Publisher's Synopsis
In this volume, Allan Chapman's concern is first with the development of the instrumentation that lay at the heart of advances in astronomical science from the 16th to the 19th century. Over this period a striving for ever greater precision and standardisation in measurement came to dominate research in the solar system, as scientists recognised that hypothesis required physical substantiation, displacing more purely speculative concerns. Several of the studies examine, for the first time, the accuracy of such instruments, thus showing the limits this placed in research based on such observations. Others are more concerned with the context within which astronomy was practised, with studies on the introduction of Tychonic techniques into China, the patronage of science, and the motives and attitudes of men such as Herschel and Lassell.
