through a glass, darkly issue 13 – february 2007 · clive then edits the material and decides...

This copperplate engraving is the Workshop of Lens Grinders (circa 1780) by the Italian artist Francesco Pedro(1740-1806). It shows a perhaps somewhat stylised view of a lens-making workshop. Left and centre craftsmenexamine a telescope and microscope. No other science is as dependent on a single instrument as astronomy on thetelescope, and telescopes could not have developed without an established tradition of lens manufacture.

Several of the articles in this issue cover aspects of the history of astronomical instrumentation. There is a report oflast year’s Autumn Conference, which had the theme Historical Instruments and Imaging. John Armitage gives asecond progress report on the recreation of a typical Victorian observatory at Pendrell Hall in Staffordshire andLeonard Honey describes the history of the sextant.

The Workshop of Lens Grinders is reproduced from the exhibition catalogue A Spectacle of Spectacles by WolfWinkler (ed), trans. Dorothy Jaeschke, 1988 (Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung Jena: Leipzig). A copy is available in theSociety’s Libraries.

Through a glass, darkly Issue 13 – February 2007

SHA Newsletter – Issue 13 February 2007

This issue carries further news offresh insights into the AntikytheraMechanism, the complex gearedmechanism covered in Greekastronomical inscriptions that hasstirred so much interest since novelimaging techniques revealed itscomplex mechanism andastronomical markings in detail.Also in the Further news section webring a report concerning thediscovery of a Mediaeval drawing ofStonehenge - the first document touse the name ‘Stonehenge’ - that hasbeen uncovered in France. Thisissue also carries an update on theintriguing re-creation of vintageobservatories at Pendrell Hall.Incidentally, this is where theSociety will be holding this year’sSummer Picnic, see Society newsbelow. We also have an article onthe history of the mariner’s sextant,an indispensable aid to navigation atsea. All our usual features will alsobe found below – enjoy!

I wonder if you have ever thoughtabout the way your Newsletter isproduced? It’s a joint effort with co-editors Stuart Williams, CliveDavenhall and Madeline Cox doinga lot of the digging and writing ofthe material for the regular columnsand the remainder comes fromcontributors, usually members of theSociety. Clive then edits the materialand decides which will go into thecurrent issue and its probablerunning order. Once we haveenough edited material ready, I startthe assembly process. The object isto make it all fit into 20 or 24 pages(multiples of four sides) and this ismostly done by adjusting thenumber and size of the images.Occasionally we will remove orinsert an extra small piece to make itall fit. Then comes the proof-readingstage. A copy of the draft, which isin Word format at this point isturned into a PDF file and posted onthe internet for the co-editors to readand comment for corrections. Eagle-

eyed Clive is particularly good atthis task. When all is corrected, thefinal draft is sent to the printer on aCD and a proof copy returned. Afterall the whizzing back and fourth onthe internet, this always seemssomewhat sluggish, but it’s the waythe printer likes to do things and itworks. Finally, printed copies aresent to Peter Hingley who collatesany fliers etc. and organises thestuffing and posting.

Sadly, this is the last Newsletter Ishall be co-editing. Despite the joyand satisfaction it has been to beinvolved in its production for thelast few years, overseas travel and abuilding project will take me awayfrom the keyboard and make itimpossible for me to help as we runinto the Society’s fifth year. Clive,Stuart and Madeline have been atreasure to work with and I knowthat whoever takes over from mewill find them just as friendly andhelpful as I have.

Happy fifth anniversary!

February is a little late, but theCouncil of the Society for theHistory of Astronomy would like tonot only wish all our fellowmembers a Happy New Year, butalso a Happy Fifth Anniversary Year– especially to our FounderMembers! The Society was foundedfive years ago on 29 June, 2002, andthe anniversary will be markedduring the 2007 Summer Picnic (seebelow).

Donation of slide projectorsto the BMI

At the SHA Council meeting at theBirmingham & Midland Institute on25 November 2006, two slideprojectors were donated to the BMIjointly by the SHA and The ScienceMuseum, London. The KodakCarousel projectors were surplus tothe needs of The Science Museum.

The Museum donated them to theSHA for use at the BMI, which wasurgently in need of replacementaudio-visual equipment. The

projectors were formally handedover to Mr Philip Fisher,Administrator and General Secretaryof the Institute, by SHA

EditorialDavid Rayner

Society NewsStuart Williams

Stuart Williams (left) and Kevin Johnson (right) hand over a gift of slide projectors toPhilip Fisher (centre) of the BMI. Photograph by Roger Jones


Councillor/Antiquarian AstronomerAssistant Editor Kevin Johnsonrepresenting the Science Museum,and SHA Secretary Stuart Williamsrepresenting the SHA, in thepresence of Council.

Special thanks are due to TheScience Museum, especially KevinJohnson and his colleague JamesMartin, Deputy Manager, GalleryMaintenance Department, forarranging the gift of theseprofessional quality projectors to theSHA.

Apart from registering a significantmark of our support for the BMI, towhich we are affiliated and fromwhich we also receive much support(especially in the form of theirhousing of our Sir Robert BallLibrary), the SHA will also benefitdirectly as we will not in future haveto pay for slide projector hire at theBMI during events.

Application for charitablestatus?

A flyer is included with this issue ofthe Newsletter canvassing members’opinion on the SHA seekingcharitable status. This exercise ispart of the Society’s planning for thenext few years. The Society hasalways intended to apply forcharitable status in due course: thereare numerous advantages,particularly financial ones. TheSociety’s fifth anniversary yearfinds it well-established and anapplication is now consideredtimely. Members are encouraged torespond accordingly.

SHA meetings in 2007

The Society will hold the followingmeetings during 2007.

Sat. 21 April. BAA/SHA JointMeeting. See below.

Sat. 16 June. Summer Picnic. Seebelow.

Sat. 14 July. AGM and SummerConference at the National MaritimeMuseum, Greenwich. Proposed

theme: The Survey of AstronomicalHistory. It is anticipated that theConference will focus on practical‘how to’ issues in researching andrecording local astronomical historyand contributing to the Survey.Some time for short papers onmembers’ own projects should alsobe available. Details TBA.

Sat. 6 October. SHA AutumnConference at the BMI. Theme: AReview of Members’ Work. Papersfrom 20 minutes to 1 hour includingquestion time will be welcome, onall members’ projects, especiallylocal astronomical history andcontributions to the Survey.

BAA/SHA Joint Meeting

The British AstronomicalAssociation is holding an Out ofLondon meeting on Saturday 21April and has invited the SHA toparticipate in the event as a JointMeeting. The event will be held atthe Birmingham & MidlandInstitute, Margaret Street,Birmingham (the usual venue for theSHA Autumn Conference;http://www.bmi.org.uk).

Admission is free of charge tomembers of the BAA, SHA andlocal astronomical societies.Booking is not required, but acharge for refreshments will bemade on the day. You arerecommended to bring a packedlunch or plan on eating out becauseof the limited capacity of Hudson’scafe at the BMI. Please note that theSHA is not organising this event butis supporting it by providing twospeakers and contributing towardsthe cost of refreshments as well asproviding audio-visual equipmentfor the day. The Sir Robert BallLibrary will be open 12 noon - 2 pmfor those attending.

The SHA Council would like tostrongly encourage members tosupport this event, which offers afine mix of historical and scientificastronomical lectures as well as theopportunity to meet like-mindedmembers of the BAA. The currentprogramme, set by the BAA, is asfollows:

09:30 - 09:50: Registration

09:50 - 10:00: Official Welcome,BAA President, Dr Richard Miles

10:00 - 11:00: Mr Peter Grego,Lunar and Planetary Observing –Learning from our Legacy

11:00 - 12:00: Mr Anthony Kinder,Why History?

12:00 - 13:00: Mr Roger Jones, SirRobert Stawell Ball

13:00 - 14:00: Lunch break (lunchnot provided)

14:00 - 15:00: Dr Dave Clements,The Herschel Observatory

15:00 - 16:00: Dr Stephen Serjeantand Dr Chris Pearson, TheAKARI/ASTRO-F InfraredAstronomy Satellite

16:00 - 16:30: Tea

16:30 - 17:30: Dr Allan Chapman,The Astronomical work of RobertHooke

17:30 - 17:45: Close, BAAPresident, Dr Richard Miles

The BAA’s Meetings Secretary,Hazel Collett, may be contacted byemail: [email protected].

Summer Picnic

Council had hoped that the Society’sfifth anniversary would be markedwith an event to be held over thesummer at Wadham College,Oxford, the site of the Founding (seeNewsletter no. 11, July 2006, p23).However, revised arrangements atWadham College have made such anevent prohibitively expensive.Instead the 2007 SHA SummerPicnic will be held in thepicturesque grounds of Pendrell Hallin Codsall Wood, Staffordshire onSaturday 16 June.

The Society has kindly been invitedto Pendrell Hall by Mr JohnArmitage, Director of the PendrellHall Observatories Project. Thisproject has erected several


recreations of typicalVictorian observatories inthe grounds of the Hall(see p12), and there willbe an opportunity toinspect theseobservatories during theafternoon. There will alsobe several talks, includingone by the SHA HonoraryPresident Dr AllanChapman. In the event ofinclement weather it willbe possible to reconveneinside the Hall.

In the mid-nineteenthcentury Lord JohnWrottesley, Second BaronWrottesley (1798-1867) establishedan observatory in the grounds ofWrottesley Hall, about two milesfrom Pendrell Hall (see TheAntiquarian Astronomer, 2006, 3,pp5-10). Before the picnic properthere will be an additional, optionalvisit to the ruin of this observatory.To join this visit meet in the car parkof the Foaming Jug inn on the A41at 11 am. It is then a short walk ofabout three hundred yards to theobservatory site.

It is also hoped to include a visit tothe mission church of St Peter’s inthe village of Codsall Wood, wherethere is a memorial stained glasswindow to Joseph Hough (1838-1924), an astronomer employed bythe Wrottesley family. St Peter’s isonly a few minutes walk fromPendrell Hall.

If you do not wish to join the visit tothe Wrottesley observatory gostraight to Pendrell Hall. The picnicproper starts at 1:30 pm and as inprevious years you should bringyour own food and refreshments.The price of admission is £3.00 perperson. Cheques should be madepayable to ‘The Society for theHistory of Astronomy’ and sent toKen Goward (address on the backpage). A flyer giving further detailsis included with this issue of theNewsletter.

