Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 ‘The astronomer … must come to the chemist’
- 3 The young observer
- 4 ‘A sudden impulse …’
- 5 The riddle of the nebulae
- 6 Moving in the inner circle
- 7 Stellar motion along the line of sight
- 8 A new telescope
- 9 Solar observations
- 10 An able assistant
- 11 Photographing the solar corona
- 12 A scientific lady
- 13 Foes and allies
- 14 The new astronomy
- 15 ‘One true mistress’
- 16 Conclusion
- Appendix: ‘The new astronomy: A personal retrospect’
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
3 - The young observer
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 May 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 ‘The astronomer … must come to the chemist’
- 3 The young observer
- 4 ‘A sudden impulse …’
- 5 The riddle of the nebulae
- 6 Moving in the inner circle
- 7 Stellar motion along the line of sight
- 8 A new telescope
- 9 Solar observations
- 10 An able assistant
- 11 Photographing the solar corona
- 12 A scientific lady
- 13 Foes and allies
- 14 The new astronomy
- 15 ‘One true mistress’
- 16 Conclusion
- Appendix: ‘The new astronomy: A personal retrospect’
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
After a little hesitation … I decided to give my chief attention to observational astronomy …
– William HugginsThe introduction of spectrum analysis into astronomical research in the mid-nineteenth century was synchronous with William Huggins's rise to prominence as an amateur astronomer. After his death in May 1910, eulogisers were effusive in their praise of his vision and imagination, which American astronomer George Ellery Hale suggested allowed Huggins ‘to divine some of the less obvious applications of the spectroscope’. Appreciation of his willingness to break new ground was tempered by admiration for what the Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Frank Watson Dyson (1868–1939), termed Huggins's ‘characteristic thoroughness’ and ‘care’, and what maverick American astronomer Thomas Jefferson Jackson See characterised as his ‘judicious habits of weighing evidence’, ‘wise selection of subjects of research’, and ‘strict conscientiousness and calm deliberation’. How did so cautious and measured a man come to lead a movement that ultimately revolutionised the theory, technique and practice of astronomy by the turn of the twentieth century?
The question's paradoxical premise, I argue, is founded on a well-crafted and convincing illusion, namely the sturdy façade of Huggins's public persona. Like a precious egg preserved in situ, the real stuff of another's life remains undisturbed until we, the curious, penetrate its protective shell. Once inside we may find only dust and musty memories. Not so in the case of William Huggins.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Unravelling StarlightWilliam and Margaret Huggins and the Rise of the New Astronomy, pp. 28 - 45Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011