Minding the Heavens: The Story of Our Discovery of the Milky Way

✍ Scribed by Leila Belkora

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2021
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 275
• Edition: 2
• Category: Library

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Contents
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
Viewing the Galaxy from Within
The Milky Way
Early Theories of the Universe
The Theory of Island Universes
The Andromeda Nebula
Ongoing Discovery
Notes
2. Thomas Wright: Visionary of Stellar Systems
Background: The Age of Newton, Halley and Cassini
Explorations
Early London Years: Astro-Theological Musings
Man of Many Talents
Astronomy and Astro-Theology
Kant Reads Wright
Second Thoughts
Notes
3. William Herschel: Natural Historian of the Universe
A Career in Music
Caroline
From Amateur to Professional
The Construction of the Heavens
The 40-Foot Telescope
The Evolution of Nebulae
Laplace's Nebular Hypothesis
Infrared Radiation and Binary Stars
The Unfathomed Milky Way
Notes
4. Wilhelm Struve: Seeker of Parallax
A Classical Education
Bessel's Influence
Geodesy, Double Stars and the Search for Parallax
Dorpat's Great Refractor
Professional Contacts Support Struve in a Crisis
Bessel's Heliometer
Crises and New Directions for Struve
Parallax
The Etudes
Final Years
Notes
5. William Huggins: Pioneer of the New Astronomy
An Informal Education
Attraction to Astronomy
The Beginnings of Spectroscopy
Collaboration with Miller
Spectra of the Nebulae
The Motions of the Stars
The 15-Inch Telescope
Margaret
Competition
Later Years
Notes
6. Jacobus Kapteyn: Mastermind without a Telescope
A Start in Leiden
An Inauspicious Start at Groningen
Sky Surveys
Stellar Distances and Motions
Star Streaming and the Plan of Selected Areas
Mount Wilson and the Problem of Interstellar Absorption
Hertzsprung
New Ways to Estimate Distances
Searching for a Synthesis
World War I
Later Years: The Kapteyn Universe
Notes
7. Harlow Shapley: Champion of the Big Galaxy
A Missouri Childhood
Undergraduate Years in Missouri
Eclipsing Binaries at Princeton
Arrival at Mount Wilson
Globular Cluster Distances
The "Big Galaxy" Hypothesis
Elucidating the Sidereal Structure
"Formicid" and Other Adventures
Shapley Marshals His Arguments
Heber Curtis
The Great Debate
Shapley to Harvard
Lingering Questions from the Great Debate
The Magellanic Clouds and Other Metagalactic Subjects
World War II and Its Aftermath
An Unpopular Internationalist Stance
Later Years
Notes
8. Edwin Hubble: Redeemer of Island Universes
Early Interest in Astronomy
A Reluctant Student of Law
Graduate Study in Astronomy
Military Service and a Stay in Cambridge
Early Mount Wilson Years
Classifying the Nebulae
Jeans's Nebular Theory
Breakthrough
A Return to Classification
The Milky Way and the Andromeda Nebula: Cosmic Twins
Hubble's Expanding Universe
Lemaître and a Renewal of Interest in Cosmology
Einstein's Visit in 1931
The Distribution of the Nebulae
Second World War
New Telescopes
Notes
9. The Milky Way Revealed
The Quest for Dark Matter
The Disk
The Bulge
The Galactic Center
Journey to the Heart of the Galaxy
Gaia and Future Surveys
The Local Group, the Milky Way's Neighborhood
Conclusion
Notes
References
Index