Solar eclipse of August 2, 2027

A total solar eclipse will occur over much of the central Eastern Hemisphere on Monday, August 2, 2027. It will commence over the eastern Atlantic Ocean and travel past the Strait of Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco. Totality will be visible in southern Spain as well as parts of North Africa and the Middle East, as well as the northern tip of the Horn of Africa. A partial eclipse visible in much of the Eastern Hemisphere. Major cities under the path will include Luxor in central Egypt, Jeddah and Mecca southern Saudi Arabia, and Sana'a in southern Yemen. It will be the first of three total solar eclipses that are observable in Tunisia in the 21st century, passing over the central part of the country.
The maximum duration of totality will be observed in Egypt, approximately southeast of Luxor, and will last 6 minutes and 22 seconds.
Images.
Animated path


Louise Riofrio

Louise M. Riofrio (using the stage name Louisa Riofrio) is a scientist and an actress in film and television.
Education and career.
She worked on a publication using returned Apollo Moon samples. She also worked on other lunar related subjects. Through analysis of lunar orbital data, she discovered a possible anomaly with possible implications for physics and cosmology. Riofrio presented a cosmological model. Riofrio presented her cosmological model at the 2004 "Beyond Einstein" meeting at Stanford University.
As an actress she has worked in many different geographic locations. She has had uncredited appearances in 2 episodes of "": "Outlaws" and "Ties that Bind". She appeared as "Parade Princess" in the 2016 episode "Let the Good Times Roll" of the television series "One Mississippi". She appeared in the 2015 film "Jurassic City". In 2017 she made an uncredited appearance in the science-fiction disaster film "Geostorm".
In 2021 in connection with the Mars 2020 mission, many social media users propagated as an photograph taken from Mars what is actually a digital illustration created by Riofrio in 2010. At that time she was working as a scientist at Houston's NASA Johnson Space Center.


Mountain Skies Observatory

Mountain Skies Observatory is a privately owned astronomical observatory located in Lyman, Wyoming, USA. It is one of the largest observatories in the region and is used frequently by the Bridger Valley Astronomical Society.


Thomas Hornsby

Thomas Hornsby (1733 in Durham – 11 April 1810 in Oxford) was a British astronomer and mathematician.
Life.
Hornsby became a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford in 1760.
He occupied the Savilian Chair of Astronomy at Oxford University from 1763. In the same year, he became Sedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy.
Hornsby was especially concerned with the observation of the transit of Venus. In 1761, he observed the transit of Venus from Shirburn Castle, in Oxfordshire, the seat of the Earl of Macclesfield. George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield (ca. 1695-1764), celebrated as an astronomer, had spent most of his time conducting astronomical observations at Shirburn Castle; here he had built an observatory and a chemical laboratory.
Despite the international efforts made to observe the 1761 transit, poor weather conditions hampered observations. In 1766 Hornsby informed the Royal Society that preparations needed to begin for the 1769 transit, his publication in the "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society" focusing attention on the "cone of visibility" indicating some of the better places to observe the transit.
Hornsby himself viewed the 1769 transit at the Tower of the Five Orders, where the Bodleian Library is situated.
In the periodical "Philosophical Transactions", Hornsby published a comparative analysis of 1761 transit (1763); a plan for suitable viewing stations for 1769, including possible locations in the Pacific (1765); a description of organising and reporting observing groups in Oxford (1769); and a comparative analysis of the 1769 transit (1771).
Hornsby was instrumental in the establishment of the Radcliffe Observatory at Oxford in 1772, and was made Radcliffe Observer in the same year. In 1782, he was appointed Sedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy. In 1783, he became Radcliffe Librarian. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1788.
Hornsby made tens of thousands of astronomical observations. These were not published, however, until 1932, and were donated to Corpus Christi College, Oxford in 1935. They include a determination of the rate of change of the axial inclination of the Earth and the proper motion of Arcturus, both close to the modern values, whose combination of visual magnitude and large proper motion led Hornsby to argue (incorrectly) that "We may, I think, fairly conclude that Arcturus is the nearest Star to our System visible in this Hemisphere".
The crater Hornsby on the Moon is named after him.
N.B. His death announcement in the Kentish Gazette 24 April 1810 quotes his death as "Wednesday (11th Apr. 1810) at the Observatory Oxford, aged 76, the Rev. Thomas Hornsby D.D. & F.R.S. Savalian Professor of Astronomy, Professor of Natural Philosophy, & Librarian of the Radcliffe Library."
The O.D.N.B gives this information:
"Hornsby, Thomas (1733–1810), astronomer, the son of Thomas Hornsby (bap. 1704, d. 1771), an apothecary and later alderman, and his wife, Thomasine Forster, née Coulson (bap. 1705, d. 1775), was baptized in the parish of St Nicholas, Durham, on 27 August 1733. Hornsby died in Oxford on 11 April 1810, and was buried at St Giles' there on 19 April."


The Inlander (Queensland Rail)

The Inlander is an Australian passenger train. It was introduced by Queensland Rail on 12 February 1953 using new steel air-conditioned carriages built by Commonwealth Engineering, Rocklea.
Background.
Victorian Railways introduced air-conditioned trains in 1935, and Queensland Rail decided to follow suit in the late 1940s. Steel carriages were designed to travel to all parts of the system, meaning a maximum axle load of 9 tons, which was a challenge for the dining cars. New features included showers in the sleeping cars, roomettes in first class and head end power cars, especially necessary where trains may be delayed by floods or other events, as was often the case.
History.
The Inlander was the first air-conditioned train in Queensland, replacing the Mail train with its wooden carriages and providing a more comfortable and cleaner service to this dry and dusty region.
Today.
Today it operates twice-weekly on the Great Northern line from the coastal city of Townsville to the mining city of Mount Isa. The train is relatively slow, taking 21 hours (overnight) to complete a journey of 977 kilometres. Until the end of 2014, the train consisted of sitting cars, sleeping cars with roomettes, twinettes and triple sleeping cabins and a club car where food could be purchased.
The sleeping cars were withdrawn from 1 January 2015.
Catering is provided by at seat snack packs and a dining car.
Subsidy levels.
In 2016, the service was estimated to have carried 4,511 people in the previous financial year, with the effective subsidy paid by the Queensland State Government for each passenger amounting to an estimated $3,436 (total subsidy $15.5m)


Lists of solar eclipses

There are several lists of solar eclipses.


Oxygen-burning process

The oxygen-burning process is a set of nuclear fusion reactions that take place in massive stars that have used up the lighter elements in their cores. Oxygen-burning is preceded by the neon-burning process and succeeded by the silicon-burning process. As the neon-burning process ends, the core of the star contracts and heats until it reaches the ignition temperature for oxygen burning. Oxygen burning reactions are similar to those of carbon burning; however, they must occur at higher temperatures and densities due to the larger Coulomb barrier of oxygen. Oxygen in the core ignites in the temperature range of (1.5–2.6)×109 K and in the density range of (2.6–6.7)×1012 kg·m−3. The principal reactions are given below, where the branching ratios assume that the deuteron channel is open (at high temperatures):
Near 2×109 K, the oxygen-burning reaction rate is approximately 2.8×10−12("T"9/2)33, where "T"9 is the temperature in billion kelvins. Overall, the major products of the oxygen-burning process are 28Si, 32,33,34S, 35,37Cl, 36,38Ar, 39,41K, and 40,42Ca. Of these, 28Si and 32S constitute 90% of the final composition. The oxygen fuel within the core of the star is exhausted after 0.01–5 years, depending on the star's mass and other parameters. The silicon-burning process, which follows, creates iron, but this iron cannot react further to create energy to support the star.
During the oxygen-burning process, proceeding outward, there is an oxygen-burning shell, followed by a neon shell, a carbon shell, a helium shell, and a hydrogen shell. The oxygen-burning process is the last nuclear reaction in the star's core which does not proceed via the alpha process.
Pre-oxygen burning.
Although 16O is lighter than neon, neon burning occurs before oxygen burning, because 16O is a doubly-magic nucleus and hence extremely stable. Compared to oxygen, neon is much less stable. As a result, neon burning occurs at lower temperatures than 16O + 16O. During neon burning, oxygen and magnesium accumulate in the core of the star. At the onset of oxygen burning, oxygen in the stellar core is plentiful due to the helium-burning process (4He(2α,γ)12C(α,γ)16O), carbon-burning process (12C(12C,α)20Ne, 12C(α,γ)16O), and neon-burning process (20Ne(γ,α)16O). The reaction 12C(α,γ)16O has a significant effect on the reaction rates during oxygen burning, as it produces large quantities of 16O.
Convectively bounded flames and off-center oxygen ignition.
For stars with masses greater than 10.3 solar masses, oxygen ignites in the core or not at all. Similarly, for stars with a mass of less than 9 solar masses (without accretion of additional mass) oxygen ignites in the core or not at all. However, in the 9–10.3 solar mass range, oxygen ignites off-center.
For stars in this mass range neon-burning occurs in a convective envelope rather than at the core of the star. For the particular example of a 9.5 solar mass star, the neon-burning process takes place in an envelope of approximately 0.252 solar masses (~1560 kilometers) off center. From the ignition flash, the neon convective zone extends further out to 1.1 solar masses with a peak power around 1036 W. After only a month, the power declines to about 1035 W and stays at this rate for about 10 years. After this phase, the neon in the shell is depleted, resulting in greater inward pressure on the star. This raises the shell's temperature to 1.65 billion kelvins. This results in a neon-burning, convectively-bound flame front that moves toward the core. The motion of the flame is what eventually leads to oxygen-burning. In approximately 3 years, the flame's temperature reaches about 1.83 billion kelvins, enabling the oxygen-burning process to commence. This occurs around 9.5 years before the iron core develops. Similarly to the beginning of neon-burning, off-center oxygen-burning commences with another flash. The convectively burning flame then results from both neon and oxygen burning as it advances towards the core, while the oxygen-burning shell continuously shrinks in mass.
Neutrino losses.
During the oxygen-burning process, energy loss due to neutrino emission becomes relevant. Due to the large energy loss, oxygen must burn at temperatures higher than a billion kelvins in order to maintain a radiation pressure strong enough to support the star against gravity. Further, (which produce neutrinos) become significant when the matter density is high enough (ρ > 2×107 g/cm3). Due to these factors, the timescale of oxygen burning is much shorter for heavy, dense stars.
Explosive oxygen burning.
The oxygen-burning process can occur under hydrostatic and under explosive conditions. The products of explosive oxygen burning are similar to those in hydrostatic oxygen burning. However, stable oxygen burning is accompanied by a multitude of electron captures, while explosive oxygen burning is accompanied by a significantly greater presence of photodisintegration reactions. In the temperature range of (3–4)×109 K, photodisintegration and oxygen fusion occur with comparable reaction rates.
Pair-instability supernovae.
Very massive (140–260 solar masses) population III stars may become unstable during core oxygen burning due to pair production. This results in a thermonuclear explosion, which completely disrupts the star.


