Abstract
In the recent history of astronomy there have been occasions where ‘New Astronomies’ have been introduced. In the spirit of the recent excitement of the 2004 transit of Venus, I have used the periods around the historical transits to reflect on the ‘New Astronomies’ of those eras. Johannes Kepler’s Astronomia Nova is a fine representation of the New Astronomy of the 1631–1639 transit pair and Pierre Simon, Marquis de Laplace’s Traité de Mécanique Céleste reflects the New Astronomy of the 1761–1769 transit pair. A combination of Samuel P. Langley’s The New Astronomy and James E. Keeler’s 1897 paper on astrophysics have been chosen as the exemplars of the New Astronomy of the 1874–1882 transit pair. I am open to suggestions for the works that best represent the 2004–2012 transit pairs.
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6. References
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Brashear, R. (2005). The Transits of Venus and New Technologies. In: Orchiston, W. (eds) The New Astronomy: Opening the Electromagnetic Window and Expanding Our View of Planet Earth. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 334. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3724-4_15
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