Beyond the Galaxy: The Development of Extragalactic Astronomy 1885–1965,Part 1

For a partial overview of these transformations, see Gingerich Owen (ed.), Astrophysics and twentieth-century astronomy to 1950 ( The general history of astronomy , iv/A; Cambridge, 1984), and Smith R. W. , “Remaking astronomy: Instruments and practice in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries”, in Nye M. J. (ed.), The Cambridge history of science, v: The modern physical and mathematical sciences (Cambridge, 2003), 154–73.

Clerke Agnes M. , The system of the stars , 1st edn (London, 1890), 368. For a biography of Clerke see Brück Mary T. , Agnes Mary Clerke and the rise of astrophysics (Cambridge, 2002).

Clerke Agnes M. , The system of the stars, 2nd edn (London, 1905), 349.

de Sitter W. , Kosmos: A course of six lectures… (Cambridge, MA, 1932), 1.

Hoskin M. A. , “Apparatus and ideas in mid-nineteenth century cosmology”, Vistas in astronomy, ix (1967), 79–85.

Herschel William , “On the construction of the heavens”, Philosophical transactions, lxxv (1785), 213–66, p. 249.

Herschel , “On the construction of the heavens” (ref. 6), 244.

Hubble Edwin , in The realm of the nebulae, attributes the first use of the concept of island universes to Thomas Wright of Durham, whose ideas were adapted by Immanuel Kant. Hubble also claimed the first use of the term ‘Weltinseln’ was due to Humboldt in Kosmos, which became “world islands” in the English translation. Hubble reported that he could not determine when this slid into the first use of the term ‘island universes’: Hubble Edwin , The realm of the nebulae (New Haven, 1936), 22–25.

Herschel William , “Astronomical observations relating to the construction of the heavens, arranged for the purpose of a critical examination.”, Philosophical transactions, ci (1811), 269–336, p. 270.

Dewhist David W. Hoskin Michael , “The Rosse spirals”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xxii (1991), 257–66.

Robinson T. R. , “Lord Rosse's telescopes”, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, iii (1845–47), 114–33 (read 25 April 1842 and 14 April 1845), p. 130. See also Hoskin Michael , “Rosse, Robinson, and the resolution of the nebulae”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xxi (1990), 1990–44.

Chambers Robert , Vestiges of the natural history of creation (London, 1844). The book went through twelve editions and only in the last was it revealed that Chambers was the author. For an excellent study of Chambers's volume, see Secord James , Victorian sensation: The extraordinary publication, reception, and secret authorship of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (Cambridge, 2003).

Hoskin , “Rosse, Robinson, and the resolution of the nebulae” (ref. 11), 341.

Schaffer Simon , “The nebular hypothesis and the science of progress”, in Moore J. R. (ed.), History, humanity, and evolution (Cambridge, 1989), 131–64. On the construction and operations of the Leviathan see also Bennett J. A. , Church, state and astronomy in Ireland: 200 years of Armagh Observatory (Armagh, 1990); Hoskin Michael , “The Leviathan of Parsonstown: Ambitions and achievements”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xxxiii (2002), 2002–70; and Schaffer Simon , “The Leviathan of Parsonstown: Literary technology and scientific reputation”, in Lenoir T. (ed.), Inscribing science: Scientific texts and the materiality of communication (Stanford, 1998), 182–222.

Crowe Michael , The extraterrestrial life debate 1750–1900: The idea of a plurality of worlds from Kant to Lowell (Cambridge, 1986), 265.

Whewell William , The plurality of worlds (Boston, 1854), 143–4.

Huggins W. , “On the spectra of some of the nebulae”, Philosophical transactions, cliv (1864), 437–44, p. 437.

Huggins , “On the spectra of some of the nebulae” (ref. 17), 438.

Huggins , “On the spectra of some of the nebulae” (ref. 17), 441.

