Abstract
In 1878, the University of Groningen reviewed possible candidates for its newly instituted chair of astronomy and theoretical mechanics. Two of the five1 highly qualified finalists for the position were to be far and away the most important researchers of the Sidereal Universe for the rest of the nineteenth century and the first two decades of the twentieth century. One of the losers was Hugo von Seeliger and the winner was, of course, J.C. Kapteyn, and von Seeliger and Kapteyn were to become the leading exponents of what has been called statistical cosmology.
In writing this paper I have drawn extensively on Paul’s pioneering researches, particularly his book “The Milky Way Galaxy and Statistical Cosmology 1890–1924”, 1993, Cambridge.
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References
A. Clerke, ‘‘Modern Cosmogonies”, 1905, London, p.15.
A. Clerke, “The System of the Stars”, 1890, London, p.368.
Richard Proctor, “A New Theory of the Milky Way”, 1870, Mon. Not. R.A.S. 30, 50–6.
C. Easton, “A New Theory of the Milky Way”, 1900, Astrophys. J. 12, 136–58. See also his “A Photographic Chart of the Milky Way and the Spiral Structure of the Galactic System”, 1913, Astrophys. J. 37, 105–18.
A.S. Eddington, “Stellar Movements and the Structure of the Universe”, 1914, London, p.184.
E.R. Paul, “The Milky Way Galaxy”, p.55.
For a brief account of the Bonner Durchmusterung, see Joseph Ashbrook, 1984, “The Astronomical Scrapbook. Skywatchers, Pioneers, and Seekers in Astronomy”, Cambridge and Cambridge, Mass., p.427–36.
E.R. Paul, “The Milky Way Galaxy”, p.63.
J.D. North, 1965, “The Measure of the Universe”, Oxford, p.17.
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E.R. Paul, “The Milky Way Galaxy”, p.72.
A.S. Eddington, “Stellar Movements”, p.184.
H. von Seeliger, “Betrachtungen über die Räumliche Vertheilung der Fixsterne”, 1898, Abhand. Math-Phys. Classe Königl. Bayer. Akad. Wiss., p.565–629.
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Ibid.
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See, for example, J.C. Kapteyn, “Recent Researches in the Structure of the Universe”, from an address given in 1908, reprinted in B. Lovell (ed.), 1970, The Royal Institution Library of Science, Astronomy, Volume 2, Barking, 78–96. Eddington, “Stellar Movements”, 1914, is also a helpful source on Star Streaming.
J.C. Kapteyn, 1905, “Star Streaming”, Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Section A, 257–65, p.264.
Marian A. Kovalsky, 1859, “Sur les Lois de Mouvements Propre des Etoiles du Catalogue de Bradley”. See also, E.R. Paul, “The Milky Way Galaxy”, p.86.
J. D. North, “The Measure of the Universe”, p.9.
See David Gooding, 1985, “He Who Proves, Discovers: John Herschel, William Pepys, and the Faraday Effect”, Notes and Records of the Royal Society 39, 229–44.
E.R. Paul, “The Milky Way Galaxy”, p.101.
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J.C. Kapteyn, 1909, “On the Absorption of Light in Space”, Astrophys. J. 30, 284–317.
G.E. Hale to J.C. Kapteyn, January 6, 1914, Hale Papers, Huntington Libary.
H. Shapley to F. Moulton, January 7, 1916, Harvard University Archives.
H. Curtis to Alter, February 1, 1922, Allegheny Observatory Archives.
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Smith, R.W. (2000). Kapteyn and Cosmology. In: The Legacy of J.C. Kapteyn. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 246. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-9864-9_8
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