Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.3724/sp.j.1440-2807.2023.09.71
Kenneth I. Kellermann
{"title":"<italic>The ALMA Telescope: The Story of a Science Mega-Project</italic>, by Paul A. Vanden Bout, Robert L. Dickman, and Adele L. Plunkett.","authors":"Kenneth I. Kellermann","doi":"10.3724/sp.j.1440-2807.2023.09.71","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3724/sp.j.1440-2807.2023.09.71","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42167,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135735971","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.3724/sp.j.1440-2807.2023.09.69
Aniket Sule, Shivam Joshi
: Indian Lunar Mansions, known as nakshatra , have been fundamental to Vedic calendrical systems. There have been some attempts to determine an epoch, when these asterisms were first defined, based on subjective interpretations of positions of cardinal points at the epoch of definition. However, these attempts have mostly had a limited scope of investigation. We attempt to address the question of epoch of definition using another approach. We assume that the choice of a particular principal star for each lunar mansion was the best possible choice for each corresponding ecliptic longitude zone and we employ precessional calculations to show for which periods in history this particular assumption holds true. Our analysis shows the period of designation of nakshatras to be around 2400 BCE. Visual analysis of sky plots around 2400 BCE further provides corroborating arguments in support of this date. The method is also useful in disambiguation of certain nakshatra definitions.
{"title":"CONSTRAINING THE PERIOD OF THE ORIGIN OF THE INDIAN LUNAR MANSIONS","authors":"Aniket Sule, Shivam Joshi","doi":"10.3724/sp.j.1440-2807.2023.09.69","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3724/sp.j.1440-2807.2023.09.69","url":null,"abstract":": Indian Lunar Mansions, known as nakshatra , have been fundamental to Vedic calendrical systems. There have been some attempts to determine an epoch, when these asterisms were first defined, based on subjective interpretations of positions of cardinal points at the epoch of definition. However, these attempts have mostly had a limited scope of investigation. We attempt to address the question of epoch of definition using another approach. We assume that the choice of a particular principal star for each lunar mansion was the best possible choice for each corresponding ecliptic longitude zone and we employ precessional calculations to show for which periods in history this particular assumption holds true. Our analysis shows the period of designation of nakshatras to be around 2400 BCE. Visual analysis of sky plots around 2400 BCE further provides corroborating arguments in support of this date. The method is also useful in disambiguation of certain nakshatra definitions.","PeriodicalId":42167,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135736354","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.3724/sp.j.1440-2807.2023.09.74
Clifford Cunningham
{"title":"<italic>Star Territory: Printing the Universe in Nineteenth-Century America</italic>, by Gordon Fraser.","authors":"Clifford Cunningham","doi":"10.3724/sp.j.1440-2807.2023.09.74","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3724/sp.j.1440-2807.2023.09.74","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42167,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135735965","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.3724/sp.j.1440-2807.2023.09.62
R.C. Kapoor
: There are innumerable records on stone and metal found in India detailing grants of land and donations made by kings and chieftains to Brahman priests, many on the occasions of eclipses and on the cardinal days. In this paper we investigate one such grant, first written about by Henry Colebrooke in 1809. It is from Gauj, the modern Gowthamapura in Shivamogga district in Karnataka state. Spread over three copper plates, the inscription is in mixed Sanskrit and Kannada and records a charitable grant of several villages made to thirty-two thousand Brahmans on the occasion of a sarpa yagna (snake-sacrifice) and a solar eclipse by Janaméjaya, the Puranic monarch who reigned over Hastinapur at the commencement of Kaliyuga. The eclipse was in the lunar month of Chaitra, on a Sunday, in Asvini naksatra. The grant further specified the circumstances such as Vyatipata ( pata – aspect), and that on the following day the naksatra was Bharani and the karana (the half-tithi ) was Kimstughna. These specifications make it the rarest of the rare eclipses. However, there is no eclipse mentioned in Janaméjaya legends, so was the eclipse in the grant genuine or an invented one? There were attempts made in the 1860s to identify the eclipse and possibly date the grant, but the identifications are not valid. In this paper we examine all such eclipses that occurred between 601 and 1699 CE and were visible from India. There are six such eclipses, in 712, 739, 851, 1027, 1372 and 1548 CE. Of these, we find the eclipse of 1027 CE as historically the most suitable one.
