*************************************************************************** * * * ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER FOR THE HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY * * * * Published by the Working Group for the History of Astronomy * * in the Astronomische Gesellschaft * * * * Number 52, November 15, 2003 * * * * Edited by: Wolfgang R. Dick and Hilmar W. Duerbeck * * * *************************************************************************** Contents -------- 1. Paul Bunge Prize 2002 awarded to Paolo Brenni 2. Einstein Archives available online 3. Andrew S. Cook: The Great Arc: Exhibition of Mapping of India 4. Commemorating the 375th birthday of Christiaan Huygens 5. IAU Colloquium "Transits of Venus" 6. 7th Oxford conference on archeoastronomy Acknowledgement Imprint ........................................................................... Item 1 ENHA No. 52, Nov. 15, 2003 ........................................................................... Paul Bunge Prize 2002 awarded to Paolo Brenni --------------------------------------------- Dr. Paolo Brenni of the University of Florence was awarded the Paul Bunge Prize of the Hans R. Jenemann Foundation on May 10th in Potsdam on the occasion of the General Assembly of the German Bunsen Society for Physical Chemistry. This prize for exceptional research on the history of scientific instruments is co-sponsored by the German Chemical Society (GDCh) and the German Bunsen Society. This year was the 10th time this award has been conferred. The instrument historian Brenni is famous worldwide for his numerous works and publications in the field of the restoration and preservation of scientific instruments. Like no one other, he knows the historical instrument collections of Europe and has taken care that these are properly and historically researched and preserved for posterity. Exemplary of this are his published catalogues, e.g. about the Museum for Science History in Florence or the Instituto Tecnico Toscano. His more than 90 publications cover the entire spectrum of scientific instruments, including especially also astronomical instruments. Brenni is moreover active in the preservation and restoration of anitique scientific instruments that requires knowledge of chemistry and metallurgy. He has published articles on this and has also organized symposia and continuing education programs regarding this. Finally, Brenni was decisively involved in coordinating the computer networking of the heterogeneous and scattered community of scientists, restorators, museum curators, collectors and antique dealers: the E-mail list "Rete" is particularly concerned with the history of scientific instruments. Brenni was born in 1954 in Mendrisio, Switzerland. He studied physics at the University of Zuerich and completed his doctorate in 1981 in the field of NMR spectroscopy. Afterwards he directed his energies to the area of instrument history. His career has led him from Padua to Florence and on to Paris where he is currently working, insofar as other historical instrument collections do not demand his expertise elsewhere. In the past year, Brenni was a guest professor in Ghent, Belgium. Since 1999, he has been the vice-president of the International Scientific Instruments Commission. [Source: GDCh - Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker, Press Release 06a/02, May 22, 2002, http://www.gdch.de/pubrelat/wpd06a02.htm] ........................................................................... Item 2 ENHA No. 52, Nov. 15, 2003 ........................................................................... Einstein Archives available online ---------------------------------- (From: "Elektronische Mitteilungen zur Astronomiegeschichte" Nr. 64, 9. Nov. 2003, Item 5.) More than 900 scientific and nonscientific documents of one of the most influential intellects in the modern era, Albert Einstein, are available online for the first time. The Einstein Archives Online website, at http://www.alberteinstein.info will also be accompanied by an extensive database of archival information. It was launched on May 19 during a daylong symposium on his life and work, to be held at the American Museum of Natural History in New York (see: http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/einstein/) The new website is the result of an ambitious cooperative effort between the Albert Einstein Archives at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Einstein Papers Project at the California Institute of Technology. It enables access to some 3,000 high-quality digitized images. Thirty-nine documents are also provided (in PDF format) as they appear in The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, published in German by Princeton University Press, with historical and scientific annotations in English; some of the documents are accompanied by English translations. An extensive archival database and finding aid allows for the direct