See, for example, Huggins , “On the spectra of some of the nebulae” (ref. 17), and his remarks “On the spectra of some of the nebulae”, Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, xxv (1865), 155–7. On Huggins's researches and their context see Becker Barbara , “Eclecticism, opportunism and the evolution of a new research agenda: William and Margaret Huggins and the origins of astrophysics”, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, The Johns Hopkins University, 1993.

Jones Kenneth Glyn , “S Andromedae, 1885: An analysis of contemporary reports and a reconstruction”, Journal for the history of astronomy, vii (1976), 27–40, p. 40. Later of course this new object would be reclassified as a supernova, but in the late nineteenth century no such division had been established.

Clerke , op. cit. (ref. 2), 369. In the second edition, op. cit. (ref. 3), published in 1905, the two sentences in this quotation beginning “The star then which…” were replaced by “The seventh-magnitude star then which suddenly shone out in the midst of it in August 1885 should have been equivalent to 762,000 stars like Sirius, or to sixteen million suns as our own!” (p. 351).

Turner H. H. , “From an Oxford note-book”, The observatory, xxxiii (1911), 350–2, p. 351.

“Meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society. Friday, December 14, 1888”, The observatory, xii (1889), 51–59, p. 51.

Ibid., 52.

Ibid., 54.

Roberts Isaac , “Photographic analyses of the Great Nebula M 42 and 43 and h 1180 in Orion”, Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, xlix (1889), 295–7, p. 297. See also Roberts Isaac , A selection of photographs of stars, star-clusters and nebulae: Together with information concerning the instruments and the methods employed in the pursuit of celestial photography … (3 vols, London, 1893–99).

Clerke Agnes M. , “Sidereal photography”, Edinburgh review, clxvii (1888), 23–46, p. 28, and Problems in astrophysics (London, 1903), 5. On Clerke and the importance of photography to her goals as a popularizer of astronomy, see Lightman B. , “The visual theology of Victorian popularizers of science”, Isis, xci (2000), 2000–80.

On Easton's drawings of the Milky Way, see Smith R. W. , “Beyond the Big Galaxy: The structure of the stellar system 1900–1952”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xxxvii (2006), 307–42, pp. 309–12.

On the development of astronomical photography, see, among others, Lankford J. , “The impact of photography on astronomy”, in Gingerich (ed.), op. cit. (ref. 1), 16–39, and the references cited therein; Lankford J. , “Photography and the nineteenth-century transits of Venus”, Technology and culture, xxviii (1987), 648–57; Hentschel K. , Mapping the spectrum: Techniques of visual representation in research and teaching (Oxford, 2002); Hentschel K. Wittmann A. D. (eds), The role of visual representation in astronomy: History and research practice (Thun, 2000); Holmberg G. , “Mechanizing the astronomer's vision: On the role of photography in Swedish astronomy”, Annals of science, liii (1996), 1996–16; Osterbrock Donald E. , “Getting the picture: Wide-field astronomical photography from Barnard to the achromatic Schmidt, 1888–1992”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xxv (1994), 1994–14; Pang A. , “Technology, aesthetics, and the development of astrophotography at the Lick Observatory”, in Inscribing science: Scientific texts and the materiality of communication, ed. by Lenoir T. (Stanford, 1998), 223–48; Pang A. , Empire and the Sun: Victorian solar eclipse expeditions (Stanford, 2002); and Rothermel H. , “Images of the Sun: Warren de la Rue, George Biddell Airy, and celestial photography”, The British journal for the history of science, xxvi (1993), 1993–69.

Abbe C. , “On the distribution of the nebulae in space”, Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, xxvii (1867), 257–64.

Proctor R. , “Distribution of the nebulae”, Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, xxix (1869), 337–44, p. 342. That the nebulae tend to cluster around the galactic poles was already well known in the 1850s.

Proctor , “Distribution of the nebulae” (ref. 32), 342.

Dewhirst Hoskin , “The Rosse spirals” (ref. 10).

Dreyer J. L. E. , “Index Catalogue of nebulae in the years 1888 to 1894, with notes and corrections to the New General Catalogue”, Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society, li (1895), 185–228.

