Publications of Robert H. van Gent

ISNI 0000 0001 0885 9360
ORCID 0000 0003 4214 3897

Publications in journals
Publications in conference/symposium proceedings or contributed chapters in books
Books and booklets
Newspaper interviews
Radio and video interviews
Workshops prepared for seminars and summer schools
Web contributions
Biographical data for minor planet names

Publications in journals

“De afplatting van de planeet Mars”, Hemel en Dampkring, 70 (1972), 100-101 [ADS link].
[with J.R.W. Heintze & P. Provoost] “Photoelectric Minima of U CrB, u Her and U Oph”, Commission 27 I.A.U. Information Bulletin on Variable Stars, nr. 1507 (1978) [ADS link / Konkoly Observatory link].
“[The Origin of the Julian Day Numbers]”, Sky & Telescope, 62 (1981), 16 [ADS link].
“Johnson BVR Magnitudes for Selected Comparison Stars”, Commission 27 I.A.U. Information Bulletin on Variable Stars, nr. 2140 (1982) [ADS link / Konkoly Observatory link].
“Evidence for a Third Component in the U CrB System”, Astronomy & Astrophysics Supplement Series, 48 (1982), 457-480 [ADS link].
“Red Sirius”, Nature, 312 (1984), 302 [Nature link].
[with H.J.G.L.M. Lamers] “Periodicity of the Radial-Velocity and Brightness Variations of the Hypergiant P Cygni (B1 Ia⁺) and the Origin of the Shell Ejections”, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 158 (1986), 335-350 [ADS link].
“Robeola was Arcturus: Sirius is nooit rood geweest”, Zenit, 13 (1986), 212 [ADS link] & 418.
“No Red Sirius”, Sky & Telescope, 72 (1986), 556-557 [ADS link].
“The Colour of Sirius in the Sixth Century”, Nature, 325 (1987), 87-89 [ADS link / Nature link].
[with M.G.M. Hulspas] “Vuur en ijs: 1. De vele voorgangers van Velikovsky”, Skepter, 1, nr. 4 (1988), 12-17.
[with M.G.M. Hulspas] “Vuur en ijs: 2. Katastrofisme versus uniformisme”, Skepter, 2, nr. 1 (1989), 33-37.
“The Colour of Sirius”, The Observatory, 109 (1989), 23-24 [ADS link].
“Lightcurves of the Algol-variable U CrB in the UPS Photometrical System”, Astronomy & Astrophysics Supplement Series, 77 (1989), 471-485 [ADS link].
[with J.R.W. Heintze] “The Masses and Radii of the Components of U Cep”, Space Science Reviews, 50 (1989), 261-263 [ADS link].
“A Photometric-Spectroscopic Analysis of the Algol-type Binary U CrB”, Space Science Reviews, 50 (1989), 264-268 [ADS link].
“Some Modifications to the Wilson-Devinney Program”, Space Science Reviews, 50 (1989), 371 [ADS link].
“Evidence for Transient Colour Changes of Algol in the Past”, Space Science Reviews, 50 (1989), 372 [ADS link].
“Look-alike Comets”, Sky & Telescope, 79 (1990), 470.
“Conjunctions of Yore”, Sky & Telescope, 82 (1991), 230 [ADS link].
“Steady Shine”, Nature, 349 (1991), 470 [Nature link].
“Ijdelheid en leegheid: Isaac Newton en de Astrologie”, Skepter, 5, nr. 1 (1992), 24-25: an English version of this article was published as: “Isaac Newton and Astrology: Witness for the Defence or for the Prosecution?”, Correlation: Journal of Research into Astrology, 12 (1993), nr. 1, 33-37 [html version on my website].
“De Nederlandse Venusexpedities van 1874 en 1882”, Zenit, 20 (1993), 332-337.
“De nieuwe sterren van 1572, 1600 en 1604 op de hemelglobes van Willem Jansz Blaeu”, Caert-Thresoor: Tijdschrift voor de Geschiedenis van de Kartografie in Nederland, 12 (1993), 40-46 [pdf copy].
“Van hemelkaarten en hemelglobes: De platte en gewelfde afbeelding van de hemel”, Zenit, 22 (1995), 342-346 [ADS link / pdf copy].
“Sirius en de Dogon”, Skepter, 9, nr. 2 (1996), 15-20 [html version on the Skepsis website].
“Nogmaals: De fresco’s van Qusayr ’Amra”, Zenit, 23 (1996), 478 [ADS link].
“Het raadsel van de Ster van Bethlehem: Oude en nieuwe sterrenkundige verklaringen”, Zenit, 23 (1996), 510-514 [ADS link].
“Gelap! De Nederlandse zonsverduisteringsexpedities 1901-1973”, Zenit, 26 (1999), 319-323 [ADS link].
[with A.C. van Helden] “The Lens Production by Christiaan and Constantijn Huygens”, Annals of Science, 56 (1999), 69-79 [Annals of Science link].
[with E.B.J. van der Zalm] “De dageraad van het nieuwe millennium”, Zenit, 26 (1999), 508-512 [ADS link].
“De hemelatlas van Andreas Cellarius: Het meesterwerk van een vergeten Hollandse kosmograaf”, Caert-Thresoor: Tijdschrift voor de Geschiedenis van de Kartografie in Nederland, 19 (2000), 9-25 [pdf copy].
“Assigning Quadrants”, Sky & Telescope, 107 (2004), nr. 4, 14.
[with H.J. Zuidervaart] “ “A Bare Outpost of Learned European Culture on the Edge of the Jungles of Java”: Johan Maurits Mohr (1716-1775) and the Emergence of Instrumental and Institutional Science in Dutch Colonial Indonesia”, Isis: An International Review devoted to the History of Science and its Cultural Influences, 95 (2004), 1-33 [ADS link / JSTOR link].
“Cartography Credit”, Sky & Telescope, 109 (2005), nr. 5, 12 [ADS link].
“Het sterrenlied in het Hollandse zeevaartonderwijs: Berijmde instructies voor het vinden van de sterrenbeelden en het uur van de nacht”, Gewina: Tijdschrift voor de Geschiedenis der Geneeskunde, Natuurwetenschappen, Wiskunde en Techniek, 28 (2005 [2006]), 208-221 [pdf uncorrected proof].
“Over antipoden, amfiskieten, heteroskieten en periskieten”, GEO-INFO: Tijdschrift voor geo-informatie Nederland, 3 (2006), 538-539 [pdf copy].
“De zon verduisterd over Europa”, GEO-INFO: Tijdschrift voor geo-informatie Nederland, 5 (2008), 110-111 [pdf copy].
[with M. van Egmond] “Vier eeuwen hemelcartografie: Oude sterrenkaarten en -prenten nu op internet beschikbaar”, Zenit, 36 (2009), 269-273 – reprinted (with minor changes) in:

