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Alex Soojung-Kim Pang - Empire and the Sun - 9780804739252 - V9780804739252
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Empire and the Sun

€ 135.81
FREE Delivery in Ireland
Description for Empire and the Sun Hardback. Astronomy was a popular part of Victorian science, and British atronomers travelled to remote areas to watch the sun eclipsed by the moon. This book shows how the organization of science, advances in photography, and new printing technology remade the character of scientific observation. Series: Writing Science. Num Pages: 224 pages, 20 illustrations. BIC Classification: 1DBK; 3JH; HBJD1; HBLL; PDX; PGG; PGS. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational; (UP) Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly; (UU) Undergraduate. Dimension: 5817 x 3887 x 20. .

Astronomy was a popular and important part of Victorian science, and British astronomers carried telescopes and spectroscopes to remote areas of India, the Great Plains of North America, and islands in the Caribbean and Pacific to watch the sun eclipsed by the moon. Examining the rich interplay between science, culture, and British imperial society in the late nineteenth century, this book shows how the organization and conduct of scientific fieldwork was structured by contemporary politics and culture, and how rapid and profound changes in the organization of science, advances in photography, and new printing technology remade the character of scientific ... Read more

After introducing the field of Victorian science to the nonspecialist, the book examines the long periods of planning necessary for eclipse expeditions, and it recounts the day-to-day work of getting to field sites, setting up camp, and preparing for and observing eclipses. Operating behind the countless decisions made by scientists was a host of large-scale forces, including the professionalization and specialization of disciplines, the growth of service, and public funding for the sciences. Fieldwork also required close coordination with the many institutions and technological systems of British imperialism.

The development of imaging technologies was, of course, crucial to observations of the solar corona. Eclipse observation taxed astronomers and their cameras to their limits, and it raised new questions about the trustworthiness of imaging technologies. In the late nineteenth century, scientists shifted from drawing to photographing natural phenomena, but the shift occurred gradually, unevenly, and against resistance. Victorian astronomers had to weigh carefully the merits of human and mechanical observation, and the difficulties of solar photography highlight the inseparability of images from technologies of observation and printing.

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Product Details

Format
Hardback
Publication date
2002
Publisher
Stanford University Press United States
Number of pages
224
Condition
New
Series
Writing Science
Number of Pages
224
Place of Publication
Palo Alto, United States
ISBN
9780804739252
SKU
V9780804739252
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 15 to 20 working days
Ref
99-15

About Alex Soojung-Kim Pang
Alex Soojung-Kim Pang is a researcher at the Institute for the Future, a Silicon Valley think tank. He was previously deputy editor of the Encyclopaedia Britannica

Reviews for Empire and the Sun
"This wonderful book describes the interaction of scientists and the public in 19th century Britain by analyzing a series of expeditions sent all over the world to study total solar eclipses. Successfully bringing together a wide variety of topics in a new and interesting way, it will be of great interest to historians, philosophers of science, astronomers, and amateur astronomers."—Jay ... Read more

Goodreads reviews for Empire and the Sun


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