Keeler J. , “The Crossley Reflector of the Lick Observatory”, Astrophysical journal, xi (1900), 325–49. On Keeler, by far the best account is Osterbrock Donald E. , James E. Keeler: Pioneer American astrophysicist and the early development of American astrophysics (Cambridge, 1984). For a history of Lick, see Osterbrock D. Gustafson J. R. Unruh W. J. Shiloh , Eye on the sky: Lick Observatory's first century (Berkeley, 1988). A detailed work on the founding of Lick is Helen Wright, James Lick's monument: The saga of Captain Richard Floyd and the building of Lick Observatory (New York, 1987).

Keeler J. , “On the predominance of spiral forms among the nebulae”, Astronomische Nachrichten, cli (1900), cols 1–4, col. 1.

Secchi had devised his scheme of spectral classification in the 1860s and it was widely used. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the Harvard system instead came into widespread use. See DeVorkin D. H. , “Community and spectral classification in astrophysics: The acceptance of E. C. Pickering's system in 1910”, Isis, lxxii (1981), 29–49.

Scheiner J. , “On the spectrum of the Great Nebula in Andromeda”, Astrophysical journal, ix (1899), 149–50. This paper is a translation of “Ueber das Spectrum des Andromedanebels”, Astronomische Nachrichten, cxlviii (1898–99), cols 325–8.

H. Vogel's revision of Newcomb-Engelmann's Populäre Astronomie (Leipzig, 1905), 577.

Duerbeck H. W. , “Extragalactic research in Europe and the United States in the early 20^th century”, Astronomische Nachrichten, cccxxiii (2002), cols 534–7, referring to an article by H. Oleak in Sterne, lxxi (1995), 95.

Smith R. W. , The expanding universe: Astronomy's ‘Great Debate’ 1900–1931 (Cambridge, 1982), 9.

Moulton F. R. , “On the evolution of the solar system”, Astrophysical journal, xxii (1905), 165–81, p. 169.

Ibid. Indispensable on the Chamberlin-Moulton hypothesis is Brush S. , “A geologist among astronomers: The rise and fall of the Chamberlin-Moulton cosmogony”, Journal for the history of astronomy, ix (1978), 1–41 and 77–104.

Fath E. A. , “The spectra of some spiral nebulae and globular star clusters”, Lick Observatory bulletin, no. 149 (1909), 71–77, p. 76.

Bohlin K. , “Versuch einer Bestimmung der Parallaxe des Andromedanebels”, Astronomische Nachrichten, clxxvi (1907), cols 205–6. The prominent Swedish astronomer Knut Lundmark later wrote that Bohlin's result were undermined by mistakes in measuring the hour angle of the nebula: Lundmark K. , “Studies of anaglactic nebulae, first paper”, Meddelanden Från Astron. Observ. Uppsala, Series C, i, no. 8 (1927), 50–53. Bohlin's career is discussed in Holmberg G. , Reaching for the stars: Studies in the history of Swedish stellar and nebular astronomy 1860–1940 (Lund, 1999).

Fath , “The spectra of some spiral nebulae and globular star clusters” (ref. 45), 77.

Ibid.

Wolf M. , “Die Entfernung der Spiralnebel”, Astronomisches Nachrichten, cxc (1912), cols 229–32; “Das Spektrum des Andromedanebels”, Sitzungbr. Heidelberg Akad. Wiss., iiiA (1912), A3; and “Über die Spektrum einiger Spiralnebel”, Sitzungbr. Heidelberg Akad. Wiss., iiiA (1912), A15.

Fath E. to Slipher V. M. , 2 December 1912, Lowell Observatory Archives.

Campbell W. W. , “Some peculiarities in the motions of the stars”, Lick Observatory bulletin, no. 196 (1911), 125–35, p. 126.

