Ball Stawell

Edmond Halley,(1656–1742) was an English astronomer, geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist, and physicist who is best known for computing the orbit of the eponymous Halley's Comet. He was the second Astronomer Royal in Britain, following in the footsteps of John Flamsteed.Halley became a close friend of Isaac Newton. He encouraged Newton to publish his discoveries, his "Principia," but when the Royal Society had no money to pay for the publication, Halley paid for and accomplished the publishing himself.

James Bradley (1693–1762) was the English astronomer who served as Astronomer Royal from 1742, succeeding Edmund Halley. He is best known for two fundamental discoveries in astronomy, the aberration of light (1725–1728), and the nutation of the Earth's axis (1728–1748). These discoveries were called "the most brilliant and useful of the century" by Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre, historian of astronomy, mathematical astronomer and director of the Paris Observatory, in his history of astronomy in the 18th century (1821), because "It is to these two discoveries by Bradley that we owe the exactness of modern astronomy. .... This double service assures to their discoverer the most distinguished place (after Hipparchus and Kepler) above the greatest astronomers of all ages and all countries."(Biography from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bradley)

John Flamsteed (1646-1719) was an English astronomer, a contemporary of Isaac Newton, and the first Astronomer Royal in charge of the newly built observatory at Greenwich, England (1676). Although he made no great discoveries nor new astronomical theories, Flamsteed distinguished himself by his meticulous measurements of the positions of stars, as Tycho Brahe did with observations of the planets. He also made improvements to astronomical techniques and some observations of the moon and sun. Over 40 years, Flamsteed accumulated position data on over 2900 stars and tediously reduced it to a form usable by astronomers, but he refused to publish his star catalog until he was confident that the data was accurate and verified. This evoked the ire of Isaac Newton, who was then president of the Royal Society, the highest scientific body in England at that time. In 1712, Newton and Edmund Halley pirated the data and published it without Flamsteed's consent. Flamsteed burned as many copies of the unauthorized catalog as he could gather. His own star catalog was published posthumously by his wife in 1725.This eBook is a chapter from Great Astronomers by Sir Richard Stawell Ball (1907) plus information from A Short History of Astronomy by Arthur Berry (1910).

Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (1749-1827), was a French mathematician and astronomer, sometimes referred to as the French Newton. His work was pivotal to the mathematical development of astronomy, physics, and statistics. He possessed a phenomenal mathematical ability, superior to that of any of his contemporaries. Laplace summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five-volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799–1825). This work elevated the geometric study of classical mechanics to one based on calculus, opening up a broader range of problems. The so-called Bayesian interpretation of probability was developed mainly by Laplace. He formulated "Laplace's equation", and pioneered the "Laplace transform" which appears in many branches of mathematical physics, a field that he took a leading role in forming. The "Laplacian differential operator", widely used in mathematics, is also named after him.He restated and developed the nebular hypothesis of the origin of the solar system and was one of the first scientists to postulate the existence of black holes and the notion of gravitational collapse.Laplace is remembered as one of the greatest scientists of all time.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Simon_Laplace)

Sir Frederick William Herschel, (Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel) (1738–1822) was a German-born British astronomer, telescope maker, and composer. He became famous for the first discovery of a planet not visible to the naked eye, the planet Uranus, and two of its major moons (Titania and Oberon), and two moons of Saturn. He was the first person to discover infrared radiation. Herschel's first profession was composing and performing music, with astronomy being his hobby. He is known for the twenty-four symphonies that he composed. Astronomy was his hobby and passion. He built his own telescopes of superb quality. After becoming known, he earned substantial income by building telescopes for others. Eventually, astronomy and science became his primary work after he was appointed as the King's astronomer by King George the Third, who provided Herschel with a residence, a salary, and funds for construction of great telescopes.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Herschel)

