The Measurement of Starlight: Two Centuries of Astronomical Photometry

Astronomical photometry is the science of measuring the brightness and colors of stars and other celestial objects. This authoritative volume traces the fascinating historical development of astronomical photometry from visual techniques at the time of William Herschel in the 1780s to the birth of photometry with charge-coupled devices in the 1970s. In this intriguing survey, the author shows how the advent of new technology has revolutionized the science of photometry at each stage of its development, and what dramatic advances have been achieved despite several major disasters--especially in the practice of photographic photometry. This book also clearly illustrates the critical relationship between the development of a science and the technology it uses.

Astronomical photometry is the science of measuring the brightness and colours of stars and other celestial objects. It is a technique at the very heart of modern astrophysics. This authoritative volume traces the fascinating historical development of astronomical photometry, from the 1780s to the 1970s. In this intriguing survey, we see how the advent of new technology has revolutionized the science of photometry at each stage of its development, and what dramatic advances have been achieved, despite several major disasters. It provides professional astronomers with a valuable background to this fundamental technique, and will also be of great interest to amateur astronomers and historians of science.