Some further information aboutPendrell Hall is available at URL:http://www.pendrell-hall.org.uk/

SHA Council meetings in2007

The SHA Council will meet on thefollowing dates during 2007. Allmeetings commence at 1 pm. Thesemeetings are not open due to lack ofspace, but any member may attendby prior arrangement with theSecretary.

Sat. 17 February. In the temporaryrooms of the RAS at Hallam Court,77, Hallam Street, London W1.

Sat. 23 June. The YorkshireMuseum, Museum Gardens,Museum Street, York, YO1 7FR.

Sat. 3 November. Institute ofAstronomy, University ofCambridge, Madingley Road,Cambridge. CB3 0HA.

Council appointments,vacancies and elections

The annual SHA Council Electionwill take place during the AGM onSaturday 14 July at the NationalMaritime Museum, Greenwich,London.

Following his nomination to standfor election as Secretary from 2007,Council has appointed KevinKilburn as Assistant Secretary withimmediate effect. Nominations foradditional candidates for theposition of Secretary are howeverstill welcome. For full details see theprevious Newsletter (no. 12,

November 2006, p2),but briefly:nominations withseconds should be sentto SHA ChairmanGilbert Satterthwaite

([email protected]).

Also as mentioned inthe previousNewsletter, avolunteer candidate isstill needed to takeover from KenGoward as Treasurer,it being proposed thatKen will continue to

take responsibility for Membership.Anyone interested should discussthe position with Ken (contactdetails on back page) in the firstinstance.

Newsletter Joint Editorretires

David Rayner, one of our two long-standing and successful Joint Editorsof the Newsletter, is retiring.Council would like to place onrecord their thanks to David for hishardworking service to the Societyand for all his friendly and helpfulassistance during his time workingwith us. They would also like towish David and his wife all the verybest for the future and a veryenjoyable time travelling in thecoming months. A flyer seekingvolunteers for his post is includedwith this Newsletter. Anyoneinterested should contact JointEditor Clive Davenhall (contactdetails on back page).

The Victorian-style observatories in the grounds of Pendrell Hall,South Staffordshire recreated by the Pendrell Hall Observatories

Project (see pp12-13)

SHA Newsletter Joint Editor DavidRayner


The Antikythera Mechanismrevealed

As mentioned in the previous issue(Newsletter, no. 12, November2006, pp4-5) new research by anAnglo-Greek team using non-invasive imaging techniques, such ascomputerised tomography, hasyielded fresh insights into theAntikythera Mechanism. The newresults were presented at aconference held in Athens on 30November - 1 December 2006 andhave been published in Nature.

The remains of the AntikytheraMechanism were recovered from ashipwreck discovered off the coastof the Greek island of Antikythera in1900. They have long been ananomaly. Though heavily corrodedthey appear to be parts of a complexgeared mechanism covered in Greekastronomical inscriptions. They areunlike anything else known fromclassical antiquity.

The new results confirm that theartefact was a complex geareddevice containing at least thirtyhand-cut bronze gears. They alsodouble the number of charactersknown to have been inscribed on it.The mechanism is thought to havebeen enclosed in a wooden frame,now lost, with two doors covered ininstructions. It would have beendriven by a hand-crank. The mainstructure, and largest remainingfragment, is a single dial, centrallyplaced on the front plate andlabelled with a Greek zodiac andEgyptian calendar.

At the back of the device there weretwo further dials showing lunarcycles and eclipse patterns. Theseincluded a pin-and-slot mechanismto replicate the Moon’s irregularmotion; an ingenious mechanicalrepresentation of Hipparchus’ theoryof lunar motion. The device mightalso have functioned as a sort oforrery, displaying the positions oftwo, or possibly more, planets.

The newly discovered inscriptionssuggest a date for the device of 100-150 BC, earlier than previouslythought and some decades before itwas lost. The ship transporting itwas en route from Rhodes to Romearound the middle of the firstcentury BC when she foundered.One theory is that the device wasmade in Rhodes at the school of thehistorian and philosopher Posidonioswhich is known to have been acentre of astronomy andengineering. Hipparchus, of course,also came from Rhodes.

It is difficult to overestimate theimportance of the artefact and thenew results. The device is acomplete anomaly; nothing else likeit is known from classical antiquity,though descriptions of similardevices have survived. The qualityof the workmanship suggests that itis the product of a maturetechnology, made by experiencedcraftsmen confident of theirtechniques, rather than a ‘one-off’effort.

The origin of clockwork has alwaysbeen something of a mystery. Thenew results confirm the existence ofa Greek technology of gearedmechanisms a millennium before theknown Mediaeval European andArab traditions. We hope to carry an

Further newsCompiled by Clive Davenhall

An X-ray image taken in 2005 showing the main fragment of the AntikytheraMechanism. Compare this with the conventional photograph, (Newsletter, no. 12,November 2006, p4) The complicated arrangement of the gears is plainly visible

in the X-ray image (photograph courtesy Anthony Ayiomamitis; seehttp://www.perseus.gr/Astro-Greek-Archae-Astr-Antikythera.htm)

Close-up of X-ray image


article on the mechanism in a futureissue of the Newsletter.

Further reading

T. Freeth et al, 2006, Nature, 444,pp587-591.

J. Marchant, 2006, Nature, 444,pp534-538.

The Antikythera MechanismResearch Project: www.antikythera-mechanism.gr

Wikipedia entry:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism

Mediaeval drawing ofStonehenge discovered

Another Mediaeval drawing ofStonehenge has been discovered,joining the two already known. Thediscovery was made by ChristianHeck, a Professor of the History ofArt at the University of Lille. Hefound the drawing in a scala mundi,literally a ‘world ladder,’ a type ofMediaeval text presenting thehistory of the world as a universalchronology stretching forward fromThe Creation.

The document is now in theMunicipal Library in Douai innorthern France, though it originatedin England and was probably takento Douai by Catholic refugeesduring the sixteenth century. Prof.Heck found it in 2001 whilstcataloguing, but did not initiallyrealise its importance.

The drawing dates from the 1440sand is not the earliest depiction ofStonehenge known. There is anearlier drawing, also in a scalamundi, which dates from around1342 and is now in Corpus ChristiCollege, Cambridge. However, thenewly-discovered drawing is theearliest known which appears tohave been drawn by someone whohad seen Stonehenge. The sketch isimmediately recognisable and showsfour free-standing trilithons (onlythree stand now). The document is

also the first to use the name‘Stonehenge’.

The earliest unambiguous referenceto Stonehenge, which is un-illustrated, is by Henry ofHuntington in 1130, who lists it asone of four English wonders.However, there is a much earlierpassage by the Greek historianDiodorus of Sicily writing in thefirst century BC that probably refersto Stonehenge. He quotes an earlierhistorian from about 500 BC whomentions a spherical Temple ofApollo on a remote island in theocean ‘beyond the land of the Celts’.This reference is followed by aconfused passage about the godreturning to this island on anineteen-year astronomical cycle.Apollo, of course, had solarconnections.

It is possible that the RoyalAcademy might display the newdrawing during 2007 as part of itsthree hundredth anniversarycelebrations. Details will be reportedin the Newsletter as they becomeavailable.

Further reading

The discovery is described in detailin British Archaeology, no. 92,November / December 2006.

Three anniversaries

The William Herschel Museumcelebrated its twenty-fifthanniversary last year. The Museum,at 19, New Street, Bath is the last

surviving residence occupied byWilliam Herschel during his time inEngland. The Herschels lived in thehouse for the later part of their stayin Bath, where William worked asan organist. He did much importantastronomical work here, includingdiscovering Uranus (see the reportof the talk by Michael Tabb inNewsletter no. 6, March 2006, p8).

By the 1970s the house was semi-derelict. In 1977 the WilliamHerschel Society was founded, withthe restoration of the property as oneof its aims and Sir Patrick Moore asits first President. Thanks to theactivities of the Society and,amongst others, Leslie and ElizabethHilliard and Phillipa Savery, thehouse was restored as a Museum. Itopened to the public on 13 March1981, exactly two hundred yearsafter William Herschel discoveredUranus.

Since then the Museum has gonefrom strength to strength. It is nowadministered by the WilliamHerschel Trust, whose trustees

The drawing of Stonehenge recently rediscovered in a scala mundi dating from the1440s. The document is now in the Municipal Library in Douai in northern France

The workshop in the basement ofthe Museum where William Herschel

made many of the parts of histelescopes (courtesy of the William

Herschel Museum)


include the William HerschelSociety, the RAS and the RoyalSociety. The house is part of aterrace and is typical of the sort ofdwellings that artisans or tradesmenliving in Bath at the time of theHerschels would have occupied. Ithas been furnished in a styleappropriate for the late eighteenthcentury and contains displayspertinent to the Herschels and theirastronomical work. The Museum isopen daily (except Wednesdays)from February to December.

Further reading: the Web site forthe William Herschel Museum is athttp://www.bath-preservation-trust.org.uk/museums/herschel/ andthat for the William HerschelSociety athttp://www.williamherschel.org.uk/.

Spaceflight, the BritishInterplanetary Society (BIS)’s semi-popular magazine celebrated itsfiftieth anniversary last year, thefirst issue being published inOctober 1956. Thus Spaceflightpredates Sputnik 1 and the space ageby about a year, though by this timethe BIS was already well-established, having been founded in1933.

The editor in the early days wasPatrick Moore. The first issuecontained articles on, inter alia, theideas behind rocketry andinterplanetary travel; K.E.Tsiolkovski, the early Russianpioneer of spaceflight; the USVanguard Project and the colours ofmartian vegetation.

Further reading: the BIS Web siteis at: http://www.bis-spaceflight.com/

The Sky at Night, the BBC’s long-running astronomy programme wasfirst broadcast on 24 April 1957, so2007 will be its fiftieth year.Throughout its lifetime it has beenpresented by the SHA’s HonoraryVice-President and benefactor, SirPatrick Moore, making it the longestrunning programme with a singlepresenter certainly on the BBC andperhaps in the world. Episode 650was broadcast on 8 January this yearat 1:55 pm (which late hour did notplease Sir Patrick).

Like Spaceflight, the programmepredates the space age and its longhistory has seen many highlights,from the first photographs of thelunar far side and the Apollolandings a decade later to visits toremote mountaintop observatories inmore recent years. We wish bothThe Sky at Night and Sir Patrickmany more successful years.

