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A thought provoking study of the powerful impact of images in guiding astronomers' understanding of galaxies through time.
List of contents
Introduction; Part I. Images and the Cosmos: 1. Viewing heavenly mist; 2. Portraying cosmic whirlpools; 3. Taking celestial snapshots to photographing the realm of Galaxies; 4. Picturing 'nebulae' for the mind; Part II. Images as Galaxy Discovery Engines: 5. The one-thousand years journey; 6. Galaxies in focus; 7. A symphony of waves; 8. Imaging the invisible; Part III. Organizing the World of Galaxies: 9. The Galaxy classification play-off; 10. Atlases of Galaxies, picturing island-universes; 11. Galaxy Atlases viewed by their users; Conclusion.
About the author
Jean-René Roy is a retired astronomer who was a professor at Université Laval, Québec, from 1977 to 2000. Since then he has served as Deputy Director and Head of Science at the Gemini Observatory in Hawai'i and Chile and worked at the Large Facilities Office of the National Science Foundation and finally at the Space Telescope Science Institute. He has done research on the Sun, the interstellar medium, and the evolution of gas-rich galaxies. A new edition of his previous book, A Question and Answer Guide to Astronomy, was published in 2017.
Summary
Continuous innovation in imaging techniques have been essential for discovering galaxies and revealing unexpected properties of the universe. By highlighting the discovery-role of images and that of their most spectacular displays - atlases of galaxies - this book places the exploration of galaxies within broader contexts in the history of science.
