America's first eclipse chasers : stories of science, planet vulcan, quicksand, and the railroad boom / Thomas Hockey.
Hockey, Thomas A., author.
2023
QB541
Available Online

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Title America's first eclipse chasers : stories of science, planet vulcan, quicksand, and the railroad boom / Thomas Hockey.
Author Hockey, Thomas A., author.
ISBN 9783031241246 (electronic bk.)
303124124X (electronic bk.)
3031241231
9783031241239
DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24124-6
Published Cham, Switzerland : Springer, 2023.
Language English
Description 1 online resource (240 pages) : illustrations (black and white, and color).
Item Number 10.1007/978-3-031-24124-6 doi
Call Number QB541
Dewey Decimal Classification 523.7/8
Summary In 2017, over 200 million Americans witnessed the spectacular total eclipse of the Sun, and the 2024 eclipse is expected to draw even larger crowds. In anticipation of this upcoming event, this book takes us back in history over 150 years, telling the story of the nations first ever eclipse chasers. Our tale follows the chaotic journeys of scientists and amateur astronomers as they trekked across the western United States to view the rare phenomenon of a total solar eclipse. The fascinating story centers on the expeditions of the 1869 total eclipse, which took place during the turbulent age of the chimerical Planet Vulcan and Civil War Reconstruction. The protagonistsa motley crew featuring astronomical giants like Simon Newcomb and pioneering female astronomers like Maria Mitchellwere met with unanticipated dangers, mission-threatening accidents, and eccentric characters only the West could produce. Theirs is a story of astronomical proportions. Along the way, we will make several stops across the booming US railroad network, traveling from viewing sites as familiar as Des Moines, Iowa, to ones as distant and strange as newly acquired Alaska. From equipment failures and botched preparations to quicksand and apocalyptic comets, welcome to the wild, western world of solar eclipses.
Bibliography, etc. Note Includes bibliographical references and index.
Access Note Access limited to authorized users.
Source of Description Description based on print version record.
Series Springer-Praxis books in popular astronomy.
Available in Other Form AMERICA'S FIRST ECLIPSE CHASERS.
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Chapter 1. Introduction: The Rush of this Black Wing of Night
Chapter 2. A TRANS-AMERICAN ECLIPSE
Chapter 3. SOME LIGHT UPON THIS DARK SUBJECT
Chapter 4. NAVY ASTRONOMERS 2,000 KILOMETERS ASHORE
Chapter 5. THE VAST BLACK ORB
Chapter 6. NEW ASTRONOMY IN THE OLD WEST
Chapter 7. OBSERVING IN STYLE
Chapter 8. MEETING OF THE GRAYHAIRS
Chapter 9. Overhanging Monster Wings: The Philadelphia Photographic Corp
Chapter 10. SURVEYING A SOLAR ECLIPSE
Chapter 11. The Canadians: Toques on the Frontier
Chapter 12. Chasing the Umbra through Time and Space
Chapter 13. A DARKNESS THAT CAN BE FELT
Chapter 14. STANDING OF THE EDGE LOOKING UP
Chapter 15. VULCAN
Chapter 16. AMERICANS IN TOTALITY
Chapter 17. IN THE SHADOW OF BENJAMIN BANNEKER and EVEN THOUGHTLESS WOMEN AND CHILDREN HUSH . . .
Chapter 18. FIRE CLOUD
Chapter 19. WHAT DID IT ALL MEAN?
Chapter 20. . . . AND WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THAT?.

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