The Analysis of Starlight
Two Centuries of Astronomical Spectroscopy

A reference for astronomers and historians on astronomical spectroscopy, from the discovery of spectral lines through to the year 2000.

John B. Hearnshaw (Author)

9781107031746, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 17 March 2014

382 pages, 191 b/w illus. 20 tables
26 x 20.7 x 2 cm, 1.1 kg

'Readers familiar with the 1986 octavo volume will be pleased with the illustrations' improved quality. … Astronomers will likely welcome it as an encyclopaedic accomplishment.' Barbara J. Becker, Isis

First published in 1986, this is the story of the analysis of starlight by astronomical spectroscopy. Beginning with Joseph Fraunhofer's discovery of spectral lines in the early nineteenth century, this new edition continues the story through to the year 2000. In addition to the key discoveries, it presents the cultural and social history of stellar astrophysics by introducing the leading astronomers and their struggles, triumphs and disagreements. Basic concepts in spectroscopy and spectral analysis are included, so both observational and theoretical aspects are described, in a non-mathematical framework. This new edition covers the final decades of the twentieth century, with its major advances in stellar astrophysics: the discovery of extrasolar planets, new classes of stars and the observation of the ultraviolet spectra of stars from satellites. The in-depth coverage makes it essential reading for graduate students working in stellar spectroscopy, professional and amateur astronomers, and historians of science.

Preface to the first edition, 1986
Preface to the second edition
Acknowledgments for the first edition
Acknowledgments for the second edition
1. Introduction to spectroscopy, spectroscopes and spectrographs
2. The analysis of sunlight: the earliest pioneers
3. The foundations of special analysis: from Fraunhofer to Kirchhoff
4. Early pioneers in stellar spectroscopy
5. Spectral classification at Harvard
6. The doppler effect
7. The interpretation of stellar spectra and the birth of astrophysics
8. Spectral classification: from the Henry Draper catalogue to the MK-system and beyond
9. Spectroscopy of peculiar stars
10. Quantitative analysis of stellar spectra
11. Some miscellaneous topics in stellar spectroscopy: individual stars of note, stellar chromospheres, interstellar lines and ultraviolet spectroscopy from space
Appendix A. List of solar lines designated by letters by Fraunhofer and others
Appendix B. Vogel's first spectral classification scheme of 1874
Indexes.

Subject Areas: Astronomical observation: observatories, equipment & methods [PGG], Astronomy, space & time [PG], History of science [PDX], Mathematics & science [P]