Astronomy and Space Article

"The treasures hidden in the heavens are so rich that the human mind
shall never be lacking in fresh nourishment." -Kepler

Long before anyone ever thought to split an atom or calculate an angle of refraction, men and women had already turned their eyes upward. Astronomy offered the world's first great scientific mysteries as, across the globe, people tracked the movements of constellations and heavenly bodies across an ever-changing sky.

For the book collector, astronomy begins with Ptolemy, the greatest astronomer of Ancient Rome. In the 2nd century, he wrote The Amalgest, which set forth theories on the motions of stars and planets that would dominate the field of astronomy for well over a thousand years. The first edition in Latin, published in 1496, reintroduced the pure version of Ptolemy to the West, tearing astronomy out of the Middle Ages and casting it into the Renaissance.

Yet, even the Middle Ages offer unexpected insight and provide a wealth of interesting texts for collectors. For example, Leopoldus, an early Duke of Austria, published a work called Compilatio, a book in ten treatises offering horoscopes, diagrams, figures of the constellations, and even astronomical tables, all attempting to explain the cosmos long before man had means or method.

Ultimately, the story of astronomy is oriented always toward progress and it was the astronomers of the Renaissance who found Ptolemy's fatal flaw. A collector can find astronomy's pivotal moment in the works of Michael Maestlin, a professor of mathematics at Tübingen. "In cautious privacy," Maestlin taught a special group of students including Kepler a Copernican system of astronomy introducing a heliocentric point of view. Epitome astronomiae, published in seven editions between 1582 and 1624, offers a highly desirable first glimpse of scientists beginning to realize the importance of the sun and its central place in the universe, an understanding that would propel them into conflict with the Church.

And at the center of any astronomy collection is Galileo. Perhaps the most controversial figure of the Renaissance, Galileo was also its finest astronomer. He wrote the first published endorsement of Copernican views, Letters on Sunspots, in 1613, bringing himself into direct disagreement with Rome. By 1633, one year after the publication of Dialogo, Galileo was in jail. Dialogo remained on the Vatican's list of banned books until the 19th century.

It took until Newton, over 30 years later, for Galileo to find a worthy successor. A collector could devote a library to Newton. His works cover science from mechanics to theory. He was an inventor and an academic, an astronomer and a mathematician. He had perhaps the fullest understanding of how Galileo's researched could be used. It was his work in physics that would ultimately lead scientists beyond merely watching stars and bring them within reach.

Like the scientists who first developed spaceflight, nearly any collector interested in astronomy finds himself pulled toward the question of exploring space. For the collectors so inclined, their options are nearly limitless. Post-war scientists toyed with the ideas of rocketry and high-altitude flight. Nothing compared to the mania that surrounded the first space expeditions. The public was desperate for memorabilia and keepsakes, only a fraction of which has survived. NASA manuals signed by astronauts, inscribed diagrams, signed lunar maps, and photographs taken from space remain some of the most sought-after items.

The early astronomers searched the cosmos trying to explain it easily; today's astronomy collectors need only look to Galileo, Newton, or even Aldrin to understand how massive the universe truly is and how much there still is to learn.