Eclipses by the rules

THE LIMERICK PROJECT

A history of astronomy and space exploration in limerick format

Limericks are shown in order of posting (most recent first)

1914
Slipher found there is gas between stars.
He saw the spirals are really quite far.
The first man who said
"There's a shift to the red."
Never did find those green guys on Mars.
==Neil
20 August 2009 Sort 1914.1
Percival Lowell founded his observatory to study the canals and inhabitants he thought were on Mars. V M Slipher, put on staff in 1901, worked on other projects. In 1909 his spectra showed, for the first time, that there is gas in interstellar space. In 1912, his finding that the Andromeda galaxy is moving towards us at 300 km/sec was the best evidence to that date that the spiral nebulae are not part of the Milky Way. A paper he delivered in 1914 showed that most galaxies are receding, a discovery often credited to Edwin Hubble.

1054
The Chinese and Arabian population
Saw the Crab Nebula's fiery creation.
Europe? No-one saw.
In ten fifty-four,
They were watching a Church detonation.
==Neil
21 May 2008 Sort 1054.1
The supernova of 1054 was noted by Chinese and Arabian astronomers, but there is no record of anybody in Europe seeing it. Perhaps they were distracted by watching medieval Christendom, instead of a star, blow itself up. 1054 was the year of the "Great Schism", which split the Christian church into the Roman Catholic church and the Eastern Orthodox church.

1862
Le Verrier tried for ten years or more
Until Sirius's companion he saw.
His mood became dark
When he heard that young Clark
Had fluked it a few days before.
==Neil
13 February 2008 Sort 1862.1
In 1844 Friedrich Bessel deduced that Sirius must have a fainter companion star. Le Verrier tried for years to see it, but Sirius B was first seen on 31 January 1862 by Alvan Graham Clark of Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, when he and his father tested a new telescope with a look at Sirius. Le Verrier's team at Paris Observatory also got a new telescope at that time. They tried to see Sirius B on January 27, but failed. They finally saw it in March.

1866
Tuttle found comets, and then
Joined the Navy like other young men.
They gave him the boot
For stealing the loot,
But put him on the payroll again.
==Neil
31 December 2007 Sort 1866.1
Horace Parnell Tuttle left Harvard in 1862 to join the Union Army in the Civil War. He transferred to the Navy, served with some distinction, became a paymaster and was convicted of embezzlement in 1875. In 1884, he got a job at the US Naval Observatory. He was the co-discoverer of comets Swift-Tuttle (the origin of the Perseids meteor stream) and Tempel-Tuttle (the Leonids). He found other comets and a couple of asteroids. He found Tempel-Tuttle in January 1866 (our limerick's chronology is fudged).

1752
When England ditched the calendar of yore,
They kicked eleven days out the door.
And if some people thought
Their lives were cut short,
Why not add three fifty four?
==Neil
4 September 2007 Sort 1752 .1
By 1582, the Julian calendar introduced by Julius Caesar was ten days out of whack and Pope Gregory XIII ordered the advancement of the calendar by ten days. By the time the English adopted the new Gregorian calendar in 1752, they were eleven days slow. It is widely believed that there were riots in England, with people demanding their eleven days back, but this belief is apocryphal.

Circa 1600 BC
The Babylonians and the pharaohs themselves
Can get back up onto their shelves.
The first work of art
Showing stars on a chart--
Made in der Black Forest by der Elves.
==Neil
4 September 2007 Sort -1600 .1
For centuries, it was thought that the first portable star map would have been made by the Egyptians or the Babylonians. Then around 2000, some tomb robbers found the astonishing Nebra disc in north Germany. Little is known about the people who made it. Perhaps all can be explained by a classic Volkswagen bumper sticker.

1838
Bessel's rivals each picked a bright star
In the race to measure how far they are.
Alpha Centauri and Vega--
Each one a big leaguer.
61 Cygni got the cigar.
==Neil
20 April 2007 Sort 1838.1
In the 1830s several astronomers tried to determine the distance of a nearby star by parallax--by measuring its apparent movement against distant stars from opposite parts of Earth's orbit. Friedrich Bessel knew that the dim star 61 Cygni must be close to Earth because it had the greatest apparent proper motion of any star visible to the eye. He announced his calculation of its distance in 1838. Henderson and Struve picked Alpha Centauri and Vega, stars well known because of their brightness (and therefore probably close), and published their results soon afterwards.

