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Biennial History of Astronomy Workshops
University of Notre Dame
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Biennial History of Astronomy Workshop - ND III June 19-22, 1997

Program

All sessions, except the poster session, take place in the Auditorium of the Center for Continuing Education.

Thursday, June 19 Workshop Opens
8:00 - 10:00 pm Welcoming Reception
Notre Dame Center for Continuing Education
Note: A new 25 minute video on Daniel Kirkwood will be shown at 9 pm for anyone interested.
Friday, June 20 Sessions begin
8:30 - 9:00 am Greetings and Introduction of Participants
Mike Crowe (Notre Dame) and Steve Dick (U. S. Naval Observatory), Co-chairs of the Workshop
  • Introduction of Dr. Peter Lombardo, Director of the Center for Continuing Education and Conference Coordinator; and of Matt Dowd, ND grad student who is handling local arrangements, including transportation
  • Introduction of Participants
9:00 - 11:30 am On the Uses of Biography in the History of Astronomy
Organizer and Chair: David DeVorkin (Smithsonian Institution)
Five historians who have approached biography from different and complementary perspectives will outline their views on the role of biography in the history of astronomy. Each has explored either gender or class issues, institutional or regional contexts, or changing modes of practice in the framework of biography, and will provide insight into how these efforts enhance understanding of the ever-changing discipline of astronomy. Participating will be:
  • David DeVorkin (Smithsonian Institution): Henry Norris Russell and Charles Greeley Abbot
  • Barbara Becker (MindWorks): Sir William and Lady Margaret Huggins
  • Joanne Eisberg (Univ. of California at Santa Barbara): Beatrice Tinsley
  • William Sheehan (Minneapolis, Minn.): Edward Emerson Barnard
  • David Strauss (Kalamazoo College): Percival Lowell
11:35 am Group Photograph (weather permitting)
1:00 - 3:30 pm Survey Presentations
Chair: Steven J. Dick (U. S. Naval Observatory)
  • Alexander Gurshtein (Russian Academy of Sciences and Mesa State College): “On the Status and Opportunities of History of Astronomy Research in Russia”
  • Bernard R. Goldstein (Univ. of Pittsburgh): “Was There Anything Original in Ancient Greek Astronomy?”
  • Pamela Gossin (Univ. of Texas at Dallas): “Astronomy and Literature”
  • Sara Schechner Genuth (Smithsonian Institution/American Institute of Physics/UMCP): “Early Modern Sundials as Evidence of Consumer Culture”
3:30 - 4:00 pm Poster Presentations (Room 112 in CCE)
  • Barbara Becker (MindWorks): “MindWorks: Making Scientific Concepts Come Alive”
  • Michael J. Crowe (Univ. of Notre Dame): “Calendar of the Correspondence of Sir John Herschel”
  • Frank Edmondson (Indiana Univ.): “Reflections on Writing a Definitive History of AURA”
  • Robert J. Havlik (Univ. of Notre Dame): “The Notre Dame Telescope”
  • James R. Voelkel and Owen Gingerich (Harvard University): “Tycho Brahe's Copernican Campaign”
4:00 - 5:15 pm Historical Studies on Astronomy I
Chair: Marvin Bolt (Adler Planetarium)
  • Narahari Achar (Univ. of Memphis): “On the Vedic Origin of Vedaanga Jyotisha”
  • James A. Marshall: “Prehistoric Earthworks and Circumpolar Stars”
  • Matthew Dowd (Univ. of Notre Dame): “Augustine and Astrology: Acceptance and Polemic”
  • Sally Teames (Fort Worth ISD): “The Astronomical Origin of the Alphabet”
8:00 - 10:00 pm Gathering at the home of Mike Crowe (see map in conference packet)
Note: The new 25 minute video on Daniel Kirkwood will be available for viewing.
Saturday, June 21  
9:00 - 11:30 am Teaching History of Astronomy and Sharing of Syllabi
Organizer: Owen Gingerich (Harvard Univ.); Chair: Dana Densmore (Green Lion Press)
Note: Those who teach courses in history of astronomy are asked to bring about 50 copies of their syllabus to this session.
  • James Evans (Univ. of Puget Sound): “Using History of Astronomy in Teaching Astronomy”
  • Curtis Wilson (St. John's College): “Using History of Astronomy in the St. John's Program”
  • Owen Gingerich (Harvard Univ.): “Using History of Astronomy in Teaching Science to Non-science Majors”
1:30 - 3:30 pm Recent Themes in Archaeoastronomy: Sacred Spaces and Sacred Times
Organizer: Stephen McCluskey (West Virginia Univ.); Chair: James Lattis (Univ. of Wisconsin)
  • Stephen McCluskey (West Virginia Univ.): “Sacred Space as a Model for Puebloan Natural Knowledge”
  • Clive Ruggles (Leicester University): “Prehistoric Sacred Landscapes and Astronomy”
  • John Carlson (Center for Archaeoastronomy): “Pilgrimage and Solar Alignments in the Mexican Altiplano”
  • David Dearborn (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory): “Pilgrimage and Solar Alignments in the Inca World”
3:45 - 5:30 pm Historical Studies on Astronomy II
Chair: William Donahue (Green Lion Press)
  • Peter Barker (Univ. of Oklahoma): “So Why Did Anyone Adopt the Copernican Hypothesis?”
  • Howard Margolis (Univ. of Chicago): “Why a 'Solid Spheres' Interpretation of Tycho's System Is Easy but Nevertheless Invisible”
  • Voula Saridakis (Virginia Tech): “John Flamsteed at the Royal Greenwich Observatory: Dilemmas and Concerns of a Seventeenth-Century Astronomer”
  • Nicholas Kollerstrom (University College, London): “A Computer Reconstruction of Newton's Lunar Theory”
  • Elsa L. Gonzalez (Univ. of Chicago): “Correspondence of Charles Messier, President De Saron, Roger Joseph Boscovich and Others to Jean Hyacinth de Magalhes”
  • Brian Warner (Univ. of Cape Town): “John Herschel's Work at the Cape”
6:30 - 8:30 pm Conference Banquet, Morris Inn on the Notre Dame Campus
Welcoming Remarks: Rev. Edward A. Malloy, C.S.C., President of the University of Notre Dame
Invited Speaker: Alexander Gurshtein (Russian Academy of Sciences and Mesa State College): “Origins of Constellations and Their Egyptian Links”
8:30 - 10:30 pm Optional Open Session at the Notre Dame Observatory (Nieuwland Science Hall). Group will depart directly from the banquet.
Sunday, June 22  
9:00 - 11:30 am Historical Studies on Astronomy III
Chair: John Briggs (Univ. of Chicago)
  • Rudi Paul Lindner (Univ. of Michigan): “The Lamont-Hussey Observatory, or Why Men Go Mad in the Veldt”
  • Steve Ruskin (Univ. of Notre Dame): “When London Viewed the Southern Skies: The Reception of Sir John Herschel's Cape Results”
  • Keith Snedegar (Utah Valley State College): “Norman Pogson (1829­1891): A Neglected Victorian Astronomer”
  • Michael Anderer: “Eccentric in His Orbit: Piazzi Smyth at Pulkova Observatory”
  • Matthew Frank (Univ. of Chicago): “Gibbs's Vector Method for the Computation of Orbits”
  • Jordan D. Marché II (Indiana Univ.): “The 'Committee of Ten' and U.S. Astronomy Education, 1893­1957: A Revised Perspective”
  • Deborah Warner (Smithsonian Institution): “VLBI, Relative GPS (Global Positioning System), and Astronomy in Post-War America”
11:30 am - Noon Business Meeting
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