By James Caplan, Marseille (Aus: Mitteilungen zur Astronomiegeschichte Nr. 12, Juni 1998, S. 1; Electronic Newsletter for the History of Astronomy, No. 30, July 10, 1998, Item 2) A brief history The Marseille Observatory was founded in 1702 by the Jesuits, in the Sainte Croix convent near the Vieux Port, and was subsidized by the King and the Royal Navy. The first director was Laval, followed by Pezenas until 1763, when the Jesuits were expelled from France. During most of the old observatory's subsequent history it was state-controlled, and was at times called the Naval Observatory. The first non-Jesuit director was Saint-Jacques de Silvabelle; he was followed by Thulis, Blanpain, Gambart and Valz. Franz Xaver von Zach, a frequent visitor to Marseille, played an indirect role in the observatory's history in the decades around 1800. Jean-Louis Pons, the observatory concierge who became a noted comet hunter, was a protege of Zach. In the 1860s, Le Verrier, then director of the Paris Observatory, wished to build an observing station in the south of France. Upon Valz's retirement, he took over control of the Marseille Observatory, giving the building to the City of Marseille in exchange for the present observatory site on the Plateau Longchamp (at that time at the edge of the built-up area). During ten years the Marseille Observatory was directed by Le Verrier as an annex to the Paris Observatory. The old observatory's instruments were transferred to the new site, although few of them were used since new equipment was furnished (including an 80-cm Foucault telescope). The Marseille Observatory again became independent of the Paris Observatory in 1873. Today it is associated with the Universite de Provence and with the CNRS. The 'Groupe Patrimoine' The Marseille Observatory's 'Groupe Patrimoine' works towards the protection, inventory and (in some cases) reversible restoration of the observatory's historical heritage, and makes it available for display and consultation. This material includes instruments, books and the observatory's archives. They would like to make the astronomical/historical community aware of this collection. As often happens, the historical material has suffered in the past from negligence and inadequate protection. But since 1990 most of the old instruments (including telescopes, repeating circles, etc., mostly from the old observatory) have been gathered together in a small 'museum'. (As part of a separate operation, the Foucault Telescope is on display in a space principally dedicated to public outreach programmes.) The collection of a few hundred old books from the observatory library is kept in the museum. The archives are at present at the Archives departementales in Marseille where they were recently inventoried, and where a large part is now being microfilmed; but in a few months they will be returned to the observatory and stored adjacent to the museum. The book catalogue in a preliminary form is available on their Web site; the inventory of the archives should be posted soon. The Web site can be consulted at http://www-obs.cnrs-mrs.fr/patrimoine/patrimoine.html where one can also find information about the history of the observatory in the form of old texts that are not otherwise easily accessible. Soon there will be information about the instrument collection. The Groupe Patrimoine regret that there is not yet much historical information posted, but within the limited time they have been able to devote to this effort, they have judged urgent to give priority to the *protection* of the material and have therefore rather neglected the historical research which of course is the ultimate goal. Much remains to be done. For example, now that the basic structure of the archives has been defined by professional archivists, they plan to do a computer-searchable extension containing much more information about individual items. Also they hope to digitize the microfilms for computer consultation, thus by-passing classical microfilm readers. Contacts, visits and moral support are welcome! Contact the Groupe Patrimoine (James Caplan, Gerard Lemaitre and Marie-Louise Prevot) at Observatoire de Marseille, 2 place Le Verrier, 13248 Marseille Cedex 4, France, e-mail: patrimoine@observatoire.cnrs-mrs.fr, telephone +33-4-9504-4189. ........................................................................... Item 2 EMA Nr. 35, 7. Dezember 1998 ........................................................................... Meteors and Meteorites: A Historic Archive of Articles, Books ------------------------------------------------------------- and Catalogues on CD-ROM ------------------------ By Eric S. Hutton, Hitchin, England (Aus: Electronic Newsletter for the History of Astronomy, No. 32, October 13, 1998, Item 1) This privately funded project collected together old articles, books and catalogues under the subject of Meteors and Meteorites. Over 2500 pages have been scanned in, and are viewable on a CD-ROM as 'photocopies' of