1901
Newcomb measured every thing in the sky.
His constants were in the bulls-eye.
He's also much noted
For often being quoted
As saying that planes could not fly.
==Neil
11 November 2006 Sort 1901 .1
Simon Newcomb was the leading American astronomer of his day. A 2006 biography calls him “America’s Unofficial Astronomer Royal”. His values for many astronomical constants became the world standard for generations. He worked with Michelson to establish the speed of light. He correctly explained the “Chandler wobble” by stating that the Earth is elastic. Unfortunately for his reputation, in the early 1900s he published several articles doubting the possibility of flying machines.

2006
A planet becomes a planette?
Pluto's new status is set.
Some astronomers can't bear it,
The public won't wear it,
Don't throw out your old textbooks yet.
==Neil
18 October 2006 Sort 2006 .1
In August 2006, the International Astronomical Union adopted a complicated definition of "planet" and demoted Pluto to a "dwarf planet", a class also including Pluto's satellite Charon and the asteroid Ceres. Instead of settling the problem, this has inflamed the controversy about what should be called a planet.

1934
The Triple Hypothesis! Ka-Boom!
Nothing more difficult, you'd presume.
One thing would be harder.
Getting Zwicky and Baade
Together, in the same room.
==Neil
19 August 2006 Sort 1934 .1
In one paper in 1934, Zwicky and Baade explained supernovae, explained cosmic rays, and posited neutron stars--a legendary triple. But everybody hated the obnoxious Zwicky. I own histories of astronomy with his name omitted from the index. Baade would not go into a room if Zwicky was there.

1276
Epicycles might be very precise,
Something simpler would better suffice.
"When designing the skies,"
Said Alfonso the Wise,
"God should have asked me for advice."
==Neil
19 August 2006 Sort 1276 .1
In his "Almagest" (about 130 AD), Ptolemy followed earlier authorities in stating the earth was at the centre of the universe, and all heavenly motion was perfect (circular). To explain how the planets were observed to move, he extended the theories of Hipparchus and postulated a system of more than 80 circles upon circles upon circles (epicycles). When Alfonso X (Alfonso the Wise), a Spanish monarch, heard about this system, he is supposed to have said "Had I been present at the Creation, I would have given some useful hints for the better ordering of the universe". In 1276 Alfonso ordered the production of new star tables, which improved on those of Ptolemy. As the Alfonsine Tables, they became standard astronomical references for three centuries.

1877
When Hall saw those points of light shift,
He was probably not a bit miffed
That the two moons he found,
And the speed they go round,
Had long been predicted by Swift.
==Neil
20 July 2006 Sort 1877.1
In Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" (1726), the astronomers of Laputa have discovered two moons of Mars, orbiting at distances of 3 and 5 Mars diameters, with periods of 10 and 21.5 hours. American astronomer Asaph Hall found one moon of Mars early in August 1877, and later in the month saw the other. The moons, now called Phobos and Deimos, orbit at 1.4 and 3.5 Mars diameters with periods of 7.6 and 30.3 hours.

1978
Charon rows you to Pluto--farewell.
James Christy chose the name well.
Did he get into strife
For using his wife
As the name of a monster from Hell?
==Neil
1 July 2006 Sort 1978.1
James Christy found a moon of Pluto in 1978. As discoverer, he was entitled to name it. He called it Charon, after the mythological character (old man/winged demon with double hammer) who ferried souls across the river Styx to the realm of Pluto, the god of the underworld. He pronounced it Sharon, instead of the classical Karon, after his wife Shar (short for Sharlene). I don't think this caused him too much trouble at home.

1891
Let aperture fever prevail,
And you start on a very long trail.
We know from the first
Who had it the worst;
His name was George Ellery Hale.
==Neil
1 July 2006 Sort 1891.1
When astronomers crave ever-larger telescopes, they are said to have "aperture fever". George Ellery Hale's wealthy father built him an observatory at home in 1891, where they installed a telescope of 12-inch aperture. Hale became (probably) America's leading astronomer and (certainly) astronomy's leading fund-raiser. He planned and raised funds for 40-inch, 60-inch, 100-inch and 200-inch telescopes, each the biggest in the world at the time (Yerkes, completed 1897; Mt Wilson, 1908; Mt Wilson, 1917; Mt Palomar, completed in 1948 after his death). It's hard to nominate a specific year for a lifetime disease, but perhaps 1891 was the year of first infection.

