Harvard Observatory

WHAT WAS HAPPENING ON CONCORD AVENUE IN CAMBRIDGE: DEEP BACKGROUND FOR A PENDING INVESTIGATION OF THOREAU’S INTEREST IN THINGS ASTRONOMICAL HDT WHAT? INDEX THOREAU AND TELESCOPES WALDEN: If I wished a boy to know something about the arts and sciences, for instance, I would not pursue the common course, which is merely to send him into the neighborhood of some professor, where any thing is professed and practised but the art of life; –to survey the world through a telescope or a microscope, and never with his natural eye; to study chemistry, and not learn how his bread is made, or mechanics, and not learn how it is earned; to discover new satellites to Neptune, and not detect the motes in his eyes, or to what vagabond he is a satellite himself; or to be devoured by the monsters that swarm all around him, while contemplating the monsters in a drop of vinegar. Which would have advanced the most at the end of a month, –the boy who had made his own jack-knife from the ore which he had dug and smelted, reading as much as would be necessary for this, –or the boy who had attended the lectures on metallurgy at the Institute in the mean while, and had received a Rodgers’ penknife from his father? Which would be most likely to cut his fingers? –To my astonishment I was informed on leaving college that I had studied navigation! -why, if I had taken one turn down the harbor I should have known more about it. ASTRONOMY 2 Copyright Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX THOREAU AND TELESCOPES An email correspondent has inquired: > What were Thoreau’s views on astronomy? Since I also am interested in astronomy, I have attempted to create a complete context for astronomical discoveries occurring during Henry David Thoreau’s lifetime, 1817-1862. The Kouroo Contexture has a hundred-page file tracking all comets that passed through the solar system during that period, and the public reaction to those apparitions. This present file also tracks the discoveries of new planets and new satellites around these planets, discoveries of asteroids, views of the surface of Mars, theories of the origin of the earth’s moon, etc. It is within this context that we will need to situate Thoreau’s visit to the Harvard Observatory, and his various interactions with the astronomers of his era, and his dealings with local people who had obtained astronomical telescopes, and his various remarks about astronomical bodies such as “the Morning and Evening Star.” A hundred pages is a whole lot of material to summarize, but, basically, Thoreau was interested in astronomical discovery but seems not himself to have any pronounced attitudes or beliefs other than this lively interest. He was not at all tempted to regard astronomical events as portents. He exhibited no tendency to confuse or conflate astronomy with astrology, a study in regard to which his affect was that of considered disdain. His interest in astronomy seems to have been oriented around just what one might expect, to wit, it was about the same as his reaction to new innovations in travel (the railroad) and in communication (the telegraph), where he focused upon the possibility of turning these new inventions and discoveries toward literary usefulness. His was a search for juicy and fruitful metaphors. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 3 HDT WHAT? INDEX THOREAU AND TELESCOPES 1671 February 2, day: Harvard College was given a “3 foote and a halfe with a concave ey-glasse” reflecting telescope. This would be the instrument with which the Reverends Increase and Cotton Mather would observe a bright comet of the year 1682. ASTRONOMY HALLEY’S COMET HARVARD OBSERVATORY 1682 How many times does a “blazing exhalation” that has been appearing in the upper skies at intervals of about every 76 years at least since the year 1404 BCE have to return right on schedule, and lose another about 1/ 10,000ths of its mass into an awesome tail across the heavens, before anyone will notice that it is a recurring phenomenon? Well, maybe this time Edmond Halley would notice. And maybe, also, the Reverends Increase Mather and Cotton Mather would speculate on this bright comet through Harvard College’s “3 foote and a halfe with a concave ey-glasse” reflecting telescope. HARVARD OBSERVATORY HALLEY’S COMET ASTRONOMY 4 Copyright Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX THOREAU AND TELESCOPES This is what Halley’s Comet looked like, the last time it passed us. We have records of the appearances of this comet on each and every one of its past 30 orbits, which is to say, we have spotty records of observations before that, in 1,404 BCE, 1,057 BCE, 466 BCE, 391 BCE, and 315 BCE, but