12
Coda
Anyone who really delves into the lives of those
who have really accomplished something on this Earth
is always struck by the phenomenon that the actual strength
of those people has been a deficit turned into a quality.
Godfried Jan Arnold Bomans (1913–1971)
‘Have we discovered our Galaxy yet?’
And I think the answer to this question is ‘No, not quite’.
There is plenty of work ahead for the next generation of astronomers.
Heather Anita Couper (1949–2020) [105]
The speech that Heather Couper, astronomer and popularizer of profession,
gave in 1985 as president of the British Astronomical Association, a society for
amateur astronomers and astronomy for a wide audience, gave a nice overview
of the history of our growing understanding of the structure of our Galaxy. If
she is wrong somewhere, then it is, as so often, when it comes to Kapteyn’s
contribution to this understanding. American textbooks are often worse, because they describe Kapteyn (if they do mention him at all) as the one who was
wrong about the structure of our Galaxy, while Shapley did present the correct
picture. Heather Couper does not even do that: she only mentions Kapteyn as
a pioneer of statistical astronomy and discoverer of the Star Streams; his role
as a pioneer of international cooperation and as the founder of the study of
Godfried Bomans was a Dutch writer and television personality.
Heather Couper was a British astronomer, writer and documentary broadcaster.
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license
to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
P. C. van der Kruit, Pioneer of Galactic Astronomy: A Biography of Jacobus C. Kapteyn,
Springer Biographies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55423-1_12
251
Coda
Anyone who really delves into the lives of those
who have really accomplished something on this Earth
is always struck by the phenomenon that the actual strength
of those people has been a deficit turned into a quality.
Godfried Jan Arnold Bomans (1913–1971)
‘Have we discovered our Galaxy yet?’
And I think the answer to this question is ‘No, not quite’.
There is plenty of work ahead for the next generation of astronomers.
Heather Anita Couper (1949–2020) [105]
The speech that Heather Couper, astronomer and popularizer of profession,
gave in 1985 as president of the British Astronomical Association, a society for
amateur astronomers and astronomy for a wide audience, gave a nice overview
of the history of our growing understanding of the structure of our Galaxy. If
she is wrong somewhere, then it is, as so often, when it comes to Kapteyn’s
contribution to this understanding. American textbooks are often worse, because they describe Kapteyn (if they do mention him at all) as the one who was
wrong about the structure of our Galaxy, while Shapley did present the correct
picture. Heather Couper does not even do that: she only mentions Kapteyn as
a pioneer of statistical astronomy and discoverer of the Star Streams; his role
as a pioneer of international cooperation and as the founder of the study of
Godfried Bomans was a Dutch writer and television personality.
Heather Couper was a British astronomer, writer and documentary broadcaster.
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license
to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
P. C. van der Kruit, Pioneer of Galactic Astronomy: A Biography of Jacobus C. Kapteyn,
Springer Biographies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55423-1_12
251