Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T06:17:06.342Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Adjusting Astronomical Practices: The “Carte du Ciel”, the democratic rules and the circulation of opinions at the end 19th century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2011

Jérôme Lamy
Jérôme Lamy*
Affiliation:
LISST, Université Toulouse II, Maison de la recherche, 5 Allées A. Machado, 31058 Toulouse Cedex 9, France email: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Launched in 1887, the “Carte du Ciel” was an international project aiming at photographing the entirety of the celestial vault. Tasks required for this huge undertaking were divided among 18 observatories around the globe. Instruments were standardized and a series of international conferences established operating modes and prescribed norms to be followed everywhere. In each observatory, however, the drive toward uniformity ran into a variety of minor technical and practical problems. In this paper, we examine the strategies mobilized by observers to tinker with stated rules and adapt them to their own experience as astronomers. To underscore the tension between normative prescriptions and individual practices, we consider the Bulletin of the Permanent International Committee for the execution of the Carte du Ciel as an informal forum where various queries raised and arrangements adopted were shared among the scientific community.

Keywords

astronomyCarte du Cielscientific practices
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 5 , Symposium S260: The Role of Astronomy in Society and Culture , January 2009 , pp. 195 - 201
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2011

References

Andoyer, H. 1991, Report for the year 1891, Municipal Archives of Toulouse, 2R 95Google Scholar
Baillaud, B. 1891, Letter to Ernest Mouchez, 11 September, Archives of the Paris Observatory, Ms 1060 VGoogle Scholar
Baillaud, B. & Baillaud, J. 1906, Mémoire de l'Académie des Sciences, Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres de Toulouse, 7, 328Google Scholar
Baillaud, J. 1929, Revue scientifique, 21, 641Google Scholar
Baillaud, B. 1935, Pour l'histoire de l'astronomie stellaire de position, (Toulouse: N/P)Google Scholar
Biagioli, M. 1995, Annales E.S.C., 50, 1417Google Scholar
Berstein, S. & Milza, P. 1996, Histoire du XIXe siècle, (Paris: Hatier)Google Scholar
Bulletin du Comité International Permanent pour l'exécution de la Carte du Ciel, T. 1, 1890Google Scholar
Bulletin du Comité International Permanent pour l'exécution de la Carte du Ciel, T. 1, 1892Google Scholar
Bulletin du Comité International Permanent pour l'exécution de la Carte du Ciel, T. 2, 1895Google Scholar
Chinnici, I. 1999, La Carte du Ciel Correspondance inédite conservée dans les archives de l'Observatoire de Paris, (Paris: Observatoire de Paris)Google Scholar
Congrès astrophotographique international tenu à l'Observatoire de Paris pour le levé de la Carte du Ciel, (Paris: Gauthier-Villars)Google Scholar
Détienne, M. 1965, Annales E.S.C., 20, 425Google Scholar
Gill, D. 1888, Letter to E. Mouchez, 1st March, Archives of the Paris Observatory, Ms 1060 VGoogle Scholar
Jones, D. 2000, Astronomy & Geophysics, 41, 16CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamy, J. 2008, La carte du Ciel (Les Ulis: EDP Sciences)Google Scholar
Lamy, J. 2009, Journal of Ast. History and Heritage, 12, 119CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lanfkord, J. 1984, in The General History of Astronomy, T. IV, Part. A: Astrophysics and twentieth-century to 1950, Gingerich, O. (ed) (Cambridge: Cambrige University Press), p. 16Google Scholar
Liard, L. 1886, Letter to C. Trépied April, Archives of the Paris Observatory, Ms IV A 2Google Scholar
Mouchez, E. 1887, La photographie astronomique à l'Observatoire de Paris et la Carte du Ciel, (Paris: Gauthier-Villars)Google Scholar
Mouchez, E. 1888, Letter to B. Baillaud, 8 June, Municipal Archives of Toulouse, 2R 107Google Scholar
Rayet, G. 1901, Letter to B. Baillaud., 25 February, Municipale Archives of Toulouse, 2R 142Google Scholar
Shapin, S., Schaffer, S. 1993, Léviathan et la pompe à air. Hobbes et Boyle entre science et politique, (Paris: Editions La Découverte)Google Scholar
Terrou, F. 1972, in Histoire générale de la presse française, T. III 1871-1940 Bellanger, C., Godechot, J., Guiral, P. & Terrou, F. (eds) (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France), p. 7Google Scholar
Tobin, W. 2002, Léon Foucault. Le miroir et le pendule, (Les Ulis: EDP Sciences)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trépied, C. 1892, Commentaires des décisions prises par les Conférences internationales qui se réunirent à l'Observatoire de Paris en 1887, 1889 et 1891, pour l'exécution photographique de la Carte du Ciel, (Paris: Gauthier-Villars)Google Scholar
Vernant, J. P. 1968, Eirene, 7, 5Google Scholar