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H•A•D NEWS Newsletter of the Historical Astronomy Division of the American Astronomical Society ______ H•A•D NEWS Newsletter of the Historical Astronomy Division of the American Astronomical Society _______________________________________ Number 84 * April 2014 collection. She says that “Highlights of the visit Meetings in Boston and Tucson will include the very rare Geometrical and Jay M. Pasachoff, Williams College Military Compass invented by Galileo and given Joseph S. Tenn, Sonoma State University by him to a duke in 1604, astronomical The Historical Astronomy Division has met once instruments used by Harvard professors to observe or twice each year since 1981, as can be seen from the 1761 and 1769 Transits of Venus and 1780 the HAD website, which includes titles and links solar eclipse from behind enemy lines, instruments to abstracts of all papers presented and now has purchased by Benjamin Franklin, grand orreries, photos of speakers by session for recent meetings. astrolabes, pocket sundials, and much more.” This year HAD is meeting three times: in January near Washington with the AAS and its High Energy Astrophysics Division (HEAD); in June in Boston with the AAS, its Solar Physics Division (SPD), and Laboratory Astrophysics Division (LAD); and in November in Tucson with the Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) . HAD Chair Jay Pasachoff, the instigator of the additional meetings, has organized a special session on the history of solar physics to be held jointly by HAD and SPD in Boston. He writes: The full schedule of papers with abstracts is I am pleased that we got excellent available on the HAD website at contributions. We will have seven papers about http://had.aas.org/. solar physics in a 90-minute special session The following meeting will be in Tucson Tuesday and three about other aspects of historical (http://aas.org/meetings/dps46) November 9-14. astronomy on Wednesday, as well as one solar- We will arrange to have a joint HAD/DPS session physics-related poster. Also, we can take for contributed papers. I (JMP) will organize and advantage of propinquity to Harvard, since past- chair the session; abstract submission on the AAS chair Sara Schechner has invited us to the Harvard site opens on May 28. I’d be glad to hear in a Collection of Historic Scientific Instruments, preliminary way from you if you intend to offer a where she is the curator. Those who join us will paper. Note that you can give a historical paper come by public transportation from the convention outside of your quota of one research paper. hotel to Harvard, where Sara will give a tour of the [email protected] Number 84 HAD NEWS April 2014 Page 2 From the Chair Nicholas Schmidle in The New Yorker for Jay M. Pasachoff, Williams College December 16, an article that I think almost all readers of this newsletter will find very interesting. In the fall newsletter, I May all your history be true and all your rare wrote about the invited and books be authentic. contributed talks HAD held jointly with the AAS [email protected] Division for Planetary Sciences at its meeting in From the Vice Chair Denver. I was glad to see Marc Rothenberg, National Science over fifty attendees in our Foundation session, none of whom was a HAD member or who It is the responsibility of the usually attends the main January HAD sessions. AAS Obituary Committee, So we succeeded in broadening our appeal. Of chaired by the HAD Vice course, I suggested that it would be nice if they Chair, to procure obituaries would join HAD. Additional details of our joint of deceased AAS members. meeting this coming fall are on page 1. Originally, I thought the great challenge facing me as Of course it was a pleasure for me to see so Vice Chair would be finding many of you at the Historical Astronomy Division individuals to agree to write sessions at the main AAS January meeting in the obituaries. After a year at National Harbor, Maryland, just outside it, I have found I was only Washington, DC. The minibanquet, organized by partially correct. Sometimes it is difficult to find Vice Chair Marc Rothenberg, was well attended, someone to volunteer. But it is equally difficult though it forced us outside in brutally cold weather getting some of those volunteers to turn in their to walk the two blocks to the restaurant. I can products. Go to the list of recently deceased AAS guarantee that it will be warmer in Seattle in members on the AAS website. Look at the January 2015 when we have our sessions and departed AAS members who do not have minibanquet. obituaries. In almost half the cases the obituary February marked Galileo’s 450th birthday. On has been assigned, and we are waiting for the February 21, I was glad to participate in a birthday writer to submit it. celebration at the University of California, San So