1924
If you say "stars are made out of iron"
These days, they'll say "what are you high on?"
When Cecilia Payne found
Iron didn't abound,
The "experts" all said "it's a try-on".
==Neil
21 June 2006 Sort 1924.1
Cecilia Payne was the first person to work out what stars are made of. She showed that hydrogen is by far the most abundant element in stars and in the universe. When a draft of her 1924 dissertation was sent to Henry Norris Russell, he said this was "clearly impossible". So she added a comment that her result was "almost certainly not real". By 1928 Russell and others had confirmed Payne's conclusion. In 1956 Payne became the first female full professor at Harvard. She was awarded the Henry Norris Russell Prize by the American Astronomical Society in 1977.

1950
The cloud postulated by Oort
Contains trillions of comets, he thought.
If something disturbs
These outer suburbs,
Better cover your clacker, old sport.
==Neil
21 June 2006 Sort 1950.1
The origin of comets was a mystery. Jan Oort proposed a sphere of comets surrounding the solar system, out to two or three light years. Interaction with passing stars, or their Oort clouds, would disturb the comets and some would come towards the sun, and thus towards us (arriving maybe millions of years later). Further work since 1950 has supported Oort's hypothesis. Incidentally, I hope the Australian colloquial meanings of "clacker" and "sport" (mate) are clear enough.

1912
Henrietta Leavitt's vocation
Was the period-luminosity relation.
By getting a handle
On a new standard candle,
She set us up for the duration.
==Garth Beech
17 June 2006 Sort 1912 .1
Henrietta Swan Leavitt discovered about 2,400 variable stars, half the total then known, in 25 years at Harvard College Observatory from 1895. She realised that the cycles of Cepheid variables change according to the stars' intrinsic brightness (period and luminosity are related). After she published in 1912, astronomers had a "standard candle". They could calculate distances out to 10 million light years--quite some improvement on the former 100 light years.

1932
Karl Jansky heard the galaxy jam
With that 21 megahertz spam.
A new science was there.
But did anyone care?
Just an amateur radio ham.
==Peri G.
17 June 2006 Sort 1932 .1
Karl Jansky was told to find the source of the static interrupting short-wave radio communications, and found (1) thunderstorms and (2) the centre of our galaxy. He published his results, and wanted to continue studying extraterrestrial radio sources, but Bell Labs assigned him to other work. Astronomers did not follow this up (or could not afford to, during the Depression). Five years later, radio engineer and ham Grote Weber (see 1937 limerick) built the first radio telescope.

1937
In Tasmania they make very good beer,
And the air and the water are clear.
Grote Reber came too--
Not for suds or the view,
But because of the ionosphere.
==Peri G.
17 June 2006 Sort 1937 .1
Grote Weber wanted to follow up Karl Jansky's discovery of cosmic radio waves (see 1932 limerick), but he could not get a job doing such research. So in 1937, he built the first radio telescope, in his spare time, and in 1941 published the first radio map of the skies. In 1954, he again decided to work in a field other researchers were neglecting. He picked long-wavelength (low frequency) radio astronomy, and moved to Tasmania--one of the few places on earth where such waves penetrate the ionosphere. He died in Tasmania in 2002, a couple of days before his 91st birthday.

1961
Do neighbours in our galaxy dwell?
Drake's equation might allow us to tell.
R* fraction p,
by average ne,
fl fi fc by L.
==Neil
18 May 2006 Sort 1961.1
In 1961, Frank Drake developed his famous equation aimed at estimating the number of civilizations in our galaxy that we might be able to contact. The number equals R* (yearly rate of star formation) by p (the fraction of R with planets) by ne (the average number of these that are Earth-like) by fl (the fraction of these where life develops) by fi (the fraction of these going on to support intelligent life) by fc (the fraction of these able and willing to communicate) by L (the expected lifetime of such a civilization). A pity most of the variables can only be guessed at.

1610
Galileo was not its inventor,
But the telescope's famous presenter.
When at Jupiter he found
Those moons going round,
The Sun became locked in the centre.
==Garth Beech
2006 Sort 1610.1
As soon as Galileo heard about the telescope, he constructed the best one yet, and made numerous important discoveries--mountains on the moon, spots on the Sun, phases of Venus, stars in the Milky Way. But most dramatic of all his observations was in January 1610, when he saw four moons circling Jupiter. The geocentric theory (that all heavenly objects circle the earth) was totally and convincingly refuted.