GEO-INFO: Tijdschrift voor geo-informatie Nederland, 6 (2009), nr. 7/8, 10-13 [pdf copy].
Caert-Thresoor: Tijdschrift voor de Geschiedenis van de Kartografie, 28 (2009), 71-75.

[with F.W.M. Verbunt] “Three Editions of the Star Catalogue of Tycho Brahe: Machine-Readable Versions and Comparison with the Modern Hipparcos Catalogue”, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 516 (2010), A28 [ADS link].
[with F.W.M. Verbunt] “The Star Catalogue of Hevelius: Machine-Readable Version and Comparison with the Modern Hipparcos Catalogue”, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 516 (2010), A29 [ADS link].
[with F.W.M. Verbunt] “Early Star Catalogues of the Southern Sky: De Houtman, Kepler (Second and Third Classes), and Halley”, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 530 (2011), A93 [ADS link].
“For the Record”, Sky & Telescope, 124 (2012), nr. 4, 9.
[with F.W.M. Verbunt] “The Star Catalogues of Ptolemaios and Ulugh Beg: Machine-Readable Versions and Comparison with the Modern Hipparcos Catalogue”, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 544 (2012), A31 [ADS link].
“No Evidence for an Early Seventeenth-Century Indian Sighting of Kepler’s Supernova (SN1604)”, Astronomical Notes/Astronomische Nachrichten, 334 (2013), 300-306 [ADS link].
“Eclipses in Antiquity: Using Astronomy for Dating”, Ancient History Magazine, nr. 4 (2016), 55-57 [pdf uncorrected proof].
[with R. Neuhäuser, P. Kunitzsch, M. Mugrauer & D. Luge], “Tycho Brahe, Abū Ma‘shar, and the Comet beyond Venus (Ninth Century A.D.)”, Journal for the History of Astronomy, 47 (2016), 136-158 [ADS link].
[with E. Mamajek, B. Garcia, D. Hamacher, Th. Montmerle, J. Pasachoff, I. Ridpath & Xiaochun Sun], Bulletin of the IAU Working Group on Star Names, No. 2 (November 2016) [IAU link].
[with J. Davis, B. Degenaar, A. de Ruiter, A. Pappot & A. Agostino], “A Previously Unrecorded Medieval Latin Astrolabe and Evidence for a Mid-Fourteenth Century Instrument Workshop”, Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society, nr. 146 (2020), 6-23 [pdf link].