the original pages. The CD-ROM contains many influential and historically important publications about meteorites and meteors. Highlights include the following four books: * A Chapter in the History of Meteorites (1887) by W. Flight * The Meteoritic Hypothesis (1890) by Norman Lockyer * Die Meteoriten in Sammlungen und ihre Literatur (1897) by E. A. Wufling * The Ward-Coonley collection of Meteorites (1904 edition) by H. A. Ward. The CD is viewable on any computer using Netscape or Internet Explorer Web browser. The cost is US$ 20, or GBP 12, plus shipping/handling charge. Distribution: U.S, Canada, South America: by Martin Horejsi, Meteorite Books, email: martinh@isu.edu UK, Europe, Australisia: from Eric Hutton, email: bookman@rmplc.co.uk Martin Horejsi has also set up a web page giving more details plus sample pages and contents. See http://www.isu.edu/~martinh ........................................................................... Item 3 EMA Nr. 35, 7. Dezember 1998 ........................................................................... Modell von Keplers "Mysterium cosmographicum" --------------------------------------------- Von Reinhard E. Schielicke, Jena Seit mehreren Jahren waren Frau Dr. I. Stein, Direktorin des Heinrich-Schuetz-Hauses Bad Koestritz, und der Autor bemueht, ein Modell des Keplerschen "Mysterium cosmographicum" bauen zu lassen (siehe auch EMA Nr. 12, 25. Oktober 1995, Item 6). Inzwischen hat sich ein Jenaer Modellbauer dieser Aufgabe (zu einem sehr moderaten Preis) unterzogen. Die Saturn-Halbschale ist aus Pappmache gefertigt und hat einen Durchmesser von 1 m. Alle anderen Planeten-Halbsphaeren sind aus Plexiglas. Waehrend die fuenf platonischen Koerper aus Messingprofilen bestehen, sind die Planetenringe und der Fuss aus Holz gebaut. Das Modell ist nach Keplers Angaben farblich gestaltet. In der Bad Koestritzer Heinrich-Schuetz-Gedenkstaette versinnbildlicht das Modell nach den Vorstellungen des jugendlichen Kepler die beide Zeitgenossen verbindende Suche nach Harmonien und Sphaerenklaengen in der Natur an der Schwelle des 17. Jahrhunderts. Anschrift: Forschungs-und Gedenkstaette im Geburtshaus des Komponisten Heinrich-Schuetz-Haus, Heinrich-Schuetz-Str. 1, D-07586 Bad Koestritz, Tel.: 036605-2405, Fax: 36199 Oeffnungszeiten: Di - Fr 10-17 Uhr, Sa/So 13-17 Uhr Anschrift des Autors: Dr. Reinhard E. Schielicke Universitaets-Sternwarte Jena Schillergaesschen 2 D-07745 Jena E-mail: schie@astro.uni-jena.de ........................................................................... Item 4 EMA Nr. 35, 7. Dezember 1998 ........................................................................... Uranographia Britannica ----------------------- By Michael Oates, Manchester The Manchester Astronomical Society are proud to announce that a CD-ROM version of an extremely rare Star Atlas compiled by John Bevis, in the eighteenth century, can now be ordered online from http://www.u-net.com/ph/mas/bevis/cd-rom.htm Or you can visit the Bevis Uranographia Britannica home page at http://www.u-net.com/ph/mas/bevis/ An article on the Discovery of the Atlas appeared in Astronomy Now, June 98 edition. Plus a 4 page article on the November 98 issue of Sky & Telescope. The CD-ROM was also featured in the September 98 issue of Sky & Telescope. Brief Description of the Atlas This is an extremely rare atlas, and little known. The Manchester Astronomical Society discovered, nearly one year ago, that it was in possession of a very good copy, one of only 16 known to exist! It comprises of 51 Star charts covering the whole sky, a Cover page, Frontispiece and Index page. John Bevis, an eighteenth century physician - turned astronomer, whose other claim to fame is as the discoverer of the Crab Nebula compiled this atlas during the years 1745 - 1750. But the atlas was never published as the publisher was declared bankrupt in 1750. The quality of the engravings far surpass any other star atlas of the day, including those from Bayer, and Flamsteed. See http://www.u-net.com/ph/mas/bevis/press.htm for a Press release. Brief Description of the CD-ROM The whole atlas has been reproduced and put on to CD-ROM. Not only are all the charts and plates on the CD-ROM, but there is also a wealth of information about the atlas, John Bevis, how it was produced and why it was never published. The CD-ROM also includes an article about a pre-discovery observation of Uranus. A separate image directory has all the plates in .bmp format, and a selection of very high resolution images in .jpg format. The CD-ROM works with all versions of Windows from 3.1 upwards including Windows95/98 Windows NT3.5x - NT4 and the Macintosh. See http://www.u-net.com/ph/mas/bevis/cd-rom.htm for more information and online ordering by RegNet, or pay by cheque. Prices from GBP 12 plus postage. Author's address: Michael Oates, F.R.A.S. Manchester Astronomical Society http://www.u-net.com/ph/mas/ Email: mike@ph.u-net.com ........................................................................... Item 5 EMA Nr. 35, 7. Dezember 1998 ........................................................................... HISTORIA MATEMATICA - a new mailing list ---------------------------------------- By Julio Gonzalez Cabillon, Montevideo, Uruguay HISTORIA MATEMATICA [HM] is a new discussion list on the history of mathematics. 