Rolling out the red carpet for Saturday's #astrolabe study day in #Oxford, here with Taha Yasin Arslan - freshly arrived from Istanbul Medeniyet University - to set up our metalworking stations. Files, fret saws, rivets and hammers at the ready!

Deciding I might as well embrace my new status as “unfunded hobbyist researcher” (sorry: UK-only in-joke), so here's my new kit just arrived from the Hand Engravers’ Association. (I had to supply my hand measurement so that the burin/graver could be made to the right size.)

Ever wondered what Chaucer’s clerk Nicholas would get up to with his astrolabe in the Miller’s Tale? In 10 days there’s a chance to learn about and make this most iconic #medieval instrument at a study day at the #Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. Literally #MedievalSky!

Just two weeks to go until the #Oxford #astrolabe study day on Saturday 27 September! Learn the making and use of this most iconic scientific instrument – with the bonus that everyone attending gets to assemble and take home their own modern laser-cut astrolabe.

It also made me look again at the Shah Abbas astrolabe in Oxford, from the first year of his rule, and therefore shortly before this astrologically overdetermined event.

Very pleased to see them safely back on display, though it's been wonderful to have the chance to study them closely while the library refurbishment was underway - thanks so much for the opportunity!

Paging #medieval #palaeography for an unfamiliar abbreviation of XL on an astrolabe at Merton College Oxford. Does this ring any bells in terms of date or place for @sebfalk.com or @eleonoraandriani.bsky.social? Or anyone else you can think of? (There’s nothing obvious in Cappelli online.) 1/3

A generous loan from the Qatar National Library has extended the scope of the Lines of Faith exhibition - so it now includes astrolabe manuscripts. It's also extended in time, running until mid-October. Many thanks to the OCIS Librarian Wassilena Sekulova for masterminding the complex logistics! 1/3

Good to see that, heatwave or not, my DIY "portable" Roman sundial is still working fine. I simply suspended the dial and turned it so that the shadow of the gnomon was exactly on the hour scale. At 07.20 British Summer Time we were already half way through the second seasonal (unequal) hour.

A short thread starting from the published version of this piece on astrolabes, astrology and their digital representation and capture. “Starting from” rather than simply “restating” the article’s main points because it wasn’t intended to be the last word on its topic. (1/7)

New publication! Late last year I gave the Scientific Instrument Society's annual lecture. The written version of "Back to the Future: New Approaches to the Astrolabe" is now printed in the SIS Bulletin, but currently available as a free download at scientificinstrumentsociety.org/BulletinArti...

These are great - thanks! Despite the difficulties of photography through showcase glass I can't resist sharing a detail of just how crisply you've captured the engraving and the throne. (Hope that's OK....)

PS if you're actively looking at astrolabes you might find yourself seriously distracted. Have you seen those by the Arsenius workshop and also by Habermel where the throne is attached to the rim by screws? Louvain and Prague, rather than Nuremberg but still pretty close to home.....

Thanks for the pictures Eleonora. I have more images coming from different days, but it's been such an intense week that my BlueSky capacity failed after day 1! I'm sure normal service will be resumed soon....

Anuj Misra and Agathe Keller led us through Sanskrit astronomy and mathematics, with beautiful astrological charts - prefaced and supported by curator Jerome Petit, who had the final task of rolling back up the 37m (!) scroll, bit by bit.

On commence! Kicking off the Paris training week in global history of astronomy at @labnf.bsky.social with Matthieu Husson and Alexandre Tur @tur-alexandre.bsky.social. More at eida.hypotheses.org/seminars-2/t...

Thank you to Angela Axworthy and @thomas-morel.bsky.social for organising a great meeting. Come for Euclid and practical geometries, and stay for Wuppertal's immortal Schwebebahn!

Missing from the line-up (and without even a selfie) was your own "From Euclidean Geometry to Field Theory: Surveying Practices in the Textbooks of J.F. Penther (1732) and A. Böhm (1759)" - a fascinating comparative case of generational change in university teaching. More of this, please!

What a wonderful afternoon - thanks so much Joumana. As a complete beginner I was chuffed to have made decent progress with my abjad-numbered astrolabe. Didn't quite finish but, since the characters for 180 also mean "stop" as a word, I took the hint and did not press on to 360 around the limb.

Currently preparing my paper for the hybrid workshop “Euclid's Elements and Practical Mathematics in Early Modern Europe” at the Bergische Universität Wuppertal next week #histmath #histSTM (1/5)

OK everyone, you have your instructions, get onto Eventbrite for your tickets!

Thanks for posting this - it's a real privilege to have seen both this short introduction and your full presentation yesterday. Yes, there's lots that's familiar to me historically - so it's rich and allusive. But it's also fresh and novel, revealing life and strength in the tradition - wonderful!

Never been to the new Lambeth Palace Library before, and there is an amazing view from its 8th floor balcony over the old palace building and the Thames.

