Master of Galactic Astronomy: A Biography of Jan Hendrik Oort 9783030555474, 9783030555481

Table of contents :
Preface
Acknowledgments
Contents
1 Youth in Oegstgeest and Leiden
1.1 Franeker
1.2 Oegstgeest
1.3 `Hoogere Burgerschool' in Leiden
2 Kapteyn and Galactic Astronomy Around 1920
2.1 Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn
2.2 The Kapteyn System
3 Student at the University of Groningen
3.1 Student Life in Groningen
3.2 Kapteyn's Lectures
3.3 Astronomical Research
4 Via Yale to Leiden
4.1 Leiden Observatory (Sterrewacht Leiden)
4.2 The IAU in Rome
4.3 To America
4.4 Yale Observatory
4.5 Life in New Haven
4.6 To Leiden
5 Rotation and Dynamics of the Milky Way Galaxy
5.1 Absolute Declinations
5.2 PhD in Groningen
5.3 Johanna Maria Graadt van Roggen
5.4 The Rotation of the Galaxy
5.5 Harvard, Columbia or Leiden?
6 The Structure of Our and Other Galaxies
6.1 The Oort Limit
6.2 Perkins Observatory
6.3 The Succession of de Sitter
6.4 An Expedition to Kenya
6.5 General Secretary of the IAU
6.6 Absorption and the Structure of the Galaxy
6.7 The McDonald Inauguration
6.8 Mount Wilson
7 The Watershed: World War II
7.1 First Years of the War
7.2 Personal Matters and Scientific Research up to 1942
7.3 Nova Persei 1901 and the Crab Nebula
7.4 Astronomers Conferences
7.5 The Potbrummel at Hulshorst
7.6 Interstellar Medium
8 Breaking New Ground
8.1 Director of Sterrewacht Leiden
8.2 Recovery of the IAU
8.3 The Interstellar Medium
8.4 Yerkes, McDonald and Palomar
8.5 Kenya and South-Africa
8.6 The Oort Cloud
8.7 The Oort Family
9 From Kootwijk to Dwingeloo
9.1 The Discovery of the 21-cm Line
9.2 Spiral Structure of the Galaxy
9.3 Pasadena, Princeton and Gas Clouds
9.4 Back to the Crab
9.5 President of the IAU
9.6 The Dwingeloo Radio Telescope
10 The Structure of Our Galaxy and Dwingeloo
10.1 Administrative Work
10.2 Stellar Populations at the Vatican
10.3 South-Africa and Chile
10.4 More Dynamics
10.5 Research in Dwingeloo
11 Westerbork and Retirement
11.1 Personal Matters
11.2 Honors, Golden Quill and Vetlesen Prize
11.3 The Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope
11.4 Retirement
11.5 Westerbork and Nearby Galaxies
11.6 More Astronomical Research
11.7 Pocket Diaries and End-of-Year Highlights
12 The Last Horizon
12.1 Superclusters
12.2 Return of Halley
12.3 Balzan and Kyoto Prizes
12.4 Personal Matters
12.5 The End
A Astronomical Background
A.1 Kepler and the Orbit of Mars
A.2 Positional Astronomy
A.3 Properties of Stars
A.4 Stellar Evolution
B Honors and Genealogy
B.1 Awards, Prizes and Honorary Doctorates
B.2 Academic Genealogy
C Literature
References
Index