William Herschel (1738-1822) was the first astronomer to systematically look beyond the solar system into the depths of intergalactic space. His early sky survey formed the foundation of today’s NGC (New General Catalog) of deep sky objects.
Dava Sobel is the author of the best-selling books Galileo’s Daughter, The Planets, and Longitude, the story of the obscure clockmaker John Harrison and his invention of a timepiece accurate enough to help navigators determine longitude. Today, we take a break from stargazing for a short Q&A with Ms. Sobel about her new book A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos.
Today the planet Neptune completes its first revolution around the Sun since it was discovered in 1846. So it’s a birthday of sorts for this icy blue world. Here’s a brief account of the amazing discovery of Neptune, and a few words on how to look for this most distant of major planets.
Carl Sagan had a way of cutting through the complexity of science to get a point across in the most beautiful way. Here’s an update of one of Sagan’s most poignant messages, in a video created by Adam Winnik at Canada’s Sheridan College. Watch and ponder and enjoy…
Pale Blue Dot – Animation from Ehdubya on Vimeo.
Spaceflight is not the topic here at One-Minute Astronomer. But today, an exception. April 12 is the 50th anniversary of the first human flight into space by 27-year-old Colonel Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, who flew for the glory of the U.S.S.R. aboard a fragile metal sphere (above) atop a capricious Vostok rocket.
Modern astronomical observatories are located on barren far-away mountaintops with dry, thin, freezing-cold air. But modern astronomers travel in relative comfort to get to these observatories. Air travel is fast, frequent-flier lounges are plush, and food and lodging at major observatories rival those of a comfortable hotel. And once observing is done, an astronomer can fly home in a day to join colleagues for lunch at the faculty club.
But in 1760, it was different.
At One-Minute Astronomer, we always have a soft spot for the “underdog astronomer”. Someone who overcomes circumstance to make great astronomical discoveries with skill and curiosity and raw enthusiasm.
We’ve already looked at the remarkable stories of E. E. Barnard and Henrietta Leavitt.
Today, a snapshot of Milton Humason, a former mule driver and janitor who rose to work with Edwin Hubble to establish the distance scale of the universe and become one of the best-known American astronomers of the 20th century.
More than 110 years ago, the wealthy American amateur astronomer Percival Lowell was certain Mars was inhabited by intelligent life. And he set out to prove it. Today, we take a look at this intriguing character who fired the public imagination for decades about the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life and left a lasting legacy for astronomy.
We have a soft spot for history’s obscure astronomers… the proverbial lonely men on a mountaintop who measure the sky, catalog the stars, and remain humble and unknown despite their achievements. Let the mainstream media write about the big shots of astronomy: Hubble, Shapley, Hale, and so on. We focus on the little guys.
Last Monday marked the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon, an event schoolkids will read about a thousand years from now, after most of the trivia and follies of the 20th century have turned to dust.
There were just 66 years between the first flight of the Wright brother’s wood-and-cloth glider with a strapped-on 30 horsepower engine to the 3,300 ton Saturn V rocket that carried Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins to the moon. The event still staggers the imagination.
Often overshadowed by her famous brother William, Caroline Herschel became a renowned observer in her own right and the world’s first female professional astronomer. Here is her story.
You may recall Isaac Newton’s famous quote: “If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.” One of those giants was the flamboyant silver-nosed Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. His accurate pre-telescopic observations laid the groundwork for modern astronomy. He threw darned good parties too.
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Four years after Karl Jansky’s discovery of radio waves from the Milky Way, a young radio engineer named Grote Reber built the world’s first radio telescope… by himself… in his backyard!
In the early 1930′s, Bell Labs wished to use radio “short waves” for transatlantic radio telephone links. A young engineer, Karl Jansky, was assigned the job of finding sources of static that might interfere with radio transmissions. His accidental discovery revolutionized astronomy.
The inspiring story of Edward Emerson Barnard, an American astronomer who overcame a hopeless life of abject poverty to become the most prolific and skilled observational astronomer of the past two centuries. His early photographs revealed the true nature of “dark clouds” that knot the Milky Way.
William Herschel (1738-1822) was the first astronomer to systematically look beyond the solar system into the depths of intergalactic space. His early sky survey formed the foundation of today’s NGC (New General Catalog) of deep sky objects.
Continue Reading »
A thumbnail sketch of Leslie Peltier (1900-1980), a man once named “the world’s greatest non-professional astronomer”. His book Starlight Nights is a must-read for anyone who loves the stars.
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In 1846 Alvan Clark established a telescope factory at Cambridgeport, Massachusetts. Clark and his two sons, with almost no formal training, learned how to build the finest refracting telescopes in the world. Many of their instruments remain in use today.
Chesley Bonestell painted scenes of space exploration that inspired an entire generation of astronomers, artists, writers, engineers and visionaries.
