Highlighting the History of Astronomy in the Asia-Pacific Region by Wayne Orchiston Tsuko Nakamura & Richard G. Strom

Author:Wayne Orchiston, Tsuko Nakamura & Richard G. Strom
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer New York, New York, NY

5.6 Publication of Eclipse Expedition Results

Publication of the results of the Lick Observatory’s solar eclipse investigations almost always involved funding difficulties, and it would take years before the ­manuscripts reaching the state publishing house, which itself was usually overburdened with government printing commitments. A partial solution to this dilemma came with the founding of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and the society’s journal, the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, became an ­unofficial publishing arm of the Observatory.

But before this happened the Observatory published reports on the first three expeditions in the Contributions from the Lick Observatory, a publication that was released at irregular intervals in the early years. This series was later published under the name Publications of the Lick Observatory. The Observatory continued to print eclipse reports in the Lick Observatory Bulletin which was released on a more regular schedule. Occasionally, eclipse-related articles would appear in the Lick Observatory Leaflets.

Sometimes the expedition funding aided the publication of results, but at least in one particular case it did not. Holden once used an expedition’s earmarked funds to publish his own lunar atlas, which in itself was mired in controversy (for details see Osterbrock et al. 1988: 93).

The Lick Observatory directors fared little better when they released larger, more expensive eclipse publications despite their potential value to the astronomical community. An example may be found in the following letter from Campbell (1904b), where he seeks funding to produce an atlas-style publication of the images obtained with the 40-ft Schaeberle Camera and smaller cameras, along with photographs of spectra, eclipse instruments and eclipse camps: It is not stating the case too strongly to say that the eclipse work of the Lick Observatory has been on a much larger scale and more successfully conducted than that of any other institution. The first large-scale photographs of the solar corona were made by our expedition to Chile in 1893, and the results were secured far in advance of any astronomer’s expectations. The series of photographs at the three succeeding eclipses were equally successful. These results have now led nearly all eclipse observers to plan for the taking of large scale photographs; but we made the start, and no other institution has a service of coronal photographs at all comparable with ours. There should be published for each eclipse, a short exposure showing the inner corona on a large scale; a long exposure showing the details of the corona farther out; and a still longer exposure showing the streamers of great extent. There should also be published photographs of the corona secured with smaller instruments to show the general outline forms of the various coronas, and also photographs of the corona spectra secured at three eclipses, copies of double-image photographs obtained to determine the quality of the coronal light; photographs of the special instruments; and photographs of the four eclipse camps. Thirty images would be required. The large coronal photographs 12 in number will cost in the vicinity of $100. Each plate

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