Short resource list for Astronomy program

If you would like to do a little background research for our upcoming Astronomy program on Oct. 2-3, but don't have a lot of time, here is a short list of resources in a variety of formats that you might find helpful.

Thomas S. Kuhn’s classic work, The Copernican Revolution: Planetary Astronomy in the Development of Western Thought (1957; currently in 24th printing; 297 pp) recreates the historical context within which new astronomical concepts and observations battled for acceptance, eventually changing the way man perceived his place in the universe. Owen Gingerich takes an unusual approach in The Book Nobody Read: Chasing the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus (2004, 306 pp). He tracks down and physically examines the earliest copies of the book that started it all, Copernicus’ De Revolutionibus, to determine who read the book and how they reacted to its ideas (as revealed in marginal notes and comments). Dava Sobel’s popular Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love (1999, 420 pp; also available as audiobook) uses the surviving letters of his oldest child to create a more personal perspective on Galileo’s life and work. There are also two good PBS specials relevant to our program: Galileo’s Battle for the Heavens (Nova, 2002, 120 min.) and 400 Years of the Telescope (2009, 60 min.), both readily available from Netflix. PBS has also created a web site to provide additional educational materials related to its Galileo program.

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