Exhibit 2001

Dudley Observatory

presents

a display of books from the Dudley Observatory Library

 April 17th to 21st, 2001

at the

Schenectady Museum & Planetarium

Depiction of star patterns in the heavens go back to at least about 1470 BC, when ceilings of Egyptian tombs were decorated with constellations such as the Hippopotamus, Crocodile and Bull. A Mesopotamian boundary stone from 1100 BC, now in the British Museum, shows a sky containing a Scorpion and a Lion, still among our constellations. The Chinese were making "stick figure" star charts of such asterisms (star patterns) as the Big Dipper by 940 AD. The first published star atlas, Alessandro Piccolomini's De la stelle fisse, appeared in Venice in 1540. The star maps in this exhibit cover the period from 1661 through the 20th century.

As you look at these pictures, try to imagine other ways of grouping the stars.

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Bayer, Johannes, 1572-1625. Mair, Alexander, ca. 1559.

Ioannis Bayeri Rhainani I.C. vranometria : omnivm asterismorvm continens schemata, nova methodo delineata, aereis laminis expressa / Ioannis Bayeri.

Vlmae : Sumptibus Iohannis Gorlini, 1661.

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Lubieniecki, Stanislaw, 1623-1675.

Stanislai de Lubienietz Lubieniecii ... Theatrum cometicum, : duabus partibus constans, qu arum altera frequenti senatu philosophico conspicua, cometas anni 1664 & 1665 variis virorum per Europam clariss. cum quibus auctor de hoc argumento contulit, observationibus, dissertationibus, animadversionibus descriptos & quinquaginta novem figuris aeneis illustratos, exhibet ... altera continet Historiam ccccxv. cometarum, a tempore diluvii ad ann. 1665 ... Et Theatri cometici exitus, sive De significatione cometarum ...

Amstelodami, : Typis Danielis Baccamude, apud Franciscum Cuperum, sumptibus authoris., 1666-1668.

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Doppelmayr, Johann Gabriel, 1671-1750.

Atlas novus coelestis in quo mundus spectabilis et in eodem tam errantium quam inerrantium stellarum phoenomena notabilia ... secundum Nic. Copernici et ex parte Tychonis de Brahe hipothesin. Nostri intuitu, specialiter, respectu vero ad apparentias planetarum indagatu possibiles e planetis primariis, et e luna habito, generaliter e celeberrimorum astronomorum observationibus graphice de scripta exhibentur a Joh. Gabriele Doppelmaiero ...

Norimbergae, Heredi Homannianorum, 1742.

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Lacaille, Nicolas Louis de, 1713-1762.

Coelum australe stelliferum, seu, Observationes ad construendum stellarum australium catalogum institutae : in Africa ad Caput Bonae-Spei / a Nicolao-Ludovico de La Caille ... .

Parisiis : Sumptibus Hipp. Lud. Guerin & Lud. Fr. Delatour ... , 1763.

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Bode, Johann Elert, 1747-1826.

Anleitung zur Kenntniss des Gestirnten Himmels / Johann Elert Bode.

Berlin : bey Christian Friedrich Himburg, 1788.

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 Bode, Johann Elert, 1747-1826.

Vorstellung der Gestirne auf vier und dreyssig kupfertafeln nebst einer anweisung zum Gebrauch und einem Verzeichnisse von 5877 sternen, nebelflecken und sternhaufen / von J. E. Bode.

Berlin und Stralsund ; bey Gottlieb August Lange, 1805.

 

Uranography: or, A description of the heavens; designed for the academies and schools; accompanied by an atlas of the heavens, showing the places of the principal stars, clusters, and nebulae.

Philadelphia : Butler & Williams, 1844.

Universitats-Sternwarte zu Bonn

Bonner Durchmusterung, Sudlicher Teil

Bonn, F. Dummlers, 1965.

Guide to the Constellations

New York : McGraw-Hill, 1928.

National Geographic Society - Palomar Observatory Sky Atlas (PSS)

Pasadena, California Institute of Technology, 1954-1958.

Field Guide to the Stars and Planets, including the moon, satellites, comets and other features of the universe.

Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1964.

The Dudley Observatory

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