83
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
I. Chinnici, G. Consolmagno (eds.), Angelo Secchi and Nineteenth Century Science,
Historical & Cultural Astronomy, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58384-2_5
Chapter 5
Angelo Secchi, Stellar Spectroscopy, Solar
Physics, and Visual Science Culture
Klaus Hentschel
5.1 Angelo Secchi and Stellar Spectroscopy
This volume amply shows that the Jesuit priest Angelo Secchi SJ (1818–1878) was a
very multifaceted scientist. His range of interests spanned astronomy and physics,
spectroscopy and optics, geophysics, meteorology, oceanography, and scientific
instrumentation.
1
This contribution will focus on the important role that Secchi played
in solar and stellar spectroscopy and will also show how it is linked to a pronounced
visual culture of nineteenth-century science, in which he was deeply embedded.
The study of spectra in general and spectrum analysis in particular has always
leaned heavily toward the image side of Peter Galison’s image/logic dichotomy.
Successful research with spectra requires refined pattern recognition skills in order,
for instance, to distinguish the spectra of different chemical elements or to detect the
spectrum lines of trace elements in complex spectra. Secchi mastered these skills of
pattern recognition in various fields: as a spectroscopist, of course, but also in his
fine observations of planetary and solar features.
Secchi was one of the first to systematically record and compile the spectra of
stars, in the early 1860s. At first, the emerging field of stellar spectroscopy was
espoused by only a handful of unabashed enthusiasts, who were often on the margins of professional astronomy. Besides William Huggins and Secchi, the names
Giovan Battista Donati and Lewis M. Rutherfurd come to mind as contemporary
pioneers of stellar spectroscopy. Many of these pioneers were amateurs who mapped
1 On Secchi see Angot 1878, Manuelli 1881, Bricarelli 1888, Abetti 1975, Brück 1979, and
McCarthy 1994, Chinnici 2019, and the various contributions to the present volume.
K. Hentschel (*)
Section for History of Science and Technology, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
e-mail: klaus.hentschel@hi.uni-stuttgart.de; https://www.uni-stuttgart.de/hi/gnt/hentschel;
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Klaus_Hentschel
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
I. Chinnici, G. Consolmagno (eds.), Angelo Secchi and Nineteenth Century Science,
Historical & Cultural Astronomy, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58384-2_5
Chapter 5
Angelo Secchi, Stellar Spectroscopy, Solar
Physics, and Visual Science Culture
Klaus Hentschel
5.1 Angelo Secchi and Stellar Spectroscopy
This volume amply shows that the Jesuit priest Angelo Secchi SJ (1818–1878) was a
very multifaceted scientist. His range of interests spanned astronomy and physics,
spectroscopy and optics, geophysics, meteorology, oceanography, and scientific
instrumentation.
1
This contribution will focus on the important role that Secchi played
in solar and stellar spectroscopy and will also show how it is linked to a pronounced
visual culture of nineteenth-century science, in which he was deeply embedded.
The study of spectra in general and spectrum analysis in particular has always
leaned heavily toward the image side of Peter Galison’s image/logic dichotomy.
Successful research with spectra requires refined pattern recognition skills in order,
for instance, to distinguish the spectra of different chemical elements or to detect the
spectrum lines of trace elements in complex spectra. Secchi mastered these skills of
pattern recognition in various fields: as a spectroscopist, of course, but also in his
fine observations of planetary and solar features.
Secchi was one of the first to systematically record and compile the spectra of
stars, in the early 1860s. At first, the emerging field of stellar spectroscopy was
espoused by only a handful of unabashed enthusiasts, who were often on the margins of professional astronomy. Besides William Huggins and Secchi, the names
Giovan Battista Donati and Lewis M. Rutherfurd come to mind as contemporary
pioneers of stellar spectroscopy. Many of these pioneers were amateurs who mapped
1 On Secchi see Angot 1878, Manuelli 1881, Bricarelli 1888, Abetti 1975, Brück 1979, and
McCarthy 1994, Chinnici 2019, and the various contributions to the present volume.
K. Hentschel (*)
Section for History of Science and Technology, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
e-mail: klaus.hentschel@hi.uni-stuttgart.de; https://www.uni-stuttgart.de/hi/gnt/hentschel;
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Klaus_Hentschel