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This Month in Astronomical History
Drawing by Jason E. Ybarra
Each month, as part of a series started in July 2016, the Historical Astronomy Division will highlight an important discovery or memorable event in the history of astronomy on the AAS website. An archive of these posts is below. A similar resouce for physics, This Month in Physics History, may be found on the website of the American Physical Society.
Interested in writing a This Month in Astronomical History article for the AAS News Digest? The AAS Historical Astronomy Division is always looking for enthusiastic individuals who want to contribute to the column, which appears in the twice-monthly newsletter sent to the AAS membership, and is archived on the Historical Astronomy Division’s website. Length should be approximately 500 words. A list of author guidelines may be found here .
Possible topics include significant discoveries, birth of a noted astronomer, key astronomical events, and important papers.
If interested, please e-mail us at historycol@aas.org or to https://tinyurl.com/ybeku688
.Editor: Jason E. Ybarra (Bridgewater College)
We thank Teresa Wilson (Michigan Technological University) for founding this feature, and for serving as its editor since July 2016!
Click here to see these features arranged by month
- November 2020: Sedna: In the Depths of the Solar System
Written by Emily McMahon - October 2020: The First Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
Written by Michael E. Marotta - September 2020: Bayer's Uranometria
Written by Jason E. Ybarra - August 2020: America's First Woman Astronomer: Maria Mitchell (1818-1889)
Written by Jascin N. Leonardo Finger - June 2020: James Christy Discovers Charon
Written by Michael Marotta - May 2020: First Recorded Perihelion Of Halley's Comet
Written by Jason E. Ybarra - April 2020: The "Remarkable" Eclipse of 1894
Written by Thomas Hockey - March 2020: The First Recorded Scientist
Written by Sethanne Howard - January 2020: The Birth of Stellafane
Written by Kristine Larsen
- December 2019: John Michell and His Dark Star
Written by Jason Ybarra - November 2019: The Greek Drama of 6 November 1919: In Defense of Arthur Stanley Eddington
Written by Daniel Kennefick - October 2019: 50 Years of Charge-Coupled Devices
Written by Sara Turriziani - August 2019: Reflections on 100 Years of the International Astronomical Union
Written by Virginia Trimble - July 2019: Northern Arizona's Role in the Apollo Moon Missions
Written by Kevin Schindler - June 2019: Eratosthenes and the Circumference of the Earth
Written by Jason E. Ybarra - May 2019: The 1919 Solar Eclipse from the Standpoint of Astronomy
Written by Daniel Kennefick - April 2019: BeppoSAX and Gamma Ray Bursts
Written by Virara Turriziani - March 2019: Astronomy Meets the Periodic Table
Written by Virginia L. Trimble - February 2019: 400 Years of Kepler's Third Law
Written by Jason E. Ybarra - January 2019: Galileo's Discovery of the Moons of Jupiter
Written by Philip D. Nicholson
- December 2018: The First Cepheid Variable Discovered Was, Of Course...Eta Aquilae?
Written by Linda M. French - November 2018: Cosmic Fireworks
Written by Pedro Raposo - October 2018: Karl Jansky and the Discovery of Cosmic Radio Waves
Written by Alan W. Hirshfeld - September 2018: Algol: the Star of Frequent Changes
Written by Jason E. Ybarra - August 2018: The Mysterious Wow! Signal
Written by Rebecca Anne Charbonneau - July 2018: Henrietta Swan Leavitt
Written by Teresa Wilson - June 2018: The Bicentenary of the Birth of Angelo Secchi, SJ
Written by Christopher J. Corbally - May 2018: L'Aigle Meteorite Fall of 1803
Written by Jason E. Ybarra - April 2018: Leonardo Da Vinci and Earthshine
Written by Kevin Schindler - March 2018: How Shall We Remember Caroline Herschel?
Written by Rebecca Anne Charbonneau - February 2018: One of America's Early African American Astronomers
Written by Sethanne Howard - January 2018: The Discovery of Ceres
Written by Teresa Wilson
- December 2017: Remembering John Bahcall
Written by Teresa Wilson - November 2017: 100 Years for the Hooker Telescope
Written by Teresa Wilson - October 2017: The Invention of the Telescope
Written by Teresa Wilson - September 2017: The Discovery of Neptune
Written by Teresa Wilson - August 2017: Relativity and Vulcan's Vanishing Act
Written by Teresa Wilson - July 2017: Solar Eclipse of 1878
Written by Teresa Wilson - June 2017: 2004 Venus Transit
Written by Teresa Wilson - May 2017: Women Computers at Dudley Observatory
Written by Teresa Wilson - April 2017: Great Debate on the Nature of the Universe
Written by Teresa Wilson - March 2017: Calendar Reform
Written by Teresa Wilson - February 2017: The Discovery of Pluto
Written by Teresa Wilson - January 2017: Remembering Bengt Stromgren
Written by Teresa Wilson
- December 2016: Winter Solstice & Archaeoastronomy
Written by Teresa Wilson - November 2016: Launch of Sputnik 2
Written by Teresa Wilson - October 2016: Miss Mitchell's Comet
Written by Teresa Wilson - September 2016: Remembering Edwin Hubble
Written by Teresa Wilson - August 2016: The Moons of Mars
Written by Teresa Wilson - July 2016: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9
Written by Teresa Wilson
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