Isaac Roberts Nebula M1 Tauri A selection of photographs of stars, star-clusters and nebulae (Plate XXVI--Nebula M1 Tauri) Roberts's description: The photograph shows the nebula to be elongated in s.f. to n.p. direction; irregular in outline, and somewhat resembles an island, with deep bays at intervals round its margin. The original negative shows mottling and rifts in the nebulosity, and that one of the rifts curves near the n.f. margin; another extends across from the n.f. to the s.p. side, with a star of about the 14th magnitude at its centre. There are also some star-like condensations involved in the nebulosity." Image from Linda Hall Library: https://catalog.lindahall.org/discovery/delivery/01LINDAHALL_INST:LHL/1299184560005961

NASA's description: "In its new image, Hubble captured the nebula’s intricate filamentary structure, as well as the considerable outward movement of those filaments over 25 years, at a pace of 3.4 million miles per hour. Hubble is the only telescope with the combination of longevity and resolution capable of capturing these detailed changes...The variation of colors in both of the Hubble images shows a combination of changes in local temperature and density of the gas as well as its chemical composition." https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-revisits-crab-nebula-to-track-25-years-of-expansion/

*Two images of the Crab Nebula (M1)*

1) Photograph taken by Isaac Roberts w/a 20-inch reflector (1895)
2) Photograph taken by #NASA using the Hubble Space Telescope (2024)

More info on the latter: science.nasa.gov/missions/hub... (HT @astrojaz.bsky.social)

#histSTM #histsci #astronomy #histastro

Johannes Kepler’s Platonic solar system from the 1621 edition of Mysterium cosmographicum.

Giovanni Domenico Cassini’s 1679 moon map next to James Nasmyth and James Carpenter’s The Moon: Considered as a Planet, a World, and a Satellite (1874).

An autographed photo that Wernher Von Braun gave to Gloria Swanson. (“To Gloria Swanson with esteem and affection—-Wernher von Braun”)

The plate used to print a lunar map during the New York Journal-American’s coverage of NASA’s Ranger 7 mission.

Today I had the privilege of sharing some of @ransomcenter.bsky.social’s history of science holdings with members of The University of Texas at Austin McDonald Observatory and Department of #Astronomy Board of Visitors. Here are a few highlights!

#histsci #histSTM #histastro 🔭 🤘

The Hohendorff Almagest: A rediscovered case study in early modern ptolemaic astronomy royalsocietypublishing.org/rsnr/article... | #Astronomy #HistSci #HistAstro #HistMaths

#ResearchReels: 1 publication—3 minutes🏅
Researcher Razieh S. Mousavi presents her article "Calculation & Power: Engagement of Astronomers in Water Management,” published in “Science and Praxis” in @degruyterbrill.bsky.social “Intersections” series.🔭🚰

🔗 youtu.be/trNfyui58dY

#HistSci #HistAstro

The Hohendorff Almagest: A rediscovered case study in early modern ptolemaic astronomy royalsocietypublishing.org/rsnr/article... | #NotesAndRecords #Astronomy #HistSci #HistAstro #HistMaths

William Puntine (1752-1833), of Jamaica, Queens.

A closeup of the portrait showing a piece of wood with a set of lenses at the end...

Question for #histsci, #histastro & #MaritimeHistory colleagues-This is a portrait of William Puntine (1752-1833), of Jamaica, Queens. Do you recognize the instrument he is carrying?

(The friend who shared it w/me thought the lenses at the end might be used w/a sextant to protect viewers' eyes.) 🗃️📜

Felis the Cat, Chart XIX of Johann Bode's Uranographia (1801). http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/felis.html

For more info about Quadrans Muralis--and other obsolete constellations, including Felis the Cat (proposed by Lalande in 1799)--check out Ian Ridpath's Star Tales:

www.ianridpath.com/startales/co...

