Dr. Orchiston is a foremost authority on the subject of New Zealand astronomy, and here are the collected papers of his fruitful studies in this area, including both those published many years ago and new material. The papers herein review traditional Maori astronomy, examine the appearance of nautical astronomy practiced by Cook and his astronomers on their various stopovers in New Zealand during their three voyagers to the South Seas, and also explore notable nineteenth century New Zealand observatories historically, from significant telescopes now located in New Zealand to local and international observations made during the 1874 and 1882 transits of Venus and the nineteenth and twentieth century preoccupation of New Zealand amateur astronomers with comets and meteors.

Celestial Delights is essentially a 'TV Guide' for teh sky. This will be its third edition. This title, which has aggregated sales of about 20,000 copies to date in its two previous editions and has found a niche with skygazers, is much awaited.

The discovery of a gradual acceleration in the moon’s mean motion by Edmond Halley in the last decade of the seventeenth century led to a revival of interest in reports of astronomical observations from antiquity. These observations provided the only means to study the moon’s ‘secular acceleration’, as this newly-discovered acceleration became known. This book contains the first detailed study of the use of ancient and medieval astronomical observations in order to investigate the moon’s secular acceleration from its discovery by Halley to the establishment of the magnitude of the acceleration by Richard Dunthorne, Tobias Mayer and Jérôme Lalande in the 1740s and 1750s. Making extensive use of previously unstudied manuscripts, this work shows how different astronomers used the same small body of preserved ancient observations in different ways in their work on the secular acceleration. In addition, this work looks at the wider context of the study of the moon’s secular acceleration, including its use in debates of biblical chronology, whether the heavens were made up of æther, and the use of astronomy in determining geographical longitude. It also discusses wider issues of the perceptions and knowledge of ancient and medieval astronomy in the early-modern period. This book will be of interest to historians of astronomy, astronomers and historians of the ancient world.

In Small Astronomical Observatories, Patrick Moore has collected descriptions of amateur and small professional observatories currently in use in Europe and America, showing how many astronomers have built their own observatory, often with effective and sometimes extraordinary improvisations to reduce the cost. There is a photograph of each, along with details of its construction and a foreword written by Patrick Moore. In addition to providing a fascinating study for its own sake, Small Astronomical Observatories offers a unique fund of ideas and practical details for anyone who wants to build an amateur or small professional observatory.

Magnetism is one of the basic properties of matter. Mankind has trav­ elled a long road in discovering and utilizing magnetism, and in this respect the ancient Chinese people have made outstanding contribu­ tions. In the book 'Lu's Spring and Autumn', written near the end of the Warring States Period, i. e. in the third century B. C. , there is a statement on the "attraction of iron by lodestones". So at that time it was known that magnets can attract ferromagnetic material. At the be­ ginning ofthe first century A. D. , viz. in the early years ofthe East Hang Dynasty, the famous scholar Wang Chong wrote in his masterpiece 'Len Hen' that the handle of a magnetic dipper pointed to the south. It was thus discovered at the time that magnets can point to the poles of the geomagnetic field. At the beginning of the twelfth century, during the reign of Emperor Hui of the Sung Dynasty, in the two books written by Zhu Yo and Xu Jin, respectively, there are descriptions of the com­ pass used in navigation. This tells us that the application of compasses was rather widespread at that time. The distinguished scientist Sen Go (1031-1085) discovered the declination of the terrestrial magnetic field. This is four hundred and more years earlier than its discovery by Christopher Columbus in 1492 during his voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. Such facts as these manifest the important contributions of ancient China to global civilization.

Solar flares are very complex electromagnetic phenomena of a cataclysmic nature. Particles are accelerated to very high velocities and a variety of physical processes happen inside and outside flares. These processes can be studied by a large number of techniques from Earth and from space. The aim is to discover the physics behind solar flares. This goal is complicated because information about the flare mechanism can be obtained only in an indirect way by studying the secondary effects.

One of the most spectacular discoveries of molecular astronomy has been the detection of maser emission. The same radiation that is generated in the laboratory only with elaborate, special equipment occurs naturally in interstellar space. This intense radiation probes the smallest structures that can be studied with radio telescopes. By a fortunate coincidence maser radiation is generated in both star forming regions and the envelopes of late-type stars. The early and late stages in the life of a star are considered to be the most interesting phases of stellar evolution. Maser emission has also been detected in external galaxies.