1672
The relativities were known to perfection,
The distances were defying detection.
Cassini could get
The best Sun distance yet
By looking in the other direction.
==Neil
4 May 2006 Sort 1672 .1
By the middle 1600s, the relative spacing of the sun and planets had been worked out, but the actual distances were not known. In 1672, Cassini (in France) and his assistant Jean Richer (in South America) observed Mars and worked out its distance by triangulation. Cassini then calculated the distance between Earth and the Sun; his result was only 7 per cent short.

2005
Copernicus' remains have been found
In Frombork they dug up the ground
Beneath Cathedral tile
He'd been all the while
As the earth, not the sun, went around.
==Lynn Clarke
29 April 2006 Sort 2005.3
In November 2005, Polish archaeologists announced they had found the remains of (almost certainly) Copernicus under Frombork Cathedral, where he was a canon. Copernicus died in 1543.

Circa 150 BC
When Hipparchus discovered precession,
He sent astrologers into depression.
Once you can prove
The zodiac can move,
Your sign's not a valid possession.
==Neil
29 April 2006 Sort -150 .1
Hipparchus compared his observations with some from 150 years earlier, and saw that the fixed stars had apparently moved two degrees. Since then they have moved another 30 degrees or so. This means that when you were born, the sun was not in the constellation of your " sign". Astrologers try to explain this away by saying the zodiacal months are just a way of dividing the year into twelve sections beginning at the equinox. But other (perhaps even the same) astrologers say we are approaching an "Age of Aquarius", beginning when the border of that constellation reaches the equinox.. They want to have it both ways. Hipparchus might have been the greatest of all ancient astronomers. He compiled the first known star catalogue of the western world, calculated a good value for the distance to the moon (inventing trigonometry to do so), and invented the astrolabe--among many other achievements.

1543
Copernicus, a Polish monk
Had thoughts no one else had yet thunk
Earth orbits the sun
In a year it is done
And what Ptolemy taught you is bunk.
==Alan Chodos
13 April 2006 Sort .1543.2

1668
From Palomar to Hubble to Keck,
A reflector is the highest of tech.
For most, its invention
Is beyond comprehension.
For Newton, a mere side effect.
==Neil
18 March 2006 Sort1668 .1
Today's mightiest telescopes (those mentioned and many others) follow the design of the first reflecting telescope made, in 1668. Newton understood refraction (remember his prism and its rainbow) and knew a reflector could avoid the chromatic aberration of the refracting telescopes of the day, because incoming light would not need to go through a lens. Others had tried to make a reflecting telescope, but Newton made the first working example. This was a minor achievement for him.

1687
Galileo and Kepler stand high
In the list of all-time genii.
It's one thing to show
How the planets do go;
Newton was the one to show why.
==Neil
18 March 2006 Sort1687 .1
Anybody writing doggerel about Sir Isaac Newton has some severe competition, starting with Alexander Pope: "Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night: God said, Let Newton be! and all was light". Newton's "Principia", published in 1687, contained (among much else) the laws of motion and gravity.

1949
When Kuiper found Nereid he felt
(I reckon) he was rather svelte.
It was so long ago,
He had no way to know
It probably came from his belt.
==Neil
5 March 2006 Sort 1949.1
Gerard Kuiper discovered Neptune's moon Nereid in 1949. In 1951, he proposed the existence of a region of minor planets outside Neptune's orbit. He was proved right after his death and the the region is now called the Kuiper Belt. Nereid's elongated orbit suggests it is a captured Kuiper Belt object.

1846
Adams and Leverrier knew where,
But spent months tearing out all their hair.
And then all it took
Was for Galle to look.
In an hour, he saw Neptune there.
==Garth Beech
5 March 2006 Sort 1846.1
John Adams (in England) and Urbain Leverrier (in France) worked out the location of Neptune from perturbations in the orbit of Uranus. But although finding a new planet would be the biggest thing an astronomer could do, they both spent months trying to get somebody with a good enough telescope to actually look there. Finally, Johann Galle (in Germany) did have a look, and found the new planet almost immediately. The scientific establishments of England and France argued for decades about who had priority, but this didn't bother Adams or Leverrier, who became good friends.

