> Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2008 23:44:57 -0700> To: sf-bay-tac@No-Spam> From: irc472@No-Spam> Subject: [TAC] Looking for a Book Recommendation on History/Science of Constellations> > Hello all,> > A couple of months ago I found _The Constellations: An Enthusiast's Guide > to the Night Sky_ by Lloyd Motz and Carol Nathanson (Doubleday 1988) at the > local library. It's basically a cultural and scientific history of > astronomy broken down by constellations. It covers the stories and > symbolism of each constellation in various cultures and also highlights > major scientific discoveries associated with various stars. I've really > enjoyed it and am wondering whether anyone can recommend a more current > astronomy book that covers the science and culture associated with the > constellations.> > (And if anyone else would enjoy knowing things like Gamma Draconis being > responsible for the discovery of the aberration of light in 1725, this > would be a good book for you.)> > Thanks in advance,> > -- Iain Cunningham> > -- > TAC mailing list - join or leave here: http://seds.org/mailman/listinfo/sf-bay-tac
There are two well known well known book authors, who have written a number of
articles in scholarly journlals as well:
Anthony F. Aveni: Stairways to the Stars: Skywatching in Three Great American
Cultures (Wiley 1997)
--Ancient Astronomies (St. Remy Press and the Smithsonian Institution 1993)
E.C. Krupp: Echoes and the Ancient Skies: The Astronomies of Lost Civilizations
(Harper and Row 1983)
--Beyond the Blue Horizon: Myths and Legends of the Sun, Moon, Stars and Planets
(Oxford University Press 1991)
And Burnham's Celestial Handbook by Robert Burnham Jr. is very informative;it has been reprinted by Dover in three volumes.
There are two relatively accessible articles which may be of interest:
Owen Gingerich:"The origin of the Zodiac" in Sky and Telescope vol. 67 218-20 (1984)
reprinted as Chapt. 2 in The Great Copernicus Chase and Other Adventures in
Astronomical History (Sky Publishing Corporation and the Cambridge University Press
(1992)
Bradley E. Schaefer: "The origin of the Greek constellations" Scientific American Nov.,
2006 96-101
--Craig Harrison--
TAC mailing list - join or leave here: http://seds.org/mailman/listinfo/sf-bay-tac
Received on Fri Jul 4 15:40:29 2008
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