History of Astronomy: An Encyclopedia

by John Lankford (Editor)

Overview

This Encyclopedia traces the history of the oldest science from the ancient world to the space age in over 300 entries by leading experts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781136508349
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	03/07/2013
Series:	Garland Encyclopedias in the History of Science
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	650
File size:	74 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

John Lankford is Special Assistant to the Provost and Adjunct Professor of History at Kansas State University.

Table of Contents

A sampling of the coverage: Alfonsine Tables * Astrometry * Babylonian Astronomy * Canals of Mars * Annie Jump Cannon * Caracol at Chichen Itza * Cometary Astronom y * Crimean Astrophysical Observatory * Cross-Staff * Eratosthenes * Camille Flammarion * Edmund Halley * Harvard College Observatory * Interferometer * Jupiter * Magellanic Clouds * Meridian Instruments * Nautical Almanac Offices * Photoheliograph * Reward System in Modern Astronomy * SETI Project * Solar Constant * Stonehenge * Variation of Latitude * X- Ray Astronomy * and more

Editorial Reviews

While there are several astronomy encyclopedias on the market (e.g., The Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1992), this encyclopedia, which launches a new series from Garland, is the first devoted to the subject's historical aspects. It sets a very high standard for the volumes to come. Focusing on developments since the Scientific Revolution, the signed articles by 74 contributors (who read like a Who's Who of astronomy and space scholars) fall into five broad categories: an historical overview of astronomy, astronomy in national contexts (e.g., Chinese astronomy), the history of observatories, the social history of astronomy (e.g., Women in Astronomy), and biographies, with a special effort to avoid duplicating existing biographical encyclopedias. Recommendations for further reading are well chosen and current. An excellent and much-needed work; highly recommended. [Astronomy Book Club main selection.]-Donald Marion, Univ. of Minnesota Science & Engineering Lib., Minneapolis

Library Journal

Launches a series making the basics of science history accessible to high-school and undergraduate students and to other readers with little or no background in mathematics or science. Most volumes will focus on a particular discipline, but others will cover such aspects as laboratories and instruments, or science in one country. Over 300 signed essays ranging from a paragraph to several pages discuss astronomy as it has been practiced from the ancient world to the space age. They cover historical overviews such as calendars and telescopes, observatories including the Hubble orbiting telescope, developments in regions and countries, social history such as women in astronomy and the Copernican Revolution, specialties such as astrophysics and celestial mechanics, and biographies. Each entry concludes with a bibliography. Lightly illustrated, in black and white. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews

"An excellent and much-needed work, highly recommended." — Library Journal
"Makes a significant contribution through its articles on the discipline's development." — Rettig on Reference
"A welcome addition to the literature of astronomy. This volume brings together, in a very readable and pleasant format, much information scattered among several publications. The unique quality of this work is its five-pronged approach to presenting information. This is an excellent encyclopedia that is easy to use. This encyclopedia is highly recommended for college libraries and for public libraries and high-school libraries that need information beyond that provided by general encyclopedia sets. It should become a standard reference volume, filling a niche in the reference collection as the initial, first-stop source on astronomical topics." — Reference Books Bulletin/Booklist
"Splendidly lives up to the editor's goal of presenting to both the general reader and the specialist a compendium of current scholarship on the history of astronomy. The editor must be congratulated on managing to incorporate such diverse, timely, important essays in onve volume. This volume is an important landmark as it will serve many uses for years." — Planetarian
"The wide range of topics covered in the Encyclopedia also expands our understanding of the history of science beyond a mere summary of the growth of scientific ideas. What Lankford does offer, is a valuable widening of our field of view of what constitutes the history of science." — Physics Today

From the Publisher