1. Description of HM 1.1 Purpose and standards The purpose of this list is to provide a virtual forum for scholarly discussion of the history of mathematics (in a broad sense), amongst professionals and non-professionals with an earnest interest in the field. Postings are to be highly relevant to the purpose of this list. All traditional and scholarly aspects of the history of mathematics are expected to be heavily discussed here. Additionally, - History of _history of mathematics_ - Current trends in the history of mathematics - History of _mathematics outside Europe_ - Ethnomathematics - Pedagogical issues - Origin of mathematical terms/symbols - Biographies and obituaries - Bibliographical references (databases) - Announcements and reviews of new books, articles, preprints, websites, ... - Advertisements of conferences, meetings, jobs, ... Contributors should strive to submit posts containing interesting, worthwhile or new information about substantive topics on the history of mathematics in a conscious effort to keep the signal-to-noise ratio as high as possible. Pertinent comments, queries, replies ... should be written with the same standards of thoughtfulness and care that apply to other scholarly activities; not necessarily at the level of writing a book or an article for a journal, but at least at the level of the informal printed material (e.g. photocopies) used at courses. 1.2 Languages ENGLISH, Portuguese and Spanish are the official languages of the list. Postings in other languages (e.g. French, German, Italian, ...) are also welcome. But, in this case, whenever a long posting is sent out, an abstract in English (say) would be highly appreciated. Although I do not think one should encourage too many languages on the forum (since many listmembers might just be monoglots), the list is to be *open* to those contributors who wish to communicate in their mother tongue, and do not feel confident enough in other languages. If you are *not* familiar with the language of a post, but you suspect that the topic discussed is, for instance, relevant to your own field of study (some key-words in the email may suggest that), a solution somehow will be found - at least, I hope so. If you are not sufficiently interested in that thread, you may simply hit the 'delete' key. This list is intended to provide a vehicle of communication for people of different nationalities, and it is unreasonable - in my opinion - to ask *everyone* to write in a specific language in order to communicate. 1.3 Configuration This is a CLOSED forum; that is to say, subscriptions MUST be approved by the list owner. Those who subscribe to HM are encouraged to identify themselves by name, profession, institutional affiliation, and research interest. 'Ego trips' will mean trips outside the list. Whereas freedom of speech is wonderful, and the discussion of controversial matters on the history of mathematics is to be expected (and welcome!), personal invective cannot take place on this forum. It must be said very emphatically: abuse or misuse of the list in one way or another will cause instant cancellation of the subscription by the list owner. 2. How to sign on You can join the HISTORIA MATEMATICA mailing list sending your subscription (which has to be APPROVED) to with the following command in the body of your message: subscribe historia-matematica [Please mind that there is no 'h' in 'matematica'] You can also request your subscription (for APPROVAL) to HM sending mail to with the following command in the body of your message: subscribe Author's address: Professor Julio Gonzalez Cabillon Emilio Frugoni 860 / apto 002 11200 Montevideo Uruguay Phones: +598 2 409 1977, +598 2 401 2951 Emails: owner-historia-matematica@chasque.apc.org, jgc@chasque.apc.org ........................................................................... Item 6 EMA Nr. 35, 7. Dezember 1998 ........................................................................... Fifth International Conference on the History and Foundations of ---------------------------------------------------------------- General Relativity ------------------ July 8-11, 1999 University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana Announcement and Call for Papers The organizers invite proposals for papers in all areas of the history and foundations of general relativity. Suitable topics include but are not limited to: * historical analysis of the origins of general relativity up to 1915, its precursors, competitors, and related developments in physics and mathematics; * historical analysis of the later development of the theory, including: relativistic astrophysics