Further reading: The Sky at NightWeb site is at:http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/spaceguide/skyatnight/.

Pluto again

As mentioned in the previous issue,the Newsletter does not intend tobecome embroiled in the IAU’sdeliberations over the status ofPluto. However, if you are interestedin this topic, or wish to familiariseyourself with the arguments for thevarious proposals, the on-linejournal Astronomy EducationReview (AER) has recently carried‘Teaching What a Planet Is’ byAndrew Fraknoi (AER, 2006,volume 5, issue 2), which discussesthe issue. To access this article go tothe AER Web site,http://aer.noao.edu and (at the timeof writing) follow the link ‘CurrentIssue’.

Similar, but more concise, materialappeared recently in the Journal ofthe Astronomical Society ofEdinburgh (‘Pluto and the Planets,’by Horst Meyerdierks, no. 51,December 2006; seehttp://www.astronomyedinburgh.org/publications/journals/51/).Alternatively, if you would like anentire book on the topic there is

The first of the nine images of the hitherto unknown far side of the Moon returnedby the Russian probe Lunik 3 in 1959. These images were transmitted live on TheSky at Night and remain one of the highlights of the programme. Sir Patrick’s ownwork on mapping the features just visible at the extremity of the lunar limb helped

to tie the new photographs into maps of the familiar near side


David Weintraub’s Is Pluto aPlanet? A Historical Journeythrough the Solar System (2006,Princeton Univ. Press).

A star for the Reich

Stars have been used as aids tonavigation at sea and in the desertfor millennia. However, apparentlythis long-established practice hasunexpected pitfalls.

In the run-up to Christmas theRossmann chain removed figurinesof Santa Claus from its stores inGermany following complaints bycustomers. The offending figureheld the traditional sack in his lefthand, but his right arm was heldstiffly upwards, apparently giving aNazi salute, which is illegal inGermany.

The official explanation is that Santawas pointing out a star to hisreindeer, which they were to use as aguide. Perhaps there was someunconscious syncretism here withthe Star of Bethlehem story.Doubtless Santa was telling Rudolphand the gang ‘all you have to do isfollow (that star).’ With apologies toRoger Waters. See Fortean Times,March 2007, no. 220, p8.

As usual the annual SHA AutumnConference for 2006 was held at theBirmingham & Midland Institute(BMI) in central Birmingham. Thisyear it fell on Saturday 7 October. Ihad flown down the evening beforeand on the Saturday morning myfather and I had only a short trainjourney, though it was enlivened bythe closure of Stafford Station fortrack alterations, which causedhavoc with the timetable. We alsoalmost went astray on the short walkfrom New Street to the BMI, butsoon found our way.

The talks were held in the John LeeLecture Theatre, with registration,refreshments and exhibitors in thenearby Gallery Room. The themethis year was Historical Instrumentsand Imaging and the meeting wasattended by about sixty people.

Following welcome refreshments,proceedings started with an anintroduction by Stuart Williams.Gilbert Satterthwaite then took overto chair the programme. Heapologised that the first speaker,Madeline Cox, could not be presentbecause of family illness. He alsoinformed members that, because ofthe shortage of space in theirtemporary accommodation, the RASwere offering copies of their two-volume History of the RAS to theirFellows at very reasonable rates (todispose of surplus copies) and thatthey had kindly extended this offerto members of the SHA.

The first speaker was Mark Hurnwhose topic was From Eagle-Eyed

to the Southern Railway: the Ownersof the Thorrowgood Telescope1864-1928. The ThorrowgoodTelescope at Cambridge UniversityObservatory (now part of theInstitute of Astronomy) is an eightinch f/14 refractor with a Germanequatorial mount. It was built byThomas Cooke and Sons in 1864.The telescope has been atCambridge since 1928 though it isowned by the RAS. Before movingto Cambridge it passed through aseries of owners (see the tablebelow) and the talk traced itshistory.

The first owner was the RevdWilliam Rutter ‘Eagle-Eyed’Dawes, the well-known amateurfamous for the acuity of his visionwhen using a telescope. Dawes usedthe telescope to observe Mars,

though he was not entirely happywith its performance. Nonethelesshe made his final observation withit: an inspection of the lunar craterLinne, which was suspected ofexhibiting transient phenomena.

Following Dawes’ death thetelescope was sold to Mr GeorgeHunt of Birmingham, who owned itfor thirty-odd years. He used it toobserve double stars, stellar disksand the comes (companion) ofSirius. Like Dawes, he also madeobservations of Linne.

From Hunt the telescope passed toDr William Henry Maw, aconsulting engineer from Surrey,who founded the journalEngineering. He owned it for overtwenty years and also used it toobserve double stars. In addition he

SHA Autumn ConferenceClive Davenhall

Owner Location PeriodRevd. William RutterDawes(1799-1868)

Hopefield Observatory,Haddenham,Buckinghamshire

1864 (new) to 1868

George Hunt(1823-1896)

Chad Road, Edgbaston,Birmingham

1869 to 1872?

Hopefield, Alleyn Park,West Dulwich

1875? to 1896

Dr William Henry Maw(1838-1924)

Outwood, Surrey 1896 to 1924

William JohnThorrowgood

23, Denmark AvenueWimbledon

1927 to 1928

Royal AstronomicalSociety

c/o CambridgeObservatory

1928 to date

Owners of the Thorrowgood telescope


observed an occultation of Mars(reported in The Observatory, 1898,21, p381) and made observations ofsunspots.

Following the death of Dr Maw thetelescope was briefly owned by MrWilliam John Thorrowgood (fromwhom it takes its name), but ill-health prevented him from makingmuch use of it. Mr Thorrowgoodwas the Manager of the Signal andTelegraph Department of theSouthern Railway and had writtenon the effects of magnetic storms.He bequeathed the telescope to theRAS on his death; they loaned it tothe University of Cambridge, whoalso acquired Thorrowgood’s dome.

The telescope has been incontinuous use since its move toCambridge. It is now 142 years oldand still going strong. There hasbeen a continuity in the type ofastronomy that it has been used for,particularly double star work. BobArgyle still observes double starswith it, and it features in his recentbook Observing and MeasuringVisual Double Stars (2004,Springer-Verlag: London). It wasalso used to observe the 2004 transitof Venus.

In addition to chairing the meeting,Gilbert Satterthwaite also gave thesecond and last talk of the morningsession, on Keeping Track of theMoon: a Study of Airy’s Altazimuth(see also his paper on the same topic

in The AntiquarianAstronomer, 2006, 3,pp83-94). The Moon’smotion is one of the mostcomplex problems inpositional astronomy andfrequent observations arerequired to model itsuccessfully. Aconventional transitinstrument cannot yieldsufficient observationsbecause of restrictionsimposed by the lunarphases and inclementweather. In the 1840sAiry designed anddeployed a newinstrument which couldobserve away from themeridian and thusallowed additionalobservations to be made.The talk presented thehistory of this instrument.

Mr Satterthwaite startedwith a brief recapitulation of thehistory of lunar observations at theRoyal Observatory Greenwich.Before the development of marinechronometers the determination oflongitude at sea required bothaccurate star maps and a preciseknowledge of the Moon’s position.John Flamsteed, the firstAstronomer Royal, produced themost accurate star map thenavailable but the Moon eluded him.His successor, Edmund Halley, wassixty-three when he was appointed,but he vowed to observe the Moonthrough a full eighteen year Saroscycle while still in post, and lived tofulfil his undertaking. SubsequentAstronomers Royal continued torefine the knowledge of the lunar

orbit, even after the development ofmarine chronometers.

Sir George Biddell Airy wasAstronomer Royal from 1835-81.Early in his tenure he re-reduced allthe observations made at theObservatory between 1750-1830. In1843, following an evaluation of allthe existing instruments, hefamously installed a new transitcircle (see the Newsletter, no. 4,May 2004, pp3-4). He proposed tocomplement the Transit Circle witha new Altitude and AzimuthInstrument, which, like all hisinstruments, he designed himself. Itwas completed and brought into usethree years before the Transit Circle.He also developed a ‘barrelchronograph’ which allowedimproved timings.

SHA chairman Gilbert Satterthwaite chairsthe meeting

The dome of the Thorrowgood telescope (left) in the grounds of Cambridge UniversityObservatory and an interior shot (right) showing the telescope itself

A woodcut by Thomas Hare showing Airy’s Altazimuthshortly after its completion. It appeared in the

Illustrated London News for September 1847 and wasreproduced in the Greenwich Observations for that

year (courtesy of the Science Museum)

acd

Textbox

Image removed because of licence or copyright restrictions.


The first observations with the newinstrument, which later becameknown as the Altazimuth, weremade in May 1847. Airy waspleased with the result and wrotethat the instrument was ‘… the mostimportant innovation that has beenmade in the Royal Observatory formany years.’ During its first fiveyears of operation the Altazimuthmade 209 observations of the Moon,compared to 107 made with thetransit circle during the same period.

Airy’s successor, Sir WilliamChristie, replaced Airy’sAltazimuth, but the replacement wasless successful. It was completed in1896 but a further three yearselapsed before routine observationsstarted. It was used sporadically forthirty years and finally scrapped in1940, when it was presumablyrecycled as part of the war effort.Having been displayed in theScience Museum from 1929-1965,and at Greenwich from 1967-1993,Airy’s Altazimuth is now in theScience Museum store. MrSatterthwaite hopes that one day itmay prove possible to return thisimportant instrument to publicdisplay. Following the talk there wasa break for lunch, which alsoprovided an opportunity to inspectthe Society’s Sir Robert BallLibrary, located close to the lecturetheatre.

The afternoon session began with arearrangement of the programmebecause the first speaker had beendelayed. The rescheduled first talkwas by Bob Marriott who spoke onEsoteric Optics, delivering a brisk,entertaining and profusely illustratedtrot through some of the esotericoptical systems that astronomershave devised in the four hundredyears since the invention of thetelescope. It is difficult to pick outhighlights from what was anextremely wide-ranging andvariegated talk, but the followingfew examples might convey some ofits flavour.

The problem of chromatic aberrationin early telescopes was overcome bythe development in 1757 ofachromatic doublets and triplets by

John Dolland and his son. Thoughthe doublets were popular, thetriplets were expensive and difficultto come by. The use of liquidsecondaries did not become popular.

In 1827 icelandic spar, which canexhibit double refraction, was usedto make a double-image micrometer.Though technically successful theinstrument was superseded by thedouble lens micrometer which didnot require unusual materials.

