Minas Astronomy Group –– May Meeting
Saturday, May 13, 7 p.m.
Avonport, 475 Bluff Road
Speaker: Randall Rosenfeld
Topic: Truth at the Eyepiece
Summary:
Truth at the Eyepiece – assimilating the past to the present, and is
there a future for astrosketching? I will examine:
i) approaches to accurate graphic representation of what is seen at
the eyepiece in different periods (including technique and intended
use), from before to after the invention of photography;
ii) how we look at what were once thought to be accurate
representations of astronomical phenomena;
iii) extrinsic factors which can colour perceptions, and account for
some of the disjunctions we experience when comparing “accurate”
representations from various epochs;
iv) and concluding with possible lessons about how we observe now.
Besides its intrinsic interest, it would allow me to refer to some of
Roy’s previous work!
Our speaker:
R.A. Rosenfeld, from Toronto, is the Archivist of the Royal
Astronomical Society of Canada, a position he has held since its
creation in 2008. He was trained at the University of Toronto and the
Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies as a palaeographer and
codicologist, and researched and published on the tools and
technologies of communication ca. 500-1500, as well as on historical
performance practice (musicology) ca. 1100-1600.
Since 2008 he has published over fifty articles on various
astronomical artifacts (with a particular interest in the graphic
records of observations and how they were made) in a variety of
journals. He is a contributor to the second edition of Springer’s
Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers (2014). In 2012, he was the
recipient of the RASC’s Simon Newcomb Award, and the RASC’s
President’s Award. He is one of the recipients of the American
Astronomical Society’s Historical Astronomy Division’s 2017 Donald E.
Osterbrock Book Prize. He was elected to the Canadian Astronomical
Society/Société Canadienne d’Astronomie (CASCA), and the
International Astronomical Union named Asteroid 283990
Randallrosenfeld (2004 SG2) in his honour. He has twice placed second
in the Annual Griffith Observer Writing Contest (2008 & 2013). He was
the 2016 Peter Sim Memorial Lecturer (Calgary Centre RASC). He is
also a member of several professional early-music ensembles.