'Computational History' derives history from data and nowadays, therefore, relies on the technologies of the digital humanities. 'Computational History of Science' addresses questions of history by evaluating historical data, e.g. for tracing back copying traditions and conclude on transfer and transformation of data and knowledge. The term 'Applied Historical Astronomy', in contrast, tries to address questions of contemporary science by evaluating historical data in comparison with most recent data. This opens new possibilities, e.g. in the search for stellar transients among historical data. In the contribution by Hoffmann & Vogt we will focus on the stellar transients among all the topics mentioned above. Philipp Protte discusses the accuracy of magnitudes and positions in ancient star catalogues, Andreas Schrimpf & Frank Verbunt present an analysis of an early modern star catalogue. Victor Reijs analyses the visibility of celestial objects for naked-eye observers, and Björn Kunzmann showcases some important variable stars in the history of astronomy. Rene Hudec presents astronomical photographic archives as a valuable data source for modern astrophysics. José M. Vaquero discusses the studies on solar observations made during the last four centuries. More technical are the contributions of Georg Zotti on Stellarium and Karsten Markus-Schnabel on data-mining and data-processing technologies. Ido Yavetz & Luca Beisel are developing a digital tool of computational history of science for the simulation of pre-modern astronomical models. Gerd Graßhoff focuses more on the application of computational history with regard to Kepler's Astronomia Nova while Tim Karberg presents an analysis of the astronomical orientation of buildings in the North Sudan.

For the SEAC conference in Graz (2018) and for the Proceedings the motto "Harmony and symmetry - celestial regularities shaping human culture" was chosen. There were at least two strong reasons for this motto: First, the connection between astronomy and human culture has an extremely long tradition, and one of its absolute high points is the astronomer Johannes Kepler, who spent his entire life searching for the relationship between the movement of heavenly lights and ideas about harmonious structures and regular bodies. Kepler started his scientific career and authored his first book, the Mysterium cosmographicum, in Graz. Kepler argued in his first publication for the twelve-fold partition of the zodiac with arguments derived from the monochord, anticipating the procedure he developed in his Harmonices mundi. Five contributions deal with Kepler, including the harmony in musical theory. The second reason was the Eggenberg Castle. This palace, built for the nobleman Hans Ulrich von Eggenberg (1568-1634), is a remarkable piece of symmetry and harmony and an outstanding example of a strong connection between astronomy and culture. Seven contributions have the topic astronomy, astrology and architecture with the emphasis on astronomical orientation, symmetry and harmony in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The Proceedings with ten chapters and 44 contributions range besides the mentioned "Middle Ages and beyond" and Johannes Kepler from Prehistoric Times, Bronze and Iron Age, Mythology and Ethnoastronomy, Babylonian Astronomy, Greek and Roman Astronomy, Meso- and South America, Middle East and Eastern Asia and Computational Astronomy. The celestial sphere, regarded as the sky of astronomy, as well as the heaven of divine numina, from Antiquity to Copernicus and Kepler was equated with symmetry, harmony, and beauty. Until today, this has been reflected in the structure of cultural creations, from architectural objects to musical forms.

Colours play is an important role in our daily life. Colour theory is a complex field of knowledge. On the occasion of 200 years Goethe's colour theory (2010) an interdisciplinary symposium "Colours in culture and science" was organized. The different topics are now discussed and presented in this book: 1. Colours in Philosophy and Epistemology, 2. Colours in Cultural History - Pigments and Dyes, 3. Colours in Art and Cultural History, 4. Light and Colour - Colour Theory: Newton's Physics versus Goethe, 4. Colour Theories, Colour Systems and Colour Chemistry, 5. Colour Perception and Colour Vision and 6. Cultural Meaning of Colours. Charakteristisch fur die unterschiedlichen Auffassungen der Natur- und Geisteswissenschaftler ist der Streit uber die Farbentheorien von Newton und Goethe; sind das zwei unvereinbare Weltanschauungen? So sind im Symposium Colours in culture and science - Farben in Kulturgeschichte und Naturwissenschaft - anlasslich von 200 Jahre Goethes Farbenlehre - die verschiedenartigsten Aspekte zum Thema Farben" zur Sprache gekommen, unter Einbeziehung der Farbenforschung in den Kulturwissenschaften, u. a. der Archaologie und der Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte. Auch die Bedeutungen der Farben in der Zeichentheorie (Semiotik) sowie in den verschiedenen Bereichen der Naturwissenschaften (Astronomie, Physik, Chemie und Biologie) und der Technik wurden behandelt, um dem Phanomen Farbe sowohl unter geistes- als auch unter naturwissenschaftlichem Aspekt gerecht zu werden. Interessanterweise hatte die Goethesche Farbentheorie (mit dem Farbkreis und der Idee der Polaritat, Gegenfarbentheorie) sogar eine grosse Wirkung insbesondere auf die Kunst (z. B. Turner, van Gogh, Bauhaus), aber sie lieferte auch diverse Anregungen fur die Philosophie, die Musik, die Neurophysiologie (die Theorie der Farbwahrnehmung) und die Ordnung von Farbraumen (die Farbmetrik). Eine Erforschung des Themas Farben kann nur in einem interdisziplinaren Ansatz erfolgen. In diesem Zusa