searching and browsing of more than 40,000 records of Einstein and Einstein-related documents. These concern his scientific and nonscientific writings, his professional and personal correspondence, notebooks, travel diaries, personal documents, and third-party items. The website was developed in collaboration with the Information Technology and Photo-Reprography Departments of the Hebrew University's Jewish National & University Library (JNUL), the David and Fela Shapell Digitization Project at the JNUL, and with Princeton University Press. The archival database presents records for all items that have been edited and annotated by scholars, and that have appeared since 1987 in The Collected Papers. These include some 500 items that were not part of the original collection, but that were uncovered during the past 25 years. The eight volumes that are available so far contain Einstein's writings and correspondence from his youth to age 40. They include his major papers on the theory of special relativity, general relativity, the quantum theory of light and matter, as well as a wealth of lesser-known contributions to many aspects of science, education, international reconciliation, Zionism, and pacifism. Einstein's personal papers were bequeathed to the Hebrew University in his last will and testament of 1950. The Albert Einstein Archives has been housed at the Hebrew University's JNUL since 1982. The Einstein Papers Project at Caltech is a multidisciplinary research and editorial team engaged in the collection, selection, and scholarly annotation of The Collected Papers, an edition of 25 planned volumes of Einstein's writings and correspondence. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem was envisaged by its founders as a "university of the Jewish people." Its foundation stone was laid in 1918, and its doors opened in 1925. Today, its student body totals around 23,000 and its tenured academic faculty numbers 1,200. The university is Israel's leading academic center for research and postgraduate study. Founded in 1891, Caltech has an enrollment of some 2,000 students, and a faculty of about 280 professorial members, 65 research members, and some 560 postdoctoral scholars. Over the years, 30 Nobel Prizes and four Crafoord Prizes have been awarded to faculty members and alumni. The Jewish National & University Library is the central library of the Hebrew University and the national library of the Jewish people and the State of Israel. Founded in 1892 as a world center for the preservation of books relating to Jewish thought and culture, it assumed the additional functions of a general university library in 1920. [Source: Caltech News Release, May 14, 2003. Contact: Mark Wheeler, (626) 395-8733, wheel@caltech.edu] ........................................................................... Item 3 ENHA No. 52, Nov. 15, 2003 ........................................................................... The Great Arc: Exhibition of Mapping of India --------------------------------------------- By Andrew S. Cook, London, UK (From: "Elektronische Mitteilungen zur Astronomiegeschichte" Nr. 64, 9. Nov. 2003, Item 8.) The Government of India travelling exhibition on the bicentenary of William Lambton and the start of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India has opened in Cambridge, at the first of five locations in the UK this year. It provides a unique opportunity to see historic instruments and archives from the Survey of India Museum collections in Dehra Dun (including Ramsden's Great Theodolite, last seen in Britain at the Science Museum Festival of India exhibition in 1981). Visit www.thegreatarc.net for more information, including the text of the GBP 5 book accompanying the exhibition. The exhibition runs 15-23 July in a marquee on Jesus Green, Cambridge (connecting with the quadrennial international Cambridge Conference of surveyors), 5-24 August in Edinburgh, 4-20 September in Birmingham, 1 October-12 November in London, and 26 November-15 January 2004 in Manchester. Though the mounting of the exhibition was devolved to Teamwork Productions India, the Survey of India apparently intends to have an official present at the exhibition sites, currently Charanjit Mamik, senior librarian from Survey of India Geodetic and Research Branch, Dehra Dun, in Cambridge. The exhibit is the centrepiece of the Festival of the Great Arc, with performances of Indian dance and music in Britain, and also serves very well as a didactic exhibition of the history of geodetic survey and mapping in India over 200 years. Author's address: Andrew S. Cook MA PhD FRSA FRHistS Map Archivist, India Office Records The British Library 96 Euston Road London NW1 2DB, UK e-mail andrew.cook@bl.uk Telephone/Voicemail 020 7412 7828, Fax 020 7412 7641 [Source: Andrew S. Cook to Rete Mailing List, rete@maillist.ox.ac.uk, 16 July 2003] ........................................................................... Item 4 ENHA No. 52, Nov. 