#histastro #constellations 🔭🐈‍⬛

For certain reasons...
☄️🔭 #histastro #histscience

Fabulous PhD opportunity at Queen's University Belfast and Armagh Observatory:

Observing the Heavens from the 'Periphery': Astronomy in Ireland 1640-1830

www.qub.ac.uk/courses/post... Deadline 13 Jan #histSTM #histastro

Case describes the challenge of tracing Herschel's intellectual trajectory. How did he emerge from his father's shadow and get to the point where he could write his most influential book, Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy (1831)?

#HSS2025 #histSTM #philsci #histastro

Includes open-access articles on an ancient Greek nova referenced by Hipparchus (possibly) & Pliny, and on comparisons between Greco-Roman astrology & Babylonian star observations; also a non-OA piece on the earliest period calculations for the Galilean satellites, and more: #HistSci #HistAstro

Boosting the signal for #histSTM, #histastro & #astronomy friends! 🔭

The application deadline for this workshop is November 15, 2025.

Brepols - Giovanni Pontano, Commentationes in centum sententiis Ptolemaei Brepols is an international academic publisher of works in the humanities, with a particular focus in history, archaeology, history of the arts, language and literature, and critical editions of histo...

A more complete description of this work and full table of contents is available on the @brepols.net website: www.brepols.net/products/IS-... #HistSci #HistAstro #medievalsky

Me holding my copy (purchased secondhand as a deaccessioned library copy from Better World Books) of Mark Bowen's book, "The Telescope in the Ice: Inventing a New Astronomy at the South Pole."

This is not technically a sociology of science book but is in fact a rich text on how science and engineering happen under extreme conditions, in this case the origins & construction of the IceCube neutrino observatory at the South Pole: bookshop.org/p/books/the-... #STS #HistAstro 🔭

Have you marked your calendars?
🔭☄️ #histsci #histastro

‘Mapping the Heavens: Art, Astronomy, and Exchange Between the Islamic Lands and Europe’ Review: Earthly Connections, Cosmic Revelations An exhibition at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art charts the development of astronomical knowledge across continents before and after the Scientific Revolution.

Pleased to read a review of @finchinthestacks.bsky.social, Kim Masteller (N-A) & mine’s show, “Mapping the Heavens”- we’re proud of it, glad to see our work discussed on the national stage in @wsj.com ! www.wsj.com/arts-culture...
q
📜 #bookhistory #booksky #libsky #histstm 🔬 #histastro #rarebooks

A really great position with an outstanding supervisor working with a BONKERS collection! 📜 #bookhistory #booksky #libsky #histstm 🔬 #histastro #rarebooks

‪Our colleagues at the Nelson-Atkins made this great video of
@finchinthestacks.bsky.social and I talking about books for the "Mapping the Heavens" show we co-curated - and it's up now! Watch, share, enjoy, etc! 📜 #bookhistory #booksky #libsky #histstm 🔬 #histastro 🔭 www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8PB...

I should have tagged this thread #planetarysci, and also a little bit #histastro. 🧵

🔭

For all the #Simpsons-loving historians of #astronomy out there…

(HT Brian Bonelli on FB’s Bortposting group)

#histSTM #histastro
#Huygens #Saturn 🔭

Encounter Day, Morning: The Heart of Pluto - Vatican Observatory As I left the Applied Physics Laboratory on the evening of Monday, 13 July—a day I wrote about in “Land of the Plutophiles“—I knew the New...

2015: First look at #Pluto's bright heart, later known as Sputnik Planitia.

(Well, Sputnik is really half of the heart shape, but this is no occasion to quibble.)

They handed out U.S. flags. I still have mine.

Let's tag this thread: 🔭 #PlanetaryScience #HistAstro

5/n

Gave the Spencer / @kulibraries.bsky.social copy of Newton's "Principia" (1687) a little glow up, as a treat. #HistSci 📜 📚 #histSTM #astronomy #histastro 🗃️🔭 kuprimo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/...

