Semester 5

OPEN COURSE –I
(Problems not required)
PH5 D01 (2): AMATEUR ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS(36 Hours Credit – 2)

Unit-1 (12 hours) Max mark 22

Introduction & Brief history of Astronomy Astronomy & Astrology- Fascinations of
Astronomy-Two important Branches of Astronomy-Amateur observational Astronomy-
Different types of Amateur Observing- Ancient Astronomy & modern astronomy-Indian
& western

Unit-2 (8 hours) Max mark 14

Earth The zones of earth-longitude and latitude-shape of earth. Keplers laws-perihelion-
aphelionperigee and apogee, year-month-Day. Seasons-causes of seasons

Unit-3 (8 hours) Max mark 16

Solar system sun-structure-photosphere-chromosphere-solar constant- sun temperature-
sun spots-solar eclipsecorona-(planets-surfaceconditions and atmosphere, size, period &
distance)mercury-venus-earthmars-jupiter-saturn-uranus-neptune-comets-
asteroidsmeteors

Unit-4 (8 hours) Max mark 16

The stars Unit of distance-Astronomical units--parsec-light year-Magnitudes of stars-
apparent magnitudeabsolute magnitude-Three categories of stars-Main sequence stars-
Dwarfs-Giants-star formation lifecycle of stars-Chandra sekher limit- Novae-Binary
stars -neutron star-black holes. Expanding universe-Bigbang theory

References Books:
1. A Text book on Astronomy – K K Dey, Book Syntricate Pvt. Ltd.
2. Introduction to Astrophysics – Baidanath Basu, PHI, India
3. Elements of Cosmology – Jayant Narlikar, University Press,
4. Astrophysics of Solar System – K D Abhyankar, University press
5. Chandrasekhar and his limit – G Venkataraman, University Press
6. The Big & The small (Volume II) – G Venkataraman, University Press
7. Joy of Sky Watching – Biman Basu, National Book Trust
8. Astronomy – Principles & practices, A E Roy & D Clarke, Institute of Physics
 PH5 D01 (2): AMATEUR ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS

CHAPTER 1
Introduction
What is astrophysics?
There is a misconception in India that astrophysics is something quite different from
astronomy. Actually astrophysics is only an extension of classical astronomy.
Astronomer’s quest for understanding the nature of stars gave rise to the branch of
astronomy known as astrophysics.
It is well known that astronomy is the science which deals with the celestial objects
and phenomena.
Kepler once said “Astrology is the foolish daughter of wise mother astronomy”.

Astronomy is a branch of physics which deals with the study of the stars, planets and
other objects that make up the universe.
Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences. It began in ancient times with the observation that the
heavenly bodies go through regular cycles of motion. Throughout history, the study of these cycles
has served practical purposes such as keeping time, marking the arrival of seasons and navigating
accurately at sea.
As early as 200 B.C. the Babylonians charted the positions of the heavenly bodies to predict events on
the Earth. The making of such predictions is called astrology and is based on the belief that the
positions of stars and planets influence what happens on the Earth. Scientists today consider it a
pseudoscience (false science). They explain events on the Earth and in space by the laws of physics
and chemistry, which provide no basis for a belief in astrology. In addition, many scientists do not
simply ignore astrology but actively oppose it as superstition that slows the advance of science.

Astrophysics is a branch of astronomy that treats the physical properties of celestial

bodies, such as luminosity, size, mass, density, temperature and chemical composition
and their origin and evolution. Actually astrophysics is only an extension of classical
astronomy.

Today, the physics of the stars, planets and galaxies and indeed of the universe itself forms the focus
of astronomical study. Astronomy began as observational science and continues to be so even today.
In astronomy, the events occur automatically in stars, galaxies and inter stellar medium and we
observe from the Earth. Hence astronomical method involves statistical study of the observation. The
main features of astronomical method involves (i) repeated observations (ii) classification of data (iii)
formulation of empirical laws to arrive at some basic postulates (iv) formation of a theory based on
the basic postulates (vi) explanation of the observed results with this theory and making new
predictions (vi) verification of the predictions by new observations (vii) the process of iteration is
continued until good agreement is obtained with observations.
4.