1916
You can laugh if your friend pays a fee,
And says "A star's named after me!"
But if you said to this bloke
"You've been conned. It's a joke."
He would tell you "My name is E. E."
==Neil
2 February 2006 Sort 1916.1
American astronomer Edward Emerson Barnard was always known as E. E. Barnard. He discovered Barnard's Star, the closest star to our sun except for the three stars in the Alpha Centauri system. Barnard's Star is a red dwarf, invisible to the naked eye. It has the fastest apparent motion of any star.

1967
She found the first-ever pulsar;
Not little green men from afar.
It's a shame that Jo Bell
Didn't win the Nobel.
Should have hired Marie Curie's PR
==Garth Beech
2 February 2006 Sort 1967.3
Jocelyn Bell discovered pulsars and researched them with her PhD supervisor Antony Hewish. They jokingly called the pulsar's signal LGM1 (for Little Green Men) because it could not be generated by any natural process known at the time. He later shared the Nobel Prize for " his decisive role in the discovery of pulsars". She has said she is not upset about not sharing the Nobel.
Apologies to Jocelyn Bell (later S Jocelyn Bell Burnell) for calling her "Jo Bell" but the rhyme was irresistible. And apologies to the shade of Marie Curie for intimating that she needed PR to win the Nobel. Marie Curie is on the world's shortest list--the list of women scientists who have won the Nobel twice. The list of men who have won it twice for scientific research only has about three names on it.

1968
On Apollo 8's flight that December,
One perspicacious crew member
Grabbed a camera and got
That great earthrise shot.
Who was it? They cannot remember.
==Peri G
26 January 2006 Sort 1968.9
Space historians (and the astronauts themselves) spent decades debating who took (perhaps) the most famous photo taken off Earth. The current wisdom seems to be that Frank Borman took a first picture in black and white, then Bill Anders took a colour picture--the one we all see.

1969
Apollo 10's orders weren't countermanded
On board "Snoopy" that Stafford commanded.
But if they did disobey
And went all the way,
They could say "the beagle has landed".
==Neil
26 January 2006 Sort 1969.1
Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan's instructions not to land on the moon did not need to be very strict, because their craft was not equipped to land and could not have returned if it did. They came within 16 km of the moon's surface. Apollo 11 had to be very serious, with the lunar orbiter called "Columbia" and the lander "Eagle". For Apollo 10, things could be more flippant, with "Charlie Brown" and "Snoopy".

1969
Neil Armstrong's ladder descent
Was a truly historic event.
Words ready to say,
But he left out an "a".
We all still know what he meant.
==Peri G
26 January 2006 Sort 1969.4
By the 1950s we knew people would go to the moon, but we didn't expect to watch it live on TV.

1576
Nightly drunk at Uraniborg Park
His brass nose would shine in the dark
Said his dwarf was a seer
Kept his moose full of beer
He could still see a minute of arc
==Neil
4 January 2006 Sort 1576.1
Tycho Brahe was famous for the parties at his castle/observatory Uraniborg, in Denmark. He had a metal nose because of a student argument involving a knife. He claimed that Jepp, the dwarf in his employ, could foretell the future. His elk got so drunk at one party it fell down the stairs and was killed. Before Tycho, star charts were accurate only to about a sixth of a degree. His meticulous observations and massive instruments produced charts accurate to a sixtieth of a degree. He was supposed to have died of a burst bladder, after being too courteous to answer calls of nature during a dinner. This is now regarded as dubious--not because it seems out of character for such a good old booze artist, but because analysis of hairs from his beard indicated mercury poisoning (which has similar symptoms). The year 1576 was when construction of Uraniborg began.

1633
I wish I could step back and go there;
Hear them say "Galileo, you're nowhere".
When that old Inquisition
Pronounced its decision,
Did he really say "Eppur si muove"?
==Neil
4 January 2006 Sort 1633.1
Galileo confessed to the Inquisition that his publications might have favoured the Copernican view (that the earth moves around the sun). Legend has it that he then whispered "Yet, it still moves". He was sentenced to life imprisonment, which became lifetime house arrest. Note: Before I consulted my Italian linguistic advice panel (thanks, Cristina!) I would have pronounced "muove" to rhyme with "okay" or "ojay".