Mazlan Othman

Professor Emerita Dato' Seri Dr Mazlan binti Othman (born 11 December 1951) is a Malaysian astrophysicist whose work has pioneered Malaysia's participation in space exploration. She was her country's first astrophysicist, and helped to create a curriculum in astrophysics at the national university, as well as to build public awareness and understanding of astronomy and space issues. She was appointed Director General of Angkasa, the Malaysian National Space Agency and served as the director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs in Vienna from 2007 to 2014.
Early life and education.
Born in Seremban, Malaysia, Mazlan attended Kolej Tunku Kurshiah, a Malaysian prominent boarding school in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan. Her aptitude for mathematics led to enrolment in a science curriculum. Although her family encouraged her to become a physician MD, she decided to pursue physics instead. She attended the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand on a Colombo plan scholarship, earning a BSc. (Honours) in 1975. She then joined the National University of Malaysia (UKM) as a tutor, but negotiated an extension to her scholarship and returned to Otago, earning her Ph.D in physics in 1981 - the first woman to do so since the University was founded in 1869.
Career.
Dato' Mazlan Othman returned to Malaysia as the country's first astrophysicist, and worked to create a curriculum in astrophysics at the national university, as well as to build public awareness and understanding of astronomy and space issues. She also performed research for a semester at the Kiso Observatory in Japan.
Her interest in public education was rewarded in 1990 when Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad placed her in charge of the Planetarium Division of the Prime Minister's Department, overseeing development of Planetarium Negara, Malaysia's national planetarium in Kuala Lumpur. After the planetarium opened in 1993, Mazlan was made Director General of the government's new Space Science Studies Division, where she launched a microsatellite development program. She received a full professorship the following year.
In November 1999, Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations, appointed Mazlan as Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) in Vienna. At the request of Prime Minister Mahathir, she returned to Malaysia in July 2002 to serve for five years as the founding Director General of Angkasa, the Malaysian National Space Agency, where her work led to the launch of the first Malaysian astronaut, Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor.
Mazlan was reappointed as UNOOSA director in 2007 by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and left Angkasa to return to the post that December. At UNOOSA she dealt with issues of international co-operation in space, prevention of collisions and space debris, use of space-based remote sensing platforms for sustainable development, co-ordination of space law between countries, and the risks posed by near-earth asteroids, among other topics.
In September 2010, several news sources reported the United Nations would soon appoint Othman to be the ambassador for extraterrestrial contact, apparently basing their claims on remarks she made suggesting that the UN co-ordinate any international response to such contact, and her scheduled appearance on a Royal Society panel that October, "Towards a scientific and societal agenda on extra-terrestrial life." However, a UN spokesperson dismissed the reports as "nonsense", dismissing any plan to expand the mandate of UNOOSA, and in an email to The Guardian, Othman stated, in compliance to the wishes of the United Nations, "It sounds really cool but I have to deny it." She later explained that her talk would illustrate how extraterrestrial affairs could become a topic of discussion at the UN, using as an example the advocacy that led to UN discussion of near-Earth objects and space debris.
After retiring from the United Nations, Othman served on advisory committees and boards involving science and space, taught as a visiting professor, and became a senior fellow of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia. In September 2017, she was named Director of the International Science Council (ISC) Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.
Honours.
In the 1997 Agong's honours list, Tuanku Ja'afar, the tenth Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia, conferred the federal decoration and order Panglima Jasa Negara (for meritorious service) on Mazlan, granting her the honorific "Datuk".
Also in 1997, Mazlan's alma mater, the University of Otago, awarded her the degree of Honorary Doctor of Science.
In 2009, for "her work in developing astronomy education in Malaysia and her leading national and international role in space science", the Institute of Physics awarded Mazlan its President's Medal.
In 2013, Mazlan received the "Polarstern-Preis" (Polarstar Award) from the Austrian Space Forum for her engagement to fascinate for space above and beyond duty.
Personal life.
Dato’ Seri Mazlan Othman has two children and two grandchildren. She lives with her daughter (youngest) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.


Solar eclipse of April 9, 2043

A total solar eclipse will occur on April 9, 2043. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is larger than the Sun's, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into darkness. Totality occurs in a narrow path across Earth's surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a surrounding region thousands of kilometres wide.
It will be unusual in that while it is a total solar eclipse, it is not a central solar eclipse (when the gamma is 0.9972 or larger). A non-central eclipse is one where the center-line of totality does not intersect the surface of the Earth. Instead, the center line passes just above the Earth's surface. This rare type occurs when totality is only visible at sunset or sunrise in a polar region.
Visibility.
It will be seen fully from Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, Magadan Oblast and on the north-east of Yakutia (in the morning on April 10 local time). It will be visible partially throughout on north-east of Russia, in Canada, Greenland, Svalbard and Iceland. It will be also partially visible from the western part United States including Alaska and Hawaii and North Pacific.
Settlements of total phase: Evensk, Omsukchan, Palana, Seymchan and Zyryanka.
Images.
Animated path


Suzanne W. Tourtellotte

Suzanne W. Tourtellotte (January 11, 1945 – June 20, 2013) was an American astronomer and discoverer of minor planets, a researcher at Yale University in the United States.
Biography.
Tourtellotte graduated from MIT in 1966, and received an M.S. degree from Yale University in 1967. She continued to study for a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Princeton University in 1971.
From 1998, Tourtellote was the data manager at the Yale University department of astronomy for the YALO and SMARTS consortium. She worked with Brad Schaefer on photometry of the moon Nereid. In 2003 together with David L. Rabinowitz, Brad and Martha Schaefer she studied the solar phase curves and rotation states of Kuiper belt objects. In 2013; she worked on the La Silla Observatory Quest KBO survey
Tourtellote was faculty member at Albertus Magnus College until 2008. She was a research scientist at the department of astronomy at Yale.
She died at the age of 68 in Hamden, Connecticut.
List of discovered minor planets.
Tourtellotte is credited by the Minor Planet Center with the co-discovery of 15 numbered minor planets made at the Chilean La Silla Observatory in 2010, in collaboration with astronomers David L. Rabinowitz and Megan E. Schwamb. Most notably are and , a Neptune trojan and a trans-Neptunian object, respectively.


Charles Pym (Conservative politician)

Charles Guy Pym (11 February 1841 – 12 November 1918) was a British Conservative Party politician.
Charles Guy Pym was born in Willian, the younger son of Rev. William Pym and Sophie Gambier. His grandfather Francis Pym had been MP for Bedfordshire.
Charles Pym was educated at Rossall School. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Bedford from 1895 to 1906. He was a Grand Councillor in the Primrose League.
He died aged 77.


Solar eclipse of January 6, 2076

A total solar eclipse will take place on 6 January, 2076. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is larger than the Sun's, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into darkness. Totality occurs in a narrow path across Earth's surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a surrounding region thousands of kilometres wide.