"Meteoric phenomena" is the accepted term for the complex of physi­ cal phenomena that accompany the entry of meteoric bodies into the at­ mosphere of the earth (or of any planet). "Meteoric bodies" are usually defined as cosmic bodies observed by optical or radar techniques, when they enter the atmosphere. The limiting sensitivity of present-day radar equipment makes it possible to record meteors of up to stellar magnitude +14, while the most brilliant bolides may reach magnitude -19. On a mass 7 7 scale this corresponds approximately to a range of 10- to 10 g. How­ ever, met~or astronomy is also concerned with larger objects, namely crater-forming meteorites, or objects that cause large-scale destruction when they arrive through the atmosphere (an example is the Tunguska River meteorite). Consideration of the interaction of such objects with 12 the terrestrial atmosphere extends the mass range to 10 g. On the other hand, scientists studying fragmentation processes in meteoric bod­ 7 ies have to consider particles with masses less than 10- g, and the use of data from meteoric-particle counters on rockets and artificial satel­ lites, from microcraters on the lunar surface, and from noctilucent clouds 12 lowers the minimum mass to 10- g. Therefore, the mass range of meteoric bodies, or meteoroids, encompasses 24 orders of magnitude. Although recent years have witnessed considerable development in meteor research, both in the Soviet Union and elsewhere, the main mono­ graphs on meteor physics were published twenty or more years ago.

Proceedings of Symposium No. 47 organized by the IAU held in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, March 22-26, 1971

THE MOON IX PREFACE TO THE SPRINGER EDITION When this collection of Babylonian astronomical purpose of column of the lunar ephemerides (by texts was published in 1955 (a date omitted by Aaboe) and the explanation of the method of computing the eclipse text ACT No. 6o (by Hamilton mistake from the title page), it contained all texts of this type that I could lay my hands on. As was to be and Aaboe). Some of these advances I have tried to incorporate into my History of Ancient Mathematical expected, the past 25 years provided more fragments, identified by A. Sachs and A. Aaboe in the British Astronomy (1975), which should be used as a guide to Museum and listed below. Also, some new joins the more recent literature. could be made and some errors of mine corrected. My sincerest thanks go to Springer-Verlag for Nevertheless, I think one still can consider the making this work again available to students of material of 1955 to be representative of what has been ancient astronomy. The Institute for Advanced preserved of the mathematical astronomy of the Study, which together with Brown University has Seleucid period. supported my work for more than four decades, has In the meantime, far more progress has been made graciously given its permission for this reprint. in our understanding of Babylonian astronomy, mainly by the publications of Aaboe, Hamilton, Maeyama, Sachs, van der Waerden, and others. As an Princeton 0.

This book discusses the study of astronomy in different cultures, applied historical astronomy and history of multi-wavelength astronomy, and the genesis of recent research. It contains peer-reviewed papers gathered from the International Conference on Oriental Astronomy 9 (ICOA-9) held at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Pune, India. It covers the areas like megalithic and other prehistoric astronomy, astronomical records in ancient texts, astronomical myths and architecture, astronomical themes in numismatics and rock art, ancient astronomers and their instruments, star maps and star catalogues, historical records and observations of astronomical events, calendars, calendrical science and chronology, the relation between astronomy and mathematics, and maritime astronomy. This book will be a valuable complement to a future generation of students and researchers who develop an interest in the field of Asian and circum-Pacific history of astronomy.

This book presents two candidates for astrophysical accelerators of cosmic rays with petaelectron-volt (PeV) energies in our Galaxy, the so-called PeVatrons, through the observation of sub-PeV gamma rays performed by the Tibet air shower array. The two gamma-ray sources are TASG J1844-038—a newly detected source in this presented work—and HESS J1849-000. Reconstructing their gamma-ray energy spectra up to the sub-PeV range and also analyzing the archive data published by a radio survey, the book discusses in depth the emission mechanisms of the observed gamma rays and suggests that these two gamma-ray sources are candidates for PeVatrons. The results give insights into the population of PeVatron in the Galaxy, which is important to consider their contribution to the PeV cosmic rays observed at the Earth.

About a year and a half ago a colleague from a nearby university came to ISU to give a talk. His topic was "Why the Big Bang Theory Is Wrong." During his talk he listed the tests that a good cosmology should be able to pass, and he attempted to show that other theories passed the tests just as well as the big bang theory did. He was quite emphatic in his assertion that the big bang theory was no better than certain other theories.

Robotic technology offers two potential benefits for future space exploration. One benefit is minimizing the risk that astronauts face. The other benefit is increasing their productivity.