Such a view of stellar evolution of course ran counter to the new theory being developed by Henry Norris Russell. This issue is discussed in DeVorkin's D. H. Henry Norris Russell: Dean of American astronomers (Princeton, 2000); see in particular pp. 124–9.

Boss L. , “Precession and solar motion. Third paper: Relation of systematic motions to spectral types”, The astronomical journal, xxvi (1911), 187–201, p. 200.

Kapteyn J. C. , “On certain statistical data which may be valuable in the classification of the stars in the order of their evolution”, Astrophysical journal, xxxi (1910), 258–69, p. 262. The origins of this paper, along with more details on Kapteyn's researches, are given in DeVorkin David H. , “An astronomical symbiosis: Stellar evolution and spectral classification (1860–1910)”, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Leicester, 1978, 242–60.

Kapteyn , “On certain statistical data which may be valuable in the classification of the stars in the order of their evolution” (ref. 54), 259.

On Lowell, see Strauss D. , Percival Lowell: The culture and science of a Boston Brahmin (Cambridge, MA, 2001), and Hoyt W. G. , Lowell and Mars (Tucson, 1976).

On Slipher, see Smith R. W. , “Red shifts and gold medals 1901–1954”, in Putnam William Lowell (ed.), The explorers of Mars Hill: A centennial history of Lowell Observatory (West Kennebunk, MN, 1994), 43–65, and Hoyt W. , “Vesto Melvin Slipher: 1875–1969”, Biographical memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, lii (1980), 1980–49.

Slipher V. M. , “The radial velocity in the Andromeda Nebula”, Lowell Observatory bulletin, no. 58 (1913), 56–57.

Slipher V. M. , “Spectrographic observations of nebulae”, Popular astronomy, xxiii (1915), 21–24, p. 23.

Slipher V. M. , “On the spectrum of the nebula in the Pleiades”, Lowell Observatory bulletin, no. 55 (1912), 26–27, p. 27.

See especially Slipher's remarks in opera cit. (refs 58–60).

Hertzsprung E. to Slipher V. M. , 14 March 1914, Lowell Observatory Archives.

Very F. , “Are the white nebulae galaxies?”, Astronomische Nachrichten, clxxxix (1911), cols 441–54.

Wolf M. , “Die Entfernung der Spiralnebel”, Astronomische Nachrichten, cxi (1912), cols 229–32.

For more on these methods, see Smith , The expanding universe (ref. 42), 11–12.

For a short overview on Easton's spiral models, see Smith , “Beyond the Big Galaxy” (ref. 29), 3–5.

For a brief overview on star-streaming and the relevant literature, see Ibid., 8–9.

Eddington A. S. , Stellar movements and the structure of the universe (Cambridge, 1914), 244.

Fath E. A. , “The spectra of spiral nebulae and globular star clusters. Second paper”, Astrophysical journal, xxxiii (1911), 58–63, pp. 60–61.

This is a theme of DeVorkin's Henry Norriss Russell (ref. 52).

Shapley H. , “Studies based on the colors and magnitudes in stellar clusters. Second paper: Thirteen hundred stars in the Hercules Cluster (Messier 13)”, Contributions from the Mount Wilson Solar Observatory, no. (1915), 1–92, p. 92.

Shapley H. , “On the distribution of stars in globular clusters”, The observatory, xxxix (1916), 452–6.

Eddington A. S. , “The nature of globular clusters”, The observatory, xxxix (1916), 513–14. The Eddington—Hertzsprung correspondence is discussed in Smith, The expanding universe (ref. 42), 25–27.

Jeans J. , Problems of cosmogony and stellar dynamics (Cambridge, 1919), 215.

Campbell W. , “The nebulae”, Science, xlv (1917), 513–48, p. 531.

Campbell , “The nebulae” (ref. 75), 532.

Campbell , “The nebulae” (ref. 75), 534.

Campbell , “The nebulae” (ref. 75), 548.