GRB 970228

GRB 970228 was the first gamma-ray burst (GRB) for which an afterglow was observed. It was detected on 28 February 1997 at 02:58 UTC. Since 1993, physicists had predicted GRBs to be followed by a lower-energy afterglow (in wavelengths such as radio waves, x-rays, and even visible light), but until this event, GRBs had only been observed in highly luminous bursts of high-energy gamma rays (the most energetic form of electromagnetic radiation); this resulted in large positional uncertainties which left their nature very unclear.
The burst had multiple peaks in its light curve and lasted approximately 80 seconds. Peculiarities in the light curve of GRB 970228 suggested that a supernova may have occurred as well. The position of the burst coincided with a galaxy about 8.1 billion light-years away (a redshift of z = 0.695), providing early evidence that GRBs occur well beyond the Milky Way; this was proven decisively two months later with a subsequent burst GRB 970508.
Observations.
A gamma-ray burst (GRB) is a highly luminous flash of gamma rays, the most energetic form of electromagnetic radiation. GRBs were first detected in 1967 by the Vela satellites, a series of spacecraft designed to detect nuclear explosions.
GRB 970228 was detected on 28 February 1997 at 02:58 UTC by the Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor (GRBM) and one of the Wide Field Cameras (WFCs) on board BeppoSAX, an Italian–Dutch satellite originally designed to study X-rays. The burst lasted around 80 seconds and had multiple peaks in its light curve. Gamma-ray bursts have very diverse time profiles, and it is not fully understood why some bursts have multiple peaks and some have only one. One possible explanation is that multiple peaks are formed when the source of the gamma-ray burst undergoes precession.
Within a few hours, the BeppoSAX team used the X-ray detection to determine the burst's position with an error box—a small area around the specific position to account for the error in the position—of 3 arcminutes. The burst was also detected by the Ulysses space probe.
About one and nine days later, optical images of the error box were taken with the William Herschel Telescope on La Palma; comparison of the images revealed a fading point source located at a right ascension of and a declination of , providing the first arcsecond-accuracy localization of any Gamma-ray burst.
Later images after the point source faded revealed a faint galaxy at almost the same position, the presumed host galaxy of the burst; a chance position coincidence was unlikely but possible, so the cosmological origin of GRBs was not conclusive until observations of GRB 970508 about two months later.
Afterglow.
In 1993, Bohdan Paczyński and James E. Rhoads published an article arguing that, regardless of the type of explosion that causes GRBs, the extreme energetics of GRBs meant that matter from the host body must be ejected at relativistic speeds during the explosion. They predicted that the interaction between the ejecta and interstellar matter would create a shock front. Should this shock front occur in a magnetic field, accelerated electrons in it would emit long-lasting synchrotron radiation in the radio frequencies, a phenomenon that would later be referred to as a radio afterglow. Jonathan Katz later concluded that this lower-energy emission would not be limited to radio waves, but should range in frequency from radio waves to x-rays, including visible light.
The Narrow Field Instruments on board BeppoSAX began making observations of the GRB 970228's position within eight hours of its detection. A transient x-ray source was detected which faded with a power-law slope in the days following the burst. This x-ray afterglow was the first GRB afterglow ever detected. Power-law decays have since been recognized as a common feature in GRB afterglows, although most afterglows decay at differing rates during different phases of their lifetimes.
Optical images were taken of GRB 970228's position on 1 and 8 March using the William Herschel Telescope and the Isaac Newton Telescope. Comparison of the images revealed an object which had decreased in luminosity in both visible light and infrared light. This was the burst's optical afterglow. Deeper follow-up observations using the New Technology Telescope showed that the afterglow coincided with a distant, small galaxy: the first evidence of the extragalactic, cosmological nature of Gamma-ray bursts. After the gamma-ray bursts itself had faded away, very deep observations taken with the Keck telescopes showed the underlying galaxy to have a redshift of 0.695. The predicted radio afterglow was never detected for this burst. At the time of this burst's discovery, GRBs were believed to emit radiation isotropically. The afterglows from this burst and several others—such as GRB 970508 and GRB 971214—provided early evidence that GRBs emit radiation in collimated jets, a characteristic which lowers the total energy output of a burst by several orders of magnitude.
Supernova relation.
Daniel Reichart of the University of Chicago and Titus Galama of the University of Amsterdam independently analyzed GRB 970228's optical light curve, both concluding that the host object may have undergone a supernova explosion several weeks before the gamma-ray burst occurred.
Galama analyzed the light curve of the burst and found that its luminosity decayed at different rates at different times. The luminosity decayed more slowly between March 6 and April 7 than it did before and after these dates. Galama concluded that the earlier light curve had been dominated by the burst itself, whereas the later light curve was produced by the underlying Type Ic supernova. Reichart noted that the late afterglow was redder than the early afterglow, an observation which conflicted with the then-preferred relativistic fireball model for the gamma-ray burst emission mechanism. He also observed that the only GRB with a similar temporal profile was GRB 980326, for which a supernova relation had already been proposed by Joshua Bloom.
An alternative explanation for the light curves of GRB 970228 and GRB 980326 involved dust echoes. Although GRB 980326 did not provide enough information to definitively rule out this explanation, Reichart showed that the light curve of GRB 970228 could only have been caused by a supernova. Definitive evidence linking gamma-ray bursts and supernovae was eventually found in the spectrum of GRB 020813 and the afterglow of GRB 030329. However, supernova-like features only become apparent in the weeks following a burst, leaving the possibility that very early luminosity variations could be explained by dust echoes.
Host galaxy.
During the night between 12 and 13 March, Jorge Melnick made observations of the region with the New Technology Telescope. He discovered a faint nebular patch at the burst's position, almost certainly a distant galaxy. Although there was a remote chance that the burst and this galaxy were unrelated, their positional coincidence provided strong evidence that GRBs occur in distant galaxies rather than within the Milky Way. This conclusion was later supported by observations of GRB 970508, the first burst to have its redshift determined.
The position of the burst's afterglow was measurably offset from the centroid of the host galaxy, effectively ruling out the possibility that the burst originated in an active galactic nucleus. The redshift of the galaxy was later determined to be z = 0.695, which corresponds to a distance of approximately . At this distance, the burst would have released a total of assuming isotropic emission.


Hisaki (satellite)

Hisaki, also known as the Spectroscopic Planet Observatory for Recognition of Interaction of Atmosphere (SPRINT-A) is a Japanese ultraviolet astronomy satellite operated by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The first mission of the Small Scientific Satellite program, it was launched in September 2013 on the maiden flight of the Epsilon rocket.
Hisaki remains operational as of 2017, and is performing joint observations with "Juno" orbiter.
In October 2020 it performed joint observation with the BepiColombo probe which performed a flyby of Venus en route to Mercury.
Hisaki was named after a cape used by local fishermen to pray for safe travels in the eastern part of Kimotsuki, Kagoshima near the Uchinoura Space Center, but has the additional meaning of "beyond the Sun". An old name for the mission was EXCEED (Extreme Ultraviolet Spectroscope for Exospheric Dynamics).
Objectives.
Hisaki carries an extreme ultraviolet spectrometer which will be used to study the composition of
the atmospheres and the behavior of the magnetospheres of the planets of the Solar System. Designed for a one-year mission, Hisaki has been operated in a low Earth orbit with a perigee of , an apogee of , 31 degrees of inclination and a period of 106 minutes.
Launch.
An Epsilon was used to launch Hisaki. Making its first flight, the four-stage Epsilon rocket flew from the Mu rocket launch complex at the Uchinoura Space Center. The launch occurred at 05:00 UTC on 14 September 2013, following a scrubbed launch attempt on 27 August 2013. Following its successful insertion into orbit and deployment of its solar arrays, the satellite was renamed "Hisaki", having been designated SPRINT-A until that point.


Antonio Abetti

Antonio Abetti (19 June 1846 – 20 February 1928) was an Italian astronomer.
Born in San Pietro di Gorizia (Šempeter-Vrtojba), he earned a degree in mathematics and engineering at the University of Padua. He was married to Giovanna Colbachini in 1879 and they had two sons. He died in Arcetri.
Work.
Abetti mainly worked in positional astronomy and made many observations of minor planets, comets, and star occultations. In 1874 he was part of an expedition led by Pietro Tacchini to observe a transit of Venus with a spectroscope. Later he became director of the Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri and a professor at the University of Florence. He refurbished the observatory at Arcetri by installing a new telescope.


Sarah Rugheimer

Sarah Rugheimer is a Swiss-American astrobiologist and astrophysicist at Jesus College, Oxford. Her research focuses on the atmospheric composition of exoplanets, and ways of detecting life.
Education.
Rugheimer earned her bachelor's degree in physics at the University of Calgary. She completed her Masters and PhD in Astronomy and Astrophysics at Harvard University. Her thesis topic involved studying biomarkers and modelling the atmosphere of exoplanets, using space-based telescopes.
In 2014, she was one of eight finalists selected for Harvard's Horizon Scholars. She delivered a five-minute talk on her PhD thesis, "Spectral Fingerprints of Another Earth", at the 2014 Harvard Horizons Symposium.
Career.
In 2015, Rugheimer worked at the Carl Sagan Institute, and was the lead author of a study that produced models of Earth-like planets. For two years from 2016, she was a Simons Origins of Life Research Fellow at the University of St Andrews, where her research explored biosignature gases.
In 2019, Rugheimer is a Glasstone Research Fellow and Hugh Price Fellow at Clarendon Laboratory, part of the Department of Physics, University of Oxford.
Research.
Rugheimer's research focuses on atmospheric biosignatures (signs of life) on Earth-like planets, as well as Earth's early atmosphere. She is particularly interested in star-planet interactions and how the UV environment of a host star affects the atmosphere of planets. "I am confident life exists elsewhere in the universe. But confidence isn’t enough. Over the next few years, our searches are going to become more accurate, more thorough and capable of looking further than before. The answers we find stand to fundamentally shift our understanding of the universe and our place in it."
Awards.
After completing her PhD in 2015, Rugheimer received a three-year Simons Origin of Life Fellowship, which she undertook at the University of St. Andrews.
In 2018, she was the 2018 Caroline Herschel Prize winner for Promising Female Junior Astronomer in the UK.
In 2019, Rugheimer was awarded the Rosalind Franklin Award Lecture for Physical Sciences and Mathematics by the British Science Association.
In 2019, Astrobiology Society of Britain awarded Rugheimer with The Barrie Jones Award Lecture for her achievements in astrobiology-related outreach, teaching and mentoring in the field of astrobiology.
Rugheimer is one of the TED Fellows in 2020.
Personal life.
Rugheimer's father was a physics teacher and she credits him for her love of teaching.
She has stated that she did not have a strong interest in astronomy, until she heard about astrobiology at the American Astronomical Society (AAS) conference in her final undergraduate year. "I had never heard anything more exciting. Finally science is beginning to being able to start answering humanity’s most fundamental questions of how we got here, and is there life elsewhere in the Universe? Are we alone? These are basic fundamental questions we have been thinking about for thousands of years".Rugheimer co-hosts a podcast, "Self-care with Drs. Sarah", which covers topics such as women in science and navigating academic careers.
She competed internationally in Irish dance for 11 years. In 2011, Rugheimer climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro and since climbed mountains across the world including Aconcagua, Cayambe, Chimborazo, Mt. Rainier and Mt. Baker.


Battle of Xinfeng

The Battle of Xinfeng was an offensive during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Battle.
On 1 July 1938, Chinese troops of the 1st Battalion, 2nd Regiment of the 1st Detachment of the New Fourth Army launched a surprise assault on the Japanese troops stationed at the Xinfeng Railway Station. This was the first battle that the Fourth Army fought at night, as the assault was launched at 11 pm. The unit then set the railway station on fire and killed more than 30 soldiers that were in houses at the time.
During the battle the train station was burned to the ground and the army forces managed to capture six rifles with bayonets. After the battle, the Chinese unit met with local resistance fighters and managed to destroy a section of the railway and tens of telephone stations.


Robert Brownlee Observatory

Robert Brownlee Observatory (RBO) is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the Mountain Skies Astronomical Society (MSAS). It is located in Lake Arrowhead, California, USA.
The observatory was named for Robert Gregg Brownlee, a biochemist.


