New Insights From Recent Studies in Historical Astronomy: Following in the Footsteps of F. Richard Stephenson: A Meeting to Honor F. Richard Stephenson on His 70th Birthday

371 Pages·2015·20.358 MB·English

by  Wayne Orchiston, David A. Green, Richard Strom (eds.)

Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings 43
Wayne Orchiston
David A. Green
Richard Strom E ditors
New Insights From
Recent Studies in
Historical Astronomy:
Following in the
Footsteps of F. Richard
Stephenson
A Meeting to Honor F. Richard
Stephenson on His 70th Birthday
Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings
Volume 43
More information about this series at h ttp://www.springer.com/series/7395
Richard and the late Ellen Stephenson
Wayne Orchiston (cid:129) David A. Green
Richard Strom
Editors
New Insights From Recent
Studies in Historical
Astronomy: Following
in the Footsteps of
F. Richard Stephenson
A Meeting to Honor F. Richard Stephenson
on His 70th Birthday
Editors
Wayne Orchiston David A. Green
National Astronomical Research Cavendish Laboratory
Institute of Thailand University of Cambridge
Chiang Mai , Thailand Cambridge , UK
Richard Strom
Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy
Dwingeloo , The Netherlands
ISSN 1570-6591 ISSN 1570-6605 (electronic)
ISBN 978-3-319-07613-3 ISBN 978-3-319-07614-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-07614-0
Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014953898
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015
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Dedicated to the Memory
of Ellen Stephenson (1938–2012)

Foreword
This book is unusual, combining as it does papers on four different aspects of his-
torical astronomy, namely applied historical astronomy, Islamic astronomy, Oriental
astronomy and amateur astronomy, yet this mix perfectly refl ects the interests of
Francis Richard Stephenson. Richard is the acknowledged ‘founding father’ of
applied historical astronomy, which aims to use data extracted from historical
records to address present-day issues in astrophysics and geophysics. He also has
published prolifi cally on Islamic and Oriental astronomy, sometimes in collabora-
tion with colleagues who at one time or another were his Ph.D. students at either
Durham University (in England) or James Cook University (in Townsville,
Australia). The fourth component—the history of amateur astronomy—may seem
to be a strange inclusion, for Richard is not widely known to be an active researcher
in this fi eld, yet he is an unbridled supporter of amateur astronomy; has been the
president of his local Newcastle Astronomical Society continuously since April
1986; frequently lectures on astronomical history to amateur astronomical societies
throughout the British Isles; and with a former graduate student, Dr. Stella Cottam,
has published on the involvement of US professional a nd amateur astronomers in
the 1882 transit of Venus and the 1869 and 1878 total solar eclipses.
And so the idea emerged to conduct an international scientifi c meeting at Durham
University on Richard’s 70th birthday, in April 2011, in order to celebrate his life-
long vital contribution to history of astronomy. Richard and his late wife, Ellen
(who sadly died in 2012), were excited by the prospect, and when there was support
from Arnold Wolfendale, Martin Ward and others from the Physics Department at
Durham University, StephensonFest was born. The term ‘StephensonFest’ was
inspired by ‘WoodFest’ which I previously had organised at the University of
Washington in Seattle to celebrate Woody Sullivan’s 65th birthday.
T he hard work of organising the logistics of the conference fell to the Local
Organising Committee (LOC) of Professor Martin Ward (Temple Chevallier Professor
of Astronomy, and Chairman of the Committee), Professor Sir Arnold Wolfendale,
F.R.S. (the former Astronomer Royal), Dr. Jennifer Gray (Department of Mathematics),
Mr. Craig Barclay (Curator of the Oriental Museum at Durham University), Dr. Pete
Edwards (the Physics Department’s Outreach Offi cer) and Ms. Lindsay Borrero (the
vii
viii Foreword
A s tronomy Group Secretary). We thank them for arranging an excellent conference.
Meanwhile, the programme was addressed by the Scientifi c Organising Committee
(SOC), which comprised: Associate Professor Wayne Orchiston (Australia;
Chairman), Dr. Suzanne Débarbat (France), Dr. David Green (England), Professor
Ciyuan Liu (China), Dr. Leslie Morrison (England), Professor Il-Seong Nha (South
Korea), Dr. Mitsuru Sôma (Japan), Professor John Steele (USA), Professor Richard
Strom (the Netherlands), Dr. David Willis (England) and Professor Sir Arnold
Wolfendale (England). All of us had worked closely with Richard in various
research, editorial and/or IAU (Commission 41) capacities, over many years.
While the SOC arranged an exciting programme with two and a half days of oral
and poster papers, the LOC organised a reception in the Physics Department, a con-
ference dinner at one of the University’s colleges and a guided tour of the University’s
remarkable Oriental Museum. Sir Arnold also kindly arranged to host us at his
home one evening. The formal programme is shown on pages xi–xiii.
I t now remains for me to thank Durham University and members of the LOC and
SOC for making StephensonFest happen; all those who presented papers at the
conference or prepared poster papers; Dave Green and Richard Strom for agreeing
to co-edit these proceedings and thereby carry some of the editorial burden; Sir
Arnold Wolfendale and the late Ellen Stephenson for their unstinted support and
encouragement throughout; and fi nally, my dear friend and ‘birthday boy’, Richard
Stephenson. Richard, we all know that you and Ellen greatly enjoyed StephensonFest,
and we now hope that you fi nd equal joy in receiving these proceedings as a fi nal—
if rather belated—70th birthday present.
Chiang Mai, Thailand Wayne Orchiston
Chairman, SOC
Partic ipants
Ahn Sang-Hyeon (Korea)
Craig Barclay (England)
Vitor Bonifácio (Portugal)
Lindsay Borrero (England)
Clifford Cunningham (USA)
Chris Davis (England)
Hilmar Duerbeck (Germany)*
Peter Edwards (England)
David Frew (Australia)*
Mike Frost (England)
Ian Glass (South Africa)*
Jennifer Gray (England)
David Green (England)
Ihsan Hafez (Lebanon)
Lee Ki-Won (Korea)
Lamyong McEwen (Australia)
Isabel Malaquias (Portugal)*
Kim Malville (USA)*
Stephen Marsden (Australia)*
Leslie Morrison (England)
Susan Morrison (England)
Wayne Orchiston (Australia)
Jefferson Sauter (USA)
Irakli Simonia (Georgia)*
Mitsuru Sôma (Japan)
John Steele (USA)
Ellen Stephenson (England)
Richard Stephenson (England)
Richard Strom (The Netherlands)
Kyotaka Tanikawam (Japan)*
Martin Ward (England)
ix