Originally published in 1945, this book was principally intended as a science book for schools to aid and assist classroom study and to provide practical exercises to follow up and consolidate theory. Topics are covered through multivariate analyses and range from 'Constellations' to 'Time' to 'The law of gravitation', whilst relevant parts of the theory of light are also discussed, enabling the principles of the telescope, spectroscope and atmospheric refraction to be fully understood. Notably, questions for self-study are also included as well as multiple diagrams and photographs. Written from a historical, mathematical and experimental standpoint, this book provides an introductory treatment of astronomy and will be of great value to researchers and scholars in the field and to anyone with an interest in the history of education.

This proceedings volume focuses on new methods of image and signal analysis in a wide range of energies (from radio to gamma ray astronomy) and advanced methodologies regarding problems and solutions in information fusion and retrieval, statistical pattern recognition, vision and advances in computing technology.A special section is devoted to the BeppoSAX mission (Satellite per Astronomia X) launched on April 30 1996, inside a program of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and the Netherlands Agency for Aerospace Programs (NIVR).

This open access book explores commentaries on an influential text of pre-Copernican astronomy in Europe. It features essays that take a close look at key intellectuals and how they engaged with the main ideas of this qualitative introduction to geocentric cosmology. Johannes de Sacrobosco compiled his Tractatus de sphaera during the thirteenth century in the frame of his teaching activities at the then recently founded University of Paris. It soon became a mandatory text all over Europe. As a result, a tradition of commentaries to the text was soon established and flourished until the second half of the 17th century. Here, readers will find an informative overview of these commentaries complete with a rich context. The essays explore the educational and social backgrounds of the writers. They also detail how their careers developed after the publication of their commentaries, the institutions and patrons they were affiliated with, what their agenda was, and whether and how they actually accomplished it. The editor of this collection considers these scientific commentaries as genuine scientific works. The contributors investigate them here not only in reference to the work on which it comments but also, and especially, as independent scientific contributions that are socially, institutionally, and intellectually contextualized around their authors.

These Transactions provide a record of the formal organisational and administrative proceedings of the IAU XXVIII General Assembly which took place in Beijing, China, in August 2012. They include the admission of new members, the Resolutions passed, and an account of the regular Business Meetings of the Executive Committee and the Divisions, Commissions and Working Groups. Of particular note, a new divisional structure for the IAU was approved and a new Division on 'Education, Outreach and Heritage' created. Also included in this volume is the welcome address given by Xi Jinping, then Vice-President and now President of the People's Republic of China. Over 3200 registered attendees enjoyed a rich scientific programme of 8 Symposia, 7 Joint Discussions and 18 Special Sessions. Proceedings of the IAU Symposia are published in a separate series, and those of the Invited Discourses, Joint Discussions and Special Sessions feature in Highlights of Astronomy, Volume 16.

The work in this thesis was a part of the experiment of squeezed light injection into the LIGO interferometer. The work first discusses the detailed design of the squeezed light source which would be used for the experiment. The specific design is the doubly-resonant, traveling-wave bow-tie cavity squeezed light source with a new modified coherent sideband locking technique. The thesis describes the properties affecting the squeezing magnitudes and offers solutions which improve the gain. The first part also includes the detailed modeling of the back-scattering noise of a traveling Optical Parametric Oscillator (OPO). In the second part, the thesis discusses the LIGO Squeezed Light Injection Experiment, undertaken to test squeezed light injection into a 4km interferometric gravitational wave detector. The results show the first ever measurement of squeezing enhancement in a full-scale suspended gravitational wave interferometer with Fabry-Perot arms. Further, it showed that the presence of a squeezed-light source added no additional noise in the low frequency band. The result was the best sensitivity achieved by any gravitational wave detector. The thesis is very well organized with the adequate theoretical background including basics of Quantum Optics, Quantum noise pertaining to gravitational wave detectors in various configurations, along with extensive referencing necessary for the experimental set-up. For any non-experimental scientist, this introduction is a very useful and enjoyable reading. The author is the winner of the 2013 GWIC Theses Prize.

The French mathematician and historian of science Paul Tannery (1843-1904) worked as an administrator in the state tobacco industry while researching and publishing on a wide variety of topics, including editions of Fermat and Descartes as well as of the Greek mathematician Diophantus of Alexandria. This 1893 work reviews the history of ancient Greek astronomy, beginning with a survey of what the Greeks actually meant by the use of the terms 'astronomy' and 'astrology', and going on to consider the work of Pythagoras and the other pre-Socratics, Aristotle and the Alexandrian mathematicians. At its core is a detailed analysis of Claudius Ptolemy's Almagest, which attempts to trace each of the Greek master's theories - on the sphericity and circumference of the earth, on the sun, moon and planets, and on the prediction of eclipses - back to its historical origins in Greek mathematical and philosophical thought.

