The Universe Unveiled: Instruments and Images Through History - Hardcover

Stephenson, Bruce; Bolt, Marvin; Friedman, Anna Felicity

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 052179143X ISBN 13: 9780521791434

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2000

Synopsis

The Universe Unveiled documents the human desire through history to explore and understand our world. Taking a unique approach, it focuses on the instruments, books, and maps people have created to decipher the Universe from the late fifteenth through to the nineteenth century. Throughout, the book is richly illustrated with over 270 full-color images, including those of rare and unusual artifacts from all over the world kept in the world-renowned collection at the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum in Chicago. With clear and informative text, it covers our discovery of Space and Time, and our ever-expanding understanding of Earth and the Heavens, describing in particular the shift from an Earth-centered to a Sun-centered view of the Universe, and the mapping of the stars using telescopes. It also examines the technologies of navigation and of measuring and mapping the Earth, as well as the discovery of ways to keep time.

About this title

About the Authors

Bruce Stephenson is Curator and Director of the History of Astronomy Department at Chicago's Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum. He received his Ph.D. in History from the University of Chicago, where he holds a position of visiting scholar in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics. He is the author of Kepler's Physical Astronomy and of The Music of the Heavens: Kepler's Harmonic Astronomy, both published by Princeton University Press. He belongs to numerous professional organizations relating to the history of science, astronomy and scientific instrumentation. He is currently studying the metallurgical characteristics of astrolabes in a high-energy X-ray beam at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory.

Marvin Bolt is Associate Curator of the History of Astronomy Department at Chicago's Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum. He has a Ph.D. in Intellectual History and History & Philosophy of Science from the University of Notre Dame, where he concurrently holds the position of visiting scholar. In addition to working on the Adler's catalogue of optical instruments and publishing his dissertation on Sir John Herschel, he continues to research the social context of 19th century astronomy. He is a member of the History of Science Society and the William Herschel Society.

Anna Friedman is Assistant Curator of the History of Astronomy Department at Chicago's Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum. She has an M.A. in Art History, Theory, and Criticism, and a B.F.A. in Painting, from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has written Awestruck by the Majesty of the Heavens (Chicago: Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum, 1997) and is currently writing the Adler's catalogue of star charts.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 052179143X
• ISBN 13: 9780521791434
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 152