Minding the Heavens: The Story of Our Discovery of the Milky Way

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Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Acknowledgments 1. Introduction Viewing the Galaxy from Within The Milky Way Early Theories of the Universe The Theory of Island Universes The Andromeda Nebula Ongoing Discovery Notes 2. Thomas Wright: Visionary of Stellar Systems Background: The Age of Newton, Halley and Cassini Explorations Early London Years: Astro-Theological Musings Man of Many Talents Astronomy and Astro-Theology Kant Reads Wright Second Thoughts Notes 3. William Herschel: Natural Historian of the Universe A Career in Music Caroline From Amateur to Professional The Construction of the Heavens The 40-Foot Telescope The Evolution of Nebulae Laplace's Nebular Hypothesis Infrared Radiation and Binary Stars The Unfathomed Milky Way Notes 4. Wilhelm Struve: Seeker of Parallax A Classical Education Bessel's Influence Geodesy, Double Stars and the Search for Parallax Dorpat's Great Refractor Professional Contacts Support Struve in a Crisis Bessel's Heliometer Crises and New Directions for Struve Parallax The Etudes Final Years Notes 5. William Huggins: Pioneer of the New Astronomy An Informal Education Attraction to Astronomy The Beginnings of Spectroscopy Collaboration with Miller Spectra of the Nebulae The Motions of the Stars The 15-Inch Telescope Margaret Competition Later Years Notes 6. Jacobus Kapteyn: Mastermind without a Telescope A Start in Leiden An Inauspicious Start at Groningen Sky Surveys Stellar Distances and Motions Star Streaming and the Plan of Selected Areas Mount Wilson and the Problem of Interstellar Absorption Hertzsprung New Ways to Estimate Distances Searching for a Synthesis World War I Later Years: The Kapteyn Universe Notes 7. Harlow Shapley: Champion of the Big Galaxy A Missouri Childhood Undergraduate Years in Missouri Eclipsing Binaries at Princeton Arrival at Mount Wilson Globular Cluster Distances The "Big Galaxy" Hypothesis Elucidating the Sidereal Structure "Formicid" and Other Adventures Shapley Marshals His Arguments Heber Curtis The Great Debate Shapley to Harvard Lingering Questions from the Great Debate The Magellanic Clouds and Other Metagalactic Subjects World War II and Its Aftermath An Unpopular Internationalist Stance Later Years Notes 8. Edwin Hubble: Redeemer of Island Universes Early Interest in Astronomy A Reluctant Student of Law Graduate Study in Astronomy Military Service and a Stay in Cambridge Early Mount Wilson Years Classifying the Nebulae Jeans's Nebular Theory Breakthrough A Return to Classification The Milky Way and the Andromeda Nebula: Cosmic Twins Hubble's Expanding Universe Lemaître and a Renewal of Interest in Cosmology Einstein's Visit in 1931 The Distribution of the Nebulae Second World War New Telescopes Notes 9. The Milky Way Revealed The Quest for Dark Matter The Disk The Bulge The Galactic Center Journey to the Heart of the Galaxy Gaia and Future Surveys The Local Group, the Milky Way's Neighborhood Conclusion Notes References Index