Biennial History of Astronomy Workshop - ND X July 6-10, 2011
Program
The printed schedule you will receive when you arrive on campus will be the definitive schedule. Thursday sessions will be held in rooms 112-114 of McKenna Hall. Saturday and Sunday sessions will be held in the auditorium of McKenna Hall. Refreshments and the book display will be in rooms 100-104 throughout the workshop.
| Wednesday, July 6 | Workshop Opens |
| 7:00 - 8:00 pm | Public lecture, Digital Visualization Theater, Jordan Hall of Science (lecture poster PDF) “Three Astronomers Philosophize: Ptolemy, Kepler, and Rees” Liba Taub, director and curator of the Whipple Museum of the History of Science and professor in history and philosophy of science at the University of Cambridge |
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| 8:00 - 8:30 pm | DVT Presentation, Digital Visualization Theater, Jordan Hall of Science “Visualizing Kepler’s Cosmos,” Katherine Brading and Matthew Meixner, University of Notre Dame | |
| 8:30 - 9:30 pm | Welcome reception, Main Hall, Jordan Hall of Science |
| Thursday, July 7 | McKenna Hall |
| 8:30 - 9:00 am | Welcome and opening statements |
| 9:00 - 10:00 am | Paper session Chair: Voula Saridakis, Lake Forest College (IL.) “Kepler’s Novel Method of Calculating the Eccentricity of the Sun,” Yaakov Zik and Giora Hon, University of Haifa “A False Dichotomy in Kepler’s Celestial Physics,” Jorge M. Escobar, University of Notre Dame |
| 10:00 - 10:30 am | Break |
| 10:30 am - 12:30 pm | Panel: “Using Historical Materials in Teaching Astronomy: A Panel Discussion.” Participants: Mike Crowe, University of Notre Dame Bill Donahue, St. John's College, Santa Fe Alan Hirshfeld, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Owen Gingerich, Harvard University Chris Graney, Jefferson Community & Technical College (KY) Todd Timberlake, Berry College (GA) Barbara Becker, University of California, Irvine |
| 12:30 - 1:00 pm | Group photo outside McKenna Hall |
| 1:00 - 2:30 pm | Lunch |
| 2:30 - 5:00 pm | Paper Session (w/ 30 minute break) Chair: Trudy E. Bell, Science/Technology Writer and Editor “The Relations between Dutch Radio Astronomers and Their Soviet Colleagues during the Heyday of the Cold War,” Astrid Elbers, Leiden Observatory “Women, Minorities, and Databases,” JC Holbrook, University of California Los Angeles “Astronomy, History, and Computer Simulations: An Approach to Teaching the Nature of Science,” Todd Timberlake, Berry College “Philosophy, Physics, and the Meanings of 'Cosmology' in the Twentieth Century,” Peter J. Susalla, University of Wisconsin-Madison |
| 5:00 - 7:30 pm | Dinner Break |
| 7:30 pm | Off-Campus Party Drinks and light refreshments. Location: TBA |
| Friday, July 8 | Field trip to the Adler Planetarium |
| 8:45 am (EDT) | Bus boarding begins at McKenna Hall |
| 9:00 am | Bus departs from McKenna Hall for Adler Planetarium |
| 10:00 am (CDT) | Arrive in Chicago at the Adler Planetarium |
| 10:00 - 10:15 am | Arrival / Bathroom break / Gather in Universe Theater |
| 10:15 - 10:30 am | Welcoming remarks in Universe Theater, coffee bar provided by the Adler |
| 10:30 - Noon | Paper Session Chair: Stephen Case, University of Notre Dame “Astronomical Inventions of George Washington Hough,” Trudy E. Bell, Science/Technology Writer and Editor “The Victorian and the Modern: Telescopes and the Aesthetics of Design,” Gary Cameron, Iowa State University |
| Noon - 1:00 pm | Lunch at Galileo’s Cafe |
| 1:00 - 1:15 pm | Group photo on front steps of the Adler Planetarium |
| 1:15 - 1:30 pm | Bathroom break / Gather in Universe Theater |
| 1:30 - 3:30 pm | Panel: “A Discussion of Thing Knowledge, a book by Davis Baird.” Organizer: Liba Taub, Whipple Museum of the History of Science and University of Cambridge. Participants: Davis Baird, Clark University Joseph Pitt, Virginia Tech Liba Taub, Whipple Museum of the History of Science and University of Cambridge Yaakov Zik, University of Haifa |