Astronomy is broadly classified as the study of (i) Solar system and life (ii) Stars iii) galaxies and
cosmology.
Cosmology is the study of the structure and history of the entire universe.

Astronomy, the study of objects and phenomena originating beyond the Earth's
atmosphere, is a science and is a widely-studied academic discipline. Astrology, which uses the
apparent positions of celestial objects as the basis for the prediction of future events, is defined as a
form of divination and is regarded by many as a pseudoscience having no scientific validity.

Astrophysics is a branch of astronomy that study the physical properties of celestial bodies such as
luminosity, size, mass, density, temperature and chemical composition and their origin and evolution.
Astrophysics has provided a convincing picture of the birth, life and death of stars- stellar evolution
and the internal structure of stars.
Astronomy is the science which deals with the celestial objects in the cosmos such as moon, sun and
the planets. Up to the end of the seventeenth century astronomers were interested in understanding the
apparent motions of the nearest celestial objects. Establishment of observatories with optical telescope
gave a large amount of information about stars.
By the end of the nineteenth century it became clear that stars are large (compared to earth) self
luminous, spherical bodies like our sun. They look faint only because of their vast distances from us.
The nearest star Alpha Centauri is 4.25 light years away. Later studies by astronomers from
WilliamHerschel to Kapteyn indicated that the great system of stars known as the Milky Way extends
to many thousands of light years. Thereafter investigations were about the physical properties of the
stars which appeared to be spread throughout the then known limits of the universe. The laws of
physics revealed the mystery of the nature of these distant objects. This approach gave rise to a new
branch of astronomy called astrophysics. Thus the encounter of astronomy and physics gave birth to
astrophysics the science of astronomy, the mother.

Astronomy and astrophysics

As technology advanced new branches such as astronomical spectroscopy, galactic(Milky
Way) astronomy, extragalactic astronomy, theoretical astrophysics, cosmology, radio astronomy,
space astrophysics, infrared, UV, x-ray and -ray astronomies were developed.
Astronomy can be called as the fountain head of all sciences. The first systematized branch of
physics, mechanics is based on the solution of the problem to planetary motions. The growth of
spectroscopy through the study of stellar spectra and application and testing of the general theory of
relativity by astronomical observations of the remotest galaxies and quasars are some of the branches
of science where astronomers and physicists are interested with the universe of planets, stars and
galaxies in which we live and move. The differential and integral calculus were invented by Newton
specifically for solving the equations arising from his universal law of gravitation. Several methods of
numerical analysis were developed by Gauss and others for computing the ephemerides of planets.
The elaborate mathematical structures of the Euclidean and Riemannian geometries found their fullest
scope in the astronomical problems of celestial mechanics and cosmology. Handling of large samples
of celestial objects requires statistical methods which provide a close link between astronomy and
statistics. Chemistry, geology, geophysics and meteorology have found their extension in planetology
and theories of planetary interiors and planetary atmospheres. Biologists are looking towards
astronomers for solving the mystery of the origin of life through the discovery of extraterrestrial life
forms.

Methods of astronomy and astrophysics

Astronomy is an observational science as compared to other experimental sciences in which we
can control the condition of our experiment. In astronomy events occur automatically in stars,
galaxies and interstellar medium and we observe the events from the earth. Statistics play an
important role in astronomical method because the repetition of an experiment in other sciences is
replaced by statistical study of large samples. Also the changes in experimental conditions are taken
into account by observations of a large variety of closely similar objects.