2005
Rabinowitz, Trujillo and Brown
Say it's a planet they found.
If you want to rebut it
Then Pluto won't cut it.
And who knows what else is around?
==Garth Beech
1 November 2005 Sort 2005.2
Michael Brown, Chad Trujillo and David Rabinowitz announced their discovery of tenth planet 2003 UB313 (since temporarily code-named Xena and finally named Eris) in July 2005. Eris is bigger than Pluto. In 2006 (see below) the International Astronomical Union demoted both to "dwarf planet" status, leaving the solar system with eight planets.

1957
Fred Hoyle and some other young guns
Found how nucleosynthesis runs.
Since this process was shown,
We have finally known
You and I are made out of old suns.
==Neil
31 October 2005 Sort 1957.1
Fred Hoyle and others (including William A Fowler who unlike Hoyle got the Nobel Prize for their work) showed how elements heavier than helium could be made in stars and by supernovae. Since their classic 1957 paper, we have realised that the Earth and everything on it was made from material blasted out of stars billions of years ago. Note: Poetic licence and my age allows me to regard Hoyle and Fowler, in their forties in 1957, as young guns.

1930
Clyde Tombaugh was famous, and earned it.
Many sought Planet X--he discerned it.
And the cause of his fame
In astronomy came
Before he went to college and learned it.
==Neil
25 Oct 2005 Sort 1930.1
Clyde Tombaugh had no college education when he was hired by Lowell Observatory to continue the search for a ninth planet beyond Neptune. His discovery of Planet X (later called Pluto) in February 1930, after ten months of painstaking work, made him the most famous astronomer of the time. He began an astronomy course at the University of Kansas in 1932.

1705
Since he predicted that comet eponymous,
He'd never again be anonymous.
Harley? Hawley? Or Halley
To rhyme with O'Malley?
Some even say Haley--abominous!
==Neil
19 October 2005 Sort 1705.2
It might be stretching it to say this is history, but we should know how to pronounce the names of historic characters. There are arguments in favour of each of the first three pronunciations, but it seems that Haley is certainly wrong.

1784
Charles Messier made a good fist
Of cataloguing things to be missed.
I'm sure he would sigh
Seeing skywatchers try
To find every blob in his list
==Neil
16 June 2005 Sort 1784.1
Messier wanted to find comets, and he made his famous list of fuzzy objects so he didn't have to look at them. Now, amateur astronomers avidly seek them out, and have competitions to see how quickly they can find them all. 1784 was the year his list reached its final 103 objects, thereby making our universe much Tidier.

Circa 3000 BC
The Babylonians found a new way
To record what astrologers would say.
But from the predictions
On their tablet inscriptions,
It's their feet that were made out of clay
==Neil
15 Mar 2005 Sort -3000.1
Some say cuneiform writing on clay tablets was developed to record the predictions of astronomers and astrologers.

Circa 2000 BC
The astronomers didn't speak crud
To the ancients of Egyptian blood.
"When Sirius is higher,
You'll get your desire--
A vast inundation of mud"
==Neil
15 Mar 2005 Sort -2000.1When the ancient Egyptians saw Sirius rising just before the Sun, they knew it was time for the annual flooding of the Nile.

Circa 250 BC
The size of the earth we all know,
But they didn't a long time ago.
They thought it was flat.
But then came Erat-
osthenes and his light show
==Neil
15 Mar 2005 Sort -250.1
Eratosthenes calculated the size of the Earth by simple geometry. He knew the distance between Alexandria and Syene, and he deduced the angle of sunlight at each place from the length of a shadow.

1543
Ptolemy's celestial spheres
Held sway for twelve hundred years.
The "Almagest"
Translates as "the best"
But now Copernicus interferes
==Garth Beech
15 Mar 2005 Sort 1543.1
Ptolemy's "Almagest", published in the second century, was a textbook of astronomy based on a geocentric system. The eventual adoption of a heliocentric view of the solar system is generally credited to the publication of "De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium" by Copernicus in 1543.

1619
Kepler was a hero and more;
He did what was not done before.
Instead of changing the motions
To preconceived notions,
He actually believed what he saw
==Neil
15 Mar 2005 Sort 1619.1
Even Copernicus thought the planets moved in perfect circles around the Sun. Kepler was the first to observe their movements and develop a correct theory to fit the facts. His laws of planetary motion were published in 1609 and 1619.

