Astronomy – ETHeritage

3D Collection – a Folding Sundial made of Ivory

6. July 202317. May 2023 Dorothea Regula Zimmermann, Roberta Flora Spano

3D digitalisation at ETH library A project in which 20 selected objects were 3D digitalised using photogrammetry was launched by the collection of scientific instruments and teaching aids at ETH library in 2022. The images were captured using photogrammetry by Thomas Erdin from ikonaut in … Read more

The threads of the aurora and isochasms

9. December 202124. November 2017 Meda Diana Hotea

Few natural phenomena are as spectacular to the observer as the aurora with its arcs of light. While it was known in antiquity as band of fire, beam or opening, metaphorical expressions prevailed in the Middle Ages such as fiery lances or burning red. It is now

Assertio 123 – Galileo Galilei recants

9. December 202123. December 2016 Fabian Till Schneider

When the title of a book is ‘Anticopernicus catholicus’, it is not necessary to explain that its author Giorgio Polacco pits himself against the heliocentric world view and it is likewise clear that the arguments of the Roman Catholic church must be anticipated. That his own condemnation and adjuration – printed in full – also had to be used as an argument would not have pleased Galileo Galilei at all.

A piece of the moon in Zurich – the lunar rock exhibition at ETH Zurich in 1970

15. May 2015 Lisa Schurrer

„Houston, Tranquillity Base here. The Eagle has landed.“

With these words uttered by Neil Armstrong during the first moon landing on 20 June 1969, America pipped the Soviet Union to the post in the race to the moon at the height of the Cold War (Jaumann 2009, 36). The years that followed until the last moon landing in December 1972 were

A century of sunspots on 28,000 sheets

9. December 202127. September 2013 Christian John Huber

Sunspots are patches on the sun’s surface which, at around 4,000°C, are considerably colder than their surroundings. They are formed by disturbances in the sun’s magnetic field.

Charles F. Blunt: The beauty of the heavens: a pictorial display of the astronomical phenomena of the universe: one hundred and four coloured scenes illustrating a familiar lecture on astronomy (London, 1842)

9. December 202121. December 2012 Roland Lüthi

To illustrate the science of astronomy, Charles F. Blunt has created 104 coloured panels entitled The beauty of the heavens. Together with the explanatory text, they are intended as instruction for the whole family:

Johannes Kepler: Mysterium Cosmographicum (Tübingen, 1596)

20. June 202331. July 2009 Roland Lüthi

German natural philosopher, theologist, mathematician, astronomer, astrologist and optician Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) is best known for his three laws of planetary motion.

Galileo Galilei: Dialogo […] dove ne i congressi di quattro giornate si discorre sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo telemaico e copernicano (Florenz, 1632)

7. February 20228. May 2009 Roland Lüthi

Seiner Bedeutung für die Geschichte der Astronomie gemäss ist Galileis Dialogo gleich vierfach in der Sammlung Alte Drucke vorhanden: Die Erstausgabe von 1632, gedruckt von Giovanni Battista Landini in Florenz, eine mit anderen Werken zusammengebundene Ausgabe gedruckt von David Hautt in Strassburg (1635) und zwei von Jean Antoine Huguetan in Lyon gedruckte Ausgaben (1641).

Lewis M. Rutherfurd: The Moon (New York, 1865)

9. December 202114. November 2008 Rudolf Mumenthaler

Lewis Morris Rutherfurd (1816-1892) – sometimes also written Louis M. Rutherford – was a lawyer, astronomer and pioneering astrophotographer. He was regarded as a practically minded scientist, who was far more interested in new instruments and their usage than