Covering both astronomical and geophysical perspectives, this book describes changes in the Earth's orientation, specifically precession and nutation, and how they are observed and computed in terms of tidal forcing and models of the Earth's interior. Following an introduction to key concepts and elementary geodetic theory, the book describes how precise measurements of the Earth's orientation are made using observations of extra-galactic radio-sources by Very Long Baseline Interferometry techniques. It demonstrates how models are used to accurately pinpoint the location and orientation of the Earth with reference to the stars, and how to determine variations in its rotation speed. A theoretical framework is also presented that describes the role played by the structure and properties of the Earth's deep interior. Incorporating suggestions for future developments in nutation theory for the next generation models, this book is ideal for advanced-level students and researchers in solid Earth geophysics, planetary science and astronomy.

Self-contained and comprehensive, this definitive new edition of Gravity and Strings is a unique resource for graduate students and researchers in theoretical physics. From basic differential geometry through to the construction and study of black-hole and black-brane solutions in quantum gravity - via all the intermediate stages - this book provides a complete overview of the intersection of gravity, supergravity, and superstrings. Now fully revised, this second edition covers an extensive array of topics, including new material on non-linear electric-magnetic duality, the electric-tensor formalism, matter-coupled supergravity, supersymmetric solutions, the geometries of scalar manifolds appearing in 4- and 5-dimensional supergravities, and much more. Covering reviews of important solutions and numerous solution-generating techniques, and accompanied by an exhaustive index and bibliography, this is an exceptional reference work.

Highlights of Astronomy, Volume 16, summarizes the proceedings of the IAU XXVIII General Assembly held in Beijing, 20-31 August 2012, which brought together more than 2700 astronomers from 75 member countries. The wide range of topics cover the latest developments in almost every area of modern astronomy, including star formation, galaxies, the accelerating cosmos and dark energy, massive stars, high-energy emission in AGN, space-time reference systems, intergalactic magnetic fields, star-planet relations, the interstellar medium, data intensive astronomy, future large scale facilities, and Chinese astronomy. This volume features the Special Sessions, Joint Discussions and Invited Discussions that provide extended reviews of topics, as well as more focused, shorter chapters that reflect the activity of the world community in each field. Taken together with the eight IAU Symposia Proceedings (IAU S288-296), this volume presents the vast panorama of astronomical research at the time of the IAU triennial General Assembly.

The essays in this book look at way in which the fundaments of physics might need to be changed in order to make progress towards a unified theory. They are based on the prize-winning essays submitted to the FQXi essay competition “Which of Our Basic Physical Assumptions Are Wrong?�, which drew over 270 entries. As Nobel Laureate physicist Philip W. Anderson realized, the key to understanding nature’s reality is not anything “magical�, but the right attitude, “the focus on asking the right questions, the willingness to try (and to discard) unconventional answers, the sensitive ear for phoniness, self-deception, bombast, and conventional but unproven assumptions.� The authors of the eighteen prize-winning essays have, where necessary, adapted their essays for the present volume so as to (a) incorporate the community feedback generated in the online discussion of the essays, (b) add new material that has come to light since their completion and (c) to ensure accessibility to a broad audience of readers with a basic grounding in physics. The Foundational Questions Institute, FQXi, catalyzes, supports, and disseminates research on questions at the foundations of physics and cosmology, particularly new frontiers and innovative ideas integral to a deep understanding of reality, but unlikely to be supported by conventional funding sources.

This prize-winning thesis deals with the observation and modeling of the spectral evolution of blazars. Based on single-dish light curves, a model of shock-shock interaction is tested and confirmed using multi-frequency high resolution Very Long Baseline Observations. He presents state-of-the art numerical relativistic hydrodynamic simulations and the corresponding non-thermal emission is calculated (eRHD simulations). The author further presents new analysis techniques for VLBI observations that can be applied to numerous sources and provide reliable results including an error estimate using Monte Carlo simulations. He also develops an analytical shock model that can be applied quickly to other single dish observations. He shows how novel techniques of extraction of physical parameters from observations can be applied to other astrophysical sources and provide a link to a better understanding of the physical mechanism operating in blazar jets.

"IAU Transactions" are published as a volume corresponding to each General Assembly. Volume A is produced prior to the Assembly and contains reports on astronomy, prepared by each Commission President. The intention of the publications is to summarize the astronomical results that have affected the work of the Commission since the production of the previous reports up to a time which is about one year prior to the General Assembly. Volume B is produced after the Assembly and contains accounts of Commission Meetings which were held, together with other material. The reports included in the present volume range from outline summaries to lengthy compilations and references.