| 3:30 - 5:30 pm | Free time to visit Museum galleries |
| 4:15 pm | Adler show: Deep Space Adventure (meet in Welcome Gallery) |
| 5:30 - 6:30 pm | Dinner in Executive Lobby |
| 6:30 - 7:00 pm | Bathroom break / gather on the bus |
| 7:00 pm | Departure from Adler Planetarium |
| 10:00 pm (EDT) | Arrival at Notre Dame / McKenna Hall |
| Saturday, July 9 | McKenna Hall |
| 8:30 - 10:30 am | Panel: “‘Philosophical truly averred’: In Search of Astronomical Truth(s) 1576-1651.” Organizer: Dennis Danielson, University of British Columbia. “Thomas Digges: Making the Incredible Credible,” Dennis Danielson, University of British Columbia “Perspective Trunks and Burning Glasses: Harriot’s Optical Theory and His Telescopic Observations of the Moon,” Robert Goulding, University of Notre Dame “Eclipsing the Myth of Kepler’s Ellipse,” Owen Gingerich, Harvard University “Giovanni Battista Riccioli’s Review of the Case for and against the Copernican Hypothesis,” Christopher M. Graney, Jefferson Community & Technical College |
| 10:30 - 11:00 am | Break |
| 11:00 am - 12:30 pm | Paper Session Chair: John Cirilli, University of Notre Dame “Comparison of near-horizon astronomical events recorded in ancient Egyptian diagonal star tables,” Sarah Symons, McMaster University “The Functional Equinoctial Alignment of the Arles-Fontvieille Monuments: The Equinoctial Hierophany, the Pleiades, and Orion,” Morgan Saletta, Melbourne University “The Bible as a History of Astronomy Sourcebook: The Ages of the Biblical Patriarchs as Derived from the Ancient Epicycle Model of the Orbit of the Sun,” Ariel Cohen, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem |
| 12:30 - 2:00 pm | Lunch |
| 2:00 - 3:30 pm | Panel: “Funding the History of Astronomy: The Role of the National Science Foundation, Past and Future.” Organizer: Marc Rothenberg, National Science Foundation. Participants: Patrick Boner, Johns Hopkins University Marvin Bolt, University of Notre Dame / Adler Planetarium David DeVorkin, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution Marc Rothenberg, National Science Foundation |
| 3:30 - 4:00 pm | Break |
| 4:00 - 5:30 pm | Paper Session Chair: Chris Graney, Jefferson Community & Technical College “The Origins of John Herschel’s Double Star Astronomy,” Stephen Case, University of Notre Dame “William Huggins and George Ellery Hale: An Uncommon Partnership to Secure the Future for the New Astronomy,” Barbara Becker, University of California, Irvine “Uniting Theory and Observation: Otto Struve as First Mover in Astrophysics,” Erik Norquest, University of Texas-Pan American |
| 5:30 - 6:00 pm | Free Time |
| 6:00 - 7:00 pm | Cocktails (Cash Bar), Location: Morris Inn |
| 7:00 pm |
Banquet, location: Morris Inn Welcoming Remarks Banquet Lecture: “Genres of Astronomy,” Liba Taub Whipple Museum of the History of Science and the University of Cambridge |
| Evening | Observing session at University of Notre Dame Observatory (weather permitting) |
| Sunday, July 10 | McKenna Hall |
| 9:00 - 11:30 am | Paper Session (with 30 minute break after third paper) Chair: Matthew Dowd, University of Notre Dame Press “Ptolemy’s Philosophical Defense of Astronomy,” Jacqueline Feke, Stanford University “Understanding and Using Celestial Circles in the Early Middle Ages,” Stephen C. McCluksey, West Virginia University “Ptolemy’s Spherical Trigonometry and His Medieval Commentators,” Henry T. Zepeda, University of Oklahoma “The Objectives and Art of Golden Age Islamic Astronomy,” John Cirilli, University of Notre Dame |
| 11:30 am - Noon | Business Meeting, including discussion of organizing future workshops. |
Generous support for the conference is provided by the Graduate Program in the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Notre Dame, the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts (ISLA) in the College of Arts and Letters at the University of Notre Dame, along with the Adler Planetarium.