This week we gazed at the stars, heard a grisly tale from Ireland and took a poignant trip to Trafalgar... it's the salon digest!
From the newspapers of 1824... this is not a tale for the faint of heart or sensitive of stomach!
Suzanne Adair is my guest to discuss the matter of astronomy and her new release, Deadly Occupation!
My latest mystery, Deadly Occupation, is set in Wilmington, North Carolina, January 1781. The American Revolution there has entered its seventh grueling year of conflict between Crown forces and those residents who want independence from King George III. In chapter two, a nerdy, telescope building astronomer named Carlisle is beside himself with glee after having discovered an object in the sky that's either a comet or a planet. My detective, Michael Stoddard, is a practical man who doesn't share Carlisle's enthusiasm or nocturnal hours.
The character of Carlisle is loosely inspired by astronomer William Herschel, who is credited for finding the planet Uranus. Carlisle is my nod to the state of astronomy and science in the eighteenth century. As such, Carlisle represents an element that fascinates me about this century: the abundance of scientific discoveries made in the Western world during that time. These discoveries happened during a period when certain religious institutions and governments were more permissive of intellectual freedom than they'd been in previous centuries.
Today, Westerners take that intellectual freedom for granted. However astronomers didn't always have it so easy. Nicolaus Copernicus, who proposed a heliocentric model of the solar system, had his astronomy equipment destroyed in 1520 by the Teutonic Order. In 1615, the Roman Inquisition investigated Galileo Galilei over his support of the heliocentric system, then forced him to spend the rest of his life under house arrest.
In 1781, William Herschel was living in England, with King George III his monarch. Herschel was one of several astronomers to observe Uranus. At first, he thought he'd found a comet, but meticulous observation and recording of the object's motion soon convinced him that it was a primary planet. Like my fictitious astronomer, Herschel was a busy fellow. In addition to his discovery of Uranus, he observed and catalogued double stars, comets, nebulae, star clusters, and moons around Saturn and Uranus. He discovered infrared radiation, coined the term "asteroid," and voiced his belief that there was life on other worlds. He came close to figuring out the effect of the eleven-year sunspot cycle on agriculture.
Of course, Herschel had the wealth to dabble and dream his way to many of these discoveries. However had he been born in the previous century, or in a place where the culture wasn't as permissive as Georgian England, that wealth would have counted for less. His beliefs would likely have put him in hot water with the Church, as his astronomer predecessors had been. He might have had to disguise or curtail his discoveries, or study only what the state approved.
So here's to the eighteenth century Western world's freedom to explore the sciences!
Written content of this post copyright © Suzanne Adair, 2015.
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