Born in rural Wales, to which he always felt a close connection, Joseph Harris (c.1704-64) moved to London in 1724, presenting the Astronomer Royal, Edmond Halley, with a testimonial of his mathematical ability. Harris then found work as an astronomer and teaching of navigation; his observations of magnetism and solar eclipses taken in Vera Cruz in 1726 and 1727 were relayed to the Royal Society by Halley. Harris' illustrated introduction to the solar system was originally printed for the instrument-maker Thomas Wright and the globe-maker Richard Cushee; it is here reissued in its 1731 first edition. Clearly describing the use of astronomical apparatus such as globes and orreries, it proved very popular, going through fourteen printings by 1793. Harris starts with an overview of the solar system and the fixed stars, and then shows how to solve astronomical problems using globes and orreries.

An Anglican clergyman and fellow of the Royal Society, John Harris (c.1666-1719) was an important promulgator of Newtonian science, through private teaching, public lectures and published writing. His Lexicon Technicum (1704) may be considered the first encyclopaedia in English. In the present work, published in 1719, Harris presents for his well-to-do readership a series of didactic conservations between a gentleman of science and an aristocratic lady. He aims to induce 'persons of birth and fortune' to dedicate some of their 'happy leisure ... to the improvement of their minds', and uses quotes from poets such as Samuel Butler and John Dryden to help elucidate scientific concepts. In particular, Harris explains the use of contemporary scientific apparatus (and expensive status symbols) such as terrestrial and celestial globes. The book ends with a description of the ultimate contemporary symbol of scientific refinement: the orrery, a working model of the solar system.

The novel understanding of the physical world that characterized the Scientific Revolution depended on a fundamental shift in the way its protagonists understood and described space. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, spatial phenomena were described in relation to a presupposed central point; by its end, space had become a centerless void in which phenomena could only be described by reference to arbitrary orientations. David Marshall Miller examines both the historical and philosophical aspects of this far-reaching development, including the rejection of the idea of heavenly spheres, the advent of rectilinear inertia, and the theoretical contributions of Copernicus, Gilbert, Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, and Newton. His rich study shows clearly how the centered Aristotelian cosmos became the oriented Newtonian universe, and will be of great interest to students and scholars of the history and philosophy of science.

The non-Gaussianity in the primordial density fluctuations is a key feature to clarify the early Universe and it has been probed with the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) bispectrum. In recent years, we have treated the novel-type CMB bispectra, which originate from the vector- and tensor-mode perturbations and include the violation of the rotational or parity invariance. On the basis of our current works, this thesis provides the general formalism for the CMB bispectrum sourced by the non-Gaussianity in the scalar, vector and tensor-mode perturbations. Applying this formalism, we calculate the CMB bispectra from the two scalars and a graviton correlation and primordial magnetic fields, and then outline new constraints on these magnitudes. Furthermore, this formalism can be easily extended to the cases where the rotational or parity invariance is broken. We also compute the CMB bispectra from the scalar-mode non-Gaussianities with a preferred direction and the tensor-mode non-Gaussianities induced by the parity-violating Weyl cubic terms. Here, we show that these bispectra include unique signals, which any symmetry-invariant models can never produce.

First published in 1911 as the second edition of a 1900 original, this book provides a basic introduction to astronomy written by the former Astronomer Royal of Ireland. The text is illustrated with photographs, diagrams and drawings of astronomical phenomena, including certain comets and the constellations visible from the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in the history of education and the teaching of astronomy.

Even while professionally engaged in banking, Sir John William Lubbock (1803-65) applied his formidable mind to scientific questions. Several of his early writings on astronomy - his particular sphere of interest - are gathered together in this reissue, notably On the Determination of the Distance of a Comet from the Earth, and the Elements of its Orbit (1832), On the Theory of the Moon and on the Perturbations of the Planets (1833), and An Elementary Treatise on the Computation of Eclipses and Occultations (1835). Lubbock received a Royal Society medal for tidal research in 1834, and herein is his Elementary Treatise on the Tides (1839). Also included is Lubbock's On the Heat of Vapours and on Astronomical Refractions (1840), in which he relates celestial observations to Gay-Lussac's gas expansion law. The collection closes with On the Discovery of the Planet Neptune (1861), Lubbock's lecture discussing how John Couch Adams first predicted the planet's existence.

This book on astronomical measurement takes a fresh approach to teaching the subject. After discussing some general principles, it follows the chain of measurement through atmosphere, imaging, detection, spectroscopy, timing, and hypothesis testing. The various wavelength regimes are covered in each section, emphasising what is the same, and what is different. The author concentrates on the physics of detection and the principles of measurement, aiming to make this logically coherent. The book is based on a short self contained lecture course for advanced undergraduate students developed and taught by the author over several years.

First published in 1857, this work comprises assorted noteworthy writings by the mathematician and astronomer Sir John Herschel (1792 1871), reflecting his diverse scientific and literary interests. It includes a piece on terrestrial magnetism, a review of William Whewell's writings on the history and philosophy of science, and several addresses to the Royal Astronomical Society. Of particular interest is Herschel's commentary on Adolphe Quetelet's work on probability, which advocated applying statistics and probability calculus to social and political questions. Herschel's article not only influenced the growth of social science in Britain, but also played an important role in James Clerk Maxwell's development of a statistical treatment of heat phenomena. Also included in this collection are Herschel's translations of poems by Schiller (accompanied by the original German) as well as examples of his own verse. In an intriguing appendix, Herschel outlines a method for compiling vocabularies of indigenous peoples."

This volume shows how collective magnetic excitations determine most of the magnetic properties of itinerant electron magnets. Previous theories were mainly restricted to the Curie-Weiss law temperature dependence of magnetic susceptibilities. Based on the spin amplitude conservation idea including the zero-point fluctuation amplitude, this book shows that the entire temperature and magnetic field dependence of magnetization curves, even in the ground state, is determined by the effect of spin fluctuations. It also shows that the theoretical consequences are largely in agreement with many experimental observations. The readers will therefore gain a new comprehensive perspective of their unified understanding of itinerant electron magnetism.

In this PhD thesis, which was nominated for publication in this series by the Astronomical Institute at Charles University, Prague, the author investigates the orbital evolution of an initially thin stellar disc around a supermassive black hole, considering various perturbative sources of gravity. His findings, obtained by both direct numerical N-body modelling and using standard perturbation methods, offer a viable theoretical explanation for the observed configuration of young stars in the Galactic Centre. This marks a significant contribution to a topic of great interest in contemporary astrophysics. The author also shows in his thesis that a secular instability (m = 1 mode) may occur in the embedding spherical cluster of old stars. This increases the richness of possible evolution scenarios of the embedding cluster and may lead to effective feeding of supermassive black holes through tidal disruption of stars on extremely eccentric orbits.

With the onset of massive cosmological data collection through media such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), galaxy classification has been accomplished for the most part with the help of citizen science communities like Galaxy Zoo. Seeking the wisdom of the crowd for such Big Data processing has proved extremely beneficial. However, an analysis of one of the Galaxy Zoo morphological classification data sets has shown that a significant majority of all classified galaxies are labelled as “Uncertain�. This book reports on how to use data mining, more specifically clustering, to identify galaxies that the public has shown some degree of uncertainty for as to whether they belong to one morphology type or another. The book shows the importance of transitions between different data mining techniques in an insightful workflow. It demonstrates that Clustering enables to identify discriminating features in the analysed data sets, adopting a novel feature selection algorithms called Incremental Feature Selection (IFS). The book shows the use of state-of-the-art classification techniques, Random Forests and Support Vector Machines to validate the acquired results. It is concluded that a vast majority of these galaxies are, in fact, of spiral morphology with a small subset potentially consisting of stars, elliptical galaxies or galaxies of other morphological variants.

The book provides the most recent advances of Celestial Mechanics, as provided by high-level scientists working in this field. It covers theoretical investigations as well as applications to concrete problems. Outstanding review papers are included in the book and they introduce the reader to leading subjects, like the variational approaches to find periodic orbits and the space debris polluting the circumterrestrial space.

If the discovery of life elsewhere in the universe is just around the corner, what would be the consequences for religion? Would it represent another major conflict between science and religion, even leading to the death of faith? Some would suggest that the discovery of any suggestion of extraterrestrial life would have a greater impact than even the Copernican and Darwinian revolutions. It is now over 50 years since the first modern scientific papers were published on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). Yet the religious implications of this search and possible discovery have never been systematically addressed in the scientific or theological arena. SETI is now entering its most important era of scientific development. New observation techniques are leading to the discovery of extra-solar planets daily, and the Kepler mission has already collected over 1000 planetary candidates. This deluge of data is transforming the scientific and popular view of the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence. Earth-like planets outside of our solar system can now be identified and searched for signs of life. Now is a crucial time to assess the scientific and theological questions behind this search. This book sets out the scientific arguments undergirding SETI, with particular attention to the uncertainties in arguments and the strength of the data already assembled. It assesses not only the discovery of planets but other areas such as the Fermi paradox, the origin and evolution of intelligent life, and current SETI strategies. In all of this it reflects on how these questions are shaped by history and pop culture and their relationship with religion, especially Christian theology. It is argued that theologians need to take seriously SETI and to examine some central doctrines such as creation, incarnation, revelation, and salvation in the light of the possibility of extraterrestrial life.