then on the 240 BCE return the sightings record begins to be complete. The Babylonians recorded seeing it in 164 BCE and again in 87 BCE, and then it was recorded as being seen in 12 BCE, 66 CE, 141 CE, 218 CE, 295 CE, 374 CE, 451 CE, 530 CE, 607 CE, 684 CE, 760 CE (only by Chinese), 837 CE, 912 CE, 989 CE, 1066, 1145, 1222, 1301, 1378, 1456, 1531, 1607, 1682, 1758, 1835, 1910, and 1986 — and we are confidently awaiting sightings in 2061 and 2134 even though due to a close conjunction with the earth we are presently unable to calculate what orbit it will have by the date of that approach. Each time P/Halley orbits in out of the Kuiper HALLEY’S COMET belt beyond the planets Neptune and Pluto and whips EDMOND HALLEY around the sun, it has been throwing off about one 10,000ths of its mass into a streaming tail, which means that this comet which we know to have been visiting us for at the very least the past 3,000 years or so is only going to be visiting us for perhaps another half a million years or so! 1712 Harvard College obtained an 8-foot reflecting telescope. ASTRONOMY HARVARD OBSERVATORY 1722 Harvard College obtained a 24-foot refracting telescope. ASTRONOMY HARVARD OBSERVATORY “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 5 HDT WHAT? INDEX THOREAU AND TELESCOPES 1723 A comet passed by the earth at a distance of merely 0.1 astronomical units. Thomas Robie observed a solar eclipse with Harvard College’s 24-foot refracting telescope: SUNSPOTS The Sunspot Cycle 1710-1804 MIN / MAX - - - - - - - - - ASTRONOMY HARVARD OBSERVATORY 1727 Harvard College established its Hollis chair in mathematics and natural philosophy. Thomas Hutchinson graduated from Harvard and became an apprentice in his father’s counting-room. He would for several years devote himself to business. A son of a Concord physician, John Prescott, graduated from Harvard. He would go on to become a physician.1 JOHN PRESCOTT [of Concord], son of Dr. Jonathan Prescott, was born May 8, 1707, and graduated [at Harvard] in 1727. He was a physician in Concord, and highly esteemed for his professional skill and excellent character. When the unfortunate expedition to Cuba was proposed, he entered readily into the views of the 1. Peter Prescott, a brother of John Prescott, would graduate from Harvard College in 1730, and Benjamin Prescott, presumably another of the Prescott brothers of Concord, would enter Harvard College in 1744 but would fail to graduate (he would be killed by native Americans). 6 Copyright Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX THOREAU AND TELESCOPES government, and enlisted a company of 100 men from this neighborhood. He sailed from Boston, as commander of this company, September 23, 1740, and was off “Don Maria Bay” in the following February. After the melancholy failure of the expedition, he returned to this country in 1743, and not long after went to England, at the request of the government, where he was treated with great respect. He died in London, of the small-pox, December 30, 1743, aged 35. He married Ann, the 8th child of Nathaniel Lynde, Esq. She died May 12, 1795, aged 88. Her sister married Joseph Willard of Rutland, who was killed by the Indians in 1723. Her mother was Susannah Willoughby, and her father son of Simon and Hannah Newdigate, who came from London. In testimony of the esteem in which Captain Prescott’s services were held, his widow received a pension from the British government during her life. She had 5 children, Ann, Rebecca, 2 sons, who died young, and Willoughby, who died in Concord April 15, 1808, aged 65.2 1759 Nathan Davis of Acton, son of Samuel Davis, graduated at Harvard College. He would be ordained as the minister at Dracut on November 20, 1765, be dismissed there in 1785, remove to Boston, and be appointed as the chaplain at Fort Independence, and a review officer. He would die on March 4, 1803, at the age of 65. Professor of Mathematics and Physics John Winthrop at Harvard published TWO LECTURES ON COMETS, which he had delivered to popular audiences in Boston, in which he correctly predicted that a comet seen in 1682, called “Halley’s Comet,” would return and again be seen. ASTRONOMY HARVARD OBSERVATORY 1761 April 6, day: Thomas Hancock, a prominent merchant of Boston, offered a fine portable reflecting telescope to Harvard College.3 ASTRONOMY HARVARD OBSERVATORY 2. Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;.... Boston MA: Russell, Odiorne, and Company; Concord MA: John Stacy, 1835 (On or about November 11, 1837 Henry Thoreau would indicate a familiarity with the contents of at least pages 2-3 and 6-9 of this historical study.) 3.

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