The voyage of the astronauts of Apollo -11 to the moon in July 1969 was followed by half a
dozen similar trips. It was then that an astronomical body, moon, other than the earth and the
meteorites, was studied for the first time in a direct manner, by touch and by other similar
experimental methods. The Venera space crafts have penetrated the atmosphere of Venus and the
Viking space crafts have landed on Mars to perform direct experiments on these planets. Other
vehicles of the Mariner, Explorer,Pioneer, Voyager and Venera class have been sent in the vicinity of
mercury, Jupiter, Saturn and the Halley’s Comet for a close look at them. Hence in order to study the
stars, nebulae and galaxies we have to use the age - old method of analyzing the radiations received
from them. This is a remote sensing method perfected by astronomers during the last hundred years.
Thus the methods of astronomy are useful on the interpretation of satellite data of the earth’s surface
and its environment.
The first step in the astrophysical method is the observation of all aspects of stellar radiations
collected by telescopes and analyzed by accessories such as photographic plates etc. attached to the
telescopes. These instruments are built according to the techniques of experimental physics .We
observe the direction and amount of radiation, color, spectrum and polarization of radiation, as well as
changes in all these quantities with time .The recording of exact time of observation is extremely
important for all astronomical observations. The next step is to interpret the observations by proper
application of the laws of physics and to extract the properties of the radiating stellar or galactic
material such as distance, size, mass, luminosity, temperature, age, chemical composition,
evolutionary history and origin of the celestial objects. A theoretical astrophysicist applies
imaginative logic and uses ingenious mathematical techniques to obtain the knowledge of interiors of
stars not directly accessible to us.

Astronomy is a science
Astronomy is a science based on observations rather than experiments while astrology has
remained as a superstitious belief. This difference is to be emphasized because in India, most persons
including many well educated men and women cannot distinguish between the two. Now astronomy
differs from astrology in the same manner as chemistry from alchemy. The belief in astrology claims
the prediction of the future of nations and men from the prevalent planetary positions among the stars,
made people assiduous watchers of the skies and their observation led to the science of astronomy,
while astrology has remained a superstitious belief.
Like all other scientists, astronomers follow the scientific method for arriving at conclusions
and predictions. The theory of planetary motions is an example of the scientific method which has
served as a standard of all scientific enquiries. From the most ancient times, observation of the
positions of the sun, moon and five bright planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn among
the stars gave rise to the geocentric system. In geocentric system these bodies were supposed to move
with uniform speed in circular orbits around the earth and their different periods obtained by placing
them at different distances from the earth. Finally, in the fifteenth century, Copernicus made the
revolutionary suggestion that the sun is at the centre of the planetary system and is called the
heliocentric system. Kepler in the sixteenth century showed that the planets move around the sun in
elliptical orbits with the sun at one focus of the ellipse and established that sun is the supreme
controlling body in the phenomenon of planetary motions. Newton postulated the universal law of
gravitation in seventeenth century and derived the three laws of Kepler. The universality of the law of
gravitation was confirmed by its application to the comets around the sun, the motion of the binary
stars around their common centre of mass and the motion of the naked eye stars around the centre of
the Milky Way.

The true spirit of science is that we are always prepared to modify our views about the universe
in the light of new data. The science of astronomy is also based on these principles. The object of
astronomy is to study the whole universe, which can be divided into several components for
convenience. Thus the scope of astronomy and astrophysics is vast and it extends all the way
from the earth to the remotest parts of the universe.

A (very) brief history of astronomy

Early astronomers, in different civilizations, used the observed motion of the stars, the Sun,
Moon and planets as the basis for clocks, calendars and a navigational compass. The Greeks
developed models to account for these celestial motions. 
 
Copernicus, in the 16th century, was the first to explain the observed looping (retrograde) motion of
planets, by replacing a geocentric heliocentric model of the Universe with a heliocentric model.
Modern planetary astronomy really began in the 17th century with Kepler, who used Tycho Brahe’s
very accurate measurements of the planetary positions to develop his three laws. 
 
Galileo contributed to the development of astronomy by teaching the Copernican view, and by
devising a telescope which he used to show Jupiter’s moons as a model for the solar system, among
other things. Newton built on earlier insights with his universal law of gravitation and its fruits:
predictions or explanations of Kepler’s laws, the motion of comets, the shape of the Earth, tides,
precession of the equinoxes and perturbations in the motion of planets which led to the discovery of
Neptune. He also had to invent the mathematics to do this: calculus.

