Front cover image for Fire in the sky : comets and meteors, the decisive centuries, in British art and science

Fire in the sky : comets and meteors, the decisive centuries, in British art and science

Roberta J. M. Olson (Author), Jay M. Pasachoff (Author)
Britain in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries produced a larger number and greater variety of representations of comets and meteors than anywhere else. This beautifully illustrated book examines the link between these works and the achievements of British science in the wake of Newton and Halley.
Print Book, English, ©1998
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (GB), ©1998
XIV-369 p. : illustrations en noir et en coul. ; 26 cm
9780521630603, 9780521663595, 0521630606, 0521663598
468274213
Introduction; 1. Prelude: the beginning of telescopic astronomy and the background of British astronomy and artistic traditions; 2. The heavens on fire: the eighteenth century; 3. The comet-crazed century opens; 4. The triumph of realism; 5. Donati's comet, the watershed; 6. The origin of comet (and meteor) photography; 7. The triumph of the imagination; 8. Comets and the new century; Epilogue: comets and the new millennium; Appendices; List of illustrations; Bibliography; Index.
Bibliogr. p. 349-362. Index