Curtis H. D. , “New stars in spiral nebulae”, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, xxix (1917), 180–2, and “Three novae in spiral nebulae”, Lick Observatory bulletin, no. 300 (Oct. 1917). Hoskin's M. A. “Ritchey, Curtis and the discovery of novae in spiral nebulae”, Journal for the history of astronomy, vii (1976), 1976–53, makes Curtis's priority clear.

Campbell , “The nebulae” (ref. 75), 532.

van Maanen A. , “Investigations on proper motions. Fifth paper: The internal motion in the spiral nebula Messier 81”, Astrophysical journal, liv (1921), 347–56, p. 356. There are a number of works on van Maanen's investigations. See, among others, Berendzen R. Hart R. , “Adriaan van Maanen's influence on the island universe theory”, Journal for the history of astronomy, iv (1973), 1973–56 and 73–98; and Hart R. , “Adriaan van Maanen's influence on the island universe theory”, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Boston University, 1973. Michael Hoskin first drew attention to Hubble manuscripts relating to his controversy with van Maanen over the latter's alleged rotations, see Hoskin Michael , Stellar astronomy: Historical studies (Chalfont St Giles, 1982), 164–5. N. Hetherington's The Edwin Hubble papers: Previously unpublished manuscripts on the extragalactic nature of spiral nebulae (Tucson, 1990) centres on the same controversy but contains substantial material on the wider context of van Maanen's researches and contains references to earlier papers on van Maanen by Hetherington. A later paper is R. S. Brashear and N. Hetherington, “The Hubble—van Maanen conflict over internal motions in spiral nebulae: Yet more information on an already old topic”, Vistas in astronomy, xxxiv (1991), 1991–23. Hetherington also discusses van Maanen in Science and objectivity: Episodes in the history of astronomy (Iowa, 1988).

Shapley H. , “Studies based on the colors and magnitudes in stellar clusters. Twelfth paper: Remarks on the arrangement of the sidereal universe”, Astrophysical journal, xlix (1919), 311–36.

Smith R. W. , “The Great Debate revisited”, Sky and telescope, lxv (1983), 28–29.

Hoskin M. A. , “The ‘Great Debate’: What really happened”, Journal for the history of astronomy, vii (1976), 169–82. This interpretation was one of the early fruits of an archivally based study of extragalactic astronomy that exploited unpublished materials rather than relying on published materials alone, which had been the case until pioneering studies by Hoskin and Richard Berendzen in the late 1960s. On the twists and turns in the search for the Harvard director, see DeVorkin , Henry Norris Russell (ref. 52), and O. Gingerich, “How Shapley came to Harvard: Snatching the prize from the jaws of debate”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xix (1988), 1988–7. An earlier paper is Hetherington N. , “The Shapley—Curtis Debate”, Astronomical Society of the Pacific leaflets, no. 490 (1970), 1–8. The “Great Debate” is also at the heart of Berendzen R. Hart R. Seeley D. , Man discovers the galaxies (Boston, 1976), which although written as a textbook is also an important synthesis from the perspective of 1976 of researches on the history of galactic and extragalactic astronomy in the first decades of the twentieth century, with much of the research conducted by the authors.

Smith , The expanding universe (ref. 42), 79.

On the lead up to the “Great Debate”, see Hoskin “The ‘Great Debate’” (ref. 85), and Smith , The expanding universe (ref. 42), 77–80.

Curtis H. D. , “Modern theories of the spiral nebulae”, Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, xiv (1920), 317–27.

Hoskin , “The ‘Great Debate’” (ref. 85), 174.

De Sitter , Kosmos (ref. 4), 86.

Curtis H. D. , “The scale of the universe”, Bulletin of the National Research Council, ii/3 (1921), 194–217, p. 206.

Shapley H. , “The scale of the universe”, Bulletin of the National Research Council, ii/3 (1921), 171–93, p. 192.

Ibid., 193.

Jaki S. L. , The Milky Way: An elusive road for science (New York, 1972), 270.

Curtis H. D. to Slipher V. M. , 3 June 1924, Allegheny Observatory Archives.