A History of Variable Star Astronomy to 1900 and Slightly Beyond

Volume 15 number 2 (1986)

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Dorrit Hoffleit

Abstract

A brief account is presented of the progress of variable star astronomy, from the earliest beginnings up to 1900. While massive amounts of observational data had been collected before 1900, satisfactory theories to account for them had been found only for Algol-type eclipsing binaries, and tentatively for β Lyrae type, but none yet for intrinsic variables.