Official website of discoverer Hanny van Arkel

“Astronomy for English Majors” is a manual designed to help students majoring in English literature or other Humanities areas learn what they need to know about the sky. What happens there, particularly the motions of heavenly bodies at night, sometimes conveys significant connotations in poetry and creative writing. Many pupils, for example, cannot say if the full moon is ever visible at midday. And some of them reside in the countryside or small towns, where they may frequently see the pure night sky free of city lights. Even those who understand the positions of the moon and sun during the moon's phases have not come across the ancient theory of the celestial spheres, the seven "planets" (which included the sun and moon), and astrological "influence," a set of beliefs that remained influential in literature even after Copernicus and Galileo disproved it. This book is dedicated to them.

Astronomy is the scientific study of the cosmos, with a focus on celestial object movements, locations, sizes, compositions, and behaviors.

The term "universe" refers to the entirety of all matter and energy, whether or not they are visible to humans, that exist in the expanse of space.

A planet is an astronomical object that orbits a star but does not emit light of its own, particularly one of the solar system's planets that orbits the sun.

Astronomical object known as a star is often seen as a tiny, brilliant point of light in the sky.

An astronomical object makes one orbit around a bigger astronomical object.

Cosmonaut: An astronaut in Russia's and the former Soviet Union's space programs.

A galaxy is a collection of billions of stars, planets, gas, and dust that spans millions of light-years and functions as a single entity in the cosmos.

Eclipse: When another astronomical object comes in front of an observer's view of an astronomical object, such as the Sun or Moon, it partially or completely blocks the observer's view of the object.

An astronaut is someone who has undergone special training to operate in space.

Gravity is the attraction that an object experiences on or near the surface of the Earth or another astronomical object as a result of gravitational pull.

A few years ago, Nature published an article on the language barrier in research. Sanberg, Borlongan, and Nishino (1996) recounted the scientific community's reluctance to acknowledge Eiji Osawa's 1970 prediction of the existence of the C60 (buckminsterfullerene) molecule, whose discovery 15 years later earned Kroto et al. the Nobel prize. Osawa had published his discovery in a Japanese publication; as a result, the group that ultimately earned the highest scientific honor for the finding was unaware of his work. This is arguably an extreme example of how the publishing of significant results in a language other than English, the lingua franca of science since the 1940s, may have severe effects on the persons and groups involved.

Over the issue of priority acknowledgment by the scientific community, however, lies the considerably larger (and for many, more urgent) issue of English as a second language. If the membership list of the lAD  is reflective of the profession, around sixty percent of practicing astronomers are non-anglophone.

Why not allow scientists to talk and write in their native languages? Do not interpreters and translators exist to handle such situations? There are insufficient finances available to pay the interpreters and translators. In such well-funded fields as pharmaceutics, where most research is industrially based, it may make sense to give simultaneous interpretation at international conferences, but English is the worldwide language of written communication in medical research as well. 

Practically speaking, national languages are today confined mostly inside national boundaries. As long as scholars find it appealing to write in journals written in English, the linguistic center of gravity will remain anglophone. In astronomy, The Astrophysical Journal and The Astronomical Journal are indisputably the most prominent astronomical research publications, whilst Nature and Science are reserved for showpiece papers from all fields. Astronomers, like their peers in other fields, are required to learn to write and speak English if they want their work to be recognized internationally. Therefore, for a more in-depth study of the language, you can study with an English online tutor. On the Internet you can find many educational platforms, one of which is LiveXP.

In the field of worldwide scientific publishing, American and British English predominate. The division roughly parallels the conventional publication map of the world, with British English dominating a huge portion of the globe. The greatest number of English speakers, however, resides in the United States, making American English the most widely spoken language in terms of pure numbers. European English-language publishers (such as Kluwer Academic Publishers) predominantly utilize British English. Does diglossia exist (defined as the existence of two versions of the same language spoken within the same community) in English-language publishing? Many appear to believe this, and it is true with regard to informal writing, but this is not the case with regard to academic publication.

There is substantial convergence between the many varieties of English in the upper registers. When a journal requests British or American English, they are requesting British or American spelling and punctuation, with little or no attention for grammatical and idiomatic differences between the two varieties.

Brian May and David Eicher’s first public presentations on Mission Moon 3-D, The London Stereoscopic Company’s eighth title.

The duo’s new book tells the story of the space race for the first time in stereo (3-D), presenting the largest-ever collection of stereo photos of the Apollo program, with over 150 unique views. Mission Moon 3-D is accompanied by a hand-held stereoscopic viewer designed by Brian May and named The Lite OWL, that enables readers to venture beyond the pages of the book, to explore the wonders of the Moon. Legendary Apollo Moonwalker, Charlie Duke, says, “the experience is as close to being there on the Moon’s surface as it’s possible to get for Earth bound creatures like us.” 

www.missionmoon3-D.com

The tour will begin on 6^th February in the Netherlands with David Eicher taking the stage at the John Adams Institute in Amsterdam, speaking about Mission Moon 3-D, his career in science and journalism as Editor of the US’ leading Astronomy Magazine, and other book projects. He will also conduct a moderated interview with André Kuipers, the second Dutch astronaut in space, a veteran of the International Space Station. To book tickets: https://www.john-adams.nl/david-eicher-andre-kuipers/

On 8^th February David Eicher will travel to London and join his co-author, Brian May, at European Astrofest, the UK’s largest and most prestigious astronomy conference, for a captivating 3-D presentation that will send festival goers on a journey to the moon and back. To book tickets: https://europeanastrofest.com/2019/01/08/discover-a-new-dimension-to-the-moon-landings-at-european-astrofest/

If you can’t make this, fear not, as there is another opportunity to catch David Eicher at Astrofest on the 9^th February, when he will speak again, this time on galaxies. To book tickets: https://europeanastrofest.com/

The February Mission Moon 3-D talks shall conclude on the 11^th with Brian May and David Eicher taking their mesmerising  3-D presentation to Bath, this time to a magnificent church and the event is sponsored by the esteemed Topping & Company Booksellers. Book tickets here: https://www.toppingbooks.co.uk/events/bath/brian-may-in-bath/?fbclid=IwAR0c6ZDbyknOekOpy6VieKxc96t-9GfukRIdgjc-jmxU7fDnFYy-mLIEBSg