Minding the Heavens: The Story of Our Discovery of the Milky Way

Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Contents
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
	Viewing the Galaxy from Within
	The Milky Way
	Early Theories of the Universe
	The Theory of Island Universes
	The Andromeda Nebula
	Ongoing Discovery
	Notes
2. Thomas Wright: Visionary of Stellar Systems
	Background: The Age of Newton, Halley and Cassini
	Explorations
	Early London Years: Astro-Theological Musings
	Man of Many Talents
	Astronomy and Astro-Theology
	Kant Reads Wright
	Second Thoughts
	Notes
3. William Herschel: Natural Historian of the Universe
	A Career in Music
	Caroline
	From Amateur to Professional
	The Construction of the Heavens
	The 40-Foot Telescope
	The Evolution of Nebulae
	Laplace's Nebular Hypothesis
	Infrared Radiation and Binary Stars
	The Unfathomed Milky Way
	Notes
4. Wilhelm Struve: Seeker of Parallax
	A Classical Education
	Bessel's Influence
	Geodesy, Double Stars and the Search for Parallax
	Dorpat's Great Refractor
	Professional Contacts Support Struve in a Crisis
	Bessel's Heliometer
	Crises and New Directions for Struve
	Parallax
	The Etudes
	Final Years
	Notes
5. William Huggins: Pioneer of the New Astronomy
	An Informal Education
	Attraction to Astronomy
	The Beginnings of Spectroscopy
	Collaboration with Miller
	Spectra of the Nebulae
	The Motions of the Stars
	The 15-Inch Telescope
	Margaret
	Competition
	Later Years
	Notes
6. Jacobus Kapteyn: Mastermind without a Telescope
	A Start in Leiden
	An Inauspicious Start at Groningen
	Sky Surveys
	Stellar Distances and Motions
	Star Streaming and the Plan of Selected Areas
	Mount Wilson and the Problem of Interstellar Absorption
	Hertzsprung
	New Ways to Estimate Distances
	Searching for a Synthesis
	World War I
	Later Years: The Kapteyn Universe
	Notes
7. Harlow Shapley: Champion of the Big Galaxy
	A Missouri Childhood
	Undergraduate Years in Missouri
	Eclipsing Binaries at Princeton
	Arrival at Mount Wilson
	Globular Cluster Distances
	The "Big Galaxy" Hypothesis
	Elucidating the Sidereal Structure
	"Formicid" and Other Adventures
	Shapley Marshals His Arguments
	Heber Curtis
	The Great Debate
	Shapley to Harvard
	Lingering Questions from the Great Debate
	The Magellanic Clouds and Other Metagalactic Subjects
	World War II and Its Aftermath
	An Unpopular Internationalist Stance
	Later Years
	Notes
8. Edwin Hubble: Redeemer of Island Universes
	Early Interest in Astronomy
	A Reluctant Student of Law
	Graduate Study in Astronomy
	Military Service and a Stay in Cambridge
	Early Mount Wilson Years
	Classifying the Nebulae
	Jeans's Nebular Theory
	Breakthrough
	A Return to Classification
	The Milky Way and the Andromeda Nebula: Cosmic Twins
	Hubble's Expanding Universe
	Lemaître and a Renewal of Interest in Cosmology
	Einstein's Visit in 1931
	The Distribution of the Nebulae
	Second World War
	New Telescopes
	Notes
9. The Milky Way Revealed
	The Quest for Dark Matter
	The Disk
	The Bulge
	The Galactic Center
	Journey to the Heart of the Galaxy
	Gaia and Future Surveys
	The Local Group, the Milky Way's Neighborhood
	Conclusion
	Notes
References
Index