In 1861, Sir George Airy, produceda design for an ‘orbit sweeper’telescope which could pivot on threeaxes rather than the usual two. Theidea was to set the Right Ascensionand Declination and then makesweeps along the remaining axis.The anticipated use was searches forasteroids and comets, though it isnot clear that any instruments of thistype were ever made.

The talk ended with a quote fromTony Hancock: ‘daft, idiotic thingsmirrors: why can’t they reflectthings properly?’, which aptly sumsup an entertaining and wide-rangingtalk.

Peter Grego, the scheduled firstspeaker, had now arrived anddelivered his talk on The Dynamax8, a Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescopepopular with amateur astronomersduring the 1970s and 80s, though itenjoyed a mixed reputation. Duringthis period the three mainmanufacturers of Schmidt-Cassegrains for the amateur market

were Celestron, Criterion (whomade the Dynamax 8) and Meade.Throughout the period Criterion andtheir competitors introduced a seriesof improvements and innovations intheir products.

Some observers reported very goodresults with the Dynamax 8; othershad less happy experiences. Thesevaried assessments are bestexplained by proposing that theDynamax 8s were variable inquality; some were very good,others less so. The most likely causefor this variability is that Criterionseem not to have taken much troubleto ensure that the corrector-plate waswell-matched to the primary mirror.By chance some were, but otherswere not, and so it was ‘pot luck’whether you bought a good one ornot.

Mr Grego bought his Dynamax 8from the well-known amateurastronomer Harold Hill in 1992. Heis very pleased with it and hasobtained some very successfulresults. Mr Grego’s talk wasfollowed by a raffle draw and a shortbut welcome break for refreshments.

After the break the meeting resumedwith a talk by Allan Chapman, theSociety’s Honorary President. Theslide projector failed, so the talk hadto be given without illustrations,despite which Dr Chapman gave hisusual polished and eloquentperformance. Before starting his talkproper he noted that the prosperingof the SHA reflects the fact that

Members of the audience listen to the speakers


there is a lot of interest in the ‘localhistory of astronomy.’

The topic of Dr Chapman’s talk,however, was located further in thepast than local historians usuallyventure: How Good were the FirstTelescopes? He began by noting thatthe manufacture of reading glasseslong precedes the invention of thetelescope. Reading glasses as an aidto vision first appear in northernItaly at the end of the thirteenthcentury. Roger Bacon (1214?-1294)wrote on the magnifying power ofquartz. Thus, when the telescopewas invented, around 1600, therewas already a mass market forlenses and established and proficientmanufacturers.

There are persistent rumours that atelescope was invented in TudorEngland, but concealed as a militarysecret. Such a development isunlikely. If any device existed it ismore likely to have been some sortof magnifying, distorting mirrorrather than a viable telescope.However the first astronomicalobservations with a telescope weremade in England by Thomas Harriotand other members of his circle (see,for example, Dr Chapman’s paper inQ. J. R. Astron. Soc, 1995, 36, pp97-107), though they did not alwaysappreciate the significance of whatthey saw or circulate their resultswidely. They did not see craters onthe Moon, for example, and Harriotthought that the lunar landscaperesembled a ‘book of Dutch seacharts.’ The first to appreciate thesignificance of the new informationrevealed by telescopic observationwas, of course, Galileo Galilei,whose short treatise SidereusNuncius (1610) is one of the mostimportant books ever published onastronomy.

All early telescopes were similar toGalileo’s and had a small field ofview. For the first thirty or fortyyears after the invention of thetelescope there was little furtherdevelopment because of thedifficulty of making lenses.

The next real innovator ininstrumentation was Hevelius (1611-

87) who used extremely long focallength telescopes. One, for example,had an objective two inches indiameter but a focal length of twelvefeet. He used such telescopes toproduce his celebrated maps of theMoon, published in theSelenographia (1647). He alsoexperimented with fiducial marksplaced before the object glass.

In 1639 William Gascoigne inventedthe eyepiece micrometer, though itdid not become widely known untilpublished by Robert Hooke in the1660s. Observing from Middletonoutside Leeds Gascoigne mademeasurements of the Sun, Moon andSaturn that were reasonablyaccurate. Quadrants fitted withtelescopic sights and Gascoignemicrometers were some fifty timesmore accurate than naked eye ones.

The purpose of long focal lengthtelescopes was not just to reducechromatic aberration but also tooptimise the prime focus images forviewing planetary disks. Thistechnique was used to advantage bythe Huygens brothers, Christiaanand Constatijn. Robert Hooke madethe first drawing of an individuallunar feature, the ‘crater commonlyknown as Hipparchus.’ It appears asobservation number fifty-eight of hisMicrographia (1665) and compareswell with modern photographs.

Newton invented the reflectingtelescope now known after him. It

gave spectacular images, but thespeculum metal deteriorated rapidly.The importance of observing from agood site was at least partlyrecognised (even if it could notalways be fully realised in practice).Cassini, for example, initiallyobserved through the clear air of thecountryside outside Bologna. DrChapman concluded by remindingthe audience that during 1608-1670understanding of the Universechanged beyond recognition due tothe invention of the telescope.

The final talk of the afternoon wasgiven by Kevin Kilburn who spokeon The Grubb Twin Telescopes atthe Godlee Observatory (see also hispaper in J. Antique Telesc. Soc,2002, 23, pp19-24). ManchesterAstronomical Society wasestablished in 1892 following thedemise of Liverpool AstronomicalSociety in 1890. From 1893 it met inthe then Manchester TechnicalSchool in Manchester City Centre.Originally there was no observatorybut one was established ten yearslater.

The telescopes that equipped theObservatory were donated to the cityby the Quaker philanthropist FrancisGodlee. They are of a twin design,with two barrels attached to a singleastrographic mount. They were thelast of only four such twininstruments constructed by Grubb ofDublin. The first was constructed forWilliam Huggins; the second was

Robert Hooke’s drawing of Hipparchus (left) compared to a modern photograph (right)taken under a similar angle of illumination. The drawing appeared as observation fifty-eight in Hooke’s Micrographia (reproduced from E.A. Whitaker, Mapping and Naming

the Moon, 1999, Cambridge Univ. Press, p75)


for Isaac Roberts (with which hetook the first to photograph to revealthe spiral structure of theAndromeda galaxy) and the third setwere dismantled following the 1888exhibition in Manchester.Manchester Astronomical Societyhas the final instrument, constructedat the Dublin telescope works atRathmines in 1899.

The reflector was intended forphotographic observing, therefractor for visual use. This designmaximises the use of a smallobservatory. Auxiliary instruments,such as a six inch plate holder, canbe mounted underneath the reflector.The telescopes originally had anelectromechanical, phased lockdrive system, a weight-driven clockand ‘planetary’ gears. Some parts ofthis mechanism are still extant. Thetelescopes cost £10,000 in 1902(equivalent to about half a milliontoday).

The seeing at the Observatory issuperb. The refractor has been usedfor visual observations of solar

system objects, and basicastrophysics such as measurementsof double stars and determinationsof stellar colours and temperatures.In 1903 Thomas Thorp donated aHilger spectroscope for theinstrument. The twelve inchreflector was originally used forphotography, but the plate holderhas not been used for sixty years.

Manchester Astronomical Societyhas had unlimited access to the sitesince 1946 and meets there for fiftyweeks of the year. The observatoryis a prominent but lesser-knownlandmark of Manchester.

Following Mr Kilburn’s talk GilbertSatterthwaite made a fewconcluding remarks. He thanked allthe speakers for their contributionsand the BMI for their continuinghospitality, which is muchappreciated. He also thanked thepeople who had organised theconference, particularly StuartWilliams, Ken Goward and RegWithey. With these remarks anothersuccessful and enjoyable AutumnConference drew to a close.

A recent report in the Newsletter(no. 10, March 2006, pp12-14)outlined progress to that point in thePendrell Hall Observatories Project,an initiative that seeks todemonstrate many aspects of Britishastronomical history, including there-creation of vintage observatoriesof authentic design, containinggenuine period instruments.

In mid-June 2006 a furthermilestone was passed with thecommissioning of the Wrottesley-Phillips Observatory, this beingphase two of our four-phasedevelopment plan.

The observatory is of Victorianvintage and is of the ‘Romsey’ type,as designed by the Revd E.L.Berthon when he was vicar ofRomsey in Hampshire. The maininstrument in the observatory is anineteenth century Calver reflectorthat once belonged to the RevdT.E.R. Phillips. The observatory is

complete with a transit house whichcontains a genuine Victorian vintagetransit instrument as well as amiscellany of other ancillaryinstruments, including a couple offine brass refractors of the type that

a Victorian gentleman interested inastronomy might have possessed

The Wrottesley-Phillips Observatorywas formally opened on 16 June2006 by Lembit Opik MP (whose

The dome of the Godlee Observatory (left) above the Manchester skyline and thetwelve inch reflector (right), half of the Godlee twin telescope

Update on the Pendrell Hall Observatories ProjectJohn Armitage

Lembit Opik MP (right) makes his speech during the formal opening of theWrottesley-Phillips Observatory. Prof. R.D. Davies is on the left and the Project

Director in the centre


grandfather E.J. Opik was a notableand often controversial astronomer,one-time director of ArmaghObservatory and RAS Gold-Medallist for 1975). Represented atthe ‘Grand Opening Event’ were theBAA (who made the T.E.R. Phillipstelescope available for us to restore)and a range of other organisationswith which Lord Wrottesley wasconnected, including the RAS, theRoyal Society and the BritishAssociation for the Advancement ofScience. Also present was theBishop of Wolverhampton, the RtRevd Michael Bourke, who cameback to us a week later to conduct aspecial memorial service for LordWrottesley and other astronomers ofthe past, a unique event conductedby a Bishop himself interested inastronomy.

As mentioned in the earlier report,the Pendrell Hall ObservatoriesGroup are also constructing anobservatory of similar nature (alsoof a ‘Romsey’ design) in the BlackCountry, within the grounds of theBlack Country Museum at Tipton

Road, Dudley. This structure toowill be complete with transit houseand transit instrument, and again the

main instrument will be a Calverreflector. The Black Countryobservatory will be named theWrottesley Observatory, which isquite valid as not only was theWrottesley seat at Wrottesley Hall inSouth Staffordshire, north ofWolverhampton, but LordWrottesley also had solid BlackCountry connections. He was Lordof the Manor of Sedgley, which is inthe Black Country and not far fromour Black Country Observatory site.Also local tradition has it that in1846 Beacon Tower, the notable‘folly’ situated on top of SedgleyBeacon, was rebuilt on the orders ofLord Wrottesley, and on occasionshe subsequently used it forastronomical observations. Thisclaim is disputed, though I aminclined to believe it.