and cosmology, unified field theories, empirical tests, the equations of motion, energy conservation, gravitational collapse, gravitational waves, black holes, and singularity theorems, relativistic continuum mechanics, quantization of general relativity, alternative theories of gravitation; * critical analysis of foundational problems in general relativity, including: relationalism versus substantivalism, singularities, energy conservation, black hole information loss, quantum field theory in curved spacetime, quantum gravity, reduction of Newtonian gravitational theory and special relativity to general relativity, axiomatizations of general relativity, cosmology; * general relativity in context, including the scientific, institutional, philosophical, cultural and popular reception of the theory in diverse communities and countries, anti-relativity movements. Organizing Committee: Jean Eisenstaedt, CNRS Paris Hubert Goenner, Physics, University of Goettingen Don Howard, Philosophy, University of Notre Dame Michel Janssen, Philosophy, Boston University A.J. Kox, Physics, University of Amsterdam John Norton, History and Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh Juergen Renn, Max Planck Institute for History of Science, Berlin Sahotra Sarkar, Philosophy, University of Texas=96Austin Tilman Sauer, History of Science, University of G=F6ttingen John Stachel, Physics, Boston University C.V. Vishveshwara, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore Sponsoring organizations: Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values, and the Graduate Program in History and Philosophy of Science, University of Notre Dame Center for Einstein Studies, Boston University If your center would like to cosponsor this or future meetings, write for further information. If you are interested in attending, please return the form below for further mailings. If you would like to propose a paper, please return the form below with a title and abstract of the proposed paper as soon as possible, at the latest by January 30, 1999. Decisions of the organizing committee will be announced no later than March 15, 1999. You can mail the form to: Don Howard Program in History and Philosophy of Science 346 O'Shaughnessy University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, Indiana 46556 Or email the form to: Don.A.Howard.43@nd.edu For further information, write to either of the above addresses; you may also telephone at 219-631-7547 or fax at 219-631-3985. ------------------------------------------------------ Please send me further mailings on the Fifth International Conference on the History and Foundations of General Relativity. Title: Name: Institution: Address: Telephone: Fax: E-Mail: I do / do not wish to offer a paper. (If yes, please enclose title and abstract.) ........................................................................... Impressum --------- Elektronische Mitteilungen zur Astronomiegeschichte (EMA) Herausgegeben vom Arbeitskreis Astronomiegeschichte in der Astronomischen Gesellschaft Redaktion: Dr. Wolfgang R. Dick Alle nicht namentlich gekennzeichneten Mitteilungen sind redaktionelle Beitraege. Aufsaetze sowie Mitteilungen fuer die Rubriken werden gern entgegengenommen. Der Bezug der EMA ist kostenlos. Abonnenten und Leser werden um gelegentliche freiwillige Spenden an den Arbeitskreis gebeten. Die Elektronischen Mitteilungen zur Astronomiegeschichte duerfen unbegrenzt weiterverbreitet werden, sofern dafuer keine Gebuehr erhoben wird. Ein oeffentliches Abgebot in WWW-Servern, BBS etc. ist gestattet, sofern die Redaktion informiert wird. Die Reproduktion von Auszuegen in elektronischen oder Druckmedien ist nur mit Genehmigung der Redaktion gestattet. Die Elektronischen Mitteilungen ergaenzen die gedruckten Mitteilungen zur Astronomiegeschichte, die derzeit halbjaehrlich erscheinen: Preis: 1,50 DM/Ausgabe zzgl. Versandkosten Ausserhalb der BRD: kostenfrei, Spenden erwuenscht Bezug: Einsendung von 2,50 DM (Einzelheft) oder 5,- DM (Nr. 12-13) in Briefmarken an die Redaktion Redaktion: Dr. W. R. Dick, Otterkiez 14, D-14478 Potsdam, Tel.: (++331) 863199 Kostenlose Probeexemplare koennen bei der Redaktion angefordert werden. Anschriften des Arbeitskreises Astronomiegeschichte: URL: http://www.astro.uni-bonn.de/~pbrosche/aa/aa.html Vorsitzender: Prof. Dr. Peter Brosche, Observatorium Hoher List der Sternwarte der Universitaet Bonn, D-54550 Daun, Tel.: +49(0)6592 2150, Fax: +49(0)6592 985140 Sekretaer: Dr. Wolfgang R. Dick, Bundesamt fuer Kartographie und Geodaesie, Aussenstelle Potsdam, Postfach 60 08 08, D-14408 Potsdam, Tel.: +49(0)331 316 618, E-mail: wdi@potsdam.ifag.de Spendenkonto der Astronomischen Gesellschaft: Konto-Nr. 333 410 41, Sparkasse Bochum (BLZ 430 500 01) Ueberweisungen aus dem Ausland: Konto Nr. 162 32-203, Postgiroamt Hamburg, BLZ 200 400 20 Alle Einzahlungen bitte mit Vermerk "Fuer Arbeitskreis Astronomiegeschichte" ***************************************************************************