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Starlight Detectives: How Astronomers, Inventors, and Eccentrics Discovered the Modern Universe
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Product Description Julia Ward Howe Award Finalist NBC News Top Science and Tech Books of the Year” selection Scientific American/FSG Favorite Science Books of the Year” selection Nature.com Top Reads of the Year” selection Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year” selection Discover magazine Top 5 Summer Read” A masterful balance of science, history and rich narrative.” Discover magazine Hirshfeld tells this climactic discovery of the expanding universe with great verve and sweep, as befits a story whose scope, characters and import leave most fiction far behind.” Wall Street Journal Starlight Detectives is just the sort of richly veined book I love to readfull of scientific history and discoveries, peopled by real heroes and rogues, and told with absolute authority. Alan Hirshfeld’s wide, deep knowledge of astronomy arises not only from the most careful scholarship, but also from the years he’s spent at the telescope, posing his own questions to the stars.” DAVA SOBEL, author of A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos and Longitude In 1929, Edwin Hubble announced the greatest discovery in the history of astronomy since Galileo first turned a telescope to the heavens. The galaxies, previously believed to float serenely in the void, are in fact hurtling apart at an incredible speed: the universe is expanding. This stunning discovery was the culmination of a decades-long arc of scientific and technical advancement. In its shadow lies an untold, yet equally fascinating, backstory whose cast of characters illuminates the gritty, hard-won nature of scientific progress. The path to a broader mode of cosmic observation was blazed by a cadre of nineteenth-century amateur astronomers and inventors, galvanized by the advent of photography, spectral analysis, and innovative technology to create the entirely new field of astrophysics. From William Bond, who turned his home into a functional observatory, to John and Henry Draper, a father and son team who were trailblazers of astrophotography and spectroscopy, to geniuses of invention such as Léon Foucault, and George Hale, who founded the Mount Wilson Observatory, Hirshfeld reveals the incredible storiesand the ambitious dreamersbehind the birth of modern astronomy. Alan Hirshfeld, Professor of Physics at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and an Associate of the Harvard College Observatory, is the author of Parallax: The Race to Measure the Cosmos, The Electric Life of Michael Faraday, and Eureka Man: The Life and Legacy of Archimedes. Review Julia Ward Howe Award Finalist NBC News “Top Science and Tech Books of the Year” selection Scientific American/FSG “Favorite Science Books of the Year” selection Nature.com “Top Reads of the Year” selection Kirkus Reviews “Best Books of the Year” selection Discover magazine “Top 5 Summer Read” “A masterful balance of science, history and rich narrative.” ― Discover magazine “Astrophysicist Hirshfeld chronicles the radical changes in our conception of the cosmos.” ― Scientific American (recommended feature review) “Tales of pioneering skywatchers and their discoveries in the 19th century show how modern astronomy was born.” ― Science News “Hirshfeld tells this climactic discovery of the expanding universe with great verve and sweep, as befits a story whose scope, characters and import leave most fiction far behind.” ― Wall Street Journal “Even today, amateurs trade images over the Internet that professional astronomers incorporate into their work. This abundant crossplay informs Starlight Detectives . . . Author Alan Hirshfeld explains how ‘the human eye itself was a fundamental roadblock to progress’ and how the heroes are the ones who made higher-quality telescopes and photographs. Those who applied substances like collodion, and then gelatin, to create crisper photographic negatives, are key here. And because of mounting technological advances, our era boasts grea