Ancient Astronomy

Astronomy is the oldest of the physical sciences. In many early civilizations the regularity of
celestial motions was recognized, and attempts were made to keep records and predict future
events. The first practical function of astronomy was to provide a basis for the calendar, the
units of month and year being determined by astronomical observations. Later, astronomy
served in navigation and timekeeping. The Chinese had a working calendar as early as the
13th cent. B.C. About 350 B.C., Shih Shen prepared the earliest known star catalog,
containing 800 entries. Ancient Chinese astronomy is best known today for its observations
of comets and supernovas. The Babylonians, Assyrians, and Egyptians were also active in
astronomy. The earliest astronomers were priests, and no attempt was made to separate
astronomy from astrology. In fact, an early motivation for the detailed study of planetary
positions was the preparation of horoscopes.

Greek Innovations

The highest development of astronomy in the ancient world came with the Greeks in the
period from 600 B.C. to A.D. 400. The methods employed by the Greek astronomers were
quite distinct from those of earlier civilizations, such as the Babylonian. The Babylonian
approach was numerological and best suited for studying the complex lunar motions that
were of overwhelming interest to the Mesopotamian peoples. The Greek approach, on the
contrary, was geometric and schematic, best suited for complete cosmological models.
Thales, an Ionian philosopher of the 6th cent. B.C., is credited with introducing geometrical
ideas into astronomy. Pythagoras, about a hundred years later, imagined the universe as a
series of concentric spheres in which each of the seven "wanderers" (the sun, the moon, and
the five known planets) were embedded. Euxodus developed the idea of rotating spheres by
introducing extra spheres for each of the planets to account for the observed complexities of
their motions. This was the beginning of the Greek aim of providing a theory that would
account for all observed phenomena. Aristotle (384–322 B.C.) summarized much of the
Greek work before him and remained an absolute authority until late in the Middle Ages.
Although his belief that the earth does not move retarded astronomical progress, he gave the
correct explanation of lunar eclipses and a sound argument for the spherical shape of the
earth.

The Alexandrian School and the Ptolemaic system

The apex of Greek astronomy was reached in the Hellenistic period by the Alexandrian
school. Aristarchus (c.310–c.230 B.C.) determined the sizes and distances of the moon and
sun relative to the earth and advocated a heliocentric (sun-centered) cosmology.
Although there were errors in his assumptions, his approach was truly scientific; his work
was the first serious attempt to make a scale model of the universe. The first accurate
measurement of the actual (as opposed to relative) size of the earth was made by Eratosthenes
(284–192 B.C.). His method was based on the angular difference in the sun's position at the
high noon of the summer solstice in two cities whose distance apart was known.

The greatest astronomer of antiquity was Hipparchus (190–120 B.C.). He developed

trigonometry and used it to determine astronomical distances from the observed angular
positions of celestial bodies. He recognized that astronomy requires accurate and systematic
observations extended over long time periods. He therefore made great use of old
observations, comparing them to his own. Many of his observations, particularly of the
planets, were intended for future astronomers. He devised a geocentric system of cycles and
epicycles (a compounding of circular motions) to account for the movements of the sun and
moon.

Ptolemy (A.D. 85–165) applied the scheme of epicycles to the planets as well. The resulting
Ptolemaic system was a geometrical representation of the solar system that predicted the
motions of the planets with considerable accuracy. Among his other achievements was an
accurate measurement of the distance to the moon by a parallax technique. His 13-volume
treatise, the Almagest, summarized much of ancient astronomical knowledge and, in many
translations, was the definitive authority for the next 14 centuries.

Indian astronomy

From pre-historic to modern times, Indian astronomy continues to play an integral role.
Some of the earliest roots of Indian astronomy can be dated to the period of Indus Valley
Civilization or earlier. Astronomy later developed as a discipline of Vedanta or one of the
"auxiliary disciplines" associated with the study of the Vedas, dating 1500 BCE or older. The
oldest known text is the Vedanga Jyotisha, dated to 1400–1200 BCE (with the extant form
possibly from 700–600 BCE.

