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Biennial History of Astronomy Workshops
University of Notre Dame
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Biennial History of Astronomy Workshop - ND V July 5-8, 2001

Program

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

Thursday, July 5 Workshop Opens
8:00 - 10:00 pm Welcoming Reception
McKenna Hall, Notre Dame Center for Continuing Education
Friday, July 6 Sessions begin
8:30 - 9:00 am Greetings and Introduction of Participants
Marc Rothenberg (Joseph Henry Papers) and Steve Dick (U. S. Naval Observatory), Co-chairs of the Workshop; Matt Dowd (University of Notre Dame), Local Arrangements Chair
  • Introduction of Dr. Peter Lombardo, Director of the Center for Continuing Education
  • Introduction of Participants
9:00 - 11:45 am Special Topic Session: How Astronomy and Cosmology Became Physical Sciences
Organizer/Chair: Steve Dick
  • Helge Kragh (Aarhus University, Denmark): “The Construction of Cosmology as a Physical Science: Realities and Myths”
  • David DeVorkin (National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian): “How did the 'Physics' get into 'Astrophysics'?”
  • Karl Hufbauer (University of California, Irvine and University of Washington): “Astronomers, Physicists, and Stellar-Interior Theory”
  • JoAnn Palmieri (University of Oklahoma): “Evolution as a Unifying Theme of Twentieth Century Science”
11:50 am Group Photograph (weather permitting)
Noon - 1:15 pm Lunch
1:15 - 2:45 pm Special Topic Session: Using Early Scientific Instruments to Teach History of Astronomy
Organizer/Chair: Sara Schechner (Harvard University)
  • Demonstrators: Sara Schechner and Jim Lattis (University of Wisconsin). This hands-on session will explore ways in which to use authentic, historical scientific instruments and their replicas to teach history of astronomy, navigation, and surveying to college students, school children, teachers, and the general public. We will describe the hands-on activities, do-it yourself instrument kits, and curricula that we have been developing for use in our universities, museums, and outreach programs. Part of the session will be devoted to participants building two instruments and taking them outside to make some measurements.
3:00 - 4:00 pm Historical Studies on Astronomy I
Chair: Patricia S. Whitesell (University of Michigan)
  • Barbara Welther (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA): “The Development of Harvard's Astronomy Department: A Matter of Serendipity and Philanthropy”
  • Jorge Bartolucci (UNAM-Mexico): “The Awakening of Modern Astrophysics in Mexico and The Harvard College Observatory: Mexican-American International Affairs during the Second World War”
  • J. Christopher Hunt, (Prince George's Community College and Virginia Tech): “Dennis W. Sciama and the Steady State Cosmology”
  • Rudi Paul Lindner (University of Michigan): “From Podium to Print: Curtis and Shapley Prepare the 'Great Debate' for Publication”
4:00 - 4:15 pm Poster Papers (available throughout workshop)
  • Peter Abrahams: “H. Dennis Taylor and the Design and Testing of Astronomical Instruments”
  • Julian Baum (Independent Computer Graphics Artist and Animator) and Richard Baum (Independent Scholar): “The Great Cordilleras of Venus”
  • Sven Dupré (Ghent University, Belgium): “Galileo, The Telescope and the Light of the Planets and the Stars”
  • James A. Marshall (Independent Scholar): “What the Archaeoastronomers Have Missed”
  • Steven W. Ruskin (University of Notre Dame): “John Herschel's Cape Voyage, 1834-1838: A Mini-Documentary”
  • Christopher S. Turner: “Prehistoric Native American Calendrical-Monumental Architecture in Ohio: Chronology, Form, and Motive”
  • Barbara Welther (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA): “The First PhDs in Astronomy at Harvard: A Gallery of Pictures”
4:15 - 5:30 pm Historical Studies on Astronomy II
Chair: Darin Hayton (University of Notre Dame)
  • Bernard R. Goldstein (University of Pittsburgh): “The Astronomical Tables of Judah Ben Verga of Lisbon”
  • Wilbur Applebaum (Illinois Institute of Technology): “Galileo and Kepler on the Sun as Planetary Mover”
  • Yaakov Zik (University of Haifa, Israel): “Mathematical Instruments, Optics and Telescopes”
  • Howard Margolis (University of Chicago): “How Copernicus Discovered that in a Heliocentric world the Regrogressions of the Planets are not Actual Loops in the Paths of the Planets”
