Holiday reading suggestion?

OG wrote:
Look out for "Astronomy and the Imagination" by Norman Davidson - a
superb read.

Hear, hear! In a similar vein (and with the slight advantage of being
in print) is Arthur Upgren's excellent "Night has a Thousand Eyes". Both
books are very readable.

If you are into archaeoastronomy, John North's "Stonehenge: A New
Interpretation of Prehistoric Man and the Cosmos" may well appeal. (A
good companion to this is Bernard Cornwell's novel "Stonehenge" --
Cornwell (of Sharpe fame) seems to have made extensive use of North's
work as a background to his novel.

Coincidentally, I have reviews of all three non-fiction books at:
http://tinyurl.com/p5ofh (Astronomy and the Imagination)
http://tinyurl.com/nrw4w (Night has a Thousand Eyes)
http://tinyurl.com/s6jan (Stonehenge: A New Interpretation of
Prehistoric Man and the Cosmos -- fairly brief)

Best,
Stephen

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JRS: In article , dated Tue, 23
May 2006 09:22:24 remote, seen in news:uk.sci.astronomy, AB
posted :
As we are possibly like-minded people here, does anybody have any
suggestions for some holiday reading this summer?


Approximate (?) details, from memory - "The Book that Nobody Read", by
Owen Gingerich, recently published, and possibly reviewed in "Physics
World".

It's about the copies of Copernicus' "De Revolutionibus"; it's about the
usual size for a book.

--
© John Stockton, Surrey, UK. Turnpike v4.00 MIME. ©
Web URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/ - FAQqish topics, acronyms & links;
Astro stuff via astron-1.htm, gravity0.htm ; quotings.htm, pascal.htm, etc.
No Encoding. Quotes before replies. Snip well. Write clearly. Don't Mail News.

Dr John Stockton wrote:
JRS: In article , dated Tue, 23
May 2006 09:22:24 remote, seen in news:uk.sci.astronomy, AB
posted :
As we are possibly like-minded people here, does anybody have any
suggestions for some holiday reading this summer?


Approximate (?) details, from memory - "The Book that Nobody Read", by
Owen Gingerich, recently published, and possibly reviewed in "Physics
World".

It's about the copies of Copernicus' "De Revolutionibus"; it's about the
usual size for a book.

--
© John Stockton, Surrey, UK. Turnpike v4.00 MIME. ©
Web URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/ - FAQqish topics, acronyms & links;
Astro stuff via astron-1.htm, gravity0.htm ; quotings.htm, pascal.htm, etc.
No Encoding. Quotes before replies. Snip well. Write clearly. Don't MailNews.

It is about how the myth grew that Copernican reasoning was
unpenetrable to all but a few while the annotations on the De
Revolutionibus books suggest otherwise.

The book has one of the few references to the second greatest
astronomical representation after the Copernican heliocentric
arrangement - Kepler's Panis Quadragesimalis seen on page 85 of the
following website -

http://mitpress.mit.edu/journals/pdf/POSC_13_1_74_0.pdf

It shows you how the motion of Mars was plotted against the stellar
background and orbitally compared to the motion of the Earth -

"Copernicus, by attributing a single annual motion to the earth,
entirely rids the planets of these extremely intricate coils [spiris],
leading the individual planets into their respective orbits
[orbitas],quite bare and very nearly circular. In the period of time
shown in the diagram, Mars traverses one and the same orbit as many
times as the 'garlands' [corollas] you see looped towards the
centre, with one extra, making nine times, while at the same time the
Earth repeats its circle sixteen times "


Astronomia Nova 1609


These things are now lost to history,Stockton here adheres to the
Newtonian mutations based on what planetary motion looks like from the
Sun like a vandalised version of the exquisite Keplerian reasoning
where dwells the great minds.

Go ahead and look at the Panis Quadrgesimalis and then look at the
conclusions which contemporary imaging makes it dynamic so easy to
appreceate -

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ima...2000_tezel.gif


God forbid you ever feel the loss of an entire astronomical tradition
to mathematicians who make themselves bigger than the material.

On 23/5/06 09:22, in article , "AB"
wrote:

As we are possibly like-minded people here, does anybody have any
suggestions for some holiday reading this summer?

Any astro-related recommendations would be welcome although as I am a
relative beginner nothing too heavy please. Bear in mind i will not have
access to my scope and most likely I will be reading it when its light (and
hopefully sunny) so nothing that requires me to do any observing as I read.

Thanks




Brian Greene - either The Elegant Universe of The Fabric of the Cosmos -
captivating reading. Can be a bit hairy at times but he is quite good at
telling you when to skip bits) - and provides synopsis of the relevant bits.

--

A

I only see in infrared...

