History of Astronomy - Technology and Math

Contents

• Technology Development
• Development of Instruments
• Telescope History
• Calculating Machines and Computers
• Math History Related to Astronomy
• General Websites
• Specific Topics
• Related Pages on this Website

Technology Development

• Smith College Museum of Ancient Inventions
• Science and Society Picture Library Nat'l Museum of Science and Industry, UK.
• Photo Library for History of Science
  This has photographs of some Korean and Chinese observing sites and devices, plus some pictures from Western history of astronomy. @ History of Science by Prof. Shigeru Jochi.
• Nobel e-Museum (Physics)
• Tools and Exploration
• Tools of Science which Changed History some quick highlights, in Japan.
• Vacuum History and Technology McAllister.
  Includes some short biographies of early physicists and chemists.
• Prof. L.S. Taylor, Univ. of Md.:
• An Anecdotal History of Optics from Aristophanes to Zernike
• Taylor's Gallery of Electromagnetic Personalities! A Vignette History.
• A Brief History of Electronics The Millennium Education Group, Dennis Ramsey.
• Inventors and Scientists in the science of electricity, @ Electric Universe by CIPCO.
• IEEE History Center, Links
• History of Technology Research Unit
  The School of Conservation Sciences at Bournemouth University.
  Oral history on some technical developments. The closest field to astronomy covered is about the development of RADAR. I chose to include these links partly for their perspective for studying history.
• Technology History Links compiled by REFSTAR.
• ECHO Science & Technology Virtual Center hosted by George Mason Univ.

Development of Instruments

• Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge
• The Starry Messenger
• Important Astronomers, their Instruments and Discoveries
  by Paul M. Rybski @ Ptolemy's Supper Club
• National Air & Space Museum - Explore the Universe
• History of Math @ Simon Fraser Univ. Canada
  Focused mostly on early math.
• The Development of Sundials
• The Astrolabe
• The Astrolabe Gary Agranat and Dave Delligati.
• A Treatise on the Astrolabe by Geoffrey Chaucer (1391) @ The Art Bin
• A treatise on the Astrolabe @ Cardiff Rose.
• Epact- Scientific Instruments of Medieval and Renaissance Europe
• Museum of the History of Science @ Oxford, England; in particular, they have two on-line exhibits which seem to be history of art as much as history of science:
• The Measurers, about 16th century measurement in Flanders, and
• The Noble Dane: Images of Tycho Brahe, which in addition has information about John Flamsteed, Johannes Hvelius, and astronomical instrumentation in China from the Jesuit missionaries there.
• See Tycho Brahe
• Smithsonian Instition Libraries Digital Archives
• Astronomiæ instauratæ mechanica by Tycho Brahe
• National Maritime Museum UK. Includes:
• Timekeeping
• Sea, Stars and Time online exhibit.
• Royal Observatory Greenwich
• History of Mass Spectrometry
• University of Toronto Museum of Scientific Instruments
  The collections includes a section of astronomical instruments.
• History of Astronomy at the Adler Planetarium
• Scientific Instrument Museum Humboldt State Univ.
  Mostly chemistry and physics related instruments.
• Museo di Fisica di Napoli in English and Italian. The older museum page is also on line.
• Physics Museum of the University of Coimbra Portugal.
• The current search for extra-solar planets is dependent on the development of high resolution spectrographs.
• Also see Astronomy by Wavelength

Telescope History

Right now I consider this section a bit weak. The emphasis here is development of the telescope as an astronomical tool. For later developments, try consulting 20th century, astronomy by wavelenght and telescopes used for space missions.

