Cometography: Volume 1, Ancient-1799

Cometography: Volume 1, Ancient-1799 PDF Author: Gary W. Kronk
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521585040
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Cometography is the most complete and comprehensive collection of data on comets available. It comes in four self-contained sequential volumes and this, the first, covers ancient times through to the end of the eighteenth century. Cometography uses the most reliable orbits known to determine all the key parameters of each well observed comet. Cometography also provides nontechnical details to help the reader understand how the comet may have influenced various cultures at the time of its appearance. All the information in Cometography has been sourced directly from the original documents, including European monastic histories, Roman, Greek and Muslim texts, Chinese, Japanese and Korean scripts. In many cases, dates of important historical events can be corrected based on the appearance of a comet and identified using this book. Cometography will be valuable to historians of science as well as providing amateur and professional astronomers with a definitive reference on comets through the ages.

Cometography: Volume 1, Ancient-1799

Cometography: Volume 1, Ancient-1799 PDF Author: Gary W. Kronk
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521585040
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
Cometography is the most complete and comprehensive collection of data on comets available. It comes in four self-contained sequential volumes and this, the first, covers ancient times through to the end of the eighteenth century. Cometography uses the most reliable orbits known to determine all the key parameters of each well observed comet. Cometography also provides nontechnical details to help the reader understand how the comet may have influenced various cultures at the time of its appearance. All the information in Cometography has been sourced directly from the original documents, including European monastic histories, Roman, Greek and Muslim texts, Chinese, Japanese and Korean scripts. In many cases, dates of important historical events can be corrected based on the appearance of a comet and identified using this book. Cometography will be valuable to historians of science as well as providing amateur and professional astronomers with a definitive reference on comets through the ages.

Cometography: Volume 1, Ancient-1799

Cometography: Volume 1, Ancient-1799 PDF Author: Gary W. Kronk
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521585040
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 586

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Book Description
The first in a set of four volumes that make up the most complete and comprehensive catalog of every comet observed throughout history.

Hunting and Imaging Comets

Hunting and Imaging Comets PDF Author: Martin Mobberley
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1441969055
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
For many astronomers, the holy grail of observation is to discover a comet, not least because comets always bear the name of their discoverer! Hunting and Imaging Comets was written for comet hunters and digital imagers who want to discover, rediscover, monitor, and make pictures of comets using astronomical CCD cameras and DSLRs. The old days of the purely visual comet hunter are pretty much over, but this is not to say that amateurs have lost interest in finding comets. The books also covers the discovery of comet fragments in the SOHO image data, CCD monitoring of older comets prone to violent outbursts, the imaging of new NEOs (Near Earth Objects) that have quite often been revealed as comets - not asteroids - by amateur astronomers, and the finding of recent comets impacting Jupiter.

Comets and How to Observe Them

Comets and How to Observe Them PDF Author: Richard Schmude, Jr.
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1441957901
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
Comets have inspired wonder, excitement and even fear ever since they were first observed. But they are important members of the solar system, that contain material from early in the life of the system, held in deep-freeze. This makes them key in our understanding of the formation and evolution of many Solar System bodies. Recent ground- and space-based observations have changed much in our understanding of comets. Comets, and How to Observe Them gives a summary of our current knowledge and describes how amateur astronomers can contribute to the body of scientific knowledge of comets. This book contains many practical examples of how to construct comet light-curves, measure how fast a comet’s coma expands, and determine the rotation period of the nucleus. All these examples are illustrated with drawings and photographs. Because of their unpredictable nature comets are always interesting and sometime spectacular objects to observe and image. The second part of the book therefore takes the reader through the key observing techniques that can be used with commercially available modern observing equipment, from basic observations to more scientific measurements.

The Wayward Comet

The Wayward Comet PDF Author: Martin Beech
Publisher: Universal-Publishers
ISBN: 1627340645
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
Comets have not only blazed across the celestial vault throughout human history, they have embellished the night sky since the Earth itself formed some 4.5 billion years ago. Comets were among the first-born solid bodies in the solar system, and their frozen nuclei tell of the primordial chemistry and chaos that ultimately resulted in the formation of the planets, the evolution of life and us. For all this, however, comets have long been celestial oddities: they baffled our distant ancestors, and human society continues to marvel and speculate wildly at their appearance even to the present day. Cutting against the perceived constancy of the stars, comets seemingly present themselves at random times and they are often interpreted as harbingers of terrestrial change - both good and ill. How then are we to tame the comet: where do they form, how do they move, and can their appearances be predicted? Such questions have preoccupied astronomers for centuries but comets have only gradually allowed the secrets of their wayward flight to be revealed. In this book I explore the historical struggle to understand not only the place of comets within a societal context, but also the scientific quest to make their paths amenable to mathematical certitude. The latter narrative is the more technical in content, but it took tactile form with the invention, in 1732, of the cometarium, a mechanical device to demonstrate the first two of Kepler's planetary laws. And, this development was later paralleled, in the mid to late 19th century, by the development of various mechanical devices (analog computers) to help obtain solutions to Kepler's Problem - the problem which asks, exactly where in its orbit is a given comet at some specific set time. The telling of the wayward comets story covers the past two millennia of human history, and it takes us from the phenomenological musings of Aristotle, through the exactitude of Newton's gravitational theory and calculus, to the truly incredible study of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, by the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft, in the modern era.

