Seeing the Unseen

Mount Wilsons role in high angular resolution astronomy

By (author) Harold A. McAlister

Publication date:

19 November 2020

Length of book:

288 pages

Publisher

Institute Of Physics Publishing

Dimensions:

254x178mm
7x10"

ISBN-13: 9780750322065

This book provides a detailed history of stellar interferometry as practised at Mount Wilson Observatory. It covers the origin of the field in the early 19th Century, and its subsequent development throughout the last hundred years at the observatory, including the people, instruments, and methods involved in advancing high angular resolution astronomy. Additionally, two extensive appendices cover the importance of Mount Wilson today as well as an interferometry primer. It is an excellent book for historians, astronomers and anyone interested in Mount Wilson.

Key Features

  • Describes the revolutionary work performed at the Mount Wilson Observatory in stellar astrophysics, extragalactic astronomy, and its role in high spatial resolution astronomy
  • Focuses on the history and heritage of Mount Wilson
  • Accessible to specialists, historians, and advanced amateur astronomers

This volume is part of a large batch of new titles from IoP Publishing. The prices seem to be trimodally distributed; fortunately this book is in the lowest category. There is no index. The page size is slightly larger than usual, possibly to help accommodate the many photos and diagrams which it contains. Even so, the size of some of the images does not do the author justice. Nevertheless, this is a compelling description of a specialized, but fascinating, area of observational astronomy, which also pays full attention to the human aspect, and it is written by an enthusiastic authority who has spent a lifetime at the cutting edge of his subject.
Robert Argyle. October 2021 The Observatory Magazine