This open-access journal issue on medieval Baghdad and the Mongol conquest includes an article on Nasir al-Din al-Tusi's summary & commentary on Ptolemy's Almagest, for any #HistAstro or #HistSci types who might be interested. Also articles on libraries, manuscripts, & medieval buildings.

#OTD in 1868, Henrietta Swan Leavitt was born in Lancaster, Massachusetts.

Her story is an example of how passion and determination can overcome significant social and personal barriers.

I reshare a long thread of mine about this great woman and astronomer.

🔭 🧪 #HistSci #WomenInStem #HistAstro

Jérôme de Lalande Joseph Jérôme Le Français de Lalande, a French astronomer and mathematician, was born on July 11, 1721. Lalande wrote a number of books on astronomy, many of which we have...

Jérôme de Lalande, French astronomer & mathematician, is LHL's #ScientistOfTheDay. Bill features a recent acquisition (my final one for LHL) by Lalande about the Languedoc Canal, a book I've wanted for some time: #histSTM #histastro #galileo #OnThisDay 🗃️📜⚙️🔭 www.lindahall.org/about/news/s...

After Hours with Flamsteed's Burned Star Atlas This program will be presented virtually via Zoom webinar.In 1716, British astronomer John Flamsteed built a pyre near the Royal Observatory. On it, he burned pages from a book he wrote as a “sacrifice to truth.” The pages were from the 1712 edition of Flamsteed’s Historiae coelestis, which Isaac Newton and Edmund Halley had printed despite Flamsteed’s vehement objections. What happened after the fire? How did copies of Historiae coelestis spread, and who circulated them? Not all the offending pages went up in flames. Flamsteed kept a few copies of the objectionable sections. In one copy, recently acquired by the Linda Hall Library, Flamsteed and his assistant took pen to paper in pursuit of truth: striking through, crossing out, and annotating Newton and Halley’s mistakes. Join scholar Emma Hill and the Library’s Vice President for Special Collections and Public Services Jason W. Dean as they introduce Hill’s census of surviving copies and discuss how the census has uncovered new information about the book’s production and the human story surrounding it.

Friends, for my final program at LHL on May 22, I will be joined by @hillemmalouise.bsky.social to discuss what happened after the burning of 300 copies of John Flamsteed’s 1712 Historia coelestis. Register here: events.lindahall.org/afterhourswi... #HistSci 📜 📚 #histSTM #astronomy #histastro 🗃️🔭

Includes chapters on a Vatican copy of al-Sufi's star atlas bound with a tract by his son, comparisons of medieval manuscript illustrations with murals from Egyptian monasteries in Wadi al-Natrun, and more, all open access. 😃 📚 #medievalsky #histsci #histastro

Helen Spencer in the Spencer Room at the Linda Hall Library, looking at a case with rare books open. The room is paneled in wood, with wall to wall carpeting.

After a great deal of deliberation and thought, I want to share that Friday, May 23 will be my final day at the Linda Hall Library. Excited to share the next step in my career soon! (It's something I am really excited about!) #histSTM #histastro #galileo #OnThisDay 🗃️📜⚙️🔭

Close-up view of an excerpt from Miechowita's manuscript library catalog, with a red box drawn around the Latin text where he notes that he owns "sexternus theorice asserentis terram moveri, solem vero quiescere."

Historians of astronomy celebrate his library catalog, which forms the largest part of a will & inventory of possessions that he began writing on May 1, 1514, because he notes at one point that he owns "a 6-folio theorica declaring that the earth moves & the sun is in fact at rest." #histastro

Large folding map of the paths of the three comets of 1618 against the stars, engraving, unsigned, in De tribus cometis anni M.DC.XVIII: Disputatio astronomica, by [Orazio Grassi], 1619 (Linda Hall Library)

Orazio Grassi, Jesuit mathematician and astronomer (and foe of Galileo), is LHL's #ScientistOfTheDay. Really pleased that Bill featured two of our recent-ish acquisitions in this SOTD: #histSTM #histastro #galileo #OnThisDay 🗃️📜⚙️🔭 www.lindahall.org/about/news/s...