Optical

• The Galileo Project Homepage
• The Bath Preservation Trust Web-Site - Herschel Museum. The preserved home of William and Caroline Herschel.
• The World's (once) Largest Telescope: Lord Rosse and the Birr Castle Telescopes
• Antique Telescope Society

Radio

• The History of Radio Astronomy UREI-Radio Astronomy Tutorial, MIT Haystack Observatory.
• Early History of Radio Astronomy NRAO
• Karl Jansky and the discovery of cosmic radio waves
• My Brother Karl Jansky and his Discovery of Radio Waves from Beyond Earth Cosmic Search Vol. 1, No. 4 - Fall 1979
• Hubble Space Telescope- the development as seen in 1982
  A Scientific American article by John N. Bahcall and Lyman Spitzer, Jr.
• Radio History
• Also see Astronomy by Wavelength
• Also see Telescope, Instrument and Measurement Topics

Calculating Machines and Computers

• The Abacus- The Art of Calculating with Beads Luis Fernandes
• Calculating Machines
• Early Calculators from John Napier and the Slide Rule to early electronic calculators, @ The Museum of HP Calculators
• The Computer History Museum in Visualville
• History of Computation Paul E. Dunne, Univ. of Liverpool
• History of Computing resource website @ Virginia Tech
• The History of Computers a student project for ThinkQuest.
• Computing History Links @ The Media History Project.
• The Amazing Adding Subtracting Composing Creating Do-Everything Machine, Ada Lovelace Envisions Modern Computing Nat'l Endowment for the Humanities.
• PBS NOVA - Decoding NAZI Secrets. Well, this isn't astronomy. But it's a good historical story with math and computers, including the first electronic computers.
• Also see Computer Science on the Engineering Page.

Math History Related to Astronomy

General Websites

• History of Mathematics @ Mac Tutor
• Mathematicians of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
• Eric Schechter Vanderbilt University: Why study calculus? - a brief history of math
• The World Great Mathematicians @ Hong Kong Baptist University, Scientific Computing Laboratory.
• Mathematics History a ThinkQuest student project.
  This is a broad outline synopsis of math history. Many relevant items are mentioned briefly. Some examples with numbers, equations and illustrations help keep the entire outline in context.
• Also available in Korean!
• Il giardino di Archimede in Italian.
• Tidbits of Famous Mathematicians Jacob Salas and Alexander H. Nhu
• Historical Tidbits
• Bellevue Community College Math Dept.:
• Mathematical Folks
• Mathematical Snippets
• Ma 117 - Mathematics and Culture course homepage. @ Department of Mathematics and Computer Information Science, Mansfield University, Mansfield Pennsylvania.
  Has some historical overviews of various branches of mathematics.
• Jan Hogendijk has links to several history of math and astronomy references, particularly in Islamic culture.
• Cultural Online Learning Organization and Resource: Asian Math Youth Sangha
• History of Mathematics in Asia
• Development of Mathematics in Ancient China
• Chinese Calendar
• History of Mathematics in South Asia
• The Discovery of Zero
• The Zero Saga Professor Hossein Arsham.

Specific Topics

• Mesopotamian Mathematics
• The Art of Algebra by Karen H. Parshall From Al-Khwarizmi to Viete: A Study in the Natural Selection of Ideas.
• See Isaac Newton and the Scientific Revolution.
• Joseph Fourier - Politician & Scientist a biographical paper by David A. Keston
• The discovery of Neptune:
• 150th anniversary of the discovery of the planet Neptune
• Neptune a radio program talk by Greg Bamford, Sept. 22, 1996, on Australian Broadcasting Corp.'s Ockham's Razor
• History of Mathematics @ Mac Tutor , which includes many short biographies and these articles:
• Mathematical Discovery of Planets
• Orbits & Gravitation
• A Brief History of Cosmology
• Heavenly Mathematics by Helmer Aslaksen. Thank you for the link!
• Interactive Real Analysis Seaton Hall University.
• From Stargazers to Starships David P. Stern, NASA GSFC
• See Understanding Orbits on the Math Page.
• Time keeping, calendar, and navigation links are on the Time & Navigation Page.

Related Pages on this Website

• Related Sciences
  Including physics and engineering sections.
• Astronomy by Wavelength
• Telescope, Instrument and Measurement Topics
• Time & Navigation
• Space Flight Technology Page.
• Astronmomy with Math
• Understanding Orbits on the Math Page.
• Radio History