As with other traditions, the original application of astronomy was thus religious. Indian
astronomy was influenced by Greek astronomy beginning in the 4th century BCE and
through the early centuries of the Common Era, for example by the Yavanajataka and the
Romaka Siddhanta, a Sanskrit translation of a Greek text disseminated from the 2nd century.

Indian astronomy flowered in the 5th-6th century, with Aryabhata, whose Aryabhatiya
represented the pinnacle of astronomical knowledge at the time. Later the Indian astronomy
significantly influenced Muslim astronomy, Chinese astronomy, European astronomy, and
others. Other astronomers of the classical era who further elaborated on Aryabhata's work
include Brahmagupta, Varahamihira and Lalla.

An identifiable native Indian astronomical tradition remained active throughout the medieval
period and into the 16th or 17th century, especially within the Kerala school of astronomy
and mathematics.

Astronomy in the Indian subcontinent dates back to the period of Indus Valley Civilization
during 3rd millennium BCE, when it was used to create calendars. As the Indus Valley
civilization did not leave behind written documents, the oldest extant Indian astronomical text
is the Vedanga Jyotisha, dating from the Vedic period. Vedanga Jyotisha describes rules for
tracking the motions of the Sun and the Moon for the purposes of ritual. During 6th century
AD, astronomy was influenced by the Greek and Byzantine astronomical traditions.
Aryabhata (476–550), in his magnum opus Aryabhatiya (499), propounded a computational
system based on a planetary model in which the Earth was taken to be spinning on its axis
and the periods of the planets were given with respect to the Sun. He accurately calculated
many astronomical constants, such as the periods of the planets, times of the solar and lunar
eclipses, and the instantaneous motion of the Moon. Early followers of Aryabhata's model
included Varahamihira, Brahmagupta, and Bhaskara II.

Astronomy was advanced during the Shunga Empire and many star catalogues were produced
during this time. The Shunga period is known as the "Golden age of astronomy in India". It
saw the development of calculations for the motions and places of various planets, their rising
and setting, conjunctions, and the calculation of eclipses.

Bhāskara II (1114–1185) was the head of the astronomical observatory at Ujjain, continuing
the mathematical tradition of Brahmagupta. He wrote the Siddhantasiromani which consists
of two parts: Goladhyaya (sphere) and Grahaganita (mathematics of the planets). He also
calculated the time taken for the Earth to orbit the sun to 9 decimal places. The Buddhist
University of Nalanda at the time offered formal courses in astronomical studies.

Other important astronomers from India include Madhava of Sangamagrama, Nilakantha

Somayaji and Jyeshtadeva, who were members of the Kerala school of astronomy and
mathematics from the 14th century to the 16th century. Nilakantha Somayaji, in his
Aryabhatiyabhasya, a commentary on Aryabhata's Aryabhatiya, developed his own
computational system for a partially heliocentric planetary model, in which Mercury, Venus,
Mars, Jupiter and Saturn orbit the Sun, which in turn orbits the Earth, similar to the Tychonic
system later proposed by Tycho Brahe in the late 16th century. Nilakantha's system, however,
was mathematically more effient than the Tychonic system, due to correctly taking into
account the equation of the centre and latitudinal motion of Mercury and Venus. Most
astronomers of the Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics who followed him accepted
his planetary model.

Medieval Western Europe

Figure above shows the Ninth century diagram of the positions of the seven planets on 18
March 816.
After the significant contributions of Greek scholars to the development of astronomy, it
entered a relatively static era in Western Europe from the Roman era through the 12th
century. This lack of progress has led some astronomers to assert that nothing happened in
Western European astronomy during the Middle Ages. Recent investigations, however, have
revealed a more complex picture of the study and teaching of astronomy in the period from
the 4th to the 16th centuries.

