Other editions of book Short History of Astronomy

Berry has written a truly excellent one-volume history of astronomy, and it was apparently a standard text for nearly fifty years after it first appeared in 1898. Berry is a good writer, neither too serious nor too frivolous, and with a pleasantly dry sense of humour; he evidently knows his subject very well. His presentation is impressively balanced: he devotes appropriate amounts of space to all periods of astronomical history up to his time (the Greeks, the Arabs, the Renaissance, the Newtonian period, the 19th century), and he favours neither observational nor theoretical aspects of astronomy but gives equal weight to both. He gives an excellent semi-technical summary of Ptolemaic astronomy and describes how it was further improved by the Arabs, and then by Copernicus; the continuity with Copernicus's work is particularly well done. He then explains how Kepler, thanks to Tycho Brahe's painstaking observations, was finally able to create something that was essentially different from Ptolemy's system; in general, one of the most appealing aspects of the book is the way in which it highlights the interplay between theory and practice. His chapter on Herschel was interesting. He also has a good chapter on the eighteenth century gravitational theorists - Clairaut, D'Alembert, Lagrange and Laplace - who achieved the remarkable feat of taking over Newton's work and converting a piece of English science into something that for over a century was quintessentially French. Berry's thought-provoking explanation is that the English mathematicians tried to follow the lines of the Principia too closely, and imitate Newton's geometrical style of proof; but this was something that only a genius of Newton's calibre could handle, and they got nowhere. The French, more pragmatically, developed the calculus, which turned out to be a far better direction in which to explore.He supports Lord Kelvin's theory that the Sun's energy comes from gravitational contraction, ignoring the fact that this gives an age for the Solar System that is at least an order of magnitude less than the age of the Earth, as determined from geological records. Although he mentions Michelson's accurate determination of the speed of light, there is not a word about the Michelson-Morley experiment (1887), which was just about to result in the Special Theory of Relativity. But the most striking passage of all was this one, concerning Bradley's explanation of the phenomenon of the aberration of light in terms of Newton's "corpuscular theory".Seven years later, Einstein would launch his idea of the "light-quantum", which would soon become the photon; and thus the corpuscular theory would live again. But Berry, evidently a very intelligent and knowledgeable person, has no inkling of this. One cannot help wondering: what vital clues are lying right under our noses, patiently waiting for us to discover them?Overall, an excellent book on astronomy for subject lovers.

Berry has written a truly excellent one-volume history of astronomy, and it was apparently a standard text for nearly fifty years after it first appeared in 1898. Berry is a good writer, neither too serious nor too frivolous, and with a pleasantly dry sense of humour; he evidently knows his subject very well. His presentation is impressively balanced: he devotes appropriate amounts of space to all periods of astronomical history up to his time (the Greeks, the Arabs, the Renaissance, the Newtonian period, the 19th century), and he favours neither observational nor theoretical aspects of astronomy but gives equal weight to both. He gives an excellent semi-technical summary of Ptolemaic astronomy and describes how it was further improved by the Arabs, and then by Copernicus; the continuity with Copernicus's work is particularly well done. He then explains how Kepler, thanks to Tycho Brahe's painstaking observations, was finally able to create something that was essentially different from Ptolemy's system; in general, one of the most appealing aspects of the book is the way in which it highlights the interplay between theory and practice. His chapter on Herschel was interesting. He also has a good chapter on the eighteenth century gravitational theorists - Clairaut, D'Alembert, Lagrange and Laplace - who achieved the remarkable feat of taking over Newton's work and converting a piece of English science into something that for over a century was quintessentially French. Berry's thought-provoking explanation is that the English mathematicians tried to follow the lines of the Principia too closely, and imitate Newton's geometrical style of proof; but this was something that only a genius of Newton's calibre could handle, and they got nowhere. The French, more pragmatically, developed the calculus, which turned out to be a far better direction in which to explore.He supports Lord Kelvin's theory that the Sun's energy comes from gravitational contraction, ignoring the fact that this gives an age for the Solar System that is at least an order of magnitude less than the age of the Earth, as determined from geological records. Although he mentions Michelson's accurate determination of the speed of light, there is not a word about the Michelson-Morley experiment (1887), which was just about to result in the Special Theory of Relativity. But the most striking passage of all was this one, concerning Bradley's explanation of the phenomenon of the aberration of light in terms of Newton's "corpuscular theory".Seven years later, Einstein would launch his idea of the "light-quantum", which would soon become the photon; and thus the corpuscular theory would live again. But Berry, evidently a very intelligent and knowledgeable person, has no inkling of this. One cannot help wondering: what vital clues are lying right under our noses, patiently waiting for us to discover them?Overall, an excellent book on astronomy for subject lovers.

I have tried to give in this book an outline of the history of astronomy from the earliest historical times to the present day, and to present it in a form which shall be intelligible to a reader who has no special knowledge of either astronomy or mathematics, and has only an ordinary educated person’s power of following scientific reasoning. In order to accomplish my object within the limits of one small volume it has been necessary to pay the strictest attention to compression; this has been effected to some extent by the omission of all but the scantiest treatment of several branches of the subject which would figure prominently in a book written on a different plan or on a different scale. I have deliberately abstained from giving any connected account of the astronomy of the Egyptians, Chaldaeans, Chinese, and others to whom the early development of astronomy is usually attributed. On the one hand, it does not appear to me possible to form an independent opinion on the subject without a first-hand knowledge of the documents and inscriptions from which our information is derived; and on the other, the various Oriental scholars who have this knowledge still differ so widely from one another in the interpretations that they give that it appears premature to embody their results in the dogmatic form of a textbook. It has also seemed advisable to lighten the book by omitting—except in a very few simple and important cases—all accounts of astronomical instruments; I do not remember ever to have derived any pleasure or profit from a written description of a scientific instrument before seeing the instrument itself, or one very similar to it, and I have abstained from attempting to give to my readers what I have never succeeded in obtaining myself. The aim of the book has also necessitated the omission of a number of important astronomical discoveries, which find their natural expression in the technical language of mathematics. I have on this account only been able to describe in the briefest and most general way the wonderful and beautiful superstructure which several generations of mathematicians have erected on the foundations laid by Newton. For the same reason I have been compelled occasionally to occupy a good deal of space in stating in ordinary English what might have been expressed much more briefly, as well as more clearly, by an algebraical formula: for the benefit of such mathematicians as may happen to read the book I have added a few mathematical footnotes; otherwise I have tried to abstain scrupulously from the use of any mathematics beyond simple arithmetic and a few technical terms which are explained in the text. A good deal of space has also been saved by the total omission of, or the briefest possible reference to, a very large number of astronomical facts which do not bear on any well-established general theory; and for similar reasons I have generally abstained from noticing speculative theories which have not yet been established or refuted. In particular, for these and for other reasons (stated more fully at the beginning of chapter XIII.), I have dealt in the briefest possible way with the immense mass of observations which modern astronomy has accumulated; it would, for example, have been easy to have filled one or more volumes with an account of observations of sun-spots made during the last half-century, and of theories based on them, but I have in fact only given a page or two to the subject.

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This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.