2. The Jesuit on the Roof: Observatory Sciences, Metaphysics, and Nation Building

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. List of Illustrations vii
4. Acknowledgments xi
5. Introduction: Observatory Techniques in Nineteenth-Century Science and Society 1
6. 1. The Astronomical Capital of the World: Pulkovo Observatory in the Russia of Tsar Nicholas I 33
7. 2. The Jesuit on the Roof: Observatory Sciences, Metaphysics, and Nation Building 58
8. 3. Eclipse Politics in France and Thailand, 1868 86
9. 4. Keeping the Books at Paramatta Observatory 118
10. 5. Training Seafarers in Astronomy: Methods, Naval Schools, and Naval Observatories in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth- Century France 148
11. 6. Astronomy as Military Science: The Case of Sweden, ca. 1800–1850 174
12. 7. Geodesy and Map Making in France and Algeria: Between Army Officers and Observatory Scientists 199
13. 8. Michelson and the Observatory: Physics and the Astronomical Community in Late-Nineteenth-Century America 225
14. 9. Even the Tools Will Be Free: Humboldt’s Romantic Technologies 253
15. 10. “I thought this might be of interest . . .”: The Observatory as Public Enterprise 285
16. 11. Staging the Heavens: Astrophysics and Popular Astronomy in the Late Nineteenth Century 305
17. 12. The Berlin Urania, Humboldtian Cosmology, and the Public 325
18. Bibliography 345
19. About the Contributors 367
20. Index 369