  • Voula Saridakis (Virginia Tech): “Who was Elisabetha Hevelius? A Study of a Seventeenth-Century Woman Astronomer”
8:00 - 10:00 pm Gathering at the home of Marvin Bolt (see map in conference packet)
Saturday, July 7  
8:30 - 10:00 am Historical Studies on Astronomy III
Chair: Steve McCluskey (West Virginia University)
  • Kurt Locher (Switzerland): “Ancient Egyptian Astronomy: A Century of Text Studies, with Emphasis on the Last Two Decades”
  • John Sisko (College of William and Mary): “Worlds within Worlds within the One: Anaxagoras' Parmenidean Cosmology”
  • Sepp Rothwangl (Graz, Austria): “Consideration about the Origin of the Common Yearly Counting in the Julian and Gregorian Calendar with Special Attention to the Ancient Astronomy and World View”
  • Huib J. Zuidervaart (Museum Boerhaave, Leiden, The Netherlands): “Dutch Astronomy in the 18th Century: A Neglected and Undervalued History”
  • Petra van der Heijden (Leiden Observatory, The Netherlands): “Frederik Kaiser (1808-1872) and the Modernisation of Dutch Astronomy”
10:15 - 11:45 am Historical Studies on Astronomy IV
Chair: Michael J. Crowe (University of Notre Dame)
  • Nick Kollerstrom (University College London): “The Elusive British Claim for Neptune's Co-Prediction”
  • Steven W. Ruskin (University of Notre Dame): “'The Great Garden of the Universe': Alexander von Humboldt's Cosmos and William Herschel's Cosmogony”
  • David L. Seim (Iowa State University): “Measuring the Stars: John Herschel, Norman Pogson, and the Selection of a Standardized Scale for Expressing a Relation between Magnitude and Relative Apparent Brightness of Stars”
  • Durruty Jess de Alba MartÌnez (Universidad de Guadalajara, Mèxico): “First Astrophysics Textbook in Mexico”
  • Mary Brück (University of Edinburgh, retired): “Agnes Clerke (1842-1907), Recorder of Early Astrophysics”
  • Robert Havlik (University of Notre Dame): “Arthur Joseph Stace (1838-1890), Philosopher, Astronomer, Scientist and Linguist and His Contribution to Early Astronomy Education”
1:00 - 2:15 pm Special Topic Session: Astronomy and the Arts
Organizer/Chair: Mary Quinlan-McGrath (Northern Illinois University)
  • Mary Quinlan-McGrath: “Astronomy and Astrology in Italian Renaissance Art”
  • Dennis Danielson (University of British Columbia): “Copernicus and the Enthronement of the Sun”
  • Anna Felicity Friedman (Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum): “Mapping Time Against Space in Astronomical Charts”
2:30 - 3:45 pm Special Topic Session: Astronomy and Religion in Historical Context
Organizer/Chair: Matt Dowd
  • Bruce Eastwood (University of Kentucky): “Augustinian Motivations for Carolingian Studies of Astronomy”
  • Peter Barker (University of Oklahoma): “The Lutheran Contribution to the Astronomical Revolution”
4:00 - 5:30 pm Historical Studies on Astronomy V
Chair: David DeVorkin
  • Keith Lafortune (University of Notre Dame): “Almanac Science and the Geography of American Astronomical Knowledge”
  • Elizabeth E. Hayes (University of Notre Dame): “David Rittenhouse and the Politics of Astronomy”
  • Trudy E. Bell: “The 'American Method': The 19th Century Telegraphic Revolution in Astronomy”
  • Patricia S. Whitesell: “Nineteenth-Century Longitude Determinations in the Great Lakes Region: Government-University Collaborations”
  • Craig B. Waff (Encyclopedia Americana, Grolier Educational): “From What Meridian Shall We Count Our Longitudes?: The Debate over Charles Henry Davis's 1849 Proposal to Establish an American Prime Meridian”
6:30 - 8:30 pm Conference Banquet, Morris Inn on the Notre Dame Campus
Welcoming Remarks: Michael J. Crowe)
Welcoming Remarks: Don Howard (University of Notre Dame)
Invited Speaker: Helge Kragh, “The Many Faces of the Universe: Styles of Cosmology in the 1930s”
8:30 - 10:00 pm Optional Open Session at the Notre Dame Observatory (Nieuwland Science Hall). Group will depart directly from the banquet.
Sunday, July 8  
9:00 - 11:00 am Special Topic Session: Historiography
Organizer/Chair: Marc Rothenberg
  • Robert Smith (University of Alberta): “Who Discovered the Expanding Universe, and What's a Discovery Anyway?”
  • Marc Rothenberg: “National History: Understanding Education and Patronage in the 19th Century”
11:00 Business Meeting
Monday, July 9  
10:00 am Adler Planetarium, History of Astronomy Department Open House
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