The Black Country Observatory isstill under construction, but isexpected to be completed and readyfor formal opening around Easter2007. These developments will bereported in a subsequent update.

For several hundred years themariner’s sextant was anindispensable aid to navigation atsea. This article will give a briefhistory of this versatile andimportant instrument. A sextant isused to measure the elevation of acelestial object above the horizon.This measurement, together with thetime when it was taken, can be usedto calculate a position line on anautical or aeronautical chart. Acommon use is to determine theobserver’s latitude by taking asighting of the sun at noon.

The sextant is one of a family ofsimilar instruments: it has a scale of60º (1/6 of a circle); the octant has ascale of 45º (1/8 of a circle) and aquadrant has a scale of 90º. To addconfusion, instruments that wewould now call octants were

sometimes originally calledquadrants.

There is some doubt about whoinvented the sextant. Some sourcessay that the English mathematicianJohn Hadley developed theinstrument in 1731 (after an idea ofRobert Hooke) simultaneously withthe Pennsylvanian Thomas Godfrey.Others say Godfrey invented it in1730 and Hadley independently in1731.

Whoever first worked out itsprinciples, the sextant is descendedfrom a long line of instruments formaking astronomical observations toassist in navigation at sea. Theseinstruments were usually kin to theinstruments used for surveying onland and pursuing purelyastronomical investigations. The

ancestors of the sextant include thefollowing.

Sea quadrant

One of the first elevation-findinginstruments was the sea quadrant.Originally the tool of the astronomerand surveyor, this instrument wasfirst used by mariners in thefifteenth century. It was a simple arcof a circle, made of boxwood (orother close-grained wood) or brass,with two sighting pinnules along onestraight edge. A plumb bob attachedto the apex swung across a scalegraduated 0-90º to show an altitudereading.

The cross-staff

First described in 1342, the cross-staff was an instrument for

The view inside the main dome of theWrottesley-Phillips Observatory showing

the T.E.R. Phillips Telescope, anineteenth century Calver reflector.

Bottom right is ‘Pebble Beds’, the projectmascot

The history of the sextantLeonard Honey

Captain Nemo, provided with his sextant, took the sun height to find his latitudeJules Verne,

Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea (1870).


measuring distances between twostars or the angular elevation of astar or the sun above the horizon.About 30 inches long, it was madeof close-grained woodapproximately an half-inch insection, on which scales werecalibrated on all four sides. Three orfour alternative cross-pieces or‘transoms’ could be moved up anddown the shaft, one at a time.

To use the cross-staff, a navigatorwould fit one of the transoms, pointthe staff at the sun and rest theopposite end of it on the bone besidethe eye. The transom was slid upand down the staff until its bottomend touched the horizon andsimultaneously its top end touchedthe lower limb the sun. The altitudeof the sun could then be read off theappropriate scale.

The cross-staff was first used byastronomers, but was soon taken upby navigators and its use becamewidespread. Vasco da Gama wasshown a cross-staff by the Arab pilotfrom the East African coast (nowKenya) who had been taken aboardto guide the explorer to India in1497-9.

The mariner'sastrolabe

The mariner’sastrolabe is a nauticaladaptation of thetraditional astrolabeused by MediaevalArab and Europeanastronomers. Anaccount existsdescribing how onewas used to observethe solar eclipse of 3March 1337. Amongstearly references, themost famous,especially as it isillustrated, is that ofPedro Medina in 1552in Seville. Inappearance, themariner's astrolaberesembles a four-spoked, cast bronzewheel, with a ring at

the top for the navigator's thumb anda pivoted alidade with slits throughwhich the user peered at the celestialbody.

Mariner’s astrolabes calibrated 90-0-90 across the two top quadrants orzenith distances are usually ofPortuguese manufacture. Markingsfor altitude height usually suggests adifferent school of makers. Theinstruments vary considerably indiameter and weight, but an averagesize would appear to be 5-7 inchesin diameter and weighing 1-2 lbs.

The back-staff

This instrument was an ingeniousimprovement on the quadrant, cross-staff and mariner’s astrolabe fortaking an elevation. Usually made oflignum vitae (a self-lubricatingwood) 5/8 inches by 5/8 inches insection, the instrument was formedwith a main limb about 24 incheslong and with a right angledaccessory, the horizon slit, on theend. The quadrant was divided intotwo arcs made of boxwood.

The success of the back staff wasphenomenal. Made almostexclusively in England, although

Irish and American ones are known,it was used all over the world fornearly 200 years. Termed the Davisquadrant, it was the seaman’s trustedservant. However, a notableexception to its widespreadpopularity was Holland, where theconservative Dutch clung to the useof the cross-staff well into thenineteenth century.

The Hadley quadrant

The pressing commercial need formore accurate navigational methods,which is reflected in the BritishGovernment’s offer of a £20,000prize for a practical solution to theproblem of how to determinelongitude at sea, produced a fermentof activity in all aspects ofnavigational science.

Working independently, and incomplete ignorance of each other,John Hadley FRS (1682-1744) inLondon and Thomas Godfrey,glazier and natural mathematician inPhiladelphia, simultaneouslydevised an improved form ofaltitude measuring instrument whichworked on the same principles.

The Royal Society recognised theequality of the two and awardedeach a prize of £200. Godfreyreceived his in household furniture.

The Hadley quadrant, as it came tobe called (though it is an octant inmodern terminology), was abrilliantly simple instrument basedon the application of optics.Returning to the concept of the seaquadrant with a single arc of 90º, theinstrument was made of a triangularframe of wood, lignum vitae ormahogany for strength, with amovable index arm pivoted from theapex. A mirror was fixed at thispoint that would move with theindex arm. An observer would peerthrough the sighting pinnule, placedon the limb, and tilt the instrumentuntil he could see the horizon in theclear half of the second glass fixedon the opposite limb. He thenadjusted the index arm until thecelestial body appeared to bereflected onto the horizon. Finallyhe checked the vernier, which is

A mariner’s cross-staff with several vanes or cross-pieces(courtesy Duane Cline and Dave Lossos, seehttp://www.rootsweb.com/~mosmd/crstaff.htm)


fitted at the end of the index armover the accurate scale, for fineadjustment and took the reading onthe scale.

There are two main principlesinvolved. First, the angle ofincidence equals the angle ofreflection in a plane which containsthe normal to the reflecting surfaceat the point of reflection. Second, ifa ray of light suffers two successivereflections in the same plane, by twoplane mirrors, the angle between thefirst and last direction of the ray istwice the angle between the mirrors.Because the angle between the twomirrors is half the altitude of theobject observed, when the mirror onthe index arm moves from theparallel through to the angle, doublethe angle will be read on the arc.Thus the arc will read up to 90ºalthough in itself is only an eighth ofa circle or 45º (hence the termoctant). The vernier was added forfine adjustment.

A telescope replaced the sightingpinnule or was offered as analternative. The index arm waseither handsomely engraved, bore afin for extra rigidity or was simplyplain. The wooden limbs wereblackened or ‘ebonised’ to reduceglare and, for greater clarity, thescales were engraved on ivory. Anameplate was provided for theowner as well as a pencil secreted in

the cross member to be used torecord data on a small ivory plaqueon the back. The instruments werefitted with two sets of coloured glass

shades for use with the sun and theearlier type of instrument had asecond pinnule fitted on the oppositelimb so that when the horizon belowthe sun was ill-defined the oppositehorizon could be used. This featurewas mainly of use at anchor offunexplored coasts where latitudehad to be determined.

The size of the instrument wascontrolled by the fact that the scaleson the arc had to be calibrated byhand. When Jesse Ramsden (1735-1800) invented his dividing machinein 1771, this operation could beswiftly, accurately and economicallycarried out in a smaller area, so thesize of the instruments shrank froma radius of approximately 18 inchesto one of approximately 8 inches. Inthis compact form, the octant was inuse until the end of the nineteenthcentury. They were cheap to buy(they were offered in a catalogue at

A late eighteenth century trade card for the London instrument maker R. Rustshowing a naval officer using an octant (courtesy of the Science and Society

Picture Library)

An engraved trade card for the London instrument maker Thomas Tuttell. It shows avariety of instruments, including astrolabes, cross-staffs, quadrants, sextants and

octants. In the centre two men use surveying instruments (courtesy of the Science andSociety Picture Library)

acd

Textbox


acd

Textbox



30 shillings) and were lessvulnerable than the brassinstruments that ultimately replacedthem when used on board a smallfreighter or fishing boat. Thehandsome quadrant or octant waswell established as a practical ‘nononsense’ tool by about 1790.

Perhaps the onset of the Napoleonicwars and the enormous demand forinstruments for the hastily impressedbattle fleet, plus the new mass-produced scales, caused this declinein aesthetics, but no nauticalinstrument had ever had a widerappeal. Wherever there was a needfor maritime victualling, octantswere sold, frequently with thechandler’s trade label in the box oron the instrument. Octants were firstmade in England, America andIreland, and then in France, initiallyby Pierre Lemaire (circa 1739-60).Ramsden’s dividing machine wasmade by other manufacturers, for hehad received an award for itsinvention and held no patents.Spencer, Browning and Rust (1787-1842) used one of these to greateffect for they must have madescales for nearly everyone. Theinitials SBR will be found in thecentre of the ivory scale of manyoctants bearing either anothermaker’s name, a chandler’s name orno name at all.

The sextant

The familiar brass sextant was basedon the same principles as the Hadleyquadrant, but was intended as animprovement in that the woodenframes of the octant were inclined todistort in humid conditions andcaused errors.

Also, the larger arc of the sextantwas more useful. It is not clear whofirst made a brass instrument, butEdward Troughton (1753-1836), afounder member of the RoyalAstronomical Society, patented aform of brass sextant in 1788. Thelimb was formed of strips of plate induplicate; the two joined togetherwith turned brass pillars. This typeof sextant, termed the Troughtontype or double frame, was beingmade as late as 1830.

