Theodor Jacobsen had plenty of excitement in October 1999. The 99-year-old scientist—a former chair of the UW Department of Astronomy who joined the faculty in 1928—was honored by the department on the occasion of the publication of his monograph, Planetary Systems from the Ancient Greeks to Kepler.

	Theodor Jacobsen

Jacobsen began writing the book in the early 1970s, after retiring from the UW. His goal was to write a detailed examination of the mathematical techniques employed by each of the major historical figures in astronomy. He completed the book about a decade later but never sought to have it published.

“Another ten years passed before I discovered this rather extensive manuscript while visiting Theodor in his North Seattle retirement home,” recalls Paul Boynton, UW professor of physics and astronomy. “I felt it was important to preserve this careful study. It seemed appropriate to make this work available to international collections that maintain history of science collections.”

Boynton, along with Professors Woodruff Sullivan, Donald Brownlee, and others, helped Jacobsen organize, edit, and publish the work, with support from the UW College of Arts and Sciences and the UW Graduate School.

Boynton describes the monograph as filling a niche between the simplified discussions in undergraduate texts and heavily annotated, exhaustive, much less accessible works. The monograph is available at the University Book Store, with proceeds going to the Theodor Jacobsen Fund for promoting graduate education in astronomy at the UW.

[Winter 2000 - Table of Contents]