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Resource Letter OSE-1: Observing Solar Eclipses Jay M
Resource Letter OSE-1: Observing Solar Eclipses Jay M. PasachoffAndrew Fraknoi Citation: American Journal of Physics 85, 485 (2017); doi: 10.1119/1.4985062 View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.4985062 View Table of Contents: http://aapt.scitation.org/toc/ajp/85/7 Published by the American Association of Physics Teachers RESOURCE LETTER Resource Letters are guides for college and university physicists, astronomers, and other scientists to literature, websites, and other teaching aids. Each Resource Letter focuses on a particular topic and is intended to help teachers improve course content in a specific field of physics or to introduce nonspecialists to this field. The Resource Letters Editorial Board meets annually to choose topics for which Resource Letters will be commissioned during the ensuing year. Items in the Resource Letter below are labeled with the letter E to indicate elementary level or material of general interest to persons seeking to become informed in the field, the letter I to indicate intermediate level or somewhat specialized material, or the letter A to indicate advanced or specialized material. No Resource Letter is meant to be exhaustive and complete; in time there may be more than one Resource Letter on a given subject. A complete list by field of all Resource Letters published to date is at the website <http://ajp.dickinson.edu/ Readers/resLetters.html>. Suggestions for future Resource Letters, including those of high pedagogical value, are welcome and should be sent to Professor Mario Belloni, Editor, AJP Resource Letters, Davidson College, Department of Physics, Box 6910, Davidson, NC 28035; e-mail: [email protected]. -
Lomonosov, the Discovery of Venus's Atmosphere, and Eighteenth Century Transits of Venus
Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 15(1), 3-14 (2012). LOMONOSOV, THE DISCOVERY OF VENUS'S ATMOSPHERE, AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURY TRANSITS OF VENUS Jay M. Pasachoff Hopkins Observatory, Williams College, Williamstown, Mass. 01267, USA. E-mail: [email protected] and William Sheehan 2105 SE 6th Avenue, Willmar, Minnesota 56201, USA. E-mail: [email protected] Abstract: The discovery of Venus's atmosphere has been widely attributed to the Russian academician M.V. Lomonosov from his observations of the 1761 transit of Venus from St. Petersburg. Other observers at the time also made observations that have been ascribed to the effects of the atmosphere of Venus. Though Venus does have an atmosphere one hundred times denser than the Earth’s and refracts sunlight so as to produce an ‘aureole’ around the planet’s disk when it is ingressing and egressing the solar limb, many eighteenth century observers also upheld the doctrine of cosmic pluralism: believing that the planets were inhabited, they had a preconceived bias for believing that the other planets must have atmospheres. A careful re-examination of several of the most important accounts of eighteenth century observers and comparisons with the observations of the nineteenth century and 2004 transits shows that Lomonosov inferred the existence of Venus’s atmosphere from observations related to the ‘black drop’, which has nothing to do with the atmosphere of Venus. Several observers of the eighteenth-century transits, includ- ing Chappe d’Auteroche, Bergman, and Wargentin in 1761 and Wales, Dymond, and Rittenhouse in 1769, may have made bona fide observations of the aureole produced by the atmosphere of Venus. -
Expedition Measures Solar Motions Seen During Last Summer's Total Solar Eclipse 7 June 2018
Expedition measures solar motions seen during last summer's total solar eclipse 7 June 2018 "During the August 21, 2017, solar eclipse, our hidden behind the blue sky. "Only at a total solar dozens of telescopes and electronic cameras eclipse, when the blue sky goes away because collected data during the rare two minutes at which normal sunlight is hidden by the moon, can we see we could see and study the sun's outer the corona at all this well. And because the sun's atmosphere, the corona," reported solar- magnetic field changes over the 11-year sunspot astronomer Jay Pasachoff to the American cycle and erratically as well, each time we look at Astronomical Society, meeting in Denver during the corona—even when we get only a couple of June 4-7. Pasachoff, Field Memorial Professor of minutes to see it every couple of years somewhere Astronomy at Williams College, discussed results in the world—we have a new sun to study, just as a from his team's observations made in Salem, cardiologist-researcher who looked inside Oregon, and measurements that his team has someone's heart in, say, Africa two years ago for a made of extremely rapid motions in the corona. couple of minutes would still have lots to learn by looking at a new patient in the U.S. a couple of "We could see giant streamers coming out of low years later." solar latitudes as well as plumes out of the sun's north and south poles, all held in their beautiful "We are learning about the sun's influence on the shapes by the sun's magnetic field," he said. -