15, 2003 ........................................................................... Commemorating the 375th Birthday of Christiaan Huygens ------------------------------------------------------ (From: "Elektronische Mitteilungen zur Astronomiegeschichte" Nr. 64, 9. Nov. 2003, Item 3.) Titan - From Discovery to Encounter International Conference to commemorate the 375th birthday of Christiaan Huygens, born 14 April 1629 Christiaan Huygens was one of the most respected leading European scientists in the 17th century. He was the first of what we would today call a "scientific director" of the Academie Francaise. One highlight in his carrier was the discovery of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, in 1655. FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT For ESA, the highlight of 2004 and early 2005 will be the arrival of the NASA/ESA Cassini-Huygens spacecraft at Saturn and the release of the Huygens probe into the atmosphere of Titan. The aim of the conference is to bring together historians and space scientists to discuss: o Christiaan Huygens, the person, the scientist, his relations with other scientists in the 17th century, like Cassini, o Descartes, Newton, etc. o Observations of Saturn and its moons since the 17th century. o The Cassini-Huygens mission and the latest observations on the way to the encounter of Titan. Dates: 13 to 17 April 2004 Location: ESTEC Conference centre http://sci2.esa.int/huygens/conference/ Scientific Programme Committee (all to be confirmed) Dennis Matson (dmatson@jpl.nasa.gov) Cecille Ferrari (Cecile.Ferrari@cea.fr) Tobias Owen (owen@ifa.hawaii.edu) Fabrizio Bonoli (bonoli@bo.astro.it) Fokko Dijksterhuis (f.j.dijksterhuis@wmw.utwente.nl) Cees Grimbergen (grimberg@doge.nl) Albert van Helden (A.VanHelden@phys.uu.nl) Athena Coustenis (Athena.Coustenis@obspm.fr) Jean Pierre Lebreton (Jean-Pierre.Lebreton@esa.int) John Zarnecki (J.C.Zarnecki@open.ac.uk) Local Organising Committee Gonnie Elfering (Gonnie.Elfering@esa.int) Jean Pierre Lebreton (Jean-Pierre.Lebreton@esa.int) Clare Bingham (Clare.Bingham@esa.int) Henk Olthof (Henk.Olthof@esa.int) Programme The programme will consist of invited papers, contributed papers, and posters. The intention is to publish the proceedings in the ESA SP series. Tuesday 13 April (pm): Opening session Invited talks Musical intermezzos Video presentation of the Cassini-Huygens mission Wednesday 14 April: Christiaan Huygens, the person, scientist and his relationships with other scientists. Invited talk Contributing talks Invited birthday lecture Thursday 15 April (am): The Cassini-Huygens mission in historical perspective The contribution of Gerard P. Kuiper Invited talk Contributing talks Afternoon: excursion Conference dinner Friday 16 April Recent results of Saturn/Titan observations (ground- and space-based) and theoretical studies Invited talk Contributing talks Saturday 17 April Public outreach day Amateur astronomers' observations of Saturn and Titan Public lectures CONFERENCE FEE: 150 Euro for the entire conference covering, coffee breaks, excursions and conference dinner, conference bag, proceedings, sandwich lunch on the public outreach day. 35 Euro, students 10 Euro, for the public outreach day only, covering coffee breaks, sandwich lunch, conference bag and proceedings. SCHEDULE: 1st announcement: November 2002 Call for papers: April 2003 Deadline for paper submission: September 2003 Final Programme: December 2003 EXPRESSION OF INTEREST Please send e-mail to Henk.Olthof@esa.int [Source: Ron Baalke to HASTRO-L, The History of Astronomy Discussion Group, HASTRO-L@LISTSERV.WVU.EDU, 28 Jan 2003] ........................................................................... Item 5 ENHA No. 52, Nov. 15, 2003 ........................................................................... IAU Colloquium "Transits of Venus" ---------------------------------- We are very pleased to announce IAU Colloquium 196, "Transits of Venus: New Views of the Solar System and Galaxy", to be held in Preston, Lancashire, UK, 7-11 June 2004. On 24 November 1639 (Julian Calendar) in the tiny Lancashire village of Much Hoole, Jeremiah Horrocks made the first observations of a Transit of Venus. He was one of the first Englishmen to appreciate the astronomical revolution going on in Europe following the works of Tycho, Galileo and Kepler. It was Horrocks who first proved that the orbit of the moon is an ellipse, and Newton made good use of Horrocks' discovery. Horrocks, who died at age 22, can be considered to be the father of British astrophysics for the remarkable depth of his accomplishments. His legacy reverberates today. This meeting will have history running through it, linking modern research topics on: high precision determination of the solar parallax; distances in the Solar System and in the Galaxy; precise determination of the motions of planets, realisation of a dynamical time scale and fluctuations in Earth's rotation. It will examine