William Parsons, the 3rd Earl of Rosse, (1800–1867) was an Anglo-Irish astronomer who made several large telescopes. His 72-inch telescope, the "Leviathan", built in 1845, was the world's largest telescope until the early 20th century.The 72-inch (1.8 m) telescope replaced a 36-inch (910 mm) telescope that he had built previously. He had to invent many of the techniques he used for constructing the Leviathan, both because its size was without precedent and because earlier telescope builders had guarded their secrets or had simply failed to publish their methods. Rosse's telescope was considered a marvelous astronomical and engineering achievement. Lord Rosse performed astronomical studies and discovered the spiral nature of some nebulas. He named the Crab Nebula. A main component of Rosse's nebular research was attempting to resolve the nebular hypothesis, which posited that planets and stars were formed by gravity acting on gaseous nebulae. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Parsons,_3rd_Earl_of_Rosse)

Sir William Rowan Hamilton (1805–1865) was an Irish physicist, astronomer, and mathematician who made important contributions to mechanics, optics, and algebra. As a teenager, he mastered parts of Newton's Principia and studied Laplace's celestial mechanics treatise. When barely 22, Hamilton became a professor of astronomy at University of Dublin, however he was more interested in theoretical rather than practical astronomy.His studies of mechanical and optical systems led him to discover new mathematical concepts and techniques. His greatest contribution is perhaps the reformulation of Newtonian mechanics, now called Hamiltonian mechanics. This work has proven central to the modern study of classical field theories such as electromagnetism, and to the development of quantum mechanics. In mathematics, he is perhaps best known as the inventor of the quaternion, which is a mathematical concept that find uses in both theoretical and applied mathematics, in particular for calculations involving three-dimensional rotations such as in three-dimensional computer graphics, computer vision, and the attitude-control systems of spacecraft.Hamilton is said to have shown immense talent at a very early age. He had a remarkable aptitude for languages as a youth. As a young man, his talents turned to mathematics of astronomy and physics. Astronomer John Brinkley remarked of the 18-year-old Hamilton, "This young man, I do not say will be, but is, the first mathematician of his age."(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Rowan_Hamilton)

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism, which held that the Earth is not the center of the universe and that the Earth and planets revolve around the Sun. Galileo has been called the father of modern observational astronomy, the father of modern physics, and the father of modern science.This eBook tells the life story of Galileo, from a chapter in Great Astronomers by Sir Richard S. Ball (2nd edition, 1907). It begins:"Among the ranks of the great astronomers it would be difficult to find one whose life presents more interesting features and remarkable vicissitudes than does that of Galileo. We may consider him as the patient investigator and brilliant discoverer. We may consider him in his private relations, especially to his daughter, Sister Maria Celeste, a woman of very remarkable character; and we have also the pathetic drama at the close of Galileo's life, when the philosopher drew down upon himself the thunders of the Inquisition."The book explains Galileo's work and theories, along with a narrative of his personal troubles because of his science. The Catholic Church held that Galileo's theory was heretical, contrary to holy scripture. He was ordered never to speak of it, but he defied that order and was tried before the Inquisition again for heresy and defiance of a Papal decree."...With his hands on the Gospels, Galileo was made to curse and detest the false opinion that the sun was the centre of the universe and immovable, and that the earth was not the centre of the same, and that it moved. He swore that for the future he will never say nor write such things as may bring him under suspicion, and that if he does so he submits to all the pains and penalties of the sacred canons."He was ordered to be secluded for the rest of his life and not to speak of his theory again. The book ends with this sad story of science versus dogma.

