New Insights From Recent Studies in Historical Astronomy: Following in the Footsteps of F. Richard Stephenson, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2015 A Meeting to Honor F. Richard Stephenson on His 70th Birthday Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings Series, Vol. 43

Foreword.- Participants.- The Authors.- Conference Program.- Conference Photograph.- Part I: Applied Historical Astronomy.- The Length of the Day: Richard Stephenson’s Contribution.- Determination of ΔT and Lunar Tidal Acceleration from Ancient Eclipses and Occultations.- The Legendary Fourth-Century Total Solar Eclipse in Georgia: Fact or Fantasy.- The Eclipse of Theon and Earth’s Rotation.- A Homage to Richard Stephenson: French Observations of the Sun at the Time of the ‘Sun King’.- Evidence for Recurrent Auroral Activity in the Twelfth and Seventeenth Centuries.- Historical Supernova Explosions in our Galaxy and their Remnants.- Part II: Islamic and Oriental Astronomy.- Historical Astronomy of the Caucasus: Sources from Georgia and Armenia.- Annular Eclipses and Considerations about Solar and Lunar Angular Diameters in Medieval Astronomy.- The Investigation of Stars, Star Clusters and Nebulae in Άbd al-Raḥmān al-Ṣūfī’s Book of the Fixed Stars.- Άbd al-Raḥmān al-Ṣūfī’s 3-Step Magnitude System.- A Thorough Collation of Astronomical Records in the Twenty-five Histories of China.- Some Statistical Aspects of Historical Chinese Astronomical Records.- Part III: Amateur Astronomy.- The Clash between William Herschel and the Great German ‘Amateur’ Astronomer Johann Schroeter.- Henry Beighton’s Eclipse Chart.- Portuguese Amateur Astronomy (1850-1910).- The Amateur-Turned-Professional Syndrome: Two Australian Case Studies.- Index.

Wayne Orchiston was born in Auckland (New Zealand) in 1943, and has B.A. (Honors) and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Sydney. Formerly an Associate Professor of Astronomy at James Cook University, Townsville, Australia, he is currently a researcher at the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand and an Adjunct Professor of Astronomy at the University of Southern Queensland in Toowoomba (where he supervises a number of off-campus part-time Ph.D. history of astronomy students). A former Secretary of IAU Commission 41 (History of Astronomy), Dr. Orchiston is the founder and former Chair of the IAU Working Group on Historic Radio Astronomy and founder and current Chair of the IAU Working Group on Transits of Venus. In addition to Commission 41, he is a member of IAU Commissions 40 (Radio Astronomy) and 46 (Astronomy Education and Development). He is the founding Editor of the Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage. Dr. Orchiston's research interests lie mainly inastronomical history, astronomical education and meteoritics and he has more than 350 publications, including the following books: Nautical Astronomy in New Zealand. The Voyages of James Cook (1998), Astronomical Instruments and Archives From the Asia-Pacific Region (2004, co-edited by Richard Stephenson, Nha Il-Seong and Suzanne Débarbat), The New Astronomy: Opening the Electromagnetic Window and Expanding our View of Planet Earth (2005, editor), Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Oriental Astronomy (2006, co-edited by Kwan-Yu Chen, Boonrucksar Soonthornthum and Richard Strom), Highlighting the History of Astronomy in the Asia-Pacific Region. Proceedings of the ICOA-6 Conference (2011, co-edited by Tsuko Nakamura and Richard Strom) and Mapping the Oriental Sky. Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Oriental Astronomy (ICOA-7) (2011, co-edited by Tsuko Nakamura, Mitsuru Sôma and Richard Strom).

David A. Green was born in Kingston-upon-Hull (Englan