The Oxford
Dictionary of Astronomy was
first published in 1997, containing nearly 4,000 entries
written by a team of specialist contributors, both amateur and
professional, under my editorship. A heavily revised version of
that first edition appeared in 2003 in which the number of
entries increased to over 4,000. At the same time the type size
was reduced slightly, allowing the material to fit into fewer
pages than before. A reprint of that revised edition came out
in 2004 incorporating further updates, mostly concerning space
missions and observatories.
A second edition was published in September
2007. For this, all entries were reviewed by a team of
specialists, mostly different from those who had written the
original entries. A new departure in this edition was the
inclusion of URLs of websites, notably for various space
missions, observatories and various other institutions, and
online catalogues. In this 2007 second edition over 160 new
entries were added to those in the revised edition of 2004,
although some minor entries, particularly for small planetary
satellites, have been deleted.
The following additions and corrections
apply to the second edition of 2007.
Addenda and corrigenda
Chang’e: launched 2007 October.
Dawn: launched in 2007 September.
Deep Impact: now scheduled to fly
past Comet Hartley 2 (103P/Hartley) in 2010 October.
Encke Division: now renamed the Encke
Gap.
Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer
(FUSE): observations ceased 2007 July.
Faulkes Telescopes: FT-South came
into operation 2007.
Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope
(GLAST): launched 2008 June.
Herschel Space Observatory: launch is
now due for late 2008.
HII region: in line 5, “10100
000” should read “10–100 000”.
Hubble Space Telescope: the fifth and
final servicing mission is targeted for 2008 September. The
repair and replacement of equipment is intended to keep HST in
operation for at least a further five years.
Kepler mission: now due for launch in
2009 February.
Large Synoptic Survey Telescope: now
due to begin operation in 2014.
Laser Interferometer Space Antenna:
launch is now due for 2018.
Phoenix Mars lander: launched 2007
August. Landed on Mars 2008 May.
Planck: launch is now due for late
2008.
Planck constant: delete the final
“3” in the value given.
plutoid: new name for dwarf planets
like Pluto
pulsar: for a regularly updated list
of discoveries see
pulse profile: line 3, add degree
symbol after “360”.
RadioAstron: launch now scheduled for
2008 or later.
retardation: in line 2,
“50’.4” should read “50.4
minutes”.
Selene: now renamed Kaguya. Launched
2007 September.
Stardust: will fly past Comet Tempel
1 in 2011 February.
superior planet: delete Pluto from
the list.
supernova: for a regularly updated
list of discoveries see
Thirty Meter Telescope: now due to be
finished in 2016.
Time Zone: for a map of time zones
see
USNO CCD Astrograph Catalog: the
final catalogue (UCAC3) is due for publication in 2008.
Table 8: type R should read
“Close binary with strong reflection effect”.
Have you found anything that needs
changing? If so, please send me an email.
Ian Ridpath
ian @ ianridpath.com
Page last updated 2008 June.
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