Astronomy

Right: Photograph courtesy Norman Lockyer Observatory

Astronomy has been in the news in recent weeks with one of the most powerful solar flares in years erupting from the sun on October 28th. A pioneer in the field of solar research was the astro-physicist Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer (1836-1920), whose papers are held at the University of Exeter.

Lockyer carried out the first spectrographic observations of the sun to determine the composition of its atmosphere, and this led to his discovery in 1868 of the element helium. He estimated accurately the wind speed of a solar flare, and determined the temperature of the solar surface and of sunspots. Lockyer directed eight expeditions to observe total solar eclipses between 1870 and 1905. Lockyer established his own observatory at Sidmouth in 1912, to take advantage of the rural dark skies.

The Hub also includes descriptions for the papers of other leading astronomers, physicists, and mathematicians, and for the records of instrument makers and observatories.

Collections

• Jodrell Bank: established by radio astronomer Sir Bernard Lovell (born 1913) in 1945
• Norman Lockyer Observatory: established by Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer (1836-1920) in Devon in 1913
• Durham University Observatory: founded in 1839
• Balfour Stewart Auroral Laboratory: gathered observations from around the world
• William Herschel (1738 - 1822) musician and astronomer who discovered the planet Uranus

• Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer (1836-1920): pioneer of spectroscopy
• Alfred Fowler (1868-1940): astronomer, author of How to make a 2-inch telescope and what to see with it (1896)
• Erwin Finlay Freundlich (1885-1964): astronomer and physicist
• Herbert Dingle (1890-1978): astronomer, philosopher and historian of science
• Sir Robert Watson-Watt (1892-1973): physicist known as the "father of radar"

Links

• Jodrell Bank Observatory Cheshire
• Norman Lockyer Observatory & James Lockyer Planetarium Devon
• Royal Observatory Greenwich London
• William Herschel Museum (Bath Preservation Trust)

• History of Astronomy (Physical Sciences Information Gateway)
• NAHSTE: Astronomy and Astrophysics (Navigational Aids for the History of Science, Technology & the Environment)

• Light Pollution (Campaign to Protect Rural England)
• British Astronomical Association: Aurora Section maintained the Balfour Stewart observatory
• Society for Popular Astronomy
• National Space Centre Leicester

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