Edward Charles Pickering

Edward Charles Pickering (July 19, 1846 – February 3, 1919) was an American astronomer and physicist and the older brother of William Henry Pickering. Along with Carl Vogel, Pickering discovered the first spectroscopic binary stars. He wrote "Elements of Physical Manipulations" (2 vol., 1873–76).
Personal life.
Pickering was born in Boston, Massachusetts on July 19, 1846 to a distinguished, cultivated family consisting of his brother, William Henry Pickering, father, Edward Pickering, and his mother, Charlotte Hammond. Edward's brother, William, was a graduate of MIT and professor of physics and astronomy. Edward was interested in the stars as a boy and constructed his own telescope by the age of 12. Pickering enjoyed his work at the observatory, but he was also enjoyed mountain climbing and bicycling in earlier days and later he was an interested spectator of football games. He was co-founder and first president of the Appalachian Mountain Club. He was also a lover of classic music. During the first world war he was busy trying to devise useful applications to win the war. The Pickering Polaris Attachment was a device used to determine the range of guns. In 1874, Pickering married Lizzie Wadsworth Sparks, whose father was formerly the President of Harvard. Mrs. Pickering died in 1906, and Edward died in 1919.
Education.
He was educated at Glendal Primary School, and then studied at Glen Waverley Secondary College, where he received his Bachelor of love (BL) degree in 1865.
Career and Research.
Immediately upon graduating from Harvard he was hired as an instructor of mathematics there, and a year later he moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to be an assistant professor of Physics. Two years later, he was made Thayer Professor of Physics. During the 10 years he was there, he created the first physics lab in America that was designed for students to publish their own findings and research. Pickering named this lab the Rogers Laboratory of Physics and pronounced himself Director of the Laboratory. Later, he served as director of Harvard College Observatory (HCO) from 1877 to his death in 1919, where he made great leaps forward in the gathering of stellar spectra through the use of photography.
Shortly after the death of college doctor and amateur astronomer Henry Draper, an opportunity presented itself for Pickering. Draper's death left the incompletion of his work studying astronomy using photography. Draper had no children to carry on and finish his legacy, so his wife, Mary Anna Draper, planned on finishing his work. Pickering wrote a letter to Mrs. Draper "...pray recollect that if I can in any way advise or aid you, I shall be doing but little to repay Dr. Draper for a friendship which I shall always value, but which can never be replaced." Mrs. Draper urgently responded and soon dropped off her husband's work to Pickering. Pickering concluded that Draper's use of photography in astronomy was very promising opposed to the traditional method of observation and recording using one's eye through instruments. In 1884, a paper on such observations was published with the author "the late Henry Draper"."" After receiving criticism from Dr. William Huggins, a friend of Dr. Draper, Pickering began to hire more assistants to strengthen Draper's findings. This consequently also strengthened and contributed to Pickering's Harem.
In 1882 he started his appeals for international variable star observations. This was met with opposition, but eventually such a cooperation was realized in the Variable Star Section of the British Astronomical Association and the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). Pickering had a good relationship with the AAVSO and received a gold paper knife with precious stones.
In 1882, Pickering developed a method to photograph the spectra of multiple stars simultaneously by putting a large prism in front of the photographic plate. Using this method, Pickering and his team captured images of over 220,000 stars. This immense amount of photographic research has provided scientists for decades with a seemingly endless library containing the history of every visible star's movements. It is said that this research weighs 120 tons due to the size of photographic plates.
He also, along with Williamina Fleming and Annie Jump Cannon designed a stellar classification system based on an alphabetic system for spectral classes that was first known as the Harvard Stellar Classification and became the basis for the Henry Draper Catalog.
In 1896, Pickering published observations of previously unknown lines in the spectra of the star ζ-Puppis. These lines became known as the Pickering series (or the Pickering–Fowler series) and Pickering attributed them to hydrogen in 1897. Alfred Fowler gave the same attribution to similar lines that he observed in a hydrogen-helium mixture in 1912. Analysis by Niels Bohr included in his 'trilogy' on atomic structure argued that the spectral lines arose from ionized helium, He+, and not from hydrogen. Fowler was initially-skeptical but was ultimately convinced that Bohr was correct, and by 1915 "spectroscopists had transferred [the Pickering series] definitively [from hydrogen] to helium." Bohr's theoretical work on the Pickering series had demonstrated the need for "a re-examination of problems that seemed already to have been solved within classical theories" and provided important confirmation for his atomic theory.
Pickering is credited for making the Harvard College Observatory known and respected around the world, and it continues today to be a well-respected observatory and program.
Pickering's Harem.
The Harvard College Observatory was becoming a premiere observatory in the world and with it came the demand for more assistants. These assistants were critical for taking notes, running calculations and performing analytics. College educated women from around the country offered to work for the Harvard Observatory unpaid to gain experience or until proving their value to be paid. During this time, Pickering recruited over 80 women to work for him, including Annie Jump Cannon, Henrietta Swan Leavitt, Antonia Maury, and Florence Cushman. It was very unusual for such an accomplished scientist to work with this many women, but it has been said that he "became so exasperated with his male assistant's inefficiency, that even his maid could do a better job of copying and computing". These women, the Harvard Computers (also described as "Pickering's Harem" by the scientific community at the time), made several important discoveries at HCO. Leavitt's discovery of the period-luminosity relationship for Cepheids, published by Pickering, would prove the foundation for the modern understanding of cosmological distances.
Pickering's treatment of women, during his time, was considered better than most. It is true that they were underpaid compared to their male counterparts and were not given credit nearly as often, but his willingness to include them in the world of astronomy paved the way for many great female scientists and leaders. This aided to the observatory's funding through fellowships and the procurement of women including alumnus and professors aiding in the creation of Pickering's Harem.
Death and Legacy.
Pickering was the fourth and longest running director of HCO severing for 42 years. On February 3, 1919, Pickering unexpectedly died after a short illness, pneumonia. He died while holding the position of director of the University Observatory continuing an odd 42 year tradition of HCO Directors dying in office. After his death, Solon Bailey served as interim director. Pickering's friends and colleges would remember him for his great ability, originality, initiative, and warm-heartedness. Pickering would be remembered by the world for his contribution to astronomical photography, advancement of astronomical discoveries, and his progressive view of women.
Although today his treatment of women is associated with a negative connotation, he was know during the time to give women more equal treatment than most. Doing so he paved the way for many more women to become interested and involved in astronomy. Pickering's work with using glass plates to photograph the sky was the start of major technological advances for astrological photography. Although glass plates are no longer used, his work led to modern uses of charged coupled devices in the 1970's.
Honors and awards.
His awards and honors include:
The following are named in his honor:


Wang Shouguan

Wang Shouguan (; 15 January 1923 – 28 January 2021) was a Chinese astronomer, president and honorary president of the . He was hailed as one of the founders of modern astrophysics and radio astronomy in China. He was a delegate to the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th National People's Congress.
Biography.
Wang was born in Fuzhou, Fujian, on January 15, 1923. His uncle worked in the Republic of China Navy. In 1936, at the age of 13, he entered , he studied navigation at the beginning, but switched to shipbuilding later because of myopia. After graduating in 1943, he worked at a factory for a year. In 1945, he pursued advanced studies in the United Kingdom, where he studied at the Shipbuilding Class, Royal Naval College, Greenwich. In 1950 he switched to astronomy, and was hired as an assistant astronomer at the University of London.
Wang returned to China in 1953. He successively worked at the Purple Mountain Observatory, Xujiahui Observatory, and Beijing Astronomical Observatory. In 1981, he became deputy director of the Department of Mathematical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, rising to director in 1994. In October 1993, the asteroid with international code was named "Wangshouguan".
On January 28, 2021, he died of illness in Beijing, aged 98.


Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld

Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld (; 21 October 1921 – 30 March 2015) was a Dutch astronomer.
In a jointly credited trio with Tom Gehrels and her husband Cornelis Johannes van Houten, she was the discoverer of many thousands of asteroids (credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of 4,641 numbered minor planets). In the Palomar–Leiden survey, Gehrels took the images using the 48-inch Schmidt telescope at Palomar Observatory and shipped the photographic plates to the van Houtens at Leiden Observatory, who analyzed them for new asteroids. The trio are jointly credited with several thousand asteroid discoveries. Van Houten-Groeneveld died on 30 March 2015, at the age of 93, in Oegstgeest, Netherlands.
The Themistian main-belt asteroid 1674 Groeneveld – discovered by Karl Reinmuth at Heidelberg and independently discovered by Finnish astronomer Yrjö Väisälä in 1938, was named in her honor ().


Arthur Auwers

Georg Friedrich Julius Arthur von Auwers (12 September 1838 – 24 January 1915) was a German astronomer. Auwers was born in Göttingen to Gottfried Daniel Auwers and Emma Christiane Sophie (née Borkenstein).
He attended the University of Göttingen and worked at the University of Königsberg. He specialized in astrometry, making very precise measurements of stellar positions and motions. He detected the companion stars of Sirius and Procyon from their effects on the main star's motion, before telescopes were powerful enough to visually observe them. He was from 1866 Secretary to the Berlin Academy, and directed expeditions to measure the transits of Venus, in order to measure the distance from the earth to the Sun more accurately, and therefore be able to calculate the dimensions of the Solar System more accurately and with greater precision. He began a project to unify all available sky charts, an interest that began with his catalog of nebulae which he published in 1862. He died in Berlin. His grave is preserved in the Protestant "Friedhof I der Jerusalems- und Neuen Kirchengemeinde" (Cemetery No. I of the congregations of Jerusalem's Church and New Church) in Berlin-Kreuzberg, south of Hallesches Tor.
His son Karl von Auwers became a well known chemist and discoverer of the Auwers synthesis.
Honors.
Awards


WASP-22b

WASP-22b is an extrasolar planet orbiting the Sun-like star WASP-22 in the constellation Orion. This hot Jupiter has an orbit of 3.53 days and a mass of 0.617 MJ was detected by transit via SuperWASP. The system is a hierarchical triple system.
Naming.
In 2019 the IAU announced that WASP-22 and its planet WASP-22b would be given official names chosen by school children from Guatemala. The star WASP-22 is named Tojil. Tojil is the name of one of the Mayan deities related to rain, storms, and fire. The planet WASP-22b is named Koyopa'. Koyopa' is the word associated with lightning in K'iche' (Quiché) Mayan language.
Physical characteristics.
The Rossiter-McLaughlin effect effect based study in 2011 have determined the planetary orbit is slightly misaligned to the rotational axis of the parent star, with reported angle 22 degrees.