critically the remaining uncertainties in currently available parallaxes, how they can be further reduced, and the implications for stellar physics and Galactic structure studies. This will include the galactic distance scale, and will look at the future of astrometry from the ground and especially from space, including Gaia and Jasmine. This meeting provides an opportunity to observe an extremely rare astronomical event in its prime historical venue while having discussion of its current context and relation to modern science. This will allow experts to present the most recent and future developments in the scientific topics linked to this astronomical phenomenon and exchange ideas on the most important issues for the future. The morning of Tuesday, 8 June (the 2nd day of the meeting) will be devoted to observing the Transit of Venus beginning just after 05:19 UT (06:19 BST) and lasting for nearly 6 hours. Live observations will be conducted through the telescopes of the University of Central Lancashire's Alston Observatory near Preston, and live video links to other observing sites will be displayed. There will also be visits in small groups throughout the transit to Carr House (built 1613) in Much Hoole where Horrocks made his seminal 1639 observations. After an afternoon's rest, the day will finish with a conference banquet at the beautiful Hoghton Tower, a 16th-century manor house overlooking the rolling green hills of Lancashire where it is claimed Shakespeare worked for 3 years and where in 1622 James I was served a loin of beef that he so liked, he knighted it on the spot, Sir Loin. Our top table for the banquet will be the very table where the deed was done! The meeting will have multi-disciplinary threads of science and history running throughout the sessions. An ancillary historical meeting for students will be held with some participation by this colloquium's invited speakers. Following the first relatively precise determination of the a.u. from the opposition of Mars in 1672 by Richer and Cassini, the great scientifically competitive expeditions to observe the Transits of Venus in 1761 and 1769 were the first examples of modern "big science"; those expeditions have given us some of the most colourful stories in all astronomy. With the length of the astronomical unit known, and with the discovery of stellar parallax in the 1830s, our view of the universe was fundamentally changed. It is fair to say that modern astrophysics blossomed from these determinations. Transits of Venus were observed again in 1874 and 1882 for refinement of the value of the a.u. No living person has ever seen this rare event. Many astronomers from around the globe will want to experience seeing this historic event, and Carr House in Much Hoole, Lancashire, is the prime historic site. We are sure they will appreciate the historical connections planned in the sessions and during the transit itself. Scientific topics are: * Transits of Venus: their history and science * Transits of Mercury * Observations of transits of extra-solar planets * Modern and historical determinations of the a.u. * Precision measurement of time and rotation of the Earth * New discoveries in the solar system * Astrophysics from high precision parallaxes from space and from the ground * Hipparcos parallaxes and the Galactic distance scale * The scientific promise of future astrometric space missions: Gaia and Jasmine The meeting has wide IAU support from Divisions I (fundamental astronomy), Division III (solar system) and Commission 41 (History) and is supported by the Royal Astronomical Society. Presentations will include invited reviews, contributed talks and poster papers. The second announcement and the call for scientific papers will be sent out in November 2003. The conference will be hosted by the Centre for Astrophysics and be held on the campus of the University of Central Lancashire in Preston, Lancashire, UK. The University of Central Lancashire, in its various forms as a teaching and research institution, is 175 years old in this year. It currently has 35,000 students and has strong astronomy research in its Centre for Astrophysics. Preston is a small city (awarded city status by the Queen in 2002) of 135,000 with large green spaces within the city. The university in integrated with the city and is within easy walking distance of central Preston. It is easily reached by direct train from Manchester airport, the UK's third largest airport serving many international airlines, and by direct train service from London. Preston is ideally situated for day trips to the English Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales, the Peak District, North Wales and the Forest of Bowland with the most beautiful scenery in England: National Parks, 900-year-old Cistercian monasteries, stone circles >3500 yr in age, lakes, rivers, mountains, forests (including the one where Tolkien walked as he imagined the Lord of the Rings), stately homes, lovely