Moreno Corral, Marco Arturo (Author)
Schuster, William J. (Author)
The participation of Mexican astronomers in international projects dates back to the eighteenth century, when they observed the 1769 transit of Venus. More than a century later, they again participated in attempts to establish a precise value for the astronomical unit through the transits of Venus that occurred in 1874 and 1882. In 1887 Mexican astronomers were invited to join efforts to develop a multinational initiative known as the Carte du Ciel and International Astrographic Project, collaborating with 17 other observatories worldwide. Mexican astronomers obtained support from their Government, and they ordered telescopes from the Irish firm of Sir Howard Grubb and Company. An astrograph was used to photograph stars in Mexico's assigned sky zone (between declinations -10° and –16°) down to a limiting magnitude of 11 for the Astrographic Catalogue, and down to magnitude 14 for the Carte du Ciel. The Astrographic Catalogue photography began in February 1900, and the first of the plates for the Carte du Ciel was exposed in 1905. The Mexican astronomers had to overcome a number of serious difficulties, such as the Mexican Revolution of 1910–1920, which caused several delays and the loss of many personnel from the National Astronomical Observatory of Mexico, and then World War I, 1914–1918, which hindered the arrival of the photographic plates and interrupted communication with the Carte du Ciel Commission in Paris. Women usually were employed as 'computers' to measure the Astrographic Catalogue star positions. Between 1921 and 1962, seven volumes were published listing Mexican Astrographic Catalogue star positions. Mexican astronomers finished taking all of the Carte du Ciel plates, except for the -12° declination zone, but because of financial constraints only 375 plates were printed. Afterwards, from 1941, photography of the -13° zone was repeated in order to obtain stellar positions for proper motion studies. In March 1970 the mounting of the historic 33-cm Grubb astrograph and accompanying 25.4-cm guidescope was used at Miahuatlán, Oaxaca, together with a replacement tube assembly and objective to observe a total solar eclipse. Then from 1976 to 1979 three Astronomy students from the National University of Mexico reconstructed and renovated the original Grubb twin-telescope, which is now at Tonantzintla, near Puebla, and is used mainly for educational purposes.
...More
Article
James Lequeux;
(2022)
Life at Meudon Observatory, 1876-1963
(/isis/citation/CBB513296623/)
Article
J. -M. Malherbe;
(2022)
Jules Janssen, the birth of solar physics, the foundation of Meudon Observatory, and the Mont Blanc adventure (1875-1895)
(/isis/citation/CBB762788832/)
Article
Bonifácio, Vitor;
(2011)
Early Astronomical Sequential Photography, 1873--1923
(/isis/citation/CBB001221520/)
Article
Jean Souchay;
(2019)
La Hire at Paris Observatory: A Contribution to Modern Astronomy
(/isis/citation/CBB286567752/)
Article
Aud Sissel Hoel;
(2016)
Measuring the Heavens: Charles S. Peirce and Astronomical Photography
(/isis/citation/CBB264570887/)
Article
Bartolucci, Jorge;
(2000)
Formación de la comunidad astronómica en México
(/isis/citation/CBB000102456/)
Book
Kurtz, D. W.;
(2005)
Transits of Venus: New Views of the Solar System and Galaxy
(/isis/citation/CBB000771529/)
Book
B. S. Shylaja;
(2012)
Chintamani Ragoonatha Charry and Contemporary Indian Astronomy
(/isis/citation/CBB874699887/)
Book
Pedro M. P. Raposo;
(2019)
O Gigante da Tapada – Campos Rodrigues (1836-1919) e o Observatório Astronómico de Lisboa
(/isis/citation/CBB603583885/)
Book
Nuno Crato;
Luís Tirapicos;
(2019)
O Eclipse de Einstein – Entre Lisboa, Londres, Sobral e o Príncipe/Einstein's Eclipse / From Lisbon and London to Sobral and the Island of Príncipe
(/isis/citation/CBB964326453/)
Book
Schwemin Friedhelm;
(2022)
Johann Elert Bode (1747–1826), der Astronom der Berliner Aufklärung: Leben und Werk in dokumentarischer Darstellung
(/isis/citation/CBB475929139/)
Article
Wolfgang Steinicke;
(2023)
Visitors to the Herschels between 1777 and 1822
(/isis/citation/CBB432491035/)
Article
Ortega Santos, Antonio;
(2015)
Diálogo de saberes ambientales entre Europa-América. Agroecosistemas oasianos en Baja California Sur, XVIII-XX
(/isis/citation/CBB362477759/)
Book
Dava Sobel;
(2017)
The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars
(/isis/citation/CBB484172631/)
Article
Geoff Barker;
(2009)
‘Carte du Ciel’: Sydney Observatory's Role in the International Project to Photograph the Heavens
(/isis/citation/CBB980640932/)
Article
Lindsay Smith Zrull;
(2021)
Women in Glass: Women at the Harvard Observatory during the Era of Astronomical Glass Plate Photography, 1875–1975
(/isis/citation/CBB136067482/)
Article
Pearson, John C.;
Orchiston, Wayne;
(2008)
The 40-foot Solar Eclipse Camera of the Lick Observatory
(/isis/citation/CBB001034763/)
Thesis
Vera, Hector;
(2012)
The Social Life of Measures Metrication in the United States and Mexico, 1789--2004
(/isis/citation/CBB001561019/)
Book
Boyer, Christopher R.;
(2012)
A Land between Waters: Environmental Histories of Modern Mexico
(/isis/citation/CBB001421939/)
Book
Omar W. Nasim;
(2021)
The Astronomer's Chair: A Visual and Cultural History
(/isis/citation/CBB157841526/)
Be the first to comment!