Reviews for Simon Newcomb: America's Unofficial Astronomer Royal

The average rating for Simon Newcomb: America's Unofficial Astronomer Royal based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-12-29 00:00:00 Sharon White Simon Newcomb was one of America's better known scientists in the second half of the nineteenth century. A Canadian immigrant, he was employed by the Naval Observatory or the related institutions for most of his career. His astronomical interests focused on the application of Newtonian physics and mathematics to the prediction of the locations of planets and the moon. In particular, he was interested in improving the prediction of the location of the moon in the sky, a difficult problem in that it involves the gravitational influences of both the earth and the sun, and cannot be mathematically solved exactly. Newcomb also carried out measurements that improved the estimation of the speed of light; these improved estimates made it possible to more accurately measure the distance of the earth and other plants from the sun. Newcomb had some difficulties with his government position, as he thought that a professional astronomer, preferably himself, should be in charge of the naval observatory rather than a career naval officer. He failed in his attempts to make his view prevail. Newcomb was awarded the Copley Medal by the Royal Society in 1890.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-12-06 00:00:00 Jacqueline Matthews On Tycho's Island is a history of astronomy book that looks at the amazing astronomer Tycho Brahe and his island observatory. It takes a good look that the years that Tycho operated his observatory Uraniborg, but doesn't look too closely at the rest of Tycho's life. His early years are given brief treatment and his time in exile is only explored up to the time that he landed a position with the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II. Largely missing is his time with Johannes Kepler, that is unless you read the biographical entries at the end of the book. The author appended biographies of virtually all of the people mentioned in the book, sometimes with information that was relevant to the life of Tycho, but often not. I would have preferred to have more info about Tycho himself in place of all of these biographical entries but I understand the author's rationale for including it.