1705
He saw transits could decide the AU
First to map southern stars too
First person to prove
The fixed stars can move
Was there something else Halley could do?
==Neil
15 Mar 2005 Sort 1705.1
Halley realised that if a transit of Venus could be timed with precision, the distance from the Earth to the Sun (the "Astronomical Unit") could be determined. Being the first person to show that nearby stars, as well as the planets, were moving was another of his many, many achievements. His famous prediction that a comet would return was made in 1705.

1769
For all his new paraphernalia,
Cook's trip to Tahiti was a failure.
His timing was wrecked
By the black drop effect--
At least he discovered Australia
==Neil
15 Mar 2005 Sort 1769.1
Captain Cook's team wanted to time the transit of Venus, so more accurate distances between Earth, Venus and the Sun could be determined by parallax. But Venus appears distorted as it nears the edge of the Sun and the exact moment a transit begins or ends cannot be measured. And I know that whoever discovered Australia did so 50,000 or more years ago, but Cook was the first to map the whole east coast, which allows some poetic licence.

1781
Uranus was not hard to find
With the telescope Herschel designed.
But with blanks of such size
To parabolize,
It would be a bit of a grind
==Neil
15 Mar 2005 Sort 1781.1
Herschel could find a new planet because he made the biggest and best telescope. This involved grinding the surface of a large glass blank into a parabolic reflecting mirror--a long and arduous process.

1814
Some people of confus-ed minds
Claim to tell stars by their signs.
Mofe ofer Rofer,
Make room for Fraunhofer.
He knows a star by its lines
==Neil
15 Mar 2005 Sort 1814.1
Joseph von Fraunhofer discovered that a chemical in a gas absorbs its own particular wavelength of light. This absorption results in a dark line on a spectrum. "Fraunhofer lines" on a star's spectrum show what elements are present in the star's outer layers.

1913
If you look for a diagram with muscle,
You better see Hertzsprung and Russell.
If their sequence you're leaving
You better get weaving;
Your sun will be blowing its bustle
==Garth Beech
15 Mar 2005 Sort 1914.1
Ejnar Hertzsprung and Henry Norris Russell independently developed the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram, a graph showing stars plotted by luminosity and surface temperature. The graph indicates that stars spend most of their lifetimes on the "main sequence", burning hydrogen. After a star like the sun burns all its hydrogen, it will expand into a red giant and leave the main sequence.

1919
Eddington was certainly bright,
The smartest astronomer in sight.
It's a bit of a shame
That his main source of fame
Was proving that Einstein was right
==Garth Beech
15 March 2005 Sort 1919.1
Sir Arthur Eddington has been called the father of modern theoretical astrophysics and made significant contributions to the field. He was reputed for several years to be the only man except Einstein to understand relativity. His observations in Africa during the 1919 eclipse provided the first confirmation that gravity will bend the path of light around a star, as Einstein predicted.

1929
The great discovery of Hubble!
The universe expands like a bubble.
The shift to the red
Grows with distance, he said.
But the constant's still giving us trouble
==Neil
15 Mar 2005 Sort 1929.1
Edwin Hubble was not the first to show that the universe is expanding, although he often gets the credit. He was the first to demonstrate that the rate of recession of distant galaxies varies in proportion with distance. The actual rate of expansion (the "Hubble Constant") was hotly debated well into the 21st century.

1950
Fred Hoyle tried to send up the gang
Who said steady-state weren't the shebang.
At least there ain't been
A theory of in-between
Known as "the medium-sized bang"
==Neil
15 Mar 2005 Sort 1950.2
Fred Hoyle was one of the developers of the "steady-state theory". He coined the expression "big bang" in a talk on the BBC in 1950, attempting to satirise the idea that the universe could have begun at a single moment.

2005
The Huygens team knew there'd be ice;
They never thought they'd find Paradise.
"That beachfront location
for our next vacation!
We didn't expect the place to be nice"
==Neil
15 Mar 2005 Sort 2005.1
The Huygens probe photographed icy scenery with apparent lakes and coastlines on Saturn's moon Titan. The thought for the limerick came from a member of the Huygens team (unnamed in the interview I saw). His comments about Titan included "Looks just like the Earth" and "You want to go back" and "We didn't anticipate liking the place".

Home/eclipse limericks Eclipse T-shirt gallery