Publications in conference/symposium proceedings or contributed chapters in books

“Sirius, de Hondsster”, Sterrengids 1989 (Utrecht: Stichting ‘De Koepel’, 1988), pp. 141-144.
Several contributed calendrical essays for FVGIT IRREPARABILE TEMPVS: De kalender bij de Grieken en Romeinen, the IMAGO 2000 calendar published bij Het Nederlands Klassiek Verbond (1999).
“Planetoïde nr. 1: Ceres”, Sterrengids 2001 (Utrecht: Stichting ‘De Koepel’, 2000), pp. 121-123.
[with S. Ackermann] “La Meridiana di Sant’Agostino in Urbino/The Meridian Line of Sant’Agostino in Urbino”, in F. Vetrano (ed.), La Scienza del Ducato di Urbino/The Science of the Dukedom of Urbino (Urbino: Accademia Raffaello, 2001), pp. 141-174 – published for the Physics Laboratory & Museum of Scientific Instruments of the University of Urbino.
“The Astronomical and Astrological Content of the Prints”, in: H.F.J. Horstmanshoff, A.M. Luyendijk-Elshout & F.G. Schlesinger (eds.), The Four Seasons of Human Life: Four Anonymous Engravings from the Trent Collection (Rotterdam/Durham: Erasmus Publishers/Trent Collection Duke University, 2002), pp. 65-77 & 91-94 – for more information on the prints published in this work, see Historical Images in Medicine: The Four Seasons.
“The Telescope and its Introduction in Japan”, in: Yoichi Tomii et al (eds.), Headwaters of Science and Technology in Pre-Modern Japan – Galileo, Leeuwenhoek, Ikkansai: 3rd International Symposium on Edo no Monozukuri, Nagahama Royal Hotel, November 7-10, 2003 (Kyoto: Yoshida Printing Co., 2003), pp. 1-4.
“Mapping the Lunar Shadow: The Earliest Solar Eclipse Maps”, in: A.D. Wittmann, G. Wolfschmidt & H.W. Duerbeck (eds.), Development of Solar Research/Entwicklung der Sonnenforschung: Proceedings of the Colloquium Freiburg (Breisgau), September 15, 2003 (Frankfurt am Main: Verlag Harri Deutsch, 2005 [= Acta Historica Astronomiae, vol. 25]), pp. 103-127 [ADS link / pdf proof version].
“Observations of the 1761 and 1769 Transits of Venus from Batavia (Dutch East Indies)”, in: D.W. Kurtz (ed.), Transits of Venus: New Views of the Solar System and Galaxy. Proceedings of the 196th Colloquium of the International Astronomical Union held in Preston, Lancashire, United Kingdom, 7-11 June 2004 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. 67-73 [ADS link / Cambridge Journals link].
[with A. van Helden] “Lunar, Solar, and Planetary Representations to 1650”, in: D.A. Woodward (ed.), The History of Cartography: Volume Three. Cartography in the European Renaissance (Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press, 2007), part 1, pp. 123-134 [University of Chicago Press link].
“Vier eeuwen de hemel geobserveerd en in kaart gebracht: Utrechtse collecties oude sterrenkundige drukken”, in: M. van Egmond, B. Jaski & H. Mulder (eds.), Bijzonder onderzoek: Een ontdekkingsreis door de Bijzondere Collecties van de Universiteitsbibliotheek Utrecht (Utrecht: Universiteitsbibliotheek, 2009), pp. 162-167 [Utrecht University Repository link].
[Co-editor of] A. van Helden et al., The Origins of the Telescope (Amsterdam: KNAW Press, 2010) – proceedings of the conference “The Invention of the Dutch Telescope. Its Origin and Impact on Science, Culture and Society, 1550-1650”, held in Middelburg in September 2008 to mark the 400th anniversary of the telescope [pdf link].
“Ṣūfī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, al-”, in: I. Kalin, S. Ayduz & C. Dali (eds.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), vol. 2, pp. 286-288 [pdf link].
“Kalenderpenning”, in: J.R. ter Molen (ed.), Fries goud en zilver: De geschiedenis van de Friese edelsmeedkunst in woord en beeld (Gorredijk: Bornmeer, 2014), pp. 932-933.
“A Mysterious Cosmographical Map attributed to Nicolaes van Geelkercken: A Note on Historical Celestial Maps, Facsimiles and Fakes” in: W.R. Dick & C. Sterken (eds.), In memoriam Hilmar Duerbeck (Leipzig: Akademische Verlagsanstalt, 2018 [= Acta Historica Astronomiae, vol. 64]), pp. 341-350 [ADS link / pdf proof] – erratum: on pp. 345 & 346 replace “Jean Nicolas Fortin (1750-1831)” with “Jean-Baptiste Fortin (1740-1817)”.