{"title":"FINDING KING JANAMÉJAYA’S ECLIPSE","authors":"R.C. Kapoor","doi":"10.3724/sp.j.1440-2807.2023.09.62","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3724/sp.j.1440-2807.2023.09.62","url":null,"abstract":": There are innumerable records on stone and metal found in India detailing grants of land and donations made by kings and chieftains to Brahman priests, many on the occasions of eclipses and on the cardinal days. In this paper we investigate one such grant, first written about by Henry Colebrooke in 1809. It is from Gauj, the modern Gowthamapura in Shivamogga district in Karnataka state. Spread over three copper plates, the inscription is in mixed Sanskrit and Kannada and records a charitable grant of several villages made to thirty-two thousand Brahmans on the occasion of a sarpa yagna (snake-sacrifice) and a solar eclipse by Janaméjaya, the Puranic monarch who reigned over Hastinapur at the commencement of Kaliyuga. The eclipse was in the lunar month of Chaitra, on a Sunday, in Asvini naksatra. The grant further specified the circumstances such as Vyatipata ( pata – aspect), and that on the following day the naksatra was Bharani and the karana (the half-tithi ) was Kimstughna. These specifications make it the rarest of the rare eclipses. However, there is no eclipse mentioned in Janaméjaya legends, so was the eclipse in the grant genuine or an invented one? There were attempts made in the 1860s to identify the eclipse and possibly date the grant, but the identifications are not valid. In this paper we examine all such eclipses that occurred between 601 and 1699 CE and were visible from India. There are six such eclipses, in 712, 739, 851, 1027, 1372 and 1548 CE. Of these, we find the eclipse of 1027 CE as historically the most suitable one.","PeriodicalId":42167,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage","volume":"18 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135735967","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.3724/sp.j.1440-2807.2023.09.61
Wolfgang Steinicke
{"title":"VISITORS TO THE HERSCHELS BETWEEN 1777 AND 1822","authors":"Wolfgang Steinicke","doi":"10.3724/sp.j.1440-2807.2023.09.61","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3724/sp.j.1440-2807.2023.09.61","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42167,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135735970","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.3724/sp.j.1440-2807.2023.09.64
Padmaja Venugopal, K. Rupa, S.K. Uma, S. Balachandra Rao
: In classical Indian Astronomy the true positions of the five planets are determined by repeatedly applying two equations, viz the equation of centre ( mandaphala ) and the equation of conjunction ( śīghraphala ). In the present paper we concentrate on the equation of conjunction ( śīghraphala ). Here, conjunction refers to the conjunction of a planet with the Sun, considering the ‘anomaly’ of their mean positions. In this process the concepts involved are the śīghra anomaly ( śīghrakendra ), śīghraparidhi (periphery) and the śīghrakarņa (hypotenuse).