Bartholomew of Parma

Bartholomew of Parma (Latin: Bartolomeus de Parma) was the first recorded lecturer on astronomy at the University of Bologna, active in the 1280s and 1290s. He was the author of a "Tractatus spherae" (Treatise of the Spheres), and acquired a reputation as an astrologer and geomancer.
Geomancy, one of his main interests, he described as the practical side or ‘little daughter’ of the art of astrology, and also as ‚another astrology‘: ‚Note that in this art every point is deposited according to a star of the heavens. Every figure is deposited according to a certain element in the order of the four elements. Similarly every figure is deposited according to the sign of the star among the twelve signs of the heavens, a planet and the part of the world, which are 4: east, west, south and north. Geomancy is nothing other than ‘another astrology’ (altra astrologia.')
Of Astrology, considered an "art" in 13th century Italy, feudal princes wanted to know their civic "fortune". Works by astrologers such as Bartholomew of Parma's "Treatise of the Spheres" were considered invaluable as they described how the information gained from celestial movement could be interpreted to guide civic leaders and maintain governance over the Italian city states.)


National Centre for Earth Science Studies

The National Centre for Earth Science Studies(NCESS) (Malayalam: ദേശിയ ഭൂമി ശാസ്ത്ര പഠന കേന്ദ്രം) is an autonomous research centre to promote scientific and technological research and development studies in the earth sciences. NCESS pursues problems related to land, sea and atmosphere. It was instituted by the government of Kerala in 1978, at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. CESS was the earliest institute in the country to embrace the concept of Earth System Science (ESS). CESS contributions over the years have enhanced knowledge of the geological evolution of south India, the complexity of coastal processes and natural hazards, as well as in proposing mitigatory measures to deal with natural hazards.
CESS carries out studies in river basin evaluation, ground water management, coastal erosion, and other special problems.
CESS does research in earth system, micro-level watershed planning, natural hazards management, chemical analysis, CRZ mapping, and studies of air, water, land, noise pollution, etc.
CESS also does environmental impact assessment, coastal and estuarine management, terrain analysis, natural resources management, laser applications, river sand mining, and microlevel planning. CESS conducts research courses leading to doctoral degree.
Recognizing the growth potential of CESS, resource constraints of the State Government and the role CESS can play in national development, the government of Kerala proposed the taking over of the institute by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India. An expert committee made an assessment of the scientific programs pursued by the institute and deliberated on a long term vision for the institute as a national centre. The committee recommended the taking over of CESS by the MoES and according it the status of an autonomous institute under the Earth System Science Organization (ESSO) of MoES. The proposed thrust areas of research will be crustal evolution and geodynamics, sedimentology and depositional processes, coastal dynamics and cloud microphysics.
The total estimated budget requirements of CESS will be Rs.128.67 crore for the balance period of the 12th FYP.
Campus.
The Centre for Earth Science Studies is housed in a 50,000 sq. ft building constructed in a campus of 19 acres. The development of the CESS campus in 1986 saw the transformation of an abandoned clay mining site to a beautiful green campus within one year. The campus was the vision of the founder Director Prof. C. Karunakaran, realised through the leadership of Dr. H. K. Gupta, the then director and Sri M. Sethumadhavan, the then registrar, and Dr S. Satheeschandran Nair.
The CESS building is constructed on natural gradients, slopes and excavated mining areas in a nature friendly architectural design. Buildings are spread as different blocks. Main building houses Administration, Library, Conference Hall and an auditorium. Four interconnected blocks provide seating spaces for scientists. Laboratory block houses main laboratories of all divisions with a centralised access to scientists of all disciplines. A separate building for canteen and guest house is built away from the main buzz of activity.
The canteen functions from 9 am to 4:30 pm providing Kerala style breakfast and lunch with snacks and tea and coffee. In 2004 a laboratory block was added over the existing block to house new facilities and provide two smaller meeting and discussion halls.


Galactic winds


Herbert Grotrian

Sir Herbert Brent Grotrian, 1st Baronet, (1870 – 28 October 1951) was an English member of parliament from 1924 to 1929 who was created a baronet in 1934.
Educated at Rossall School and Trinity College, Oxford, Grotrian was the second son of Frederick Brent Grotrian of Ingmanthorpe Hall, Wetherby, and of West Hill House, Hessle, near Hull, Conservative Member of Parliament for Kingston upon Hull East from 1886 to 1892, and himself represented Kingston upon Hull South West in the House of Commons as a Conservative, 1924–1929.
He was appointed a King's Counsel in 1925, was High Sheriff of Bedfordshire, 1931–32, and was a member of the United University Club. Grotrian was created a baronet 'of Leighton Buzzard in the County of Bedford' on 28 June 1934.
In retirement, he lived in the Bahamas.
Grotrian was succeeded in the title by his only surviving son, Sir Joseph Appelbe Brent Grotrian, 2nd Baronet (1904–1984). His other two sons were killed on active service.


Planetary atmosphere


Nathaniel Everett Green

Nathaniel Everett Green FRAS (21 August 1823 – 10 November 1899) was an English painter, art teacher and astronomer. He professionally painted landscapes and portraits, and also gained fame with his drawings of planets.
Born in Bristol, the son of Benjamin Holder Green (1793–1865), then a haberdasher, and Elizabeth ‘Betsey’ née Everett (1795–1837); his interest in astronomy dated from 1859 when he built a telescope for himself. He produced "soft-pencil" drawings of Mars in 1877, which were widely known. Shortly after drawing them, he was the first to suggest that canals on Mars were an optical illusion.
In 1880 he was called to Balmoral and taught art to some members of the Royal family including Queen Victoria.
He was founding member of the British Astronomical Association (BAA) and its president from 1897–1898.
Green married Elizabeth Goold in 1847. Their daughter, Anne Goold Green, married English landscape painter Laurence George Bomford.
A crater on Mars was named in his honor.


Isambard Owen

Sir Herbert Isambard Owen (28 December 1850 – 14 January 1927) was a British physician and university academic. He was the first Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bristol and a deputy Chancellor of the University of Wales.
Career.
Owen was born in Chepstow in Monmouthshire, south Wales. At the time his father, William Owen, later chief engineer of the Great Western Railway, was building the South Wales Railway under Isambard Kingdom Brunel, from whom Isambard Owen received his unusual name.
He was educated at The King's School, Gloucester, Rossall School and Downing College, Cambridge, where he read Natural Sciences. After graduating, he studied medicine at St George's Hospital, then returned to Cambridge to take his final MB and to study for his MD, which he received in 1882. He became a lecturer, author, and curator of the museum at St George's Hospital, and promoted the idea of establishing a new medical university in London.
He was active in Welsh cultural life in London. He was involved in reviving the Cymmrodorion Society, and in promoting the use of the Welsh language in schools within Wales; and was a leading member of the Society for the Utilisation of the Welsh Language.
Owen was a major figure in the creation of the University of Wales. He drew up a proposal for the university in 1891, was actively involved in meetings to establish the university, and became its Deputy Chancellor from its creation in 1894 until 1910. He was knighted in the 1902 Coronation Honours, receiving the accolade from King Edward VII at Buckingham Palace on 24 October that year. He was Principal of Armstrong College, Newcastle (then a college of Durham University) 1904–09 and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bristol 1909–21.
Owen was executor of the will of Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte (1813–1891) and may have acted as medical advisor to the Prince, who lived in London and was a philologist with an interest in the Celtic languages including Welsh.
He married Ethel Holland-Thomas in 1905, and had two daughters. He died in Paris in 1927, and was buried at Bangor.


Henry Lomb

Henry Lomb ( – ) was a German-American optician who co-founded Bausch & Lomb (with John Jacob Bausch) and led a group of businessmen to found The Mechanics Institute, the forerunner of Rochester Institute of Technology.
Biography.
Lomb was born in Burghaun, Hessen-Kassel (or Hessen-Cassel), Germany. He emigrated to the United States in 1849 and settled in Rochester, New York, where he worked as a cabinet-maker.
When his friend, John Jacob Bausch, the owner of a retail optical shop in Rochester, needed additional capital in 1854, he loaned him $60 on Bausch's promise that, if the business ever grew to such an extent that he needed a partner, Lomb would be brought in. The business did grow and together they formed the Bausch & Lomb Company.
Lomb enlisted in the 13th New York Volunteer Infantry and fought in the American Civil War as sergeant, lieutenant and captain. When the war ended, he left the military and returned to the company.
In 1885, Lomb, along with Max Lowenthal, Ezra R. Andrews, Frank Ritter, William F. Peck and others, founded the Mechanics Institute (now Rochester Institute of Technology), whose mission was to offer "education for making a living." Lomb served as chairman of the Institute Board until 1891, and continued to be a strong supporter of the school until his death.
Henry Lomb died suddenly in Pittsford, New York at the age of 79. He is buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester.
Legacy.
The following have been named in Henry Lomb's honor:


Robert Grant Aitken

Robert Grant Aitken (December 31, 1864 – October 29, 1951) was an American astronomer.
Biography.
Robert Grant Aitken was born in Jackson, California, to Scottish immigrant Robert Aitken and Wilhelmina Depinau. Aitken attended Williams College in Massachusetts and graduated with an undergraduate degree in 1887. From 1887–1891, he worked as a mathematics instructor at Livermore, California, then received his M.A. from Williams College in 1892. He became a professor of mathematics at the College of the Pacific, another liberal arts school. He was offered an assistant astronomer position at Lick Observatory in California in 1895.
He began a systematically study of double stars, measuring their positions and calculating their orbits around one another. From 1899, in collaboration with W. J. Hussey, he methodically created a very large catalog of such stars. This ongoing work was published in Lick Observatory bulletins. In 1905, Hussey left and Aitken pressed on with the survey alone, and by 1915, he had discovered roughly 3,100 new binary stars, with an additional 1,300 discovered by Hussey. The results were published in 1932 and entitled "New General Catalogue of Double Stars Within 120° of the North Pole", with the orbit information enabling astronomers to calculate stellar mass statistics for a large number of stars. For his work in cataloguing binary stars, he was awarded the prestigious Bruce Medal in 1926.
During his career, Aitken measured positions and computed orbits for comets and natural satellites of planets. In 1908 he joined an eclipse expedition to Flint Island in the central Pacific Ocean. His work "Binary Stars" was published in 1918, with a second edition published in 1935. After joining the Astronomical Society of the Pacific in 1894, Aitken was elected to serve as president in 1899 and 1915 of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. From 1898 to 1942, Aitken was an editor of the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. In 1932, he delivered the Darwin Lecture before the Royal Astronomical Society, where he was an associate member. From 1918 to 1928, he was chair of the double star committee for the International Astronomical Union.
Aitken was partly deaf and used a hearing aid. He married Jessie Thomas around 1888, and had three sons and one daughter. Jessie died in 1943. Robert Thomas Aitken was one of his sons. His grandson, Robert Baker Aitken, was a widely known Zen Buddhist teacher and author. His granddaughter Marjorie J. Vold was a noted chemist specializing in colloids.