In the meantime, Jesse Ramsden andothers were experimenting withthicker gauge metals and otherforms of manufacture to ensurerigidity. Curiously enough, the mostdifficult parts of the instrument tomake were the plane mirrors. Thetwo faces had to be ground paralleland silvered in the old way withmercury and tinfoil. The problemlay in the grinding of the glass, for ifit was not absolutely flat, theinstrument would be inaccurate.

The eyepieces are either of theHuygens or the Ramsden type,which work on different opticalprinciples, although the results arealmost the same. The maindifference is that the Ramsden canbe used with cross-wires formeasurements whereas the Huygensmay have cross-wires but only tomark the centre. The object glass isachromatic to avoid spherical andchromatic aberrations, which thefour spherical surfaces of themeniscus or concave flint glass lens

and the biconvex crown glass lensovercome when bonded together.

The pocket sextant was a useful toolfor the nineteenth century surveyor,which he used for a quick meridianbearing. A handy size for the pocket,they were not intended to have theaccuracy of a navigationalinstrument.

Further reading

Wikipedia entry for the sextant:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sextant

For those of a practical bent thereare notes on building your ownsimple sextant at:http://www.tecepe.com.br/nav/CDSextantProject.htm

[An earlier version of this articleappeared in Civil EngineeringSurveyor, May 2006, p32 and it isreproduced here by kind permission.Leonard Honey markets a range ofreplica astronomical instruments;see his advertisement on p23 – Ed.]

A reproduction antique sextant sold by Mr Honey


BooksNEW ASTRONOMY BOOKS

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[An eclipse of the Moon occurred over the UK on 3-4March this year. Though not as spectacular as solareclipses, lunar eclipses are nonetheless impressiveevents. An earlier lunar eclipse inspired Thomas Hardy(1840-1928) to write this short poem. Astronomicalimagery if often present in Hardy’s work and, indeed,one of his novels, Two in a Tower, featured a Victorian‘gentleman’s astronomer’ as a protagonist – Ed.]

Thy shadow, Earth, from Pole to Central Sea,Now steals along upon the Moon's meek shineIn even monochrome and curving lineOf imperturbable serenity.

How shall I link such sun-cast symmetryWith the torn troubled form I know as thine,That profile, placid as a brow divine,With continents of moil and misery?

And can immense Mortality but throwSo small a shade, and Heaven's high human schemeBe hemmed within the coasts yon arc implies?

Is such the stellar gauge of earthly show,Nation at war with nation, brains that teem,Heroes, and women fairer than the skies?

Robinson, Janet & Mark (Eds.), TheStargazer of Hardwicke: The Lifeand Work of Thomas William Webb.Hardback, Gracewing, Leominster,Herefordshire, 2006, ISBN 0 85244666 7, £14.99, pp259.

Mention the name Webb to any keenobserver of the night sky and theywill most likely recall a cleric, longhailed as sage and patron of amateurastronomers. If you were to enquiremore deeply into his life and works,chances are that you would bedisappointed. Most standard texts onthe history of astronomy add littlemore to this picture. Allan Chapmanhas tacked this paucity of detailthrough his work on Victorianamateur astronomers, but until now

there has been no biography for theRevd Thomas Webb. As is pointedout in the preface, plans for abiography of his life had been inhand since shortly after his death in1885. In the event, circumstance andfate conspired to thwart theseprojects until Janet and MarkRobinson (editors) acquiredHardwicke vicarage, the homewhere Webb spent a large part of hisadult life. Through a growingfascination with the former occupantof their new home, the Robinsonsdetermined to tackle the task thatseveral predecessors had failed tocomplete. As the project developed,it was agreed that the work shouldbe an anthology, a brave decision, ascoalescing the text of more than a

Book reviews

At a Lunar EclipseThomas Hardy

An illustration of a lunar eclipse, taken from a series ofeclipse diagrams in An Introduction to Astronomy in a Seriesof Letters from a Preceptor to his Pupil by John Bonnycastle

(1811, J. Johnson: London)


dozen authors is a difficult task, aproject littered with pitfalls.

The book is a series of essays, withthe life and day to day work of theRevd Webb being dealt with byJanet and Mark Robinson in the firstfive chapters. These provide anaccount of his childhood, educationand his marriage after his universitydays at Oxford. This section thenlooks at his time at Hardwickevicarage, his work as parish priestand his other activities as historianand antiquarian. His astronomicalpursuits are covered in later chaptersby a host of authors who tackle thevaried interests he had in astronomyand even earthquakes (RogerMusson). These include histelescopes (Bob Marriott), hisobserving books (Peter Hingley), theMoon (William Sheehan), theplanets (Richard Baum), comets(Jonathan Shanklin), the Sun (LouMarsh) and double stars (RobertArgyle). In addition, Allan Chapmangives an account of clericalastronomers, which places Webb’slife into a broader perspective of thenineteenth century. The biographyconcludes with an outline anddiscussion of Webb’s publishedworks, especially his best knownpiece, Celestial objects for thecommon reader. The book also hasappendices, which list all Webb’spublished works and the work of theWebb Society.

Considering the work’s longgestation period, of more than acentury, people’s expectations maybe unrealistic; it will not pleaseeverybody. So how well does itsucceed in its task of revealing thelong neglected life and work of thisiconic figure of amateur astronomy?Readers should not expect a popularaccount of Webb’s life and work, asit is written in a scholarly mannerwith endnotes for each chapter. Thatsaid, the work is thoroughlyreadable, in particular the Robinsonchapters give a fascinating windowinto Webb’s life and times. Detailsof his university days at Oxfordprovide a revealing account ofWebb’s religious outlook throughhis opposition to Catholicemancipation. Likewise, his contact

with the Radcliffe Observatory,Oxford gives a perceptive picture ofhis youthful interest in astronomy.These chapters also alert the readerto Webb’s religious doctrines withregards to his interest in astronomy.Webb considered the observing theheavens or nature as revealing thesplendour of God’s creation. Yetdespite his firm faith, he did not letreligiosity overly influence the styleof his writing. In a time of greatchange, he felt that his spiritualbeliefs were under threat by the newevolutionary theories of CharlesDarwin and William Wallace.

The Robinson section of the bookgenerally does not deal in detail withWebb’s astronomical observations,but does mention then in passing.This aspect of the work can befrustrating to the reader, as thesedetails are to be found elsewhere inspecific chapters. In certain cases,comments need further explanation.The tantalising detail that Webbobserved a satellite of Venus (p10)could be placed in context by one ofthe other expert authors as an end orfootnote. While the first part of thebiography is coherent in its layout,the order of the other subjectchapters is less satisfactory. Thestrategy of leaving a discussion ofWebb’s magnum opus, his Celestialobjects for the common reader, tothe end of the book is perverse. Thisthoroughly captivating essay, alongwith that, on clerical astronomy byChapman, would have been betterplaced adjoining the first section ofthe work. The other specialistsubject chapters are of a highstandard and give a good overviewof Webb’s astronomical interests.Though in some cases the premiseon which they are written tends tolimit how well they fit into the workas a whole. The discussion ofWebb’s observing books by PeterHingley is more successful than thechapter on Webb’s telescopes. Bythe nature of the topic it is difficultto give an account of Webb’sinstruments without turning thenarrative into a history of thetelescope. Though more difficult,perhaps it would have been better totry and combine some of the topicsinto a single piece jointly written.

These might then appear to be morecoherent and less contrived.Considering the high standard ofscholarly research that has gone intothis work, it is a pity that the qualityof picture printing is so variable.While in certain cases thereproductions are adequate andclear, in others they are illegible andwould not be acceptable in today’snewspapers. This is all the moreperplexing as the text, bycomparison, is crisp throughout. It isunclear whether this problem lieswith the quality of the materialsupplied to the publishers or in theprinting process. Likewise, somepictures do not appear to be properlycredited (p127) to the institutionsfrom which they appear to originate.

Having outlined both theachievements and faults of this well-written biography, I would highlyrecommend that any historian ofastronomy should add it to theirlibrary. Like most books it is notperfect, but it contains all theinformation you might wish to knowabout the Revd Webb’s life and hiscontributions to amateur andobservational astronomy. This is along overdue tribute to the,‘stargazer of Hardwicke’, anastronomy populariser as wellrespected in his time as PatrickMoore is in our celebrity obsessedage.

Kevin Johnson

Fisher, David and Hanstock, Terry,Citing References. Paperback,Blackwell, Oxford, 1998, ISBN185377992X, £1.00, pp28.

Articles in the Newsletter oftencontain references to papers orbooks that they have mentioned.References are included both inorder to provide evidence for theassertions made in the article and toallow the interested reader to follow-up the material if he wishes.References are optional (butdesirable) in an informal publicationsuch as the Newsletter, but aremandatory in an academic journallike The AntiquarianAstronomer. They are an important


part of the scholarly process becausethey allow the veracity of thestatements made in a paper to beassessed. When first encounteredreferences can appear bizarre andexotic, but are actually quitestraightforward.

Citing References is a short booklet(twenty-eight pages) describing howto include references in apublication. The authors areInformation Specialists atNottingham-Trent University. Boththe Harvard or ‘name and date’system, which is usually used in thesciences, and the Numeric system,more common in the arts andhumanities, are covered. TheAntiquarian Astronomer usuallyuses the latter. The Harvard systemis described in greater detail, butmost of the examples can betransposed.

Referencing books, journal papersand conference proceedings areproperly covered, as are some moreunusual types of material, such asParliamentary papers. Unfortunatelythere are a number of omissions.There is no discussion of thestandard abbreviations used to referto journals (the IAU maintains a listat URLhttp://www.iau.org/Abbreviations.235.0.html, based on therecommendations of theInternational Council for Scienceand other appropriate internationalorganisations). Obviously there is nomention of the short, non-standardabbreviations often used in

astronomy, such as ‘MN’ forMonthly Notices of the RAS.Particularly unfortunate forhistorians of astronomy (or anythingelse), there is no discussion ofreferences to manuscript sources,which is often a tricky topic.Similarly, there is no discussion ofhow to reference ‘grey literature,’internal or semi-internal documentswhich have not been formallypublished.

The booklet is part of a series aimedat undergraduates, covering variousaspects of writing essays andreports. I spotted a couple of errors,including the name of one theauthors on the front page (whichdoes not inspire confidence)!However, the booklet only costs£1.00 and, with the caveatsmentioned above, can berecommended to anyone,undergraduate or not, who needs abasic description of how to citereferences. If even that price is toohigh there is an on-line version atURLhttp://www2.ntu.ac.uk/llr/library/citingrefs.htm.