Hints Into Kepler's Method
Stefano Gattei [email protected] Hints into Kepler’s method ABSTRACT The Italian Academy, Columbia University February 4, 2009 Some of Johannes Kepler’s works seem very different in character. His youthful Mysterium cosmographicum (1596) argues for heliocentrism on the basis of metaphysical, astronomical, astrological, numerological, and architectonic principles. By contrast, Astronomia nova (1609) is far more tightly argued on the basis of only a few dynamical principles. In the eyes of many, such a contrast embodies a transition from Renaissance to early modern science. However, Kepler did not subsequently abandon the broader approach of his early works: similar metaphysical arguments reappeared in Harmonices mundi libri V (1619), and he reissued the Mysterium cosmographicum in a second edition in 1621, in which he qualified only some of his youthful arguments. I claim that the conceptual and stylistic features of the Astronomia nova – as well as of other “minor” works, such as Strena seu De nive sexangula (1611) or Nova stereometria doliorum vinariorum (1615) – are intimately related and were purposely chosen because of the response he knew to expect from the astronomical community to the revolutionary changes in astronomy he was proposing. Far from being a stream-of-consciousness or merely rhetorical kind of narrative, as many scholars have argued, Kepler’s expository method was carefully calculated both to convince his readers and to engage them in a critical discussion in the joint effort to know God’s design. By abandoning the perspective of the inductivist philosophy of science, which is forced by its own standards to portray Kepler as a “sleepwalker,” I argue that the key lies in the examination of Kepler’s method: whether considering the functioning and structure of the heavens or the tiny geometry of the little snowflakes, he never hesitated to discuss his own intellectual journey, offering a rational reconstruction of the series of false starts, blind alleys, and failures he encountered. -
NL#132 October
October 2006 Issue 132 AAS NEWSLETTER A Publication for the members of the American Astronomical Society PRESIDENT’S COLUMN J. Craig Wheeler, [email protected] August is a time astronomers devote to travel, meetings, and writing papers. This year, our routine is set 4-5 against the background of sad and frustrating wars and new terror alerts that have rendered our shampoo Calgary Meeting suspect. I hope that by the time this is published there is a return to what passes for normalcy and some Highlights glimmer of reason for optimism. In this summer season, the business of the Society, while rarely urgent, moves on. The new administration 6 under Executive Officer Kevin Marvel has smoothly taken over operations in the Washington office. The AAS Final transition to a new Editor-in-Chief of the Astrophysical Journal, Ethan Vishniac, has proceeded well, with Election some expectation that the full handover will begin earlier than previously planned. Slate The Society, under the aegis of the Executive Committee, has endorsed the efforts of Senators Mikulksi and Hutchison to secure $1B in emergency funding for NASA to make up for some of the costs of shuttle 6 return to flight and losses associated with hurricane Katrina. It remains to be seen whether this action 2007 AAS will survive the budget process. The Executive Committee has also endorsed a letter from the American Renewals Institute of Physics supporting educators in Ohio who are fending off an effort there to include intelligent design in the curriculum. 13 Interestingly, the primary in Connecticut was of relevance to the Society. -
SOLAR ECLIPSE NEWSLETTER SOLAR ECLIPSE November 2003 NEWSLETTER
Volume 8, Issue 11 SOLAR ECLIPSE NEWSLETTER SOLAR ECLIPSE November 2003 NEWSLETTER The sole Newsletter dedicated to Solar Eclipses INDEX 2 SECalendar November Dear SENL reader, 6 Artis planetarium 6 CNN tonight 6 Antiquity of 'Dragon's Head and Tail' When we are finishing this newsletter, some of the die 7 New Sony videocamera with 3 Megapixel CCD hards are on its way to observe the total solar eclipse 8 Total irradiance graph 9 Eclipse retrocalculations of 23 November 2003. Indeed, some of the eclipse 10 Saros 139/144 and 129/134 chasers left with the icebreaker from South Africa to- 11 Question about eclipse seasons 11 Virus wards the Antarctic. Hopefully they will have a safe 11 Nasa Eclipse Site CD journey and we hope of course a safe return. 11 Picture Logo NASA WebPages 12 Fast question...... Many others will leave for Australia and will observe the 13 "Our Mr. Sun" 13 An eclipse/transit calculator for your mobile phone! eclipse from the air. We wish them of course all suc- 14 3d pix of eclipse cess with the observations of the eclipse. Hopefully we 15 25 october Mercury occultation by new moon 16 Giant sunspot approaching the Sun's centre will see some nice images of the eclipses, and their ac- 16 Live solar images , and northern lights counts in a few weeks time. 17 Satellites eclipsed 18 New Moon Oct 2003 The total lunar eclipse is another challenge for this 19 NASA Scientist Dives Into Perfect Space Storm 20 On the shortest time lap between tw o totalities in the same month. -
