Agnes Mary Clerke and the rise of astrophysics [electronic resource] / M.T. Brück.

ISBN:

9780521808446

9780511044670

9780511019999

9780511536526

Title:

Agnes Mary Clerke and the rise of astrophysics [electronic resource] / M.T. Brück.

Author:

Brück, M. T. (Mary T.)

Personal Author:

Brück, M. T. (Mary T.)

Publication Information:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 275 pages) : illustrations, 1 map

Contents:

Cover; Half-title; Title; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1 Family background in County Cork; 2 Ireland and Italy; 3 London, the literary scene; 4 The History of Astronomy; 5 A circle of astronomers; 6 A visit to South Africa; 7 The System of the Stars; 8 Social life in scientific circles; 9 Homer, the Herschels and a revised History; 10 The opinion moulder; 11 Popularisation, cryogenics and evolution; 12 Problems in Astrophysics; 13 Women in astronomy in Britain in Agnes Clerke's time; 14 Revised System of the Stars.

Local Note:

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Personal Subject:

Clerke, Agnes M. (Agnes Mary), 1842-1907.

Subject Term:

Astronomers -- Ireland -- Biography.

Astronomy -- History -- 19th century.

Astronomers -- Ireland.

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

Click here to view

Publication Date:

2002

Publication Information:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2002.

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Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
520.92	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Born in Ireland in the mid-nineteenth century, Agnes Mary Clerke achieved fame as the author of A History of Astronomy during the nineteenth century. Through her quarter-century career, she became the leading commentator on astronomy and astrophysics in the English-speaking world. This biography describes not only the life and work of this extraordinary woman, but also chronicles the development of astronomy in the last decades of pre-Einstein science. Along the way, it introduces many of the great figures in astronomy of that age, including Huggins, Lockyer, Holden, and Pickering.

Author Notes

Mary Bruck gained her PhD in astronomy from the University of Edinburgh, where she went on to become a senior lecturer in astronomy. Her main research interest was in photographic stellar photometry and spectroscopy. Now retired, she has a special interest in nineteenth-century British and Irish women in astronomy, about whom she has written numerous articles. In 2001, Dr Bruck was awarded the Lorimer Medal of the Astronomical Society of Edinburgh

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

This first full-length biography of Clerke, a woman historian of astronomy of the last half of the 19th century, also details a significant period in the rise of modern astrophysics with the development of larger and better telescopes, the use of photography in the mapping of the skies, and the invention of the spectroheliograph. Working primarily from archival sources, Bruck has written a detailed, scholarly, and thorough account of both the life and the work of this relatively unknown Irish woman of science. Clerke did not work in a laboratory, but she knew and corresponded with many scientists who did, and the successive editions of her A Popular History of Astronomy (4th ed., 1908; reprinted 1977) were not only widely read but highly respected as a well-informed, comprehensive, and reliable source of the contemporary state of almost every aspect of astronomy. She wrote three other very successful books, was elected as an honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society (only three women had been admitted previously), and was an active member of the astronomical community. The careful documentation includes photographs of the astronomers and their work. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. M. H. Chaplin Wellesley College

Acknowledgements	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
1 Family background in County Cork	p. 3
2 Ireland and Italy	p. 16
3 London, the literary scene	p. 31
4 The History of Astronomy	p. 39
5 A circle of astronomers	p. 48
6 A visit to South Africa	p. 62
7 The System of the Stars	p. 79
8 Social life in scientific circles	p. 98
9 Homer, the Herschels and a revised History	p. 115
10 The opinion moulder	p. 131
11 Popularisation, cryogenics and evolution	p. 148
12 Problems in Astrophysics	p. 161
13 Women in astronomy in Britain in Agnes Clerke's time	p. 175
14 Revised System of the Stars	p. 189
15 Cosmogonies, cosmology and Nature's spiritual clues	p. 204
16 Last days and retrospect	p. 213
17 Epilogue	p. 229
Notes	p. 233
Appendix	p. 261
Bibliography	p. 269
Index	p. 271

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Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

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