The Harvard College Observatory: The First Four Directorships (Belknap Press) - Tapa dura

Críticas

Kuhn "offers the general reader an illuminating account of the intellectual transformation which laid the foundations of modern science and philosophy, and which may therefore be said to have created the modern world. The intricacies of ancient and medieval astronomy are a sufficient harrier to the average educated man to prevent him from gaining any but the most general notion of what was involved in the overthrow of the Ptolemaic system. Kuhn handles...the history with exemplary skill."

Reseña del editor

Since its founding in 1839, the Harvard College Observatory has pioneered in the development of modern astronomy. Its first directors early recognized the potential of spectroscopy in revealing the constitution of the stars, and of photography in determining the positions and motions of celestial objects; the library of photographic plates made under their direction provides an invaluable history of the stellar universe for the period. The Observatory also pioneered in using the talents of women, several of whom became noted astronomers, and their monumental classification of stars from spectral records constitutes a fundamental contribution to astronomical knowledge.

The authors vividly portray the genesis, growth, and achievements of a major scientific institution and its relations with other observatories. Through the use of photographs and correspondence they also portray the men and women who played essential roles in the development of astronomy in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.