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Making Stars Physical: The Astronomy of Sir John Herschel Hardcover – May 31, 2018

by Stephen Case (Author)
5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 2 ratings
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Making Stars Physical offers the first extensive look at the astronomical career of John Herschel, son of William Herschel and one of the leading scientific figures in Britain throughout much of the nineteenth century. Herschel’s astronomical career is usually relegated to a continuation of his father, William’s, sweeps for nebulae. However, as Stephen Case argues, John Herschel was pivotal in establishing the sidereal revolution his father had begun: a shift of attention from the planetary system to the study of nebulous regions in the heavens and speculations on the nature of the Milky Way and the sun’s position within it.

Through John Herschel’s astronomical career—in particular his work on constellation reform, double stars, and variable stars—the study of stellar objects became part of mainstream astronomy. He leveraged his mathematical expertise and his position within the scientific community to make sidereal astronomy accessible even to casual observers, allowing amateurs to make useful observations that could contribute to theories on the nature of stars. With this book, Case shows how Herschel’s work made the stars physical and laid the foundations for modern astrophysics.
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  1. Print length
    352 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    University of Pittsburgh Press
  4. Publication date
    May 31, 2018
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 1.1 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0822945304
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0822945307
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Stephen Case brings fresh clarity and coherence to a story many considered too complicated ever to tell. This is an engaging, thoughtful, and thorough book that makes sense of John Herschel’s disparate scientific interests, and in doing so deftly explores the wider world of nineteenth-century British astronomy.” —Emily Winterburn, author of The Quiet Revolution of Caroline Herschel: The Lost Heroine of Astronomy

“Making Stars Physical is a major contribution to the body of published work on John Herschel. In his wide-ranging and deeply researched book, Case argues convincingly that Herschel played a key role in demonstrating that the stars are truly measurable physical objects rather than merely points of light.” —Robert Smith, University of Alberta

"A welcome addition to the growing body of work on the lives and scientific contributions of the prolific Herschel family. . . . Case nicely fits the details of Herschel's long, productive, and influential career into the wider context of nineteenth-century astronomy and the rise of physics." —Journal for the History of Astronomy

"A meticulously researched and lucidly presented examination of Sir John Herschel's astronomical and physical science. What comes across so impressively in the book is Herschel's deeply pragmatic approach to cosmology. . . . Stephen Case has produced a rich and fascinating book. I warmly recommend it, as a major contribution to astronomical history and to Herschel studies in particular." —The Journal of the William Herschel Society 

About the Author

Stephen Case is an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry and Geosciences at Olivet Nazarene University, where he is also director of the Strickler Planetarium and serves as associate director of the university honors program.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Pittsburgh Press; 1st edition (May 31, 2018)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0822945304
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0822945307
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.32 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.1 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 2 ratings

About the author

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Stephen Case

Stephen Case

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Stephen Case gets paid for teaching people about space, which is pretty much the coolest thing ever. He also occasionally gets paid for writing stories about space (and other things), which have appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Daily Science Fiction, Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show​, Shimmer, and elsewhere. His novel, First Fleet, is a science fiction horror epic (think H. P. Lovecraft meets Battlestar Galactica) published by Axiomatic Publishing and available on Amazon. Stephen holds a PhD in the history and philosophy of science and will talk for inordinate amounts of time about nineteenth-century British astronomy. His first work of nonfiction, Making Stars Physical: the Astronomy of Sir John Herschel, was published in 2018 by the University of Pittsburgh Press. He lives with his wife, four children, and two illegal backyard chickens in an undisclosed suburb of Chicago. Follow him on Twitter @StephenRCase or at www.stephenrcase.com.

Customer reviews

5 out of 5 stars
5 out of 5
2 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

JayWalker2020
5.0 out of 5 stars John Herschel astrophysics pioneer
Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2023
Verified Purchase
Son and nephew of William and Caroline Herschel discoverers of the planet Uranus. John is a very important and talented character in own right . This is the most complete book on his life. And amazing accomplishments. Some topics: variable stars; sun spots; the words positive and negative photography; map of the Orion Nebula;solar spectrum; all these plus more in early in the 1800’s. All explained for the first time in this amazing book. He was a pioneer in stellar astronomy, and this has not been properly recognized for well over a century. J.P. Cassinelli
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David Williams
5.0 out of 5 stars Not just a chip off the old block.
Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2020
Verified Purchase
John Herschel is often viewed as little more than an extension of his famous father William, but he was much more than that, as Professor Stephen Case makes clear in this engaging work. He was among the last of the great polymaths, a towering figure of the last generation before natural philosophy began dividing into distinct professional disciplines. So wide-ranging were his achievements and so great his reputation that he was entombed in Westminster Abbey near the grave of Isaac Newton. Herschel was much more than a chip off the old block. He was a block unto himself.
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