History of Astronomy

Fully funded PhD Studentship on Caroline Herschel's Astronomical Notebooks. The student will be based @durham_uni and the @royalsociety. Further particulars and application information here: academia.edu/71074381/Celes… @BSHSNews @WSGUK @hssonline @AHAhistorians @TheCCWH @HistAstro

@observatorioseichu In partnership with the illustrator Maxakali @maybiilustra, we are developing an app for the dissemination of two Tupi-Guarani astronomical knowledge. #divulgaçãocientífica #astronomiacultural #povosoriginarios #geek #ciências #astronomia

Drawing of the Transit of 2012 by Richard Proctor in his "Transits of Venus. A popular account of past and coming transits, from the first observed by Horrocks A.D. 1639 to the transit of A.D. 2012" (New York, 1875) @librarycongress loc.gov/resource/gdcma…

Alabaster Egyptian miniature vertical sundial (h: 6 cm; w: 5.8 cm), c. 2nd half of the 1st millennium BCE @MuseeLouvre, via isaw.nyu.edu/exhibitions/ti…

Large-scale model/orrery of the solar system according to astronomical research current in the 1820s; it was designed and made as a low-tech version for use in academic settings by Joseph C. Hart in New York, NY, 1824 @WinterthurMuse museumcollection.winterthur.org/single-record.…

Woman Representing the Moon - a painted figure from Baranof Island/Sitka, Alaska, c. 1882 @NMNH n2t.net/ark:/65665/346…

Diagram of the planets of the Solar System from Jaghmīnī's treatise on astronomy and geography with a preface and dedication to Ulugh Beg of Samarkand @upennlib, via openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0032/html…

Correction on this post: Shani is Saturn, not Jupiter.

@YogiBabaPrem Yes, you are correct, it’s Saturn. Thanks for pointing that out.

Interesting sculpture but I thought Shani was Saturn.

💫Line up for next Skyscape Archaeology Lecture Series run by us & @SophiaCentre @SophiaCentrePress & @bournemouthuni is now out. See #tableschedule" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">sophia-project.net/lectures-and-s… & 👀mark your diaries: we kick off 4pm GMT 22/2/23 with Camilla Power: 'Lunarchy: the original economics of time' Pls RT

"Celestial globe" (1929-30) by Swedish-born glass maker and designer, Edward Hald (1883-1980); engraved glass, mounted in pewter; manufactured by Orrefors glasbruk, Orrefors, Sweden @NatMus_SWE collection.nationalmuseum.se/eMP/eMuseumPlu…

Stone sculpture from India of planetary deities Shani (Jupiter), Rahu and Ketu (both associated with eclipses), 10thC-12thC; three of the nine planetary deities, or "navagrahas," of Hindu astrology @walters_museum art.thewalters.org/detail/22262/d…

Paper fragment of either an apocalyptic or astrological prognostication, mentioning an eclipse of the sun and that a king will kill a king (date range, 6th-19thC; Judeo-Arabic; Hebrew); from the Cairo Genizah collection @CamDigLib cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-TS-AS-…

OTD in 1997, the discoverer of planet Pluto—in effect, the discoverer of the class of ice dwarf planets & the Kuiper Belt—Clyde Tombaugh, died at 91. His discovery of Pluto presaged the modern map of our solar system & led to the New Horizons mission to Pluto!

"African Creation Myths" by @astroholbrook via @AfricanCosmos (below: A Yoruba lidded bowl representing the separation between the living (earth) and spiritual (sky) realms @si_africanart) africancosmosdiary.wordpress.com/2012/06/01/gue…

The constellation of Cassiopeia from a collection of astronomy and mathematics manuscripts from either Switzerland or Germany, 15thC; via pop.culture.gouv.fr/notice/enlumin…

"The great Qing Dynasty's complete map of all under heaven" shown pictorially on a fan, c. 1890; shows the Chinese system of coordinates of the major stars in the astronomical chart; the shape of China is distorted so as to fit the fan @librarycongress loc.gov/item/gm7100501…

Stars & the Art of Astronomy in Islamic History @BaytAlFann baytalfann.com/post/stars-the…; (below: artwork by Neslihan Gülbahar Ekinci [b. 1974, Istanbul]), for more on her work, see yenicaggazetesi.com.tr/gulbahar-ekinc…

Scientists Discovered These Ancient Cities Have a Secret Link to the Cosmos vice.com/en/article/jgp… via @motherboard

Decorative bronze nocturnal from the late 19thC Germany; this is highly decorative with a leaf design, but the absence of a central hole would have meant it could not function as a working nocturnal so it may have been a "fake" @HSMOxford hsm.ox.ac.uk/collections-on…