Edward Emmerson Barnard, 1857-1923

[jambouk]

Another notable character in the history of astronomy who deserves their own thread I think; I am sure others will have interesting facts to contribute and links to other materials and resources. I am sorry if the formatting is odd, SGL is making a hash up of accepting a simple cut and paste from Word.

----------------------------
I suspect many amateur astronomers have heard of Barnard's Star (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnard's_Star), Barnard's Loop (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnard's_Loop) and possibly Barnard's Dark Nebulae (http://www.dvaa.org/AData/Barnard.html), but like many astronomers of that era, there was so much more to this man.

From a fatherless childhood of poverty in a country at war with itself, EE Barnard worked tirelessly to better himself and faced numerous setbacks and challenges yet still became one of the leading American Astronomers, whose name is still common place today, nearly 100 years after his death.

He was one of the first astronomers at the Lick Observatory (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lick_Observatory) when it opened in 1888 with its impressive 36 inch refracting telescope  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lick_telescope)   which had a focal length of over 17m, though his contributions to astronomy pre-dated this and continued for much of his life.

The Wikipedia page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Emerson_Barna) gives  a very brief history of EE Barnard. I am just half way through the book below which is a fascinating insight into his life and the lives of others around him, and which represents an astonishing amount of research by the author, William Sheehan:

- The Immortal Fire Within : the life and work of Edward Emerson Barnard, my edition 2007, though first published 1995. 9780521046015

This is well worth a read if you can get your hands on a copy (even the second hand copies are not cheap though).

For me, it’s strange to comprehend how difficult his childhood was and how he managed to achieve so much; reading about him is very inspirational though it makes my life seem immensely dull and unproductive in comparison.

James

[Putaendo Patrick]

A quick copy of my post on the bibliography thread:

There's an interesting site built around Barnard's Photographic Atlas of the Milky Way at:

http://www.library.gatech.edu/barnard/index.html

It has a searchable index of the plates, biographical material and bibliography.

[Martin Meredith]

Definitely deserves his own thread!

Here's a couple of links to downloadable papers about Barnard.

The early life of EE Barnard (part I)

The early life of EE Barnard (Part II)

There's also Barnard's Galaxy

I believe it is the 100th anniversary Barnard's discovery of V2500 Ophiuchi (Barnard's Star) on June 3d this year. I've imaged it for the last two years (noting a slight motion) and intend to do the same this year, ideally on June 3rd itself if the weather plays ball... it is the bright star north of centre in this image. The arrow-shaped asterism to its lower right composed mainly of mag 11 stars is a useful aid to spotting it visually. When checking the field in SkySafari the star was in the wrong place until I checked the proper motion correction!

 

Martin

 

 

 

 

[Putaendo Patrick]

There's a rather enjoyably written short notice by E. E. Barnard "ON THE PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE MILKY WAY MADE AT THE LICK OBSERVATORY IN 1889" from the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Volume 2, 1890 available at  https://archive.org/details/jstor-40668579

Barnard explains some of his equipment and successes, comparing his results to other contemporary astro-photographers. He writes "In a  photographic experience of  twenty-five years, I have never seen  anything  more  deceptive  to  photograph  than the  Milky Way" And I feel that comes straight from the heart!

[ollypenrice]

One of my astronomical hero figures. (I'm also rather partial to Walter Baader.) I can't add to the lists but have the Sheehan biography (excellent and delightful) plus the reprint of the photographic atlas. I love the way Barnard stands as the last great visual observer, one of the first photographic observers and as the last great non-astrophysicist astronomer. He stands at a point where three great traditions touch. And, above all, he was such a darned good guy.

Olly

[Putaendo Patrick]

When it comes to the history of astronomy, William Sheehan is a very knowledgeable and enjoyable writer. His The Planet Mars:
A History of Observation and Discovery is available on-line from the publisher at:

http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/onlinebks/MARS/CONTENTS.HTM

Chapter 8 mentions Barnard's observations of Mars, and in particular his disbelief in the network of channels proposed by Schiaparelli and later developed into the canal network championed by Lowell. In 1894 Barnard wrote:

"I have been watching and drawing the surface of Mars. It is wonderfully full of detail. There is certainly no question about there being mountains and large greatly elevated plateaus. To save my soul I can't believe in the canals as Schiaparelli draws them. I see details where some of his canals are, but they are not straight lines at all. When best seen these details are very irregular and broken up---that is, some of the regions of his canals; I verily believe - for all the verifications - that the canals as depicted by Schiaparelli are a fallacy and that they will be so proved before many oppositions are past."

[ollypenrice]

17 hours ago, Putaendo Patrick said:

When it comes to the history of astronomy, William Sheehan is a very knowledgeable and enjoyable writer. His The Planet Mars:
A History of Observation and Discovery is available on-line from the publisher at:

http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/onlinebks/MARS/CONTENTS.HTM

Chapter 8 mentions Barnard's observations of Mars, and in particular his disbelief in the network of channels proposed by Schiaparelli and later developed into the canal network championed by Lowell. In 1894 Barnard wrote:

"I have been watching and drawing the surface of Mars. It is wonderfully full of detail. There is certainly no question about there being mountains and large greatly elevated plateaus. To save my soul I can't believe in the canals as Schiaparelli draws them. I see details where some of his canals are, but they are not straight lines at all. When best seen these details are very irregular and broken up---that is, some of the regions of his canals; I verily believe - for all the verifications - that the canals as depicted by Schiaparelli are a fallacy and that they will be so proved before many oppositions are past."

An excellent example of the humility of genius and the arrogance of wealth, perhaps? Lowell was rich and powerful. His egocentricity shows, it seems to me, in his later writings about Mars in which he speculated that Martians were doubtless right wing Republicans because such only political policies (as his own...) would be capable of managing global construction at that scale.

It was already perfectly clear that Barnard was the foremost visual observer of his time, and possibly of all time, yet Lowel was undeterred in insisting that he was out-seeing him. I find myself wanting to whisper in Lowell's ear, 'Perce, Barnard can't see 'em!'

Olly