old stone villages, canals and canal-boats, traditional English Pubs, puffins, and unlimited historical sites. The weather in Preston in early June is temperate. Daytime temperatures are likely to be in the range 15-25 C with overnight minima of 5-15 C. The total rainfall is about 1 m per year spread throughout the year with an average of 75 mm in June, so light rain is always possible. There will be a live video link at the Alston observatory to other observing sites, in case of cloud on the day of the transit. Of course, in 1639 Horrocks had to contend with this, too, and he successfully observed the transit. Let history be your guide! For more information on the University of Central Lancashire see: http://www.uclan.ac.uk and for Preston City see: http://www.transit-of-venus.org.uk/conference/local.html#about At this time you are invited to send expressions of interest by using the form provided at the conference's web site or available on request. We look forward to seeing you in Preston next year! Don Kurtz and Gordon Bromage (Co-chairs, SOC) ...on behalf of the Scientific Organizing Committee: * co-chair: Don Kurtz - UK * co-chair: Gordon Bromage - UK * Nicole Capitaine, France * Mikhail Marov, Russia * Steven Dick, USA * Mike Feast, South Africa * Wayne Orchiston, Australia * Jay Pasachoff, USA * Dale Cruikshank, USA * Naoteru Gouda, Japan ...and the Local Organising Committee: * Gordon Bromage, chair * Barbara Hassall * Peter Hingley, RAS librarian * Don Kurtz * Paul Marston * Gillian Saunders * Robert Walsh For more information about the conference, please email to tov@uclan.ac.uk or see http://www.transit-of-venus.org.uk/conference/ . [Source: http://www.transit-of-venus.org.uk/conference/announcements.html#first] ........................................................................... Item 6 ENHA No. 52, Nov. 15, 2003 ........................................................................... 7th Oxford Conference on Archeoastronomy ---------------------------------------- (From: "Elektronische Mitteilungen zur Astronomiegeschichte" Nr. 64, 9. Nov. 2003, Item 4.) This is to announce the public release of the website for the Seventh Oxford Conference on Archaeoastronomy, to be held from June 20-27, 2004 in Flagstaff, Arizona. The conference is being sponsored by a number of organizations, including the Museum of Northern Arizona, the Pueblo Grande Museum (Phoenix AZ), Lowell Observatory, the Coconino County Board of Supervisors, the City of Flagstaff - Flagstaff Cultural Partners, Northern Arizona University College of Arts & Sciences / Physics and Astronomy Department, the NAU-NASA Space Grant Program, and the Roden Crater Project. The Web site is being hosted by Lowell Observatory at the URL http://www.lowell.edu/Public/ox7/index.html On the Web site, you will find program information and instructions for submitting abstracts, as well as local information. Please direct all questions and correspondence regarding the conference to Oxford7@earthlink.net. On behalf of the Oxford 7 Local Organizing Committee, Jeffrey Hall Assistant Research Scientist Associate Director, Education and Special Programs Lowell Observatory Flagstaff, AZ 86001 ........................................................................... Acknowledgement --------------- For sending us information directly we thank Jeffrey Hall. ........................................................................... Imprint ------- Electronic Newsletter for the History of Astronomy (ENHA) Published by the Working Group for the History of Astronomy in the Astronomische Gesellschaft Editors: Dr. Wolfgang R. Dick and Dr. Hilmar W. Duerbeck All items without an author's name are editorial contributions. Articles as well as information for the several sections are appreciated. Subscription for ENHA is free. Readers and subscribers are asked for occasional voluntary donations to the working group. Copyright Statement: The Electronic Newsletters for the History of Astronomy may be freely re-distributed in the case that no charge is imposed. Public offer in WWW servers, BBS etc. is allowed after the editor has been informed. Non-commercial reproduction of single items in electronic or printed media is possible only with the editor's permission. Arbeitskreis Astronomiegeschichte / Working Group for the History of Astronomy: URL: http://www.astrohist.org/ Chairman: Prof. Dr. Peter Brosche, Observatorium Hoher List der Sternwarte der Universitaet Bonn, D-54550 Daun, Germany, Tel.: +49(0)6592 2150, Fax: +49(0)6592 985140 Secretary: Dr. Wolfgang R. Dick, Vogelsang 35 A, D-14478 Potsdam, Germany, e-mail: wdick@astrohist.org Bank Acct. of the Astronomische Gesellschaft: Acct # 310 330 402, Volksbank Coesfeld-Duelmen (BLZ 401 631 23) Contributions from foreign countries: acct # 162 18-203, Postbank Hamburg, BLZ 200 100 20 Please sign with: "Fuer Arbeitskreis Astronomiegeschichte" ***************************************************************************