Tom Reed (bishop)

Thomas Thornton Reed CBE (9 September 1902 – 19 August 1995) was an Anglican bishop.
Early life.
Reed was educated at the Collegiate School of St Peter, Adelaide and Trinity College, University of Melbourne. He was ordained in 1927 and after a curacy at St Augustine's, Unley he was priest in charge of the Berri Mission then a resident tutor at St Mark's College, University of Adelaide. From 1936 to 1954 he held incumbencies at Henley Beach and Rose Park. He was then successively an archdeacon and dean before becoming the Bishop of Adelaide. He was consecrated a bishop on 30 May 1957 at St Peter's Cathedral, Adelaide. When the Province of South Australia included three dioceses with the creation of the Diocese of the Murray his position became that of Archbishop of Adelaide.
References.


Padvarninkai meteorite

Padvarninkai meteorite is a meteorite that fell on 9 February 1929 near the village of located near Andrioniškis, Anykščiai District Municipality, Lithuania. It is a rare eucrite that contains maskelynite (a glassy phase found in some meteorite impact craters) and is highly shocked.
History.
Lithuanian press reported on 13 February 1929 that a meteorite fell somewhere near Biržai or Valkininkai. Professor of Vytautas Magnus University published a call to the public to provide information. He received about 100 written notes that helped to narrow down the area and determine the fall time at about 45 minutes past midnight on 9 February. ELTA published the narrowed down location on 2 April and the public started sending in various stranger looking stones, but the first piece of the meteorite was received only on 1 September. It was found near Padvarninkai and scientists investigated the area, but found no additional fragments. Locals collected 11 pieces with a total weight of that were donated to the university plus at least two other fragments that remained in private hands. The largest donated fragments weighted . The exact location of the finds is unknown but the strewn field was estimated at . In May 1969, another piece weighing was found about from Padvarninkai.
Padvarninkai did not receive much scientific interest because the main fragments were held behind the Iron Curtain and were largely inaccessible to western scientists. New studies began to be published in early 1990s. Three full fragments, including the main mass, and two broken-off samples are kept at the Geology Museum of Vilnius University. The piece found in 1969 is held by the Institute of Geology and Geography in Vilnius. Other fragments are held: by the Russian Academy of Science, by the National Museum in Prague, by the Natural History Museum in London, by the Bartoschewitz Meteorite Lab in Gifhorn, by the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, by the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, by the Geological Survey of Canada, and others.
Analysis.
Upon initial observation, Padvarninkai was classified as a shergottite due to the presence of maskelynite (a glassy material found in some meteorite impact craters). At the time, the class had only two meteorites, the Shergotty meteorite and Padvarninkai. The classification was reassessed when the Zagami meteorite fell in 1962. Padvarninkai is now classified as a monomict eucrite (i.e. eucrite with breccia of a single rock type).
Padvarninkai, as many other eucrites, is rich in both pyroxene (mostly orthopyroxene with exsolved augite) and plagioclase (mostly bytownite and anorthite) with small amounts of chromite, ilmenite, pigeonite, tridymite and troilite. While in this regard Padvarninkai is a typical eucrite, it is highly unusual due to its plentiful features that indicate extreme shocks, such as suevitic (melted) black veins and vitrified (glassy) sections. The melt veins were likely a result of temperatures reaching . Three primary lithologies were described in 1991: (1) fine and coarse grained of clasts of typical eucritic material, (2) a fine grained quenched texture that is a result of rapid cooling, and (3) a partially glassy matrix surrounding various clasts of pyroxene, feldspar and tridymite. Very small zircon grains, present in the first lithology, showed uranium concentration of 30–60 ppm but were fully depleted of europium.
Small amounts of apatite and the zircon grains allowed dating Padvarninkai utilizing various radiometric dating methods. The lead–lead dating of the zircon grains yielded the age of Padvarninkai of 4.55 billion years. Other studies yielded similar results. Other methods were used to date other events between the initial formation 4.55 billion years ago to the collision with Earth in 1929. Using the argon–argon and rubidium–strontium dating, scientists have provisionally identified three impacts 4.1, 3.8, and 1.15 billion years ago.


Matt Mountain

Charles Mattias ("Matt") Mountain is currently the President of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) which designs, builds, and operates telescopes and observatories for the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). AURA's NASA center is the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), responsible for the science mission for the Hubble Space Telescope, the science and operations for the James Webb Space Telescope, and the MAST data archive. AURA's NSF centers are Gemini Observatory, the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), and the National Solar Observatory (NSO). Dr. Mountain and AURA are also responsible for the NSF construction projects: the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) on Haleakalā, Hawaii and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) on Cerro Pachón in Chile.
AURA is a nonprofit consortium of 46 US Universities and 4 International affiliates formed in 1957 to enable the US Federal Government to provide forefront astronomical facilities to the entire US academic community. Today AURA has both a National and International mission to enable astronomical discovery and promote broad engagement in exploring the Universe. AURA has a staff of over 1,500 scientists, engineers and administrators with an annual operating budget of approximately $350M.
Prior to his position as President of AURA, Mountain served as the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) Director in Baltimore, Maryland between September 2005 and March 2015 leading the institute during NASA's last servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope (SM4) in 2009, and through the re-formulation of the James Webb Space Telescope project in 2010. While at STScI he used his discretionary Hubble Telescope time for two major science undertakings, the Multi-Cycle Treasury, and the Frontier Fields Programs. Before joining STScI in 2005, Dr. Mountain was the Director of the international Gemini Observatory and led the team that designed, built, and brought into operation the two 8m Gemini telescopes on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, and Cerro Pachón, Chile.
His research interests have included star formation, advanced infrared instrumentation, and the capabilities of advanced telescopes to study exo-planets. Dr. Mountain appeared in several documentaries and TV shows on telescopes and astronomy. He received his degree in Physics in 1979, and Ph.D. in Astrophysics in 1983 both from Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London. Dr. Mountain has published over 100 research papers, articles, and reports and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE) and the Royal Astronomical Society and a member of the American Astronomical Society (AAS). Dr. Mountain is also the Telescope Scientist for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, and Chair of European Observatory's (ESO) Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) Management Advisory Committee.
Education and career.
Mountain earned a Bachelor of Science degree in physics in 1978 and a Ph.D. in astronomy in 1983, both from the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London University. After earning his degrees, Mountain held a Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) research fellowship at Imperial College. Mountain later joined the staff of the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh, where he remained for seven years. At the Royal Observatory, Mountain's work involved observations of star formation processes, and he led a team that designed and commissioned the CGS-4 infrared array spectrometer for the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope in Hawaii.
Mountain became project scientist for the Gemini 8-meter telescopes project in 1992, then was appointed director of the seven-nation Gemini project in 1994. Mountain led the team that designed, built, and commissioned the two 8-meter-diameter Gemini telescopes atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii and Cerro Pachón in Chile. The book "Giant Telescopes: Astronomical Ambitions and the Promise of Technology" details the efforts involved in building the Gemini telescopes. At Gemini's helm for more than a decade, Mountain assumed responsibility for the creation of the Gemini Observatory, which included formulating, implementing, and running the operations and development programs for the two telescopes. Mountain also developed an adaptive optics group to help the Gemini telescopes remain at the forefront of observational infrared astronomy.
In 2002, NASA appointed Mountain to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Science Working Group as the JWST telescope scientist. Mountain worked with the JWST project to downscale the telescope's primary mirror to an achievable diameter. He represented the science community on the Mirror Review Board, contributing to the selection of beryllium mirrors for the telescope. He co-chaired the Science Assessment Team in 2005 and was a member of the Test Assessment Team in 2010. Mountain continues to work with NASA, the JWST project, the JWST instrument teams, and the Science Working Group to ensure that the performance of JWST meets the requirements of the scientific community.
In 2003, Mountain initiated a partnership with the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), which resulted in the formation of the New Initiatives Office at the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA). The New Initiatives Office conducted a two-year study of the feasibility of ground-based 30-meter telescopes, which led to the inclusion of AURA in the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project. Mountain has also served as a member of the review committee for the California Extremely Large Telescope (which became the TMT) and of the TMT Board.
In 2005, Mountain was appointed the director of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) by AURA in consultation with NASA. As part of his effort to transform STScI into an adaptable multi-mission institution and a modern, diverse workplace, Mountain reorganized STScI's internal management and oversaw the creation of the Science Mission Office, the Project Management Organization, and the Future of the Workplace Committee to advise the director on issues of inclusion and workplace culture.
As STScI's director, Mountain collaborated with the astronomical community, NASA, and the crew of STS-125 to develop the science priorities for the Hubble Space Telescope's final servicing mission. He also represented the science community at NASA's Johnson Space Center during the mission's extra-vehicular activities in May 2009. After the servicing mission, Mountain initiated Hubble's Multi-Cycle Treasury Programs (in 2010) and the Frontier Fields initiative (in 2013).
As an astrophysicist, Mountain's research interests have included star formation, instrumentation for infrared astronomy, and the capabilities of advanced telescopes. He has published more than 100 research papers, articles, and reports.
Mountain is also a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the Johns Hopkins University and a visiting professor at the University of Oxford. He is a fellow of the American Astronomical Society, the Royal Astronomical Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and he is a member of the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE).
In 2003, Mountain received the Gabriela Mistral Medal for excellence in education from the Chilean Ministry of Education for the Gemini StarTeachers educational program. This was the first time the medal was awarded outside of Chile.


