Abstract
Since the time of Isaac Newton (1642–1727) scientists and astronomers have been trying to come to terms with the fact that all lenses produce a spectrum. Newton’s early experimentation with prisms incorrectly led him to conclude that a glass lens would always present this spectrum of light as a chromatic aberration and was therefore of limited value to astronomical telescopes. If nothing else, this encouraged him to work on reflective optics and the “Newtonian” telescope was born.
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Further Reading
Hertschel, K.: Mapping the Spectrum, Oxford University Press (2002)
Lockyer, J.N.: Proceedings of the Royal Society, 15, 256 (1866)
Meadows, A.J.: Science and Controversy, 2nd Ed., Macmillan (2008)
Maunder, E.W.: Sir William Huggins and Spectroscopic Astronomy. TC&EC Jack (1913)
Huggins, W.: The scientific Papers of Sir William Huggins. Wesley & Sons (1909)
Jackson, M.W.: Spectrum of Belief: Joseph Von Fraunhofer and the Craft of Precision Optics. MIT Press (2000)
“Étude des gaz et vapeurs du soleil,” in L’astronomie (Dec. 1894)
“Recherches sur l’atmosphère solaire. photographie des couches gazeuses supérieures…,” in Annales de l’Observatoire d’astronomie physique de Paris, 4 (1910).
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Harrison, K.M. (2016). Solar Observations Using Spectroscopes. In: Imaging Sunlight Using a Digital Spectroheliograph. The Patrick Moore Practical Astronomy Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24874-5_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24874-5_4
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