This is the chapter on 16th century Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe from Sir Robert S. Ball's Great Astronomers, second edition, which begins: "The most picturesque figure in the history of astronomy ... Tycho Brahe was alike notable for his astronomical genius and for the extraordinary vehemence of a character which was by no means perfect. His romantic career as a philosopher, and his taste for splendour as a Danish noble, his ardent friendships and his furious quarrels, make him an ideal subject for a biographer, while the magnificent astronomical work which he accomplished has given him imperishable fame. ..."Before Tycho was seventeen he had commenced the difficult task of calculating the movements of the planets and the places which they occupied on the sky from time to time. He was not a little surprised to find that the actual positions of the planets differed very widely from those which were assigned to them by calculations from the best existing works of astronomers. With the insight of genius he saw that the only true method of investigating the movements of the heavenly bodies would be to carry on a protracted series of measurements of their places. This, which now seems to us so obvious, was then an entirely new doctrine. Tycho at once commenced regular observations in such fashion as he could."This book traces the life of Tycho Brahe (born 1546): the unusual way he was adopted by his uncle as an infant, his education, his productive years as inventor of precise astronomical instruments before telescopes, his meticulous observations, his personal life, his death as a prematurely aged man in 1601. Tycho’s observations were accurate enough for the mathematical astronomer Kepler to calculate that the planets moved in elliptic orbits, and to discover Kepler's other laws, which gave Newton the facts he needed to establish his inverse-square law of gravitation.

German astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) derived his mathematical laws of planetary motion from astronomical data meticulously collected by Tycho Brahe, who, as he was dying, beseeched young Kepler to use the data to discover the laws of motion of the planets. Based upon Kepler's laws, Sir Isaac Newton later developed his law of gravity.This is a chapter from Sir Robert Stawell Ball's Great Astronomers (2nd ed. 1907). Ball traces Kepler's life from birth in 1571 to death at age 59 in 1630. "Though Kepler had not those personal characteristics which have made his great predecessor, Tycho Brahe, such a romantic figure, yet a picturesque element in Kepler's character is not wanting. It was, however, of an intellectual kind. His imagination, as well as his reasoning faculties, always worked together. He was incessantly prompted by the most extraordinary speculations. The great majority of them were in a high degree wild and chimerical, but every now and then one of his fancies struck right to the heart of nature, and an immortal truth was brought to light."

Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1726) was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist and theologian who has been considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived. His monograph Philosophia Naturalis Principia Mathematica, published in 1687, laid the foundations for most of classical mechanics. In this work, Newton described universal gravitation and the three laws of motion, which dominated the scientific view of the physical universe for the next three centuries. Newton showed that the motion of objects on Earth and that of celestial bodies is governed by the same set of natural laws: by demonstrating the consistency between Kepler's laws of planetary motion and his theory of gravitation he removed the last doubts about heliocentrism and advanced the scientific revolution. The Principia is generally considered to be one of the most important scientific books ever written, both due to the specific physical laws the work successfully described, and for its style, which assisted in setting standards for scientific publication down to the present time. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_newton)This eBook is taken from a chapter in Sir Robert Stawell Ball's Great Astronomers (2nd edition, 1907).

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) was a mathematician and astronomer who formulated a comprehensive heliocentric model which placed the Sun, rather than the Earth, at the center of the universe, contrary to the prevailing thought at his time which placed the Earth at the center.The publication of Copernicus' book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), just before his death in 1543, is considered a major event in the history of science.This eBook briefly tells the life of Copernicus and explains his key theories: that the rotation of the Earth causes the apparent daily motion of the objects in the sky, not that the universe rotates around the Earth; that the motion of the planets is better explained with the Sun at the center and the Earth and planets rotating around the sun, rather than the Sun, planets, and stars rotating around the earth; that the sometimes-retrograde motion of Mars is an illusion due to the Earth rotating around the Sun faster than Mars does, not that Mars actually reverses its travel.Although Copernicus correctly deduced that the planets rotate around the Sun, he retained the idea that the orbits were circles. This concept was later overturned by Kepler, who computed that the orbits were elliptical based on accurate measurements of the planets' positions in the sky that were made by Tycho Brahe. (See the volumes about Kepler and Brahe in this eBook series on Great Astronomers.)This is one chapter from Great Astronomers by Sir Richard S. Ball (2nd edition, 1907).