Topic: Spectroscopy in 1881

[sam]

Presently, I’ve been reading a lot of very old papers and books in astronomy. The work I’m currently reading  a portion of, is from 1881, and is a summary of all the findings of the year in all fields of Science. For those that aren’t familiar with that time period in astronomy, the big thing was spectroscopy. It was only ~30 years earlier that chemists and astronomers  had begun to work out methods by which to investigate spectra and with the newly developed tools in hand, astronomers were pointing them at anything they could find sufficiently bright to get a spectra. Obviously, this meant the first target was the Sun. This work provides an interesting snapshot at a developing era in astronomical history.

http://www.universetoday.com/78828/spectroscopy-in-1881/


... one for Clive to enjoy.

[Clive]

Yes, spectroscopy was an amazing discovery and the technique is still used today to discover planets orbiting other stars.  A friend of mine at Cambridge has spent his entire life developing and using spectroscopy to discover double and triple star systems.  Thanks for posting Sam.   

[sam]

I always love to get out the spectrograph at the observatory.