Adam Rykala wrote:
On 23/5/06 09:22, in article , "AB"
wrote:

As we are possibly like-minded people here, does anybody have any
suggestions for some holiday reading this summer?

Any astro-related recommendations would be welcome although as I am a
relative beginner nothing too heavy please. Bear in mind i will not have
access to my scope and most likely I will be reading it when its light (and
hopefully sunny) so nothing that requires me to do any observing as I read.

Thanks




Brian Greene - either The Elegant Universe of The Fabric of the Cosmos -
captivating reading. Can be a bit hairy at times but he is quite good at
telling you when to skip bits) - and provides synopsis of the relevant bits.

--

A

I only see in infrared...

I most certainly recommend it,it has all the razzle dazzle of the late
20th century but as people have actually come home to discover our
planet again,it amounts to highlighting just how indulgent and out of
control mathematicians became.


Q: When you talk about quantum entanglement and teleportation, people
might think immediately of the realm of "Star Trek."
Greene: Sure. The most amazing element of "Star Trek" is the
transporter, I think: the ability to "beam" a person or an object
from one place to another. Certainly we cannot do that today. But using
quantum entanglement, researchers have successfully beamed, if you
will, a particle from one place to another. Now, doing that for a
particle is a far cry from doing it for a human being. But it is the
first baby step in that direction. That is very exciting.



Try De Revolutionibus -

http://webexhibits.org/calendars/yea...opernicus.html

On 26/5/06 19:55, in article
, "oriel36"
wrote:

SNIPPED

So, do you have anything constructive to add, or just using your usual
tactic of excessive verbiage to hide a thoroughly lacking understanding of
astronomy, or science in general?

Some of us have actually got past the 16th century. I am well versed in
Kepler, and Copernicus. I've just done a year long project on GR orbital
motion...

--

A

I only see in infrared...

Adam Rykala wrote:
On 26/5/06 19:55, in article
, "oriel36"
wrote:

SNIPPED

So, do you have anything constructive to add, or just using your usual
tactic of excessive verbiage to hide a thoroughly lacking understanding of
astronomy, or science in general?

Some of us have actually got past the 16th century. I am well versed in
Kepler, and Copernicus. I've just done a year long project on GR orbital
motion...

--

A

I only see in infrared...

You never got past the 16th century if you follow Newton's mutation of
Copernican heliocentricity -

"For to the earth planetary motions appear sometimes direct, sometimes
stationary, nay, and sometimes retrograde. But from the sun they are
always seen direct,"

http://members.tripod.com/~gravitee/phaenomena.htm

Kepler is refering to the diagram on page 86,there is nothing in the
description of his working principles to support what Newton did,not
even the plotted motions.I have to take a chance that a real astronomer
will approach the Keplerian reasoning with the same care that Kepler
approached the Copernican insight .


http://mitpress.mit.edu/journals/pdf/POSC_13_1_74_0.pdf





"Copernicus, by attributing a single annual motion to the earth,
entirely rids the planets of these extremely intricate coils [spiris],
leading the individual planets into their respective orbits
[orbitas],quite bare and very nearly circular. In the period of time
shown in the diagram, Mars traverses one and the same orbit as many
times as the 'garlands' [corollas] you see looped towards the
centre, with one extra, making nine times, while at the same time the
Earth repeats its circle sixteen times "


Astronomia Nova 1609

Relativity is nothing other than exposing the Newtonian mutation for
what it always was and I have nothing to say for or against it other
than it is better to read the 1898 science fiction novel on which it is
based.

On 26/5/06 20:30, in article
, "oriel36"
wrote:

Yawn. Yet another kook with a fast track line to truth.

Kill filed


--

A

I only see in infrared...

Adam Rykala wrote:
On 26/5/06 20:30, in article
, "oriel36"
wrote:

Yawn. Yet another kook with a fast track line to truth.

Kill filed


--

A

I only see in infrared...

The elegant universe indeed !,how do you top that, perhaps
the-all-dancing-all-singing-universe-for-programmers-who-watched-too-many-star-trek-episodes.

No books,just the exuberance of the great astronomical cycles which
make existence possible but is is a lot more exciting to go outside and
exercise the skill of what is moving and what is not,scale of the
objects and distances.Then you can go back to the books and judge what
is correct and what is not.

"AB" wrote in message
...
As we are possibly like-minded people here, does anybody have any
suggestions for some holiday reading this summer?

Any astro-related recommendations would be welcome although as I am a
relative beginner nothing too heavy please. Bear in mind i will not have
access to my scope and most likely I will be reading it when its light
(and
hopefully sunny) so nothing that requires me to do any observing as I
read.

Thanks

"Rocket Boys" by Homer Hickham (fiction)

"Galileo's Daughter" by Dava Sobel (factual story, beautifully told)

--
Mike Dworetsky

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