HAD in San Diego New HAD Web pages he Historical Astronomy Division began the new centuryand e are happy to announce the recent updating of the HAD T millennium with an assortment of scientific and logistic wweb pages. They haven't been updated with slick, busy activities in San Diego. An undoubted highlight was a Sunday visit graphics, but just with more information. Visit our web site at to the Ernst Zinner Collection of historic astronomical books and http:l/www.aas.org/%7Ehad/had.html documents at San Diego State University, hosted by Freddie Talbert and you will find the updated list of HAD officers and links to lists of the astronomy faculty and Lyn Olsson of the SDSU Library's of former officers and the sites and dates of past HAD meetings. Special Collections department. Dr. Ernst Zinner (1886-1970) was There is also a link to a page giving all the information about HAD'S professor of astronomy at the University of Munich and this LeRoy E. Doggett Prize for I-Iistorical Astronomy. And perhaps the collection constitutes his personal library. Emphasizing most exciting addition is Ruth Freitag's bibliography of recent astronomy, but including horology and the history of science, the publications in the history of astronomy. Right now her collection consists of more than thirty-five hundred books and is bibliography for the Feb. 2001 HAD News is up in both HTML and rich in rare books dating from 1485. Our hosts peppered the SDSU PDF formats. We hope to add earlier bibliographies as we get a campus with many signs pointing the way to the new library annex chance. where the Special Collections reside on the top floor (a few of us still got lost, however). As well as displaying classic works by Galileo, Copernicus, and many others, Lyn provided some guidance in how such volumes should be handled-not necessarily with gloves, which are likely to tear fragile pages-with very clean, oil-free, delicate human fingers. None of us dared try, but we bent closely over, making remarks like "that lion must have been drawn by someone who had never seen a lion," and "that's not a scorpion, that's a tick," in response to John Flamsteed's Atlas Coelestis of 1753 (no, it doesn't show Cas A). Another highlight was their latest, late December, acquisition, Johannes Kepler's Rndolp!iine Tables of 1627, with a world map added some time later. After a brief visit to the Special Collections department, the first HAD session took place down the lull in the conference room. The theme of the Sunday session was "Boners of the Century." The first talk was by A.T, Young (SDSU) on "J. B. Biot and Refraction Calculations." Young pointed out that Biot had approached atmospheric refraction from an incorrect theory of light, but nevertheless obtained more nearly correct results than many later practitioners, the results having been forgotten to our detriment. (continued on page 2) Lyn Olsson (SDSU Special Collections) gives HAD members a close encounter of the third ( 1726) edition of Newton's Principia (photo by David DeVorkin) HAD in San Diego (continued from page 1) sources. B. McNamara (NMSU), in "The Mercury 13 and the Selection of Women Astronauts," brought us closest to the present, We also learned that Biotite Mica is named for the multi-talented looking at the baker's dozen American women initially selected for Biot! G.S. Wallerstein (U. Washington), in "The Distance to the astronaut training (the Mercury 13))but whose participation was Hyades: From Meridian Circles to Hipparcos," followed the long, abruptly cancelled, leaving the Russian cosmonaut, Valentina crooked path from Boss to HIPPARCOS in pinning down the part Tereshkova, to be the first woman in space. of the distance ladder tied to the Hyades, concluding that the HAD has not traditionally been represented formally by HIPPARCOS value (m-M = 3.33) will be definitive for a very long invited, plenary, or prize talks for the society as a whole. This year, time, despite slight disagreement with his own earlier work. B.E. however, the final joint AAPT-AAS session speaker addressed a Schaefer (UT-Austin), in "The Transit of Venus and the Notorious historical topic. Dennis Danielson, Professor of English at the Black Drop," drew attention to the several wrong explanations of University of British Columbia, spoke on "The Great Copernican the black drop effect (when Venus-or Mercury-transits the sun) Cliche." His thesis was that most astronomers, and a good many that are more often found in textbooks than is the correct, image- historians, badly misunderstand the change from geocentric to smearing and isophote-tracing, answer. You can create a similar heliocentric models as a fall in stature or dethronement from an effect by bringing your thumb and index finger very close together exalted position, while, in fact, a central Earth was so located and looking at a light source through the gap between them. D.H. because ofits dross, gross, and bilge-like character. Copernicanism, DeVorkin (SI), in "The Russell Diagram: Artifact of Evolutionary by granting it motion (and, with earth-shine, light) restored Earth Thinking or a New Descriptive Tool for the Astronomer," focused to the dance of the planets. Danielson also pointed out that on Henry Norris Russell, his diagram, and his theory of stellar geoceiltrism and anthropocentrism are not at all the same thing evolution ("giant and dwarf'), finding that the latter had motivated (most of the early Copernicans were distinctly anthropocentrists), the former about as much as the converse and that both had helped and described his own function as that of a janitor, passing out to focus astronomical research and move it forward, though the brooms for us all to sweep away the cobwebs of misunderstanding. theory was, of course, eventually superseded. T. R. Williams Finally, the Division also HAD its usual, cheerful business (Rice), in "The Director's Choice: Mellish, Hubble, and the meeting, with about 20 participants, most of whom have already Discovery of the Variable Nebula," looked at the careers of John served the Division in some capactiy (and we'll catch the rest of you Edward Mellish and Edwin Hubble at Yerkes Observatory, next time!). Outgoing Secretary-Treasurer Thomas Hockey recounting how the former's erroneous announcement of a comet informed us that there was a positive balance in the checking in what was really a variable nebula led to Director Edwin Frost account (which he had not found any way to take with him) and a "directing" Hubble's work from faint stars to diffuse objects, steady illembership of about 300 (which you are urged to augment perhaps to the detriment of Mellish's career but to the enormous by adding to the checking account). Election results were betterment of Hubble's and of nebular astronomy in general. V. announced, the usual 20-25% of membership having voted. The Trimble (Maryland,UCI), in "The Trend Lines and Moving Groups newly-elected members are: Barbara Welther (chair), Thomas R. of Olin Jeuck Eggen," discussed two different circumstances (trend Williams (chair elect), Ronald Brashear (secretary-treasurer and lines in color-magnitude diagrams and moving groups in stellar editor of newsletter), and committee members Brenda Corbin and dynamics) in which Olin Eggen had tried to draw a bunch of lines Thomas Hockey. In accordance with a request from AAS Executive through scatter diagrams, neither enhancing nor retarding Committee at its October meeting that Divisions appoint liasons to astronomy in the process, but probably affecting his own future some of the more important society-wide committees, the following interactions with the astronomical community. agreed to serve: Alan Fiala (Committee on Astronomy and Public The second HAD session took place at the conference hotel on Policy), David DeVorkin (Committee on the Status of Women), Monday, January 8, and ranged from AD 29 to 1965. K.D. Fang and Thomas Hockey (Committee on Education). Liasons to a few and K.K. Yau (JPL) began with "Eclipses and the Olympics," other committees are still needed; contact Chair Welther discussing the 202"~olympiad and the solar eclipse of29 AD, which ([email protected]) to volunteer. A suitable number of may or may not have had theological significance, noting that people congealed to form the Doggett Prize Committee (a call for eclipses were recorded in China the year of the first Olympiad (776 nominations is on page 3). They are Barbara Welther and Ronald BC) and that there will be a total solar one (again passing over Brashear (both ex officio), Curtis Wilson and Owen Gingerich (the China) during the 19'~modern Olympiad. B.L. Welther (Harvard- two previous winners), Thomas Hockey, and Virginia Trimble (ex Smithsonian CfA), in "Harvard College Observatory: Shapley's officio as chair). And Eugene Milone has agreed to chair a revived Factory for PhD Degrees?," leaped forward to the Shapley era at Working Group on Archaeo- and Ethno-astronomy. Some Harvard, reflecting on the graduate and subsequent careers of early suggestions for activities at the next annual meeting (January 6-10, PhD recipients there, four of the first eight and ten of the first thirty 2002 in Washington, DC) were bandied about, including visits to of whom were women, beginning, of course, with Cecilia Helena the various places in the Smithsonian Institution, and other local Payne. D.E. Osterbrock (UCOILick Obs. UCSC), in Walter Baade sites of interest. Please send ideas and offers of assistance to Chair at Palomar 1937-1958," highlighted Walter Baade's work at Mt. Welther. Wilson and Palomar Mountain Observatories, including his search for relatively transparent parts of the Milky Way (think "Baade's This report was composed with material provided by the outgoing window"), variable stars in M31, the polarization of the Crab HAD Chair, Virginia Trimble, with additional information added Nebula, and (with Minkowski) early identifications of radio by Ronald Brashear.