English N. Chronicling the Golden Age of Astronomy: A History of Visual Observing from Harriot to Moore

Springer, 2018. — 665 pp.The invention of the telescope at the dawning of the 17th century has revolutionized humanity's understanding of the Universe and our place within it. This book traces the development of the telescope over four centuries, as well as the many personalities who used it to uncover brand-new revelations about the Sun, Moon, planets, stars and distant galaxies.
Starting with early observers such as Thomas Harriot, Galileo, Johannes Hevelius, Giovanni Domenico Cassini, Robert Hooke and Christian Huygens, the book explores how these early observers arrived at essentially correct ideas concerning the objects they studied. Moving into the 18th and 19th centuries, the author describes the increasing sophistication of telescopes both large and small, and the celebrated figures who used them so productively, including the Herschels, Charles Messier, William Lassell and the Earls of Rosse.
Many great discoveries were also made with smaller instruments when placed in the capable hands of the Struve dynasty, F.W. Bessel, Angelo Secchi and S.W Burnham, to name but a few. Nor were all great observers of professional ilk. The book explores the contributions made by the 'clerical astronomers,' William Rutter Dawes, Thomas William Webb, T.E.R. Philips and T.H.E.C. Espin, as well as the lonely vigils of E.E. Barnard, William F. Denning and Charles Grover. And in the 20th century, the work of Percival Lowell, Leslie Peltier, Eugene M. Antoniadi, Clyde Tombaugh, Walter Scott Houston, David H. Levy and Sir Patrick Moore is fully explored.
Generously illustrated throughout, this treasure trove of astronomical history shows how each observer's work led to seminal developments in science, and providing key insights into how we go about exploring the heavens today.Thomas Harriot, England’s First Telescopist.
The Legacy of Galileo.
The Checkered Career of Simon Marius.
The Era of Long Telescopes.
Workers of Speculum.
Charles Messier, the Ferret of Comets.
Thomas Jefferson and His Telescopic Forays.
The Herschel Legacy.
Thinking Big: The Pioneers of Parsonstown.
The Astronomical Adventures of William Lassell.
Friedrich W. Bessel: The Man Who Dared to Measure.
W. H. Smyth: The Admirable Admiral.
The Stellar Contributions of Wilhelm von Struve.
The Eagle-Eyed Reverend William Rutter Dawes.
The Telescopes of the Reverend Thomas William Webb.
The Astronomical Adventures of Artistic Nathaniel Everett Green.
Edward Emerson Barnard, the Early Years.
William F. Denning, a Biographical Sketch.
A Modern Commentary on W. F. Denning’s Telescopic Work for Starlight Evenings (1891).
The Astronomical Legacy of Asaph Hall.
The Life and Work of Charles Grover (1842–1921).
Angelo Secchi, Father of Modern Astrophysics.
John Birmingham, T. H. E. C. Espin and the Search for Red Stars.
A Historic Clark Telescope Receives a New Lease on Life.
A Short Commentary on Percival Lowell’s “Mars as the Abode of Life”.
The Great Meudon Refractor.
A Short Commentary on R. G. Aitken’s The Binary Stars.
S. W. Burnham: A Life Behind the Eyepiece.
Voyage to the Planets: The Astronomical Forays of Arthur Stanley Williams (1861–1938).
Explorer of the Planets: The Contributions of the Reverend T. E. R. Philips.
Highlights from the Life of Leslie C. Peltier.
Clyde W. Tombaugh, Discoverer of Pluto.
A Short Commentary on Walter Scott Houston’s “Deep Sky Wonders”.
A Short Commentary on David H. Levy’s The Quest for Comets.
George Alcock and the Historic Ross Refractor.
Whatever Happened to Robert Burnham Junior?
The Impact of Mount Wilson’s 60-Inch Reflector.
Seeing Saturnian Spots.
John Dobson and His Revolution.
The Telescopes of Sir Patrick Moore (1923–2012).
A Gift of a Telescope: The Japan 400 Project.