Splinter Meeting Historical

Applied and Computational Historical Astronomy

Time: Friday September 25, 14:00-18:00 CEST (UTC+2)

Room: virtual room E

Convenor(s): Susanne M Hoffmann [1], Gerd Graßhoff [2], Karsten Markus-Schnabel [3], Gudrun Wolfschmidt [4]
[1] FSU Jena, [2] HU Berlin, [3] Berlin, [4] U Hamburg

Always since the discovery of precession by Hipparchus ~2200 years ago, astronomers have made use of data from all available historical epochs in addition to very recent own observations. Many processes in astrophysics evolve on long time-scales, especially in cases where accretion is involved. The longterm variability of stars, evolution of transients and their remains (e.g. supernova remnants) as well as questions on longterm evolution of close binaries (such as symbiotic or cataclysmic systems) could be investigated by taking historical data into account. However, historical observers normally did not understand what they saw and did not apply modern standards of follow-up observation and notion. Many observational records are preserved only due to astrological beliefs in political or religious context. Using these old data to enlarge our temporal base line of observation, thus, challenges scholars to inter- and transdisciplinary work of historical studies and astrophysics.
Applied historical astronomy needs to evaluate, sort, and classify the historical data, needs to find them in text and maps, and often distinguish them from errors in the copying tradition. In order to identify modern counterparts of historical data, the tools of computational astronomy need to be applied and events which changed the physics of a system (like supernovae) have to be distinguished from events of only geometrical origin (e.g. microlensing).
This meeting shall assemble talks on naked-eye astronomy, historical celestial maps, globes and uranographies from all epochs and geographical regions, computational history of science, and big data astronomy.

Program

Friday September 25, 14:00-18:00 Applied and Computational Historical Astronomy (virtual room E)

14:00  Gerd Graßhoff:
Kepler's Astronomia Nova - a challenge for computational history of science

14:20  Georg Zotti:
Exploring skies remote in time and culture with Stellarium

14:40  Discussion

14:50  Markus-Schnabel, Karsten:
(Semi-)Manual Data-Mining and -Processing

15:05  Tim Karberg:
Astronomical orientation of Apedemak temples, mortuary chapels, and tumuli of the Meroitic period

15:20  Break

15:50  Victor Reijs:
How visible are celestial objects?

16:05  Philipp Protte:
Pre-telescopic star catalogues - Accuracy in magnitudes and positions

16:20  Andreas Schrimpf:
The star catalog of Wilhelm IV, Landgraf of Hesse-Kassel

16:35  Discussion

16:55  Fabian Göttgens:
Discovery of an emission nebula in the Galactic globular cluster M22

17:15  Susanne M Hoffmann :
Applied Historical Astronomy

17:35  Discussion/ Summary

Related contributions

PresenterTitleType
Björn KunzmannMira, Eta Carinae and Algol – Variable Stars as Milestones in the History of Astronomy and Astrophys
Georg ZottiA simple toolkit for virtual globes