Greatly looking forward to this - and not just because it's a chance to pick up a different research thread (not a single medieval #astrolabe in sight!). Euclid will be great but I'll also get a chance to go on the en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuppert... which I (weirdly) remember reading about as a kid.

Did you find many #histmath practitioners here on Bluesky? @sgessner.bsky.social has entered the building, and I know @viktorblasjo.bsky.social is here. I'm curious because my Historia Mathematica piece in memory of Jim Bennett is now available online at doi.org/10.1016/j.hm...

Wonderful that Joumana is able to come to Oxford to lead this workshop. I'll definitely be there and, since I have no Arabic, it really is true that it's open to all - just bring curiosity and openness. But be quick: only 15 places!

Off to work one more time for the last day of the 2025 EIDA conference - I'm always childishly pleased to go above ground on metro line 6

Thought I'd get to @labnf.bsky.social Richelieu well before its 2pm opening time to avoid the queue.... 😞

Paging @celinecamps.bsky.social, even though it's not for object assembly

I happened to come across another example that I’d previously noted for myself: the A at the end of VMBRA was struck upside down first. Not just that, but the maker initially put the 2 (“Z”) from the neighbouring 12 on the corner just where the V of VMBRA was meant to go.

The resolution isn't great but it looks like the inner of the three main circles is Topicus cancri - until you realise there is a miniature "r" tucked in behind the T. Oops! And if this happens on the best that money can buy, what about elsewhere.....?

Movement created by Michael Wright, with yours truly winding the sun back up the sky before the next demonstration. Fond (rose-tinted) memories of an all-night session to get the painting of sky and London landscape ready in time, with particularly sterling work by the Museum adminstrator.....

A history of astronomy summer school with access to important medieval/early modern manuscripts - and even some instruments - in its global approach. Sign up quick for a week in Paris!

Want some significant original sources? Chaucer's Middle English text is fun and well worth a look (critical edition by Eisner). There's also Ron Thomson's recent critical edition and English translation of one of Chaucer's key sources, freely available at shareok.org/items/cfb39a... 3/3

Also extremely useful to turn on and off other features to understand their behaviour. Switches for the planets mean that it also serves as an equatorium, and running the astrolabe at different speeds is very revealing - watch the moon bowling round the zodiac in latitude and longitude! 2/

If you want to ensure that you've grasped the principles of its operation, I'd always recommend Alex Boxer's excellent online astrolabe: alexboxer.com/astrolabe/. You can alter the latitude to see how the projection of the local horizon changes, and therefore experience the seasons in action. 1/

As a newcomer to the early Latin astrolabe, I've only just got hold of Arianna Borelli's book - am looking forward to reading it properly. For me it was exciting to realise that BnF lat. 7412 was digitised and online, so that I could see the bilingual rete at gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/b...

@juanacevedo.bsky.social Thanks for the follow, now reciprocated - plus I can't help but ask about the "armillary stuff" in your profile. (Asking since I'm currently intermittently preoccupied by their medieval form.)

All gone! So I've just turned on the wait list for tickets, in case anyone unfortunately has to drop out.

📢📢📢 Hands-on astrolabe study day coming up soon on 8 Feb at the Centre for Islamic Studies in Oxford. Now just 3 tickets left, so please do get your skates on if you want to come along! Link below:

@hugotions.bsky.social Maybe it's just me, but the thread I posted in reply to you using the composer isn't displaying as connected to your post. Here's the link to the first in the thread, if that helps: bsky.app/profile/step... (When I did this as a direct reply I got an "Internal Server Error"!)

On the way to Paris for a hybrid seminar at the Observatoire on Tuesday. I'm speaking on medieval Latin instruments: "Early astronomy in context: the view from the museum” and Samuel Gessner will then tackle a troublesome trepidation sphere. Times and abstracts at syrte.obspm.fr/spip/science...

“The Beauty in the Machine: Symbolic Machines, Automata, and Precious Gears in the Early Modern Period”: online workshop, 9-10 January, organised by Cristiano Zanetti. Full details, programme and Zoom link available at www.unive.it/data/33113/8...

In the audience for The Invention of Wonder, a new work by Ray Lee www.music.ox.ac.uk/event/241030... and on the panel for discussion afterwards. Exciting!

I've curated a new exhibition at Oxford's Centre for Islamic Studies, "Lines of Faith: Astronomy and the Art of the Astrolabe in the Islamic World" - with objects from the 10th to 17th centuries lent by the History of Science Museum.

Online talk coming up: I'll be presenting on astrology and the astrolabe at the Helena Avelar seminar on pre-modern astronomy and astrology. This Thursday 27 June at 6pm, Lisbon time. Abstract and Zoom link at ciuhct.org/agenda/astro...

My appreciation of Jim Bennett as a museum practitioner - seeing his research and academic work in history of science through the lens of museum life - has now appeared. Open-access and online at the Science Museum Group Journal: journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/jim-...

Thought I should take an archive of that other place in case I'm not often back there. Momentarily