Out of Old Books

Essays on the History of Astronomy by Helen Sawyer Hogg

Between 1946 and 1966 the Canadian astronomer Helen Sawyer Hogg (1905-1993) wrote numerous articles on the history of astronomy which were published in The Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (JRASC) under the title “Out of Old Books”.

Except for a limited and now very rare reprint published in 1974 by the David Dunlap Observatory in only 23 copies, these articles were never collected or reprinted in a widely accessible form. Fortunately, they are now all digitally available as pdf files which can be downloaded from the NASA-ADS website.

Articles included in “Out of Old Books”

• Krakatoa Eruption of 1883 / Red Skies in America – JRASC, 40 (1946), 161-164 [ADS link].
• A Shower of Telescopic Meteors / The Red Skies / Recent Peculiar Atmospheric Conditions – JRASC, 40 (1946), 205-209 [ADS link].
• Lunar Eclipses – JRASC, 40 (1946), 230-232 [ADS link].
• The Lunar Eclipse of October 4, 1884 – JRASC, 40 (1946), 267-271 [ADS link].
• Leonardo da Vinci – JRASC, 40 (1946), 320-322 [ADS link].
• Dearth of Sun-Spots in the Seventeenth Century – JRASC, 40 (1946), 373-377 [ADS link].
• Absence of Aurorae in the Seventeenth Century – JRASC, 41 (1947), 33-36 [ADS link].
• Halley’s List of Nebulous Objects – JRASC, 41 (1947), 69-71 [ADS link].
• Halley and the Brightness of Venus – JRASC, 41 (1947), 163-166 [ADS link].
• Chinese Observations of Solar Spots – JRASC, 41 (1947), 193-196 [ADS link].
• Derham’s Catalogue of Nebulous Objects from Hevelius’ Prodromus – JRASC, 41 (1947), 233-238 [ADS link].
• Catalogues of Nebulous Objects in the Eighteenth Century – JRASC, 41 (1947), 265-273 [ADS link].
• The 1769 Transit of Venus, as Seen from Canada – JRASC, 41 (1947), 319-326 [ADS link].
• Von Humboldt’s Account of the Magellanic Clouds – JRASC, 41 (1947), 357-361 [ADS link].
• Schwabe’s Determination of the Sun-Spot Cycle – JRASC, 42 (1948), 42-46 [ADS link].
• Sabine’s Correlation of Sun-Spots with Magnetic Disturbances – JRASC, 42 (1948), 93-97 [ADS link].
• Wales’s Journal of a Voyage in 1768 – JRASC, 42 (1948), 153-159 [ADS link] & 189-193 [ADS link].
• The Titius-Bode Law and the Discovery of Ceres – JRASC, 42 (1948), 241-246 [ADS link].
• The Early Discovery of Four Globular Clusters – JRASC, 43 (1949), 45-48 [ADS link].
• Jean Sylvain Bailly, the Guillotined Astronomer – JRASC, 43 (1949), 117-121 [ADS link], 195-203 [ADS link] & 237-240 [ADS link].
• Astronomical Observatories a Century Ago – JRASC, 44 (1950), 31-35 [ADS link].
• Charles Babbage and the Calculating Machine – JRASC, 44 (1950), 79-84 [ADS link].
• A Manuscript of Wales’s Observations in 1769 – JRASC, 44 (1950), 123 [ADS link].
• Kirkwood’s Gaps in Asteroid Orbits – JRASC, 44 (1950), 163-166 [ADS link].
• The Constellations – JRASC, 44 (1950), 196-201 [ADS link].
• Blue Sun – JRASC, 44 (1950), 241-245 [ADS link].
• Le Gentil and the Transits of Venus, 1761 and 1769 – JRASC, 45 (1951), 37-44 [ADS link], 89-92 [ADS link], 127-134 [ADS link] & 173-178 [ADS link].
• Pieter Dircksz Keijser, Delineator of the Southern Constellations – JRASC, 45 (1951), 215-220 [ADS link].
• The Recognition of Uranus as a Planet – JRASC, 45 (1951), 255-261 [ADS link].
• Galileo and the Surface of the Moon – JRASC, 46 (1952), 30-34 [ADS links].
• The Introduction of the Copernican System to England: I. Robert Recorde and the Castle of Knowledge – JRASC, 46 (1952), 113-117 [ADS link].
• The Introduction of the Copernican System to England: II. John Dee and the Circle at Mortlake – JRASC, 46 (1952), 158-164 [ADS link].
• The Introduction of the Copernican System to England: III. Thomas Digges and A Perfit Description of the Caelestiall Orbes – JRASC, 46 (1952), 195-201 [ADS link].
• The Introduction of the Copernican System to England: IV. Thomas Harriot, Sir Walter Raleigh’s Surveyor and Topographer – JRASC, 46 (1952), 239-244 [ADS link].
• The Introduction of the Copernican System to England: V. Thomas Harriot and the Beginnings of Telescopic Astronomy in England – JRASC, 47 (1953), 15-20 [ADS link].
• Pons-Brooks Comet – JRASC, 48 (1954), 74-77 [ADS link].
• The Tunguska Meteoric Event – JRASC, 56 (1962), 174-179 [ADS link].
• The Leonid Shower of 1833 – JRASC, 56 (1962), 215-221 [ADS link] & 257-261 [ADS link].
• Peary and the Cape York Meteorites (the Saviksue) – JRASC, 57 (1963), 41-48 [ADS link], 81-88 [ADS link] & 129-136 [ADS link].
• James Keeler and the Rings of Saturn – JRASC, 57 (1963), 269-275 [ADS link].
• Halley’s Comet and Unusual Atmospheric Phenomena – JRASC, 59 (1965), 89-94 [ADS link].
• Dark Days – JRASC, 59 (1965), 183-191 [ADS link].
• Castles in the Air – JRASC, 59 (1965), 273-278 [ADS link].
• The Callanish Stones – JRASC, 60 (1966), 80-88 [ADS link].

Contributions in “Out of Old Books” by other authors

• [Arthur E. Covington] A Seventeenth-Century Map – JRASC, 57 (1963), 221 [ADS link].
• [L.R. McNarry] Lunar Volcanic Activity – JRASC, 58 (1964), 279-282 [ADS link].

Download all articles from Out of Old Books in one pdf [appr. size 29 Mb]

Biographical Sources

• Clement, Christine & Broughton, Peter, “Helen Sawyer Hogg, 1905-1993”, The Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, 87 (1993), 351-356 [ADS link].
• Clement, Christine, “Helen Sawyer Hogg, 1905-1993”, The Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers, 22 (1993), 83-86 [ADS link].
• Pipher, Judith L., “Helen Sawyer Hogg (1905-1993)”, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 105 (1993), 1369-1372 [ADS link].