The Emergence of Astrophysics in Asia

This book examines the ways in which attitudes toward astronomy in Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Taiwan, Thailand and Uzbekistan have changed with the times.

The emergence of astrophysics was a worldwide phenomenon during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and it gradually replaced the older-style positional astronomy, which focused on locating and measuring the movements of the planets, stars, etc.. Here you will find national overviews that are at times followed by case studies of individual notable achievements. Although the emphasis is on the developments that occurred around 1900, later pioneering efforts in Australian, Chinese, Indian and Japanese radio astronomy are also included.

 As the first book ever published on the early development of astrophysics in Asia, the authors fill a chronological and technological void. Though others have already written about earlier astronomical developments in Asia, and about the recent history of astronomy in various Asian nations, no one has examined the emergence of astrophysics, the so-called 'new astronomy' in Asia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Professor Wayne Orchiston is a Senior Researcher at the National Astronomical Research Institute in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and formerly worked in optical and radio astronomy in Australia and New Zealand. He has published on the history of Australian, English, French, Georgian, Indian, Indonesian, Iraqi, Japanese, New Zealand and USA astronomy, and has supervised a large pool of graduate students. Like Tsuko Nakamura, Orchiston has played a leading role in developing history of astronomy through International Astronomical Union Commission 41, and was responsible for the formation of the Historic Radio Astronomy and Transits of Venus Working Groups. He is the Editor the Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage.

Professor Tsuko Nakamura for many years worked at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan in Mitaka, Tokyo, where he carried out research on Japanese astronomical history and on comets and minor planets. He has published many research papers on Japanese astronomical history and edited a number of books and conference proceedings (several of which were in collaboration with Wayne Orchiston). Nakamura has played a leading role in developing history of astronomy through International Astronomical Union Commission 41 and its associated Working Groups. He also serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage.