In the debut issue of a new open access online journal, Euresis, Owen Gingerich, Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and the History of Science at Harvard, offers a fascinating essay on Johannes Kepler and his book Astronomia Nova.

FORBES: Kepler, Mars and the Turning Point in Astronomy

The astronomy community has a long history of descriptive yet fairly unimaginative names - including the VLA itself, the Very Large Telescope in Chile, and the yet-to-be-built European Extremely Large Telescope (the design for which was chosen over the alternative Overwhelmingly Large Telescope).

BBC: Very Large Array telescope in public call for new name

This approach has proved particularly fruitful in astronomy, a science with a long history of amateur contributions.

ECONOMIST: Amateur astronomers join the ranks of the planet hunters

It contains many original manuscripts and rare copies of major works on history, literature, philosophy, law, astronomy, physics, chemistry, pharmacology, geography, music, mathematics, mineralogy, economy, fine arts, etc. written in Uzbek, Arabic, Farsi, Tajik, Urdu, Pushtu, Tatar, Azeri, Turkish, Turkmen, Uighur and other languages.

UNESCO: OFFICE IN TASHKENT

He bought thousands of books including works on music, mathematics, astronomy, history, geography, magic, theology and philosophy.

ECONOMIST: Spanish empire

The Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council, to which it is now answerable, is, however, no respecter of history.

ECONOMIST: Save the Royal Observatory!