Clive Davenhall

This column lists some recentlypublished books which might be ofinterest. Listing here does notpreclude a review at a later date.Please note prices may varyaccording to suppliers.

Cullen, C, Astronomy andMathematics in Ancient China: The‘Zhou Bi Suan Jing’ (NeedhamResearch Institute Studies).

Cambridge Univ. Press, 2007,paperback, ISBN 0521035376. £23.00.

Danielson, D.R, The FirstCopernican: Georg JoachimRheticus and the Rise of theCopernican Revolution. Walker &Co, 2006, hardback, ISBN0802715303. $(US)25.95.

Evans, B, Space Shuttle Challenger:Ten Journeys into the Unknown.Springer-Verlag, 2007, paperback,ISBN 978-0-387-46355-1,$(US)39.95.

Kragh, H, Conceptions of Cosmos:From Myths to the AcceleratingUniverse: A History of Cosmology.

Oxford Univ. Press, 2006, hardback,ISBN 0199209162, £35.00.

Lachman, G, Into the Interior:Discovering Swedenborg.Swedenborg Soc, 2006, paperback,ISBN 9780854481491, £7.95.Biography of the eccentric Swedishpolymath Emanuel Swedenborg(1688-1772), whose interestsincluded astronomy.

Marshall, P, The Theatre of theWorld: Alchemy, Astrology andMagic in Renaissance Prague.Harvill Secker, 2006, hardback,ISBN 0436205211, £17.99. Aboutthe circle of philosophers whogathered around the Court of RudolfII in Prague, including John Dee,Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler.

Books noticedMadeline Cox and Clive Davenhall


Standish, D, Hollow Earth: the Longand Curious History of ImaginingStrange Lands, FantasticalCreatures, Advanced Civilizations,and Marvelous Machines Below theEarth’s Surface. Da CapoPress/Perseus, 2006, hardback,ISBN 0306813734,£14.99/$(US)24.95. The subtitle

says it all; not the history ofastronomy, but probably closeenough to be of interest to somemembers.

Weintraub, D.A, Is Pluto a Planet?A Historical Journey through theSolar System. Princeton Univ. Press,2006, hardback, ISBN 0691123489,£17.95.

Yount, L, Modern Astronomy:Expanding the Universe (Milestonesin Discovery and Invention). Factson File Inc, 2006, hardback, ISBN081605746X. £24.50.

Alan John Cox

It is with great regret that we reportthe death of SHA founder memberMr Alan Cox on 10 August 2006.Following service in the Royal AirForce he worked as a researchscientist and teacher. He was a long-standing member of WolverhamptonAstronomical Society and,widely-read and erudite, pursuednumerous other interests.

Alan John Cox was born in BrierleyHill on 27 May 1929 and attendedKing Edwards High School,Stourbridge. He later gained a BScin Physics and Chemistry from theUniversity of London; he was thefirst in his family to receive a highereducation. In order to complete hisdegree, his National Service wasdeferred for a short time. He thenjoined the Royal Air Force where hecompleted his National Serviceworking on ground radar and radioequipment, for which he wassomewhat over qualified. He hadalready built his own wireless andtelevision sets from scratch as ahobby. On release from NationalService, he joined the Midlands TarDistillers in Wolverhampton as aResearch Scientist, gradually risingto become the head of research. As ascientist his particular interest waslight, the physical principles ofwhich he had utilised to great effectin his research work. His hobbieswere many and varied, butprincipally included archaeology,radio communication, photographyand, of course, astronomy.

It was during his archaeologicalactivities that he met his wife Leila,who was a teacher by profession.

When he had progressed as far as hecould at Midland Tar, Alan decidedto take a change of direction andjoined Leila at Codsall MiddleSchool, Wolverhampton where hetaught Physics and Chemistry.During their married life, Alan andLeila travelled extensivelythroughout the ancient world,progressing and enjoying theirmutual interests in archaeology andphotography. Alan also pursued hispassion for astronomy and was amember and past president ofWolverhampton AstronomicalSociety, which he joined many yearsago. He was also a lifelong memberof the BAA.

Alan and Leila were fortunateenough to be able to retire early,both in their fifties, but sadly afterjust two years of retirement Leilapassed away. Following this sadloss, Alan became increasinglyreclusive and concentrated all hisenergies towards his hobbies,principally astronomy. As the yearsprogressed, he paid little attention tohis personal comforts and welfare,increasingly absorbed into isolationby his interests. Over the years heassembled an extensive librarycovering all his interests. Equallyimpressive was his radio room fullof receivers and transmitters throughwhich he made many world-widecontacts. His astronomicalequipment comprised numerouslarge telescopes, including somedesigned especially for solar andspectroscopic use. He was a foundermember of the SHA, joining inOctober 2002, and attended manymeetings including those atBirmingham, Cambridge andGreenwich.

Alan spent his last few weeks atAtholl House Nursing Home; hismind remained as sharp as ever andhe retained his dry sense of humour.Just hours before his death, he wasstill able to engage like mindedindividuals in deep discussionswhich would challenge the mostcapable scholars of today.

The trappings of his life interestshave been donated to those personswho will best appreciate them andcontinue to use them for theadvancement of science andunderstanding. His library of morethan three hundred astronomy bookswere donated to the SHA, and theynow reside in the Sir Robert Balllibrary. His fine collection ofastronomical equipment wasdonated to the Pendrell HallObservatories Group (see p12), andhis radio equipment was given to alocal amateur radio club.

Alan’s legacy is in the considerablefunds which he has generouslydonated to charity. Those who carefor the terminally ill, research intoincurable disease, continue thesearch among the stars and thosewho save lives at sea will all be

Obituaries

Alan John Cox (1929-2006)


major benefactors of his life’sachievements.

Alan passed away peacefully on 10August 2006. In accordance with hissecular beliefs he was given aHumanist funeral and took hiseternal place amongst the stars andatoms which make up the Universe.He is survived by his cousin, DavidPriest.

Roger Jones

Francis Maddison

Francis Maddison. who was formany years Curator of the Museumof the History of Science (MHS) atOxford and an authority onMediaeval Islamic scientificinstruments, died on 12 July 2006.He was a considerable scholarwhose work had a significant impacton the study of historic scientificinstruments.

Francis Romeril Maddison was bornin Hounslow on 27 July 1927. Hisfather was R.E.W. Maddison who,after a career as an industrialchemist, became Librarian to theRAS in later life and had a long-standing interest in the history ofscience. Francis Maddison waseducated at Hounslow College andlater Exeter College, Oxford, wherehe initially read modern languagesbut switched to modern history. Thischange of subject illustrates his wideand eclectic range of interests,which manifested early andcontinued throughout his life. He

contributed to a number ofarchaeological digs both before andafter graduating.

After Oxford he initially worked inthe County Records office, first inGlamorgan and then Warwickshire.In 1953 he became an assistantcurator at the MHS, at theencouragement of its then Curator,C.J. Josten. This appointment begana forty-year association with theMuseum and Maddison becameCurator himself in 1964.

The MHS has a collection of overone hundred astrolabes, the largestin the world, and most of them areMediaeval Arab-Islamicinstruments. In the 1950s and 60sMaddison studied and redisplayedthis collection, the interdisciplinarynature of this work being much tohis liking. A proper study of theseartefacts involves mastering theArabic inscriptions that they carry,the astronomical and mathematicalprinciples of their operation, thecraft techniques by which they weremanufactured and the historicalcontext of their production and use.

In the 1970s Maddison collaboratedwith the French antiquarianbookseller Alain Brieux in a majorepigraphical study of all the extantworks of Arab-Islamic and Hinduinstrument makers. He was heavilyinvolved in the Society for theHistory of Medieval Technologyand the Société Internationale del’Astrolable. He was also a memberof the Union for the History andPhilosophy of Science and a Fellow

of the Society of Antiquaries and theInternational Academy of theHistory of Science. Maddison wasnot a prolific author, though hecorresponded widely and wasgenerous with his help andencouragement.

In the 1950s the study of historicalmathematical and scientificinstruments was a neglected andpoorly-understood backwater,largely ignored by art historians andhistorians of science alike. Sincethat time the field has undergonesomething of a renaissance, both interms of methodology and the bodyof knowledge available. This changeis in no small measure due toMaddison’s work and influence.

Francis Maddison married twice.His first wife, Audrey Kent, died in2004. He is survived by his secondwife, Patricia Brown, a son anddaughter from his first marriage anda son from the second.

Clive Davenhall

We have recently purchased thefollowing items: Overbye, D,Einstein in Love (2000) andHasluck, P.N, Telescope Making(1905).

Donations

Donations received include Bevis, J,Atlas Celeste version 1.3b on CD-ROM (2005 reprint), donated byKevin Kilburn and Manchester

Astronomical Society; US NavalObservatory, Double star CD2006.5, donated by the US NavalObservatory; Carl-Zeiss-StiftungJena, A Spectacle of Spectacles(exhibition catalogue, 1988) andClarke, T.N. et al, Brass and Glass:Scientific Instrument MakingWorkshops in Scotland (1989), bothdonated by Clive Davenhall;Brosche, P. et al, The Message fromthe Angles: Astrometry from 1798 to

1998 (1998) and Kroll, P. et al,Treasure-Hunting in AstronomicalPlate Archives (1999), both donatedby Bob Argyle and Mark Hurn;Weart, S.R, Selected Papers ofGreat American Scientists (1976),donated by Mark Hurn.

A number of additions to the StuartWilliams Collection have beenmade, including a shelf of historicalspace exploration books. Two

Francis Maddison (1927-2006)

Library newsMadeline Cox and Clive Davenhall


donations of relevance to local andfamily history sources were alsomade to the Survey. Courtesy ofKen Goward and OrwellAstronomical Society, a largenumber of Sky and Telescopemagazines dating from the 1970sonward have also been donated.Some late issues of Astronomy Nowwere also received. Several bookshave also been received from CliveDavenhall, and a set of star chartsfrom the Library of the RoyalObservatory Edinburgh. A donationof RAS journals has also beenreceived from Peter Grego. Apartfrom the Stuart Williams Collectionadditions, the above items are as yetunlisted.

As usual we thank all our donors fortheir generosity and apologise if we

have accidentally omitted anyone.

