Historia y filosofía de la física

 

An early drawing of solar granulation?

 

J.M. Vaquero

 

Departamento de Física, Centro Universitario de Mérida, Universidad de Extremadura, Mérida, Spain.

 

Recibido el 5 de septiembre de 2011.
Aceptado el 3 de octubre de 2011.

 

Abstract

The discovery of solar granulation was announced by Nasmyth in 1861. However, an early solar engraving that could contain the first graphic description of solar granulation is showed in this short contribution. This solar drawing was made by the Mexican astronomers Jose Ignacio Bartolache and Jose Antonio Alzate to describe the Venus transit of 1769.

Keywords: Solar granulation; solar drawing; Venus transit; history of astronomy.

 

PACS: 01.65+g; 96.60.–j

 

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Acknowledgements

Author is indebted to Javier Vaquero Martínez and an anonymous referee for his helpful comments. This work was partially supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion of the Spanish Government (AYA2008–04864/AYA andAYA2011–25945).

 

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