Western Europe entered the Middle Ages with great difficulties that affected the continent's
intellectual production. The advanced astronomical treatises of classical antiquity were
written in Greek, and with the decline of knowledge of that language, only simplified
summaries and practical texts were available for study. The most influential writers to pass
on this ancient tradition in Latin were Macrobius, Pliny, Martianus Capella, and Calcidius.
In the 6th Century Bishop Gregory of Tours noted that he had learned his astronomy from
reading Martianus Capella, and went on to employ this rudimentary astronomy to describe a
method by which monks could determine the time of prayer at night by watching the stars.In
the 7th Century the English monk Bede of Jarrow published an influential text, On the
Reckoning of Time, providing churchmen with the practical astronomical knowledge needed
to compute the proper date of Easter using a procedure called the computus. This text
remained an important element of the education of clergy from the 7th century until well after
the rise of the Universities in the 12th century.

The range of surviving ancient Roman writings on astronomy and the teachings of Bede and
his followers began to be studied in earnest during the revival of learning sponsored by the
emperor Charlemagne. By the 9th century rudimentary techniques for calculating the position
of the planets were circulating in Western Europe; medieval scholars recognized their flaws,
but texts describing these techniques continued to be copied, reflecting an interest in the
motions of the planets and in their astrological significance.

Building on this astronomical background, in the 10th century European scholars such as
Gerbert of Aurillac began to travel to Spain and Sicily to seek out learning which they had
heard existed in the Arabic-speaking world. There they first encountered various practical
astronomical techniques concerning the calendar and timekeeping, most notably those
dealing with the astrolabe. Soon scholars such as Hermann of Reichenau were writing texts in
Latin on the uses and construction of the astrolabe and others, such as Walcher of Malvern,
were using the astrolabe to observe the time of eclipses in order to test the validity of
computistical tables.

By the 12th century, scholars were traveling to Spain and Sicily to seek out more advanced
astronomical and astrological texts, which they translated into Latin from Arabic and Greek
to further enrich the astronomical knowledge of Western Europe. The arrival of these new
texts coincided with the rise of the universities in medieval Europe, in which they soon found
a home. Reflecting the introduction of astronomy into the universities, John of Sacrobosco
wrote a series of influential introductory astronomy textbooks: the Sphere, a Computus, a text
on the Quadrant, and another on Calculation.

In the 14th century, Nicole Oresme, later bishop of Liseux, showed that neither the scriptural
texts nor the physical arguments advanced against the movement of the Earth were
demonstrative and adduced the argument of simplicity for the theory that the earth moves,
and not the heavens. However, he concluded "everyone maintains, and I think myself, that
the heavens do move and not the earth: For God hath established the world which shall not be
moved."[ In the 15th century, cardinal Nicholas of Cusa suggested in some of his scientific
writings that the Earth revolved around the Sun, and that each star is itself a distant sun. He
was not, however, describing a scientifically verifiable theory of the universe.

Renaissance Period

Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) crafted his own telescope and discovered that our Moon had
craters, that Jupiter had moons, that the Sun had spots, and that Venus had phases like our
Moon.

The renaissance came to astronomy with the work of Nicolaus Copernicus, who proposed a
heliocentric system, in which the planets revolved around the Sun and not the Earth. His De
revolutionibus provided a full mathematical discussion of his system, using the geometrical
techniques that had been traditional in astronomy since before the time of Ptolemy. His work
was later defended, expanded upon and modified by Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler.
Galileo was considered the father of observational astronomy. He was among the first to use
a telescope to observe the sky and after constructing a 20x refractor telescope he discovered
the four largest moons of Jupiter in 1610. This was the first observation of satellites orbiting
another planet. He also found that our Moon had craters and observed (and correctly
explained) sunspots. Galileo noted that Venus exhibited a full set of phases resembling lunar
phases. Galileo argued that these observations supported the Copernican system and were, to
some extent, incompatible with the favored model of the Earth at the center of the universe.
He may have even observed the planet Neptune in 1612 and 1613, over 200 years before it
was discovered, but it is unclear if he was aware of what he was looking at.