{"title":"THE EQUATION OF THE CONJUNCTION (ŚĪGHRAPHALA) OF THE PLANETS IN CLASSICAL INDIAN ASTRONOMY","authors":"Padmaja Venugopal, K. Rupa, S.K. Uma, S. Balachandra Rao","doi":"10.3724/sp.j.1440-2807.2023.09.64","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3724/sp.j.1440-2807.2023.09.64","url":null,"abstract":": In classical Indian Astronomy the true positions of the five planets are determined by repeatedly applying two equations, viz the equation of centre ( mandaphala ) and the equation of conjunction ( śīghraphala ). In the present paper we concentrate on the equation of conjunction ( śīghraphala ). Here, conjunction refers to the conjunction of a planet with the Sun, considering the ‘anomaly’ of their mean positions. In this process the concepts involved are the śīghra anomaly ( śīghrakendra ), śīghraparidhi (periphery) and the śīghrakarņa (hypotenuse).","PeriodicalId":42167,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage","volume":"80 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135736356","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-01DOI: 10.3724/sp.j.1440-2807.2023.06.40
Joseph S. Tenn
The Astronomical Genealogy Project (AstroGen) has been underway since January 2013. This project of the Historical Astronomy Division (HAD) of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) has been online since July 2020, courtesy of the AAS. The volunteers of the AstroGen team have systematically searched online directories, mostly at individual university libraries, for astronomy-related doctoral theses equivalent to the modern, research-based Ph.D. We now claim to be 'nearly complete' for 38 countries, although some have not been updated for a year or two or three. The website contains a page for each astronomer and advisor, with links to the persons, universities, institutes, and the theses themselves. More than two-thirds of the theses are online in full, although some require access to a library with a subscription. There is information about nearly 37,000 individuals who have earned astronomy-related doctorates and another 5400 who have supervised them, but may not have earned such degrees themselves. Most of the latter have not yet been evaluated, but probably a majority earned doctorates in other fields, such as physics or geology. We present some of the results of our research and discuss ten ways the reader might make use of the project.
{"title":"THE ASTRONOMY GENEALOGY PROJECT IS TEN YEARS OLD: HERE ARE TEN WAYS YOU CAN USE IT","authors":"Joseph S. Tenn","doi":"10.3724/sp.j.1440-2807.2023.06.40","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3724/sp.j.1440-2807.2023.06.40","url":null,"abstract":"The Astronomical Genealogy Project (AstroGen) has been underway since January 2013. This project of the Historical Astronomy Division (HAD) of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) has been online since July 2020, courtesy of the AAS. The volunteers of the AstroGen team have systematically searched online directories, mostly at individual university libraries, for astronomy-related doctoral theses equivalent to the modern, research-based Ph.D. We now claim to be 'nearly complete' for 38 countries, although some have not been updated for a year or two or three. The website contains a page for each astronomer and advisor, with links to the persons, universities, institutes, and the theses themselves. More than two-thirds of the theses are online in full, although some require access to a library with a subscription. There is information about nearly 37,000 individuals who have earned astronomy-related doctorates and another 5400 who have supervised them, but may not have earned such degrees themselves. Most of the latter have not yet been evaluated, but probably a majority earned doctorates in other fields, such as physics or geology. We present some of the results of our research and discuss ten ways the reader might make use of the project.","PeriodicalId":42167,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135142395","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-01DOI: 10.3724/sp.j.1440-2807.2023.06.57
Virginia Trimble
{"title":"<italic>With Stars in Their Eyes: The Extraord-inary Lives and Enduring Genius of Aden and Marjorie Meinel</italic>, by James B. Breck-ingridge and Alec M. Pridgeon, with an invited chapter by Donald E. Osborn.","authors":"Virginia Trimble","doi":"10.3724/sp.j.1440-2807.2023.06.57","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3724/sp.j.1440-2807.2023.06.57","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42167,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage","volume":"67 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135142396","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-01DOI: 10.3724/sp.j.1440-2807.2023.06.34
K. Rupa, S.K. Uma, Padmaja Venugopal, S. Balachandra Rao
{"title":"REFERENCES TO 'PARALLEL PHENOMENON’ IN INDIAN ASTRONOMY AND INSCRIPTIONS","authors":"K. Rupa, S.K. Uma, Padmaja Venugopal, S. Balachandra Rao","doi":"10.3724/sp.j.1440-2807.2023.06.34","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3724/sp.j.1440-2807.2023.06.34","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42167,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135142404","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-01DOI: 10.3724/sp.j.1440-2807.2023.06.51
Clifford Cunningham
{"title":"<italic>Arithmetic in the Thought of Gerbert of Aurillac</italic>, by Marek Otisk.","authors":"Clifford Cunningham","doi":"10.3724/sp.j.1440-2807.2023.06.51","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3724/sp.j.1440-2807.2023.06.51","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42167,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135142403","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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