The Alan Cox Bequest

A major bequest to the Sir RobertBall Library was made inNovember, when Stuart Williamswas contacted by Mrs Lesley Priest,whose husband was acting asExecutor to the Will of the late MrAlan J. Cox of Wightwick,Wolverhampton. Mr Cox, adedicated amateur astronomer whosadly passed away in August (anobituary appears on p20), was afounder member of the SHA, andhad left instructions that his personallibrary of more than three hundredastronomy books was to be given tothe SHA in the event of his death.The majority of books are only afew years old and on general

astronomical topics at various levels,amateur and professional. Aminority are on historical topics.The books have now beentransferred to the Sir Robert BallLibrary. The majority will remainthere but it is expected that aselection will be transferred to theSir Patrick Moore Library for loanto members. It has also beensuggested that labels be inserted inthe Alan Cox Bequest books tohighlight their origin. Thanks aredue to SHA Councillor Roger Jonesand SHA member Phil Barnard forcollecting and transferring books tothe BMI, and to Roger for shelvingand listing the books.

The online catalogues of the SHA’slibraries will be updated on the Website shortly.

In all cases you should checkavailability before visiting and bringyour SHA membership card foridentification.

SHA Sir Robert Ball Library

Following a review of openinghours, the Sir Robert Ball Librarywill be fully open on four Saturdaysin 2007, which are designated as‘Open Days’. Otherwise it may beopen ‘by arrangement’ subject tonegotiation with the ResearchLibrarian in advance and availabilityof volunteer staff. The four OpenDays will be: Saturdays January 20,April 21 (BAA/SHA Joint Meeting),July 28, October 20. On 21 April theLibrary will be open from 12 noon –2 pm only; on the other open daysthe opening hours to be: open 10.30am – 12 pm, closed for lunch 12 pm– 1 pm, open 1 pm – 3.30 pm.In addition, special arrangementsmay be made for a short period ofopening in conjunction with the2007 Autumn Conference and anyother astronomical event occurringat the BMI, subject to staffing.

The Library is located at theBirmingham & Midland Institute, 9,

Margaret Street, Birmingham, B33BS. BMI Web site:www.bmi.org.uk.

You are strongly advised to checkthat the Library is open beforevisiting to avoid disappointment.Contact Stuart Williams, telephone07906 103735 during opening hoursonly. Any enquiries, please writewith SAE to: SHA, 26, MatlockRoad, Bloxwich, Walsall, WestMidlands, WS3 3QD or by email to:[email protected]

RAS Library

The RAS Library opening hours are10:00 am – 5:00 pm, Monday toFriday. However currently only avery limited part of the collection isavailable because the RAS hasmoved during the refurbishment ofits premises to temporaryaccommodation at Hallam Court,77, Hallam, Street, London W1N6BR (post, however, shouldcontinue to be sent to BurlingtonHouse and will be redirected).

Contact Peter Hingley (020-7734 -4582, ext. 215; mobile: 07757133891 or [email protected]).

On-line catalogue:http://ras.heritage4.com

ROE Library

The ROE Library is usually openduring office hours, Monday toFriday. Contact Karen Moran (0131-668-8395 or [email protected]).

On-line catalogue:http://www.roe.ac.uk/roe/library/index.html and follow the links:‘Search the Main Library Catalogue’and ‘ROE Catalogue’.

Andrew Stephens’ Library

Mr Andrew Stephens of Cheltenhamhas generously offered SHAmembers the use of his extensiveprivate astronomical library (seeNewsletter no. 12, November 2006,pp20-21). In the first instancecontact Madeline Cox:([email protected], ortelephone on 01623 844121) fordetails.

Library opening hoursMadeline Cox and Stuart Williams


The following is a preliminary list of forthcomingmeetings and events to be held during the remainder of2007. Unless noted otherwise, booking is necessary formeetings but not for exhibitions. Except where noted theevents are organised by the SHA. The details of non-SHA events are checked as far as possible but cannot beguaranteed. Items for inclusion in this list in future issuesof the Newsletter are welcome. They should be sent tothe editorial address given on the back page.

Sat. 25 Nov. 2006 to Sun. 15 Apr. Time and Place:English Country Clocks, 1600-1840. Exhibition ofEnglish provincial clockmaking. at the Museum of theHistory of Science, Oxford. In collaboration with theAntiquarian Horological Society. 12:00 to 4:00 pm, Tue.to Sat, and 2:00 to 5:00 pm, Sun. Admission free. Seehttp://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/ (non-SHA event).

Sat. 17 Feb. to Sun. 29 Apr. At the Edge of Space, Parts1-3. Exhibition of photographs by Dan Holdsworth at theStills Gallery, 23, Cockburn Street, Edinburgh (formerlyat the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich).Comprises 3 series of photographs: At the Edge of Space(the ESA launch site in French Guyana), The Gregorian(the Arecibo radio telescope) and Hyperborea (theaurora borealis seen from Iceland and Norway). 11:00am to 6:00 pm, Mon. to Sun. Admission free. Seehttp:www.stills.org (non-SHA event).

Thr. 12 Apr. to Sat. 14 Apr. British Rocket OralHistory Programme Conference. To be held atCharterhouse School near Godalming in Surrey. Anannual conference largely, but not exclusively, aboutBritish rocketry programmes of the 50s and 60s. Seehttp://www.brohp.org.uk (non-SHA event).

Mon. 16 to Fri. 20 Apr. NAM 2007: NationalAstronomy Meeting organised by the RAS and PPARC.To be held at the University of Central Lancashire. An

historical session will be held on 2:00-3:30 pm,Wednesday, 18 April. Admission £90 (for the day) butconcessionary rates may be available to SHA members;advance registration necessary. Seehttp://www.nam2007.uclan.ac.uk/ or contact PeterHingley (details overleaf) (non-SHA event).

Sat. 21 Apr. BAA/SHA Joint Meeting. To be held at theBMI. 9:30 am to 5:45 pm. Admission free. See p3.

Fri. 11 May. Preserving the UK’s AstronomicalHeritage. RAS Discussion Meeting to be held in theGeological Society Lecture Theatre, Burlington House,London. 10:00 am - 1:30 pm (followed by the RASAGM in the afternoon). Admission free for RASFellows, otherwise £15.00. See http://www.ras.org.uk/and follow the link to ‘Meetings’ or contact Prof. CliveRuggles ([email protected]) (non-SHAevent).

Sat. 16 Jun. SHA Summer Picnic. To be held at PendrellHall, Codsall Wood, Staffordshire by kind invitation ofMr John Armitage, with additional excursions to nearbylocations of interest. Admission by ticket, price £3.00.See p3 and the flyer included with this issue of theNewsletter.

Sat. 14 Jul. SHA AGM and Summer Conference: TheSurvey of Astronomical History to be held at the NationalMaritime Museum, Greenwich. The Conference willfocus on the practicalities of contributing to the Society’sSurvey of local astronomical history. Some time forshort papers on members’ own projects should also beavailable. Contact the Secretary with offers of talks.Further details TBA.

Sat. 6 Oct. SHA Autumn Conference: A Review ofMembers’ Work to be held at the BMI. An unthemed

Forthcoming meetings and eventsClive Davenhall


meeting in which members can present any recent work.Talks from 20 minutes to 1 hour including question timeare welcome. Contact the Secretary with offers of talks.Further details TBA.

The Society for the History of Astronomy extends a verywarm welcome to the following members who haverecently joined the Society:

Mr Andrew Stephens of Cheltenham, Gloucester,Mr Ian David Williams of Tamworth, Staffordshire,Miss Laura Carroll of Blackburn, Lancashire,Mr Alan and Mrs Svetlana Charlesworth of NewportShropshire,Mr Lee Todd MacDonald of Newbury, Berkshire,Professor Yuri Mekler of Tel Aviv University, Israel,Mr Paul Adrian Haley of Clehonger, Herefordshire,Mr Michael R. Dryland of London,Mr Richard Myer Baum of Chester.

If you have already renewed your subscription of theSHA, please ignore his note and thank you for yourprompt support. However, if you have not renewed, youare reminded that annual subscriptions were due on 1January 2007. Your membership will be deemed to havelapsed by March 2007 in accordance with the Society’sconstitution. In the normal course of events this issue ofthe Newsletter will be the last communication that youreceive from the Society.

Subscription details were included with the previousissue and are available from the Society’s Web site, butbriefly a personal subscription costs £22.50 per annum.Cheques should be made payable to ‘The Society for theHistory of Astronomy’ and sent to Ken Goward at theaddress opposite.

Guidelines for submitting articles and letters to theNewsletter were included in a previous issue (No. 7, June2005) and are available from the Society’s Web Site.

Articles, letters and Newsletter inquiries should be sentto Clive Davenhall. For electronic contributions theemail address is [email protected]. For papercontributions see the box opposite.

The deadline for the next edition of the Newsletter isFriday 12th May 2007.

Council and Officers

Hon President:Dr Allan Chapman

Hon Vice Presidents:Dr Michael HoskinSir Patrick Moore CBE FRS

Chairman:Gilbert Satterthwaite FRAS([email protected])

Secretary:Stuart Williams FRAS26 Matlock Road, Bloxwich, Walsall, WS3 3QD([email protected])

Treasurer:Kenneth J. Goward, FRAS,14 Keightley Way, Tuddenham St Martin,Ipswich, Suffolk, IP6 9BJ([email protected])

Council MembersWilliam Barton ([email protected])

Madeline Cox ([email protected])

Jerry Grover ([email protected])

Peter Hingley ([email protected])

Mark Hurn ([email protected])

Roger Jones ([email protected])

Kevin Kilburn ([email protected])

Martin Lunn MBE ([email protected])

Dr Reginald Withey ([email protected])

Editor, The Antiquarian AstronomerDr W R WitheyEditor, The Antiquarian Astronomer16 Lennox Close, Gosport PO12 2UJ ([email protected])

Assistant Editor, The Antiquarian AstronomerKevin Johnson ([email protected])

Newsletter correspondence to:Clive Davenhall,30, Millar Crescent,Morningside,Edinburgh, EH10 5HH([email protected])

LibrarianMadeline Cox ([email protected])

ArchivistMark Hurn ([email protected])

Web Site ManagerDavid Henderson ([email protected])

General communications to the Society should bedirected to the Secretary in the first instance.

SHA Website:http://www.shastro.org.uk

Guidelines for submittingarticles and letters to theNewsletter

New members

Subscription reminder

through a glass, darkly issue 13 – february 2007 · clive then edits the material and decides...

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