This volume presents for the first time a collection of historically important papers written on the concept of rationality in the social sciences. In 1939-40, the famed Austrian economist Joseph A. Schumpeter and the famous sociologist Talcott Parsons convened a faculty seminar at Harvard University on the topic of rationality. The first part includes their essays as well as papers by the Austrian phenomenologist Alfred Schütz, the sociologist Wilbert Moore, and the economist Rainer Schickele. Several younger economists and sociologists with bright futures also participated, including Alex Gerschenkron, John Dunlop, Paul M. Sweezy, and Wassily W. Leontief, who was later awarded the Nobel Prize for developing input-output analysis. The second part presents essays and commentaries written by today’s internationally noted social scientists and addressing the topic of rationality in social action from a broad range of perspectives. The book’s third and final part shares the recently discovered correspondence between the seminar principals regarding the original but failed plan to publish its proceedings. It also includes letters, not previously published, between Richard Grathoff, Walter M. Sprondel and Talcott Parsons on the rationality seminar and the exchanges between Parsons and Schütz.

The material in Values of American Society remains the principal resource for understanding Parsons' conception of value systems. His treatment of value systems has been much debated, although poorly understood, in considerable part because Parsons never published his full conception, developed only in these manuscripts. They continue to hold interest for social scientists, both for their carefully developed analytical scheme and for the resulting discussion of American culture and society. (Series: Studies in the Theory of Action, Vol. 3) [Subject: Sociology, American Studies]Ã?Â?Ã?Â?

This text, written by two leading experts, reviews the historical observations of supernova explosions in our Galaxy over the past two thousand years and discusses modern observations of the remnants of these explosions at radio and other wavelengths.

4. Census of the Catalogue The catalogue contains information on 277 objects. 137 (50%) of them are stars whose outburst spectra or unambiguous mInImUm characteristics classify them as novae beyond doubt. 123 of them could be identified at minimum. 78 (28 %) are stars with amplitudes and light curve forms which makes nova classifi cation likely. 60 of them could be identified at minimum. Thus, 78 % ofthe objects in this catalogue are confirmed and suspected classical novae. 16 (6%) have properties compatible with both novae and related objects. 15 are identified at minimum. Furthermore, the catalogue and atlas contains data on 12 (4 %) dwarf novae of long cycle length or suspected dwarf novae for which only one outburst has been observed. Examples are WZ Sge and CI Gern. 6 (2%) recurrent novae or suspected recurrent novae are listed. Examples are T CrB and AS Psc. 6 (2%) X-ray novae are listed. Examples are V616 Mon and KY TrA. 6 (2%) symbiotic stars and symbiotic novae are listed. Examples are RT Ser and V352 Aql. 11 (4 %) Mira stars or suspected Mira stars, which at some time were believed to be novae, are listed. Examples are V607 Aql and V927 Sgr.

Ptolemy's Almagest shares with Euclid's Elements the glory of being the scientific text longest in use. From its conception in the second century up to the late Renaissance, this work determined astronomy as a science. During this time the Almagest was not only a work on astronomy; the subject was defined as what is described in the Almagest. The cautious emancipation of the late middle ages and the revolutionary creation of the new science in the 16th century are not conceivable without reference to the Almagest. This text lifted European astronomy to the high standard of knowledge on which the new science flourished. Before, the Ptolemaic models of the orbits of the sun, the moon, and the planets had been refined by Arabic astronomers. They provided the structural elements with which Copernicus and Kepler ushered in the era of modern astronomy. The Almagest survived the destruction of its epicyclic representation of the planetary orbits in the conceptual traces left behind in the theories of its successors. The clear separation of the sidereal from the tropical year, the celestial coordinate systems, the concepts of time, the forms of the constellations, and brightness classifications of celestial objects are, among many other things, still part of the astronomical canon even today.