Uniting physics and astronomy

Although the motions of celestial bodies had been qualitatively explained in physical terms
since Aristotle introduced celestial movers in his Metaphysics and a fifth element in his On
the Heavens, Johannes Kepler was the first to attempt to derive mathematical predictions of
celestial motions from assumed physical causes. Combining his physical insights with the
unprecedentedly accurate naked-eye observations made by Tycho Brahe, Kepler discovered
the three laws of planetary motion that now carry his name.
Plate with figures illustrating articles on astronomy, from the 1728 Cyclopaedia

Although the motions of celestial bodies had been qualitatively explained in physical terms
since Aristotle introduced celestial movers in his Metaphysics and a fifth element in his On
the Heavens, Johannes Kepler was the first to attempt to derive mathematical predictions of
celestial motions from assumed physical causes. Combining his physical insights with the
unprecedentedly accurate naked-eye observations made by Tycho Brahe, Kepler discovered
the three laws of planetary motion that now carry his name.

Isaac Newton developed further ties between physics and astronomy through his law of
universal gravitation. Realising that the same force that attracted objects to the surface of the
Earth held the moon in orbit around the Earth, Newton was able to explain – in one
theoretical framework – all known gravitational phenomena. In his Philosophiae Naturalis
Principia Mathematica, he derived Kepler's laws from first principles. Newton's theoretical
developments laid many of the foundations of modern physics.

Completing the solar system

Outside of England, Newton's theory took some time to become established. Descartes'
theory of vortices held sway in France, and Huygens, Leibniz and Cassini accepted only parts
of Newton's system, preferring their own philosophies. It wasn't until Voltaire published a
popular account in 1738 that the tide changed. In 1748, the French Academy of Sciences
offered a reward for solving the perturbations of Jupiter and Saturn which was eventually
solved by Euler and Lagrange. Laplace completed the theory of the planets towards the end
of the century.

Edmund Halley succeeded Flamsteed as Astronomer Royal in England and succeeded in

predicting the return in 1758 of the comet that bears his name. Sir William Herschel found
the first new planet, Uranus, to be observed in modern times in 1781. The gap between the
planets Mars and Jupiter disclosed by the Titius–Bode law was filled by the discovery of the
asteroids Ceres and Pallas in 1801 with many more following.

At first, astronomical thought in America was based on Aristotelian philosophy but interest in
the new astronomy began to appear in Almanacs as early as 1659
Modern astronomy

Mars surface map of Giovanni Schiaparelli.

In the 19th century it was discovered that, when decomposing the light from the Sun, a
multitude of spectral lines were observed (regions where there was less or no light).
Experiments with hot gases showed that the same lines could be observed in the spectra of
gases, specific lines corresponding to unique elements. It was proved that the chemical
elements found in the Sun (chiefly hydrogen and helium) were also found on Earth. During
the 20th century spectroscopy (the study of these lines) advanced, especially because of the
advent of quantum physics, that was necessary to understand the observations.

Although in previous centuries noted astronomers were exclusively male, at the turn of the
20th century women began to play a role in the great discoveries. In this period prior to
modern computers, women at the United States Naval Observatory (USNO), Harvard
University, and other astronomy research institutions began to be hired as human
"computers," who performed the tedious calculations while scientists performed research
requiring more background knowledge. A number of discoveries in this period were
originally noted by the women "computers" and reported to their supervisors. For example, at
the Harvard Observatory Henrietta Swan Leavitt discovered the cepheid variable star period-
luminosity relation which she further developed into a method of measuring distance outside
of our solar system. Annie Jump Cannon, also at Harvard, organized the stellar spectral types
according to stellar temperature. In 1847, Maria Mitchell discovered a comet using a
telescope. According to Lewis D. Eigen, Cannon alone, "in only 4 years discovered and
catalogued more stars than all the men in history put together." Most of these women
received little or no recognition during their lives due to their lower professional standing in
the field of astronomy. Although their discoveries and methods are taught in classrooms
around the world, few students of astronomy can attribute the works to their authors or have
any idea that there were active female astronomers at the end of the 19th century.