Since 2003, I supply data on the visibility of the lunar crescent and various calendar systems for the Sterrengids, published annually by the Koninklijke Nederlandse Vereniging voor Weer- en Sterrenkunde.

Books and booklets

Studies on Interacting Binary Stellar Systems (Meppel: Krips Repro, 1989).
[with J.H. Leopold] De tijdmeters van de Leidse Sterrewacht (Leiden: Museum Boerhaave, 1992) – an English-language version was published as: The Time-Keepers of Leiden Observatory (Leiden: Museum Boerhaave, 1992).
[with W. Heukelom, R. Martens, K. Mulder, B. Terpstra & R. Smit], Hoe waar is astrologie? (Lelystad: Stichting IVIO, 1993 [= AO Reeks, nr. 2448]).
De reizende astronoom: Nederlandse sterrenkundige expedities naar de Oost en de West (Leiden: Museum Boerhaave, 1993) – an exhibition catalogue describing the Venus transit and solar eclipse expeditions organized by Dutch astronomers in the 19th and 20th century (Leiden: Museum Boerhaave, 18 May – 26 September 1993).
De hemel in de hand: Twee astrolaben van het Museum Boerhaave / The Portable Universe: Two Astrolabes from Museum Boerhaave (Leiden: Museum Boerhaave, 1994) [pdf copy].
[with A.C. van Helden] Een vernuftig geleerde: De technische vondsten van Christiaan Huygens (Leiden: Museum Boerhaave, 1995) [pdf of a reworked version].
[with A.C. van Helden] De Huygens collectie (Leiden: Museum Boerhaave, 1995) – an English-language version was published as: The Huygens Collection (Leiden: Museum Boerhaave, 1995).
[with T. van der Spek] Groeten uit de kosmos. Buitenaards gevaar: feit of fictie? (Leiden: Museum Boerhaave, 1998) – an exhibition catalogue on ancient and modern fears inspired by celestial phenomena (Leiden: Museum Boerhaave, 20 May – 27 September 1998).
Andreas Cellarius. Harmonia Macrocosmica of 1660: The Finest Atlas of the Heavens (Köln: TASCHEN, 2006 [reprinted in slightly smaller format in 2012]) [TASCHEN link] – reviews in:

NRC Handelsblad, 37, nr. 24 [28/29 October 2006], Wetenschap & Onderwijs bijlage, p. 45 [pdf copy].
Het Parool, 66, nr. 19049 [29 November 2006], pp. 18-19.
De Volkskrant, 85, nr. 25087 [2 December 2006], Kennis bijlage, p. 7.
Ciel et Terre: Bulletin de la Société Royale belge d’Astronomie, de Météorologie et de Physique du Globe, 123 (2007), nr. 1, 27 [ADS link].
Monthly Notices of the Astronomical Society of South Africa, 66 (2007), 111 [ADS link].
Sky & Telescope, 113 (2007), nr. 6, 71-72 [Allesoversterrenkunde.nl].
The Observatory: A Review of Astronomy, 127 (2007), 193-194 [ADS link].
Journal for the History of Astronomy, 39 (2008), 534-535 [ADS link].
The Art Book, 15 (2008), nr. 2, 48-50 [Wiley link].
The Cartographic Journal, 45 (2008), 320-321 [doi link].

[with H.J. Zuidervaart] Between Rhetoric and Reality: Instrumental Practices at the Astronomical Observatory of the Amsterdam Society ‘Felix Meritis’, 1786-1889 (Hilversum: Uitgeverij Verloren, 2013) [Verloren link] – review in:

Journal for the History of Astronomy, 44 (2013), 489-490 [ADS link].

Newspaper interviews

Speurtocht naar zeldzame sextant: Rob van Gent zoekt instrument van Blaeu in Friesland, Leeuwarder Courant, 23 January 1992, p. 23.
Meer helderheid aan de sterrenhemel, De Standaard, 1 December 2016, D8-D9.

Radio and video interviews

On the International Date Line (and other topics) – with Chris Whitta of ‘Nights’ (Radio New Zealand).
Het verhaal achter de Astrolabe – on the astrolabes in Museum Boerhaave (Leiden).
Sterrenbeelden – VPRO radio-documentary on ancient and modern belief in astrology (with Christianne Alvarado, Katinka Baehr, Rens Bod, Sanne Frequin, Nora Gosselink and Andrea van Leerdam (VPRO OVT).