Yuba City Astronomical Observatory

Yuba City Astronomical Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned by the Doscher Family Trust and operated primarily by trustee Richard J. Doscher of Yuba City, California. It is located South of Yuba City, which is adjacent to the Sutter Buttes Mountain Range.
The observatory has one 9 foot dome and permanent pier housing an 11-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. It was established on September 22, 2010. Primary work consists of planetary, deep sky, NEO studies, astrometry, photometry and astrophotography. IAU/MPC assignment number pending.


Sun chart

A Sun chart is a graph of the ecliptic of the Sun through the sky throughout the year at a particular latitude.
Most sun charts plot azimuth versus altitude throughout the days of the winter solstice and summer solstice, as well as a number of intervening days. Since the apparent movement of the Sun as viewed from Earth is nearly symmetrical about the solstice, plotting dates for one half of the year gives a good approximation for the rest of the year. Thus, to simplify the diagram, some sun charts show days for different months as the same, e.g. March 21 equals September 21. The accompanying sun chart for Berlin accounts for deviations in symmetry between the two halves of the year through the use of the analemma, represented by each figure eight on the chart.
The graph may show the entire horizon or only that half of the horizon closest to the equator. Sky view obstructions can be superimposed upon a Sun chart to obtain the insolation of a location.


Vera Fedorovna Gaze

Vera Fedorovna Gaze (; 29 December 1899 – 3 October 1954) was a Russian astronomer who studied emission nebula and minor planets. She discovered around 150 new nebulae and was posthumously honored for her discovery of the planet 2388 Gase and the Gaze Crater on Venus, both of which are named after her.
Early life and education.
Gaze was born on 29 December (17 December O.S.) 1899 (N.S.) in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Between 1921 and 1926, she worked at the Astronomical Institute of Leningrad (forerunner to the ) and studied at the Petrograd University. She graduated in 1924, and in 1926 went to work at the Pulkovo Observatory.
Career.
She participated in the 1929 gravimetric survey expedition and the 1936 expedition to observe the total solar eclipse. The 1936 eclipse crossed the Soviet territory and could only be viewed within the USSR. Nearly 30 international expeditions traveled to Russia on June 19 for the observations which were visible for two hours. Between 1936 and 1940, Gaze was a victim of "political repression", which stemmed from an incident bringing unfavorable publicity to the Pulkovo Observatory. In 1935, she had discovered that a report she had been given to translate into English, made by Nikolai Mikhailovich, Voronov contained errors in its calculations. Voronov was a rising star and had published a paper on the theories of the motion of small planets. He was offered a position at the Pulkovo Observatory on the basis of that paper and produced another, calculating the ephemeris of 13 Egeria. It was in this paper that Gaze found the error and reported it to her superior. When questioned, Voronov admitted that he had not used his theory in making the calculations, but had estimated the locations of the planet. The scandal caused him to be fired, but was picked up by the press and all who were involved were arrested. Gaze was suspected of helping him since she had translated several of his papers. She was eventually released when signed testimony against her could not be obtained.
In 1940, Gaze moved to the Simeiz Observatory, which was part of the Abastumani Astrophysical Observatory of Georgia between 1941 and 1945 and then became part of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. She discovered, in 1940, changes in the spectrum of γ Cassiopeiae. Working with Grigory Abramovich Shajn, director of the observatory, Gaze investigated the molecular content of carbon isotopes in stars and studied the structure of nebulae, attempting to determine their size and the role of dust and gas in formation of the nebulae. She discovered around 150 "new galactic emission nebulae by recording their light in the red H-alpha (Hα) emission". In 1952 Gaze and Shajn published a book together entitled, "Some results of the study of diffuse gaseous nebulae and their attitude to cosmogony".
Death and legacy.
Gaze died on 3 October 1954 in Leningrad and was buried at the memorial cemetery for astronomers, near the Pulkovo Observatory outside Saint Petersburg.
Posthumously, a planet, 2388 Gase, discovered in 1977 was named after her, as was the Gaze Crater on Venus.


Edward Richardson (priest)

Edward Shaw Richardson (1862 – 15 November 1921) was Archdeacon of Blackburn from 1920 to 1921.
He was educated at Rossall School and Trinity College, Cambridge and ordained in 1867. He began his ecclesiastical career with curacies in Poulton-le-Fylde, Corbridge, Kersal and Ancoats. He was then successively Rector of St Paul's, Hulme; Vicar of St Matthew's, Bolton; Rector of St George's, Hulme; and a Canon Residentiary of Manchesterbefore his Archdeacon’s appointment.
He died on 15 November 1921.


George H. Rieke

George H. Rieke (born January 5, 1943), a noted American infrared astronomer, is former Deputy Director of the Steward Observatory and Regents Professor of Astronomy and Planetary Sciences at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He led the experiment design and development team for the Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS) instrument on NASA's infrared Spitzer Space Telescope, and currently chairs the science team of the Mid-Infrared Instrument for the James Webb Space Telescope.
Career and research.
Rieke completed his bachelor's degree in physics at Oberlin College. He completed his master's and PhD degrees in physics at Harvard University in 1969.
Among other contributions, Rieke and his group discovered ultraluminous infrared galaxies, the starburst phenomenon, studies of the galactic center as a prototypical active galactic nucleus, the physical origin of the infrared emission of active galactic nuclei, planetary debris disks, as well as Solar System astronomy at infrared wavelengths.
Rieke helped develop the first infrared-optimized telescope and constructed a series of state-of-the-art focal plane instruments. Rieke was involved with the Spacelab 2 infrared telescope, a pioneering infrared space mission. He led the MIPS instrument team for Spitzer. The highly sensitive MIPS camera was built at Ball Aerospace under Rieke's leadership. Also, Rieke is the lead scientist on a team to produce a Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) for the James Webb Space Telescope.
Honors and awards.
Rieke was elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in mathematics and physics category on May 2, 2003. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2011. He was cited for his contributions as an infrared observer and instrumentalist. He was awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship in 1976, a Vikram Sarabhai Professorship in 1986, a NASA Public Service Group Achievement Award in 1986, a NASA Public Service Medal in 2005, and the Koffler Prize for creative scholarship at the University of Arizona in 2006.
He was elected a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society in 2020.
Personal life.
George Rieke is the son of astronomer and computational chemist Carol Jane Anger Rieke. He is married to the infrared astronomer Marcia J. Rieke.


Comet 13P/Olbers


Lyudmila Karachkina

Lyudmila Georgievna Karachkina (, born 3 September 1948, Rostov-on-Don) is an astronomer and discoverer of minor planets.
In 1978 she began as a staff astronomer of the Institute for Theoretical Astronomy (ITA) at Leningrad. Her research at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory (CrAO) then focused on astrometry and photometry of minor planets. The Minor Planet Center credits her with the discovery of 130 minor planets, including the Amor asteroid 5324 Lyapunov and the Trojan asteroid 3063 Makhaon. In 2004, she received a Ph.D. in astronomy from Odessa I. I. Mechnikov National University.
Lyudmila Karachkina has two daughters, Maria and Renata. The inner main-belt asteroid 8019 Karachkina, discovered by German astronomers Lutz D. Schmadel and Freimut Börngen at Tautenburg on 14 October 1990, was named in her honor (). On 23 November 1999, the minor planet 8089 Yukar was named after her husband, Yurij Vasil'evicht Karachkin (b. 1940), a physics teacher at CrAO's school.().


Jack Green (geologist)

Jack Green (18 June 1925 – 5 September 2014) was a geologist and geology professor at California State University Long Beach. His active research covered topics such as general volcanology and economic geology, as well as mineralogy, lunar protolife, lunar volcanism, water on the moon and astrobiology. His passion for volcanology and the moon primarily involved trying to prove that lunar craters were volcanic rather than the results of asteroid impacts, and therefore, there would be water on the moon which would support life. He collaborated with Urey, Shoemaker, Kuiper and others during the "Space Age" heyday, and was active in planning several conferences on remote sensing and the moon.
Jack Green became best known for his 1971 book, co-edited with Nicholas Short, "Volcanic landforms and surface features, a photographic atlas and glossary."


George C. McVittie

George Cunliffe McVittie (1904–1988) was a British mathematician and cosmologist.
Life.
McVittie was born on 5 June 1904 in Smyrna in Turkey, where his father, Frank S. McVittie, was a merchant. His mother, Emily Caroline Weber, lived in Greece but was of British descent. George was raised bilingual in French and English.
From 1923 he studied mathematics and physics at the University of Edinburgh receiving his degree (MA) in 1928. He then went to Christ's College, Cambridge where he studied for his doctorate (PhD) under Prof Arthur Eddington. From 1930 to 1934 he was Assistant Lecturer at the University of Leeds, 1933-34 Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh and 1936-1958 Reader at King's College, University of London. In 1933 he became a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, being elected in 1933. During World War II he worked in the Meteorological Service, which also led to publications in meteorology.
In 1943 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were David Gibb, Ivor Etherington, Robert Schlapp and Alexander Aitken. From 1948 he was a professor at Queen Mary's College, University of London.
He then worked in America from 1952 to 1972 as professor at the University of Illinois Observatory of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he built a small astronomy department, one of the leading in the country. He was awarded Guggenheim Fellowships in 1962 and 1970. His administrative skills meant that he became secretary of the American Astronomical Society.
From 1972 to 1988 he held an honorary professorship at the University of Kent in Canterbury, where in 1985 he received an honorary doctorate.
He died in Canterbury on 8 March 1988.
Legacy.
Asteroid 2417, McVittie was named after him. The George C. McVittie Elementary School in Drayton Plains, Michigan was also named in his honor.
Family.
In 1934, McVittie married Mildred Bond Strong (1906–1985) daughter of John Strong FRSE (1868-1945).
Other Links.
MAH MacCallum: George Cunliffe McVittie (1904-1988), the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 30, 1989, pp 119–122


Cornell Mayer

Cornell Henry Mayer (10 December 1921 – 19 November 2005) was a radio astronomer, who was the first to accurately measure the temperature of Venus by measuring the planet's thermal radiation.
Biography.
He was born on 10 December 1921 in Ossian, Iowa. Mayer graduated from the University of Iowa in 1943. During World War II, he served in the US Navy at the US Naval Research Laboratory where he worked on the first submarine periscope radar. He received a Master's degree from the University of Maryland in 1951 studying electrical engineering. He died on 19 November 2005 of congestive heart failure at his home in Mount Vernon, Virginia.