Solar Physics Jay M
RESOURCE LETTER Resource Letters are guides for college and university physicists, astronomers, and other scientists to literature, websites, and other teaching aids. Each Resource Letter focuses on a particular topic and is intended to help teachers improve course content in a specific field of physics or to introduce nonspecialists to this field. The Resource Letters Editorial Board meets at the AAPT Winter Meeting to choose topics for which Resource Letters will be commissioned during the ensuing year. Items in the Resource Letter below are labeled with the letter E to indicate elementary level or material of general interest to persons seeking to become informed in the field, the letter I to indicate intermediate level or somewhat specialized material, or the letter A to indicate advanced or specialized material. No Resource Letter is meant to be exhaustive and complete; in time there may be more than one Resource Letter on a given subject. A complete list by field of all Resource Letters published to date is at the website www.kzoo.edu/ajp/letters.html. Suggestions for future Resource Letters, including those of high pedagogical value, are welcome and should be sent to Professor Roger H. Stuewer, Editor, AAPT Resource Letters, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, 116 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455; e-mail: [email protected] Resource Letter SPh-1: Solar Physics Jay M. Pasachoffa͒ Hopkins Observatory, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts 01267 ͑Received 2 March 2010; accepted 22 April 2010͒ This Resource Letter provides a guide to printed literature, listing selected books and articles and online resources about scientific and cultural references to the Sun and the related topics of solar spectroscopy and space weather. -
Borromini and the Cultural Context of Kepler's Harmonices Mundi
Borromini and the Dr Valerie Shrimplin cultural context of [email protected] Kepler’sHarmonices om Mundi • • • • Francesco Borromini, S Carlo alle Quattro Fontane Rome (dome) Harmonices Mundi, Bk II, p. 64 Facsimile, Carnegie-Mellon University Francesco Borromini, S Ivo alla Sapienza Rome (dome) Harmonices Mundi, Bk IV, p. 137 • Vitruvius • Scriptures – cosmology and The Genesis, Isaiah, Psalms) cosmological • Early Christian - dome of heaven view of the • Byzantine - domed architecture universe and • Renaissance revival – religious art/architecture symbolism of centrally planned churches • Baroque (17th century) non-circular domes as related to Kepler’s views* *INSAP II, Malta 1999 Cosmas Indicopleustes, Universe 6th cent Last Judgment 6th century (VatGr699) Celestial domes Monastery at Daphne (Δάφνη) 11th century S Sophia, Constantinople (built 532-37) ‘hanging architecture’ Galla Placidia, 425 St Mark’s Venice, late 11th century Evidence of Michelangelo interests in Art and Cosmology (Last Judgment); Music/proportion and Mathematics Giacomo Vignola (1507-73) St Andrea in Via Flaminia 1550-1553 Church of San Giacomo in Augusta, in Rome, Italy, completed by Carlo Maderno 1600 [painting is 19th century] Sant'Anna dei Palafrenieri, 1620’s (Borromini with Maderno) Leonardo da Vinci, Notebooks (318r Codex Atlanticus c 1510) Amboise Bachot, 1598 Following p. 52 Astronomia Nova Link between architecture and cosmology (as above) Ovals used as standard ellipse approximation Significant change/increase Revival of neoplatonic terms, geometrical bases in early 17th (ellipse, oval, equilateral triangle) century Fundamental in Harmonices Mundi where orbit of every planet is ellipse with sun at one of foci Borromini combined practical skills with scientific learning and culture • Formative years in Milan (stonemason) • ‘Artistic anarchist’ – innovation and disorder. -
ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS (Div III)
ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS (Div III) Chair: Professor Jay Pasachoff Marek Demianski, Visiting Professor of Astronomy Kevin Flaherty, Lecturer in Astronomy and Observatory Supervisor; affiliated with: Physics Department Anne Jaskot, Assistant Professor of Astronomy and Associate of the Hopkins Observatory; affiliated with: Physics Department; on leave Fall 2021 Jay M. Pasachoff, Chair and Field Memorial Professor of Astronomy, Director of the Hopkins Observatory How long will the Sun shine? How do we discover Earth-like planets among the many exoplanets circling other stars? How did the universe begin and how has it evolved over its 13.8-billion-year history? How do we detect not only light but also gravitational waves from afar? Astronomy is the science that asks and tries to answer questions like these. We have come a long way toward understanding what makes the sky appear as it does and how the Universe behaves. The Astronomy Department offers courses for anyone who is interested in learning about the Universe, and who would like to be able to follow new astronomical discoveries as they are made. All courses in Astronomy satisfy the Division III requirement. The Astronomy major and the Astrophysics major (administered jointly with the Physics Department) are described below. The beginning astronomy courses are offered on two levels. Astronomy 101, 102, 104, and 330-range courses are intended primarily for non-science majors and have no prerequisite. Astronomy 111 is designed for students with some exposure to physics. It has a prerequisite of one year of high school physics or permission of the instructor, and a co-requisite of Mathematics 140 or equivalent background in calculus. -
Main Objective: Scientific Justification: Proposer Name: Jay Pasachoff
Timestamp: 3/29/2016 16:46:02 Title of Proposed Observation: Observations of Transit of Mercury (ToM) 2016 May 9 Main Objective: Mercury will transit the Sun on 2016 May 9. We would like to use Hinode to observe the event with SOT, XRT, and EIS. The next opportunity will not be until the transit of November 2019. This HOP defines the overall plan for Hinode observations of this Transit of Mercury (ToM). Details of the observation schedule will have to be put together by the planning team after the Hinode observation and orbit timings are better defined (e.g., twilight and/or night timings). Scientific Justification: Our observational objectives are multi-fold: (a) We will study the black drop effect in white-light with SOT during contacts I and IV. A convincing explanation for this long-observed effect has been presented only recently (e.g., Schneider et al. 2004, Pasachoff et al. 2011). We will seek to gain further insight into the phenomenon with SOT images. (b) Image in Ca II as Mercury crosses spicules (or a prominence) at the limb; this could be useful, e.g., characterizing spicule widths. (c) Use SOT/NFI observations in the Na D1 line, to attempt to image exospheric absorption. (d) Polarization measurements with SOT/SP to characterize the polarization state of the instrumental scattered light. (e) Observations from XRT to observe Mercury silhouetted against the coronal background before, during, and after the transit. (f) The above SOT and XRT images, and also EIS slot images can be taken for public outreach and media releases. -
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. -
The (Variable) Stars Belong to Everyone
Percy, JAAVSO Volume 44, 2016 1 The (Variable) Stars Belong to Everyone John R. Percy Editor-in-Chief, Journal of the AAVSO Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, and Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, 50 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3H4, Canada; [email protected] Received May 31, 2016 The authorship of this issue reminds us that, although the seem much more national or local, but there are still reasons to AAVSO is “American,” its reach and impact are international. have an international perspective. At my university, about half Our members and observers come from around the world. of undergraduate students were born elsewhere. We are also International Science: There are thousands of VSOers interested in the nature and strengths and weaknesses of other around the world. We need variable star observations made education systems. This is especially true at the school level. with various instruments, from both north and south, and from Why do countries such as Finland outperform us in international all longitudes so there is coverage even when America is in standardized science and math tests? Often, the answers can daylight. Friedrich Argelander (1799–1875), the “father of help us to deal with weaknesses in our own system—the variable star astronomy,” admonished observers to publish their education of immigrant students, Aboriginal students, and other observations, and not to just file them in a drawer. But if they marginalized groups. Can it also help us with a fundamental were published in a thousand places, with a thousand different problem: astronomy is a compulsory part of the elementary and methodologies and comparison stars, that would not be very secondary curriculum, but few teachers have any background in useful.