I am making a plea. If you volunteered to Diego, arranged by Brian Keating of the UCSD write an obituary, especially if it was for someone Center for Astrophysics & Space Sciences. The who died before 2013, please get it in to me. If program of “Galileo and the Music of the Spheres” you have hesitated to turn it in because you was held at the Arthur C. Clarke Center for believe a key fact is missing, please submit it Human Imagination and included five afternoon anyway. Something is better than nothing. If you talks and, after an hour-long break, a concert of think you volunteered, but are not sure, please early music (by the Musicians in Ordinary from contact me to confirm your status. And if you have Toronto, including for this occasion a soprano and decided, for whatever reason, that you cannot a lutenist) that included pieces by Galileo’s father. produce the obituary, again, let me know. I will Videos of the sessions are online at http://imagination.ucsd.edu/news/galileo-and-the- seek a new volunteer. music-of-the-spheres/, and there are images at Speaking of new volunteers, I welcome them. http://bit.ly/1gQoalt. If you see a name for whom you would like to I talked especially about what Galileo reported contribute an obituary, please let me know. I am in the Sidereus Nuncius. I also described the recent particularly concerned with clearing the backlog events dealing with the forged, supposedly signed- prior to 2013. by-Galileo Sidereus Nuncius discussed by [email protected] Number 84 HAD NEWS April 2014 Page 3 From the Secretary-Treasurer already conducted a few interviews and some Joseph S. Tenn, Sonoma State University whom want to conduct interviews in the future. He shared some of the resources available on the Although the results are not yet visible, a small website http://aip.org/history-programs/physics- group of us, the “AstroGen history, where his contact information may also be Team,” has been working on found. developing the Astronomy Genealogy Project. I presented an update on the HAD Oral History Project. Oral histories can take up more We have entered some than six hours, which is a huge and frightening 1800 astronomy-related time commitment for some people. We have found dissertations into a that most people can and will commit to two hours temporary database, taking with the caveat that depending upon how the advantage of the fact that interview goes we may need an additional two many universities and some countries have posted hours at another time. Thus far, our team has such information—even the full dissertations— managed to stick to either the two hour or the four online. We are working on our list of nearly 2000 hour time limit. As we enter the second year of the universities that have granted doctorates, and we project we are seeking new volunteers to conduct are struggling with questions regarding what interviews. The newly formed 40+Emeritus group information to list when AstroGen takes its place in particular is interested in having members of on the AAS website in a format somewhat similar our project conduct interviews with its members. It to that of the Mathematics Genealogy Project has been a pleasure to find that we have so many (http://genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/), which people who are ready to be interviewed beyond the has more than 178,000 records. capacity of our current team. If you are interested We are looking for help. If you would like to in joining our team of interviewers please contact become a member of the team, contributing as me. much or little time as you wish, please contact me. [email protected] [email protected] Future HAD Meetings 2014 June 3–4, Boston [with AAS, SPD, LAD] 2014 November 9–14, Tucson [with DPS] 2015 January 4–8, Seattle [with AAS, HEAD] The HAD Oral History Initiative: 2016 January 3–7, Kissimmee Update (with AAS, HEAD) Jarita Holbrook, University of the Western Cape, Republic of South Africa Special Sessions Scheduled for Gregory Good (pictured left) from the Neils Bohr January 2015 Meeting Library of the American Institute of Physics joined The HAD Committee has approved three special HAD during the winter meeting for a workshop on sessions to be presented at the Seattle meeting oral history interviews. Dr. Good encouraged an (joint with AAS and HEAD) next January 4-5. informal discussion of doing oral history This means that nearly all contributed papers will interviews. He spent some time addressing the be on Tuesday, January 6. They are described by concerns of participants, some of whom have the session organizers on the next page: Number 84 HAD NEWS April 2014 Page 4 The Impact of World War I on Astronomy increasingly were looked upon as having a natural and Other Sciences formation, a stable “middle age”, and an eventual organized by Virginia Trimble.
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