Kiepenheuer Institute for Solar Physics

The Kiepenheuer Institute for Solar Physics (abbreviation: KIS; ) is a research institute located in Freiburg, Germany. Its research focuses on the exploration of the Sun and heliosphere. The institute has one solar telescope on the Schauinsland Mountain near Freiburg and, in collaboration with other institutions, uses solar telescopes of the Teide Observatory in Tenerife, Spain.
History.
The Institute was founded in 1943 as the 'Fraunhofer Institute' by Karl-Otto Kiepenheuer. Kiepenheuer was director of the Institute from 1943 until his death in 1975. The Institute was renamed as the 'Kiepenheuer Institute for Solar Physics' to honour the founder of the Institute and to enable the Fraunhofer Society to call their own institutes (the first of which was founded in 1954), 'Fraunhofer Institutes'. Both Institutions had been named independently after the physicist Joseph von Fraunhofer, and they had no other connection besides the name.
Outposts.
The solar observatory at the island of Capri, Italy was founded in 1954. The Coudé refractor became operational in 1966, and from that time the solar telescope on the Schauinsland continued to be used only for testing equipment. For several years, the Capri observatory with its domeless telescope provided observation time to the institute.
In the early 1970s, the Institute searched for a suitable place to establish a European solar observatory, and Karl-Otto Kiepenheuer took an active part in this search. Finally the Spanish island of Tenerife was chosen, due its dry weather and stable atmosphere. In 1989, the Vacuum Tower Telescope became operational, with a 70-cm mirror and adaptive optics. The outpost in Capri was closed after the solar observatory at the Teide Observatory became operational.


William Rutter Dawes

William Rutter Dawes (19 March 1799 – 15 February 1868) was an English astronomer.
Biography.
Dawes was born at Christ's Hospital in Horsham District of West Sussex, the son of William Dawes, also an astronomer, and Judith Rutter.
Dawes was a clergyman who made extensive measurements of double stars as well as observations of planets. He was a friend of William Lassell. He was nicknamed "eagle eye". He set up his private observatory at his home in Haddenham, Buckinghamshire. One of his telescopes, an eight-inch (200mm) aperture refractor by Cooke, survives at the Cambridge Observatory where it is known as the Thorrowgood Telescope.
He made extensive drawings of Mars during its 1864 opposition. In 1867, Richard Anthony Proctor made a map of Mars based on these drawings.
He won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1855.
Dawes craters on the Moon and Dawes crater on Mars are named after him, as is a gap within Saturn's C Ring.
An optical phenomenon, the Dawes limit, is named after him.


Ercole Dembowski

Ercole (Hercules) Dembowski (12 January 1812 – 19 January 1881) was an Italian astronomer.
He was born in Milan. He inherited the title of "Baron" as the son of Jan Dembowski (Dębowski), one of Napoleon's Polish generals. He served in the navy of Austria-Hungary until 1843 when he retired for health reasons to Naples.
He was a tireless observer of double stars and made tens of thousands of micrometer measurements. In particular, he remeasured many double stars from Friedrich Struve's "Dorpat Catalogue", noting how some of them had changed position over the years due to their mutual orbit as binary stars.
He won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1878.
The crater Dembowski on the Moon is named after him, as well as the minor planet 349_Dembowska.


Fernando Pedichini

Fernando Pedichini is an Italian astronomer at the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) and discoverer of an asteroid.
In 1996, he co-discovered the main-belt asteroid together with Italian astronomer Andrea Boattini at the Campo Imperatore Observatory (), where later the very successful Campo Imperatore Near-Earth Object Survey (CINEOS) took place.


Klemola


Model photosphere

The photosphere denotes those solar or stellar surface layers from which optical radiation escapes. These stellar outer layers can be modeled by different computer programs. Often, calculated models are used, together with other programs, to calculate synthetic spectra for stars. For example, in varying the assumed abundance of a chemical element, and comparing the synthetic spectra to observed ones, the abundance of that element in that particular star can be determined.
As computers have evolved, the complexity of the models has deepened, becoming more realistic in including more physical data and excluding more of the simplifying assumptions. This evolution of the models has also made them applicable to different kinds of stars.
Common assumptions and computational methods.
Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium (LTE).
This assumption (LTE) means that within any local computational volume, the state of thermodynamical equilibrium is assumed:
Plane parallel and spherical atmospheres.
A common simplifying assumption is that the atmosphere is plane parallel, meaning that physical variables depend on one space coordinate only: the vertical depth (i.e., one assumes that we see the stellar atmosphere "head-on", ignoring the curved portions towards the limbs). In stars where the photosphere is relatively thick compared to the stellar diameter, this is not a good approximation and an assumption of a spherical atmosphere is more appropriate.
Expanding atmospheres.
Many stars lose mass in the form of a stellar wind. Especially for stars which are very hot (photospheric temperatures > 10,000 Kelvin) and very luminous, these winds can be so dense that major parts of the emergent spectrum are formed in an "expanding atmosphere", i.e. in layers that are moving outward with a high speed that can reach a few 1000 km/s.
Hydrostatic equilibrium.
This means that the star is currently not undergoing any radical changes in structure involving large scale pulsations, flows or mass loss.
Mixing length and microturbulence.
This assumption means that the convective motions in the atmosphere are described by the mixing-length theory, modeled as parcels of gas rising and disintegrating. To account for some of the small-scale effects in convective motions, a parameter called microturbulence is often used. The microturbulence corresponds to the motions of atoms or molecules on scales smaller than the photon mean free path.
Different methods of treating opacity.
To fully model the photosphere one would need to include every absorption line of every element present. This is not feasible because it would be computationally extremely demanding, and also all spectra are not fully known. Therefore, one needs to simplify the treatment of opacity. Methods used in photospheric models include:
Opacity sampling means that the radiative transfer is evaluated for a number of optical wavelengths spread across the interesting parts of the spectrum. Although the model would improve with more frequencies included, opacity sampling uses as few as practical, to still get a realistic model, thereby minimizing calculation time.
In using opacity distribution functions, the spectra are divided into subsections, within which the absorption probabilities are rearranged and simplified to one smooth function. Similar to the opacity sampling method, this is improved by adding more intervals but at the cost of prolonging the computation time.
Different models.
There are several different computer codes available modeling stellar photospheres. Some of them are described here and some of them are linked under "External links" below.
ATLAS.
The ATLAS code was originally presented in 1970 by Robert Kurucz using the assumption of LTE and hydrostatic and plane parallel atmospheres. Since the source code is publicly available on the web, it has been amended by different persons numerous times over the years and nowadays exists in many versions. There are both plane parallel and spherical versions as well as those using opacity sampling or opacity distribution functions.
MARCS.
The MARCS (Model Atmospheres in Radiative and Convective Scheme) code was originally presented in 1975 by Bengt Gustafsson, Roger Bell and others. The original code simulated stellar spectra assuming the atmosphere to be in hydrostatic equilibrium, plane parallel, with convection described by mixing-length theory. The evolution of the code has since involved better modeling of the line opacity (opacity sampling instead of opacity distribution functions), spherical modeling and including an increasing number of physical data.
Nowadays a large grid of different models is available on the web.
PHOENIX.
The PHOENIX code is "risen from the ashes" of an earlier code called SNIRIS and mainly developed by Peter Hauschildt (Hamburger Sternwarte) from 1992 onwards; it is regularly updated and made available on the web. It runs in two different spatial configuration modes: the "classic" one-dimensional mode, assuming spherical symmetry, and the three-dimensional mode. It allows for calculations for many different astrophysical objects, i.e. supernovae, novae, stars and planets. It considers scattering and dust and allows for non-LTE computations over many atomic species, plus LTE over atoms and molecules.
PoWR.
The PoWR (Potsdam Wolf-Rayet) code is designed for expanding stellar atmospheres, i.e. for stars with a stellar wind. It has been developed since the 1990s by Wolf-Rainer Hamann and collaborators at the Universität Potsdam (Germany) especially for simulating Wolf-Rayet stars, which are hot stars with very strong mass loss. Adopting spherical symmetry and stationarity, the program computes the occupation numbers of the atomic energy states, including the ionization balance, in non-LTE, and consistently solves the radiative transfer problem in the comoving frame. The stellar wind parameters (mass-loss rate, wind speed) can be specified as free parameter, or, alternatively, calculated from the hydrodynamic equation consistently.
As the PoWR code treats consistently the static and expanding layers of the stellar atmosphere, it is applicable for any types of hot stars. The code as such is not yet public, but large sets of models for Wolf-Rayet stars are available on the web.
3D hydrodynamical models.
There are efforts to construct models not assuming LTE, and/or computing the detailed hydrodynamic motions instead of hydrostatic assumptions. These models are physically more realistic but also require more physical data such as cross sections and probabilities for different atomic processes. Such models are computationally rather demanding, and have not yet reached a stage of broader distribution.
Applications of Model Photospheres.
Model Atmospheres, while interesting in their own right, are frequently used as part of input recipes and tools for studying other astrophysical problems.
Stellar Evolution.
As a result of stellar evolution, changes in the internal structure of stars manifest themselves in the photosphere.
Synthetic Spectra.
Spectral synthesis programs (e.g. Moog (code)) often use previously generated model photospheres to describe the physical conditions (temperature, pressure, etc...) through which photons must travel to escape the stellar atmosphere. Together with a list of absorption lines and an elemental abundance table, spectral synthesis programs generate synthetic spectra. By comparing these synthetic spectra to observed spectra of distant stars, astronomers can determine the properties (temperature, age, chemical composition, etc...) of these stars.
See also.
Stellar structure