Astronomy for Cloudy Nights: Eight Essays of Respite from Frustrating Skies
Dec 2024 · Cambridge Scholars Publishing
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253
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About this ebook
Comprising 8 essays, the present book provides respite reading for astronomers when skies are cloudy. Dealing with the science behind selected celestial topics in a semi-random way, it is educational, sometimes in humorous fashion. Anecdotes, poems and references to the general arts of literature, the law, paintings, and classical and pop music are included. Links of astronomy to the everyday spoken word are presented. All these can be appreciated by more general readers with an interest in making connections between science and the arts. The author became a Professional Practical Astronomer, following the discovery, at an early age, of a brass telescope under his grandmother’s bed. Stories of telescope observing around the world are given, one being breathtaking⸺in two senses⸺at high altitude in the Bolivian Andes. Autobiographical in places, descriptions are given of experiences that astronomy has provided beyond the telescope.
About the author
David Clarke gained his PhD at the University of Manchester, UK, and has worked at Institutions and Observatories around the world. In his early career, he worked on Zodiacal Light studies for the Skylab and Pioneer 10 projects. His research mainly focussed on optical polarimetric instrumentation to investigate scattering processes within stellar atmospheres, the interstellar medium, and the Earth’s atmosphere. Widely experienced as a Practical and Observational Astronomer, he has published over 130 papers and five books, one⸺an undergraduate text⸺now in 4th edition. As an educator, he served as the UK’s International Astronomical Union representative and on the Royal Astronomical Society Education Committee. He has organised support meetings for school teachers and was key in setting up the UK’s Association for Astronomy Education, being its first Editor and Printing its magazine, ‘Gnomon’. Now holding an Honorary Research Fellowship at Glasgow University, UK, following his retirement as Observatory Director, he continues with involvements in public outreach.
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