Overview
- Combines the popular genres of scientific expeditions and the history of the American West
- Explains in a nontechnical way the science and study of total eclipses of the Sun
- Draws on previously unpublished primary historical sources
Part of the book series: Springer Praxis Books (PRAXIS)
Part of the book sub series: Popular Astronomy (POPULAR)
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Table of contents (20 chapters)
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Front Matter
Keywords
About this book
In 2017, over 200 million Americans witnessed the spectacular total eclipse of the Sun, and the 2024 eclipse is expected to draw even larger crowds. In anticipation of this upcoming event, this book takes us back in history over 150 years, telling the story of the nation’s first ever eclipse chasers.
Our tale follows the chaotic journeys of scientists and amateur astronomers as they trekked across the western United States to view the rare phenomenon of a total solar eclipse. The fascinating story centers on the expeditions of the 1869 total eclipse, which took place during the turbulent age of the chimerical Planet Vulcan and Civil War Reconstruction.
The protagonists—a motley crew featuring astronomical giants like Simon Newcomb and pioneering female astronomers like Maria Mitchell—were met with unanticipated dangers, mission-threatening accidents, and eccentric characters only the West could produce. Theirs is a story of astronomical proportions. Along theway, we will make several stops across the booming US railroad network, traveling from viewing sites as familiar as Des Moines, Iowa, to ones as distant and strange as newly acquired Alaska.
From equipment failures and botched preparations to quicksand and apocalyptic ‘comets’, welcome to the wild, western world of solar eclipses.
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Thomas Hockey received his undergraduate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earned a PhD as New Mexico State University’s first-ever graduate in Astronomy and the History of Astronomy. He is the author or editor of ten books, including the award-winning Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers (Springer).
Hockey is a veteran of eight total solar eclipses. He lives between the past and future: His house is on the path of 1869’s rare, transcontinental, total eclipse, and he looks forward to taking his students to the path of the similar solar eclipse of 2024.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: America’s First Eclipse Chasers
Book Subtitle: Stories of Science, Planet Vulcan, Quicksand, and the Railroad Boom
Authors: Thomas Hockey
Series Title: Springer Praxis Books
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24124-6
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Physics and Astronomy, Physics and Astronomy (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-24123-9Published: 28 May 2023
eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-24124-6Published: 27 May 2023
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVIII, 443
Number of Illustrations: 3 b/w illustrations, 102 illustrations in colour
Topics: Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology, History and Philosophical Foundations of Physics, Astronomy, Observations and Techniques, US History, History of Science