Michael Maestlin’s Manuscript Treatise on the Comet of 1618

Michael Maestlin’s Manuscript Treatise on the Comet of 1618 PDF Author: Miguel A. Granada
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004512640
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
Michael Maestlin was a main protagonist of the astronomical and cosmological revolution between Copernicus and Galileo. This book presents the first-ever edition of his German manuscript treatise on the Great Comet of 1618, accompanied by an English translation with a full introduction and commentary.

The Crusades and Nature

The Crusades and Nature PDF Author: Jessalynn L. Bird
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031587863
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description


The Battle of Carham

The Battle of Carham PDF Author: Neil McGuigan
Publisher: Birlinn Ltd
ISBN: 1788851501
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 326

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Book Description
Very little is known about the battle of Carham, fought between the Scots and Northumbrians in 1018. The leaders were probably Máel Coluim II, king of Scotland, and Uhtred of Bamburgh, earl or ealdorman in Northumbria. The outcome of the battle was a victory for the Scots, seen by some as a pivotal event in the expansion of the Scottish kingdom, the demise of Northumbria and the Scottish conquest of 'Lothian'. The battle also removed a potentially significant source of resistance to the recent conqueror of England, Cnut. This collection of essays by a range of subject specialists explores the battle in its context, bringing new understanding of this important and controversial historical event. Topics covered include: Anglo-Scottish relations, the political character and ecclesiastical organisation of the Northumbrian territory ruled by Uhtred, material from the Chronicles and other historical records that brings the era to light, and the archaeological and sculptural landscape of the tenth- and eleventh-century Tweed basin, where the battle took place.

Investigating Life in the Universe

Investigating Life in the Universe PDF Author: Christopher K. Walker
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1351810308
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 243

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Book Description
This textbook gives a lively introduction to the search for extraterrestrial life. It is a guidebook to understanding the possibility of life elsewhere, pointing out landmarks and providing background information to facilitate further exploration of those areas of most interest to the reader. We are a planet of winners – winners of a cosmic lottery that has been in play since the universe began approximately 13.7 billion years ago. Our winnings include sentience and an underlying unease that has driven us to contemplate our place in the universe and the possibility of finding kindred spirits in the cosmos spreading out before us. To understand our origins and the possibility of life beyond Earth, we must look back and retrace the steps that have brought us to this point in space and time. In doing so, we will find the investigation of life to be a unifying theme in nature, requiring us to touch on all branches of the tree of knowledge. Using the Drake Equation as a theme, we begin with an overview of the topic and then go into the story of how we have acquired, or plan to acquire, the knowledge to solve it. As we make our journey, we will encounter some very interesting people – some you will likely know, while others may be new to you. Keep an open mind and allow this text to be your guide. Written in an engaging style, this textbook provides a foundational understanding of the rapidly advancing fields associated with the search for life in the universe. Each chapter includes illustrative figures and review questions for self-study. It will appeal to professionals, researchers, instructors, and undergraduate students, as well as anyone with an interest in astrophysics or astrobiology.

A History of Physical Theories of Comets, From Aristotle to Whipple

A History of Physical Theories of Comets, From Aristotle to Whipple PDF Author: Tofigh Heidarzadeh
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402083238
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 283

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Book Description
Although the development of ideas about the motion and trajectory of comets has been investigated piecemeal, we lack a comprehensive and detailed survey of ph- ical theories of comets. The available works either illustrate relatively short periods in the history of physical cometology or portray a landscape view without adequate details. The present study is an attempt to review – with more details – the major physical theories of comets in the past two millennia, from Aristotle to Whipple. My research, however, did not begin with antiquity. The basic question from which this project originated was a simple inquiry about the cosmic identity of comets at the dawn of the astronomical revolution: how did natural philosophers and astronomers define the nature and place of a new category of celestial objects – comets – after Brahe’s estimation of cometary distances? It was from this turning point in the history of cometary theories that I expanded my studies in both the pre-modern and modern eras. A study starting merely from Brahe and ending with Newton, without covering classical and medieval thought about comets, would be incomplete and leave the fascinating achievements of post-Newtonian cometology unexplored.