Antique Astronomy - how far we've really come?

[Robert_T]

Hi all - Over the years I've picked up a few old books on astronomy and ATM. I find this stuff quite fascinating both from how far we've come in our understanding and in some ways how little we still know about the way the universe works. My pride and joy in this little collection is a beautiful big gold embossed copy of "Old and New Astronomy" by R. Proctor and published in 1892. It kicks off with theory about how the Great Pyramid in Giza was an astronomical observatory showing alignments of chambers to prominent stars such as Alpha Centauri in 3400 BC (pity the pyrdamid wasn't built till more than half a millenium later). Then there's those complex canal systems on mars suggestive of irrigation and intelligent life. There's even what is perhaps one of the very first ever long exposure deep sky photographs - a 4 hour :scared: exposure on the Great "Nebula" (they weren't really up on the whole "galaxy" thing yet) in Andromeda - taken in 1888 (see pic below). Anyway, I've attached a few pics below (hopefully Proctor won't sue for copyright since he died before the book was completed) to share something of this wonderful book.

Anyone else collect this sort of thing or have any thoughts on how far we've really come? - looking at the astronomy mags etc it may appear that we are breaking new ground on many fronts of astronomy and science, but I also sense that in the mainstream science is on a downhill slide...:confuse3:

cheers,

[xrekcor]

Wow! what a great item to have, I'm stunned by the 1888 image of M31, M32 & M110.
I guess it must be interesting to see how they interpreted the sky as they saw it. It
must like a timewarp reading it.

Thanks for sharing

[venus]

The book is in "Mint" condition too, interesting.

I have a "Ninth" edition Encyclopaedia Britannica and "Volume 2" has "Astronomy"
with this interesting drawing by Herschel of the nebula in the "Sword Handle of Orion" as seen by him through his 20ft reflector in 1824.


Herschel gives an interesting description of the nebula......
"I know not how to describe it better than by comparing it to a curdling liquid, or a surface strewed over with flocks of wool, or to the breaking up of a "mackerel" sky when the clouds of which it consists begin to assume a cirrous appearance. It is not very unlike the mottling of the sun's disk, only (if I may so express myself) the grain is much coarser, and the intervals darker; and the flocculi, instead of being generally round, are drawn into little wisps. They present, however, no appearance of being composed of small stars, and their aspect is altogether different from resolvable nebulae. In the latter we fancy that we see stars, or that could we strain our sight a little more, we should see them; but the former suggest no idea of stars, but rather of something quite distinct from them."

[slice of heaven]

Thats a very nice possession RobertT. Thanks for posting it.
There's an online library based in America that has pdf files of some of the older Astronomy books from the turn of the last century which make for some nice reading.
They definitely had a different view on the universe back then.

[jjjnettie]

Will you do us all a favour and bring it along to IISACQ? Some cotton gloves would help to keep it in mint condition.

[xrekcor]

That's an interesting sketch of M42, the positions of the major stars and trap seems
off, I wonder if this is the effect of procession.

jjjnettie, some how I think this is a book you would probably want keep in the library.
for fear of damage. I dont think it would be something you could easily replace.


regards,CS

[cometcatcher]

I must have rocks in my head because I turned down an offer for my grandfathers astronomy books, on the basis the old books give me allergy.

It's true, I'm an idiot, shoot me now.

[venus]

Old books are so much more interesting than new ones.........

[Robert_T]

Thanks all for your kind comments :).

Venus reminds me with that quotation from Herschel one of main things that appeals to me about these old texts - their prose, while in todays terms might be considered a bit "over the top", is so descriptive, evocative and, in some cases, just sheer poetic. Here's a thought (from the current debate in another thread), just as digital is heralding the death of film as way to capture the night sky, a hundred years ago perhaps it was film photography that heralded the death of detailed descriptive prose - take that photo of the great "nebula" in Andromeda; you throw that up on a page and all of a sudden you don't need to say much anymore...

cheers,

[xrekcor]

Robert,

Have you ever thought about scanning the pages onto a CD? it would be a great way
to view and store them without having to resort to using the book. Hell some of us
might even be prepare to buy copies.

regards,CS

[Robert_T]

Hi Rob,

Good idea. I might first try and find that american site slice of heaven mentioned where they already have some old astronomy stuff on *pdf ...wouldn't want to go to the trouble (might cause some binding damage too) of scanning if someone's already done it elsewhere - there's around 600 pages!!!:scared: :scared:

cheers,

[slice of heaven]

I tried a couple of sites looking for a pdf of your book Rob and came up empty. There was 2 of Proctors other more popular books available in pdf though.
Also found a copy of New and Old Astronomy for sale , reasonable condition, $350us.

[Robert_T]

thanks Slice - $350US wow! I picked my copy up around 15 years ago for a mere fraction of that; not that I think I'd part with it even for that sort of money now, but it's nice to know these things are valued highly...

cheers,

[fringe_dweller]

Wow thanks for sharing guys - beautiful! I suppose everybody is visiting printgoogle by now - I love it! http://print.google.com.au/

[slice of heaven]

No probs Rob, I wouldn't sell it either.

Nothing better than free books and info, hey Kearn. Gotta love the web for that.

Few links I had handy
http://www.digitalbookindex.com/_search/search010astronomya.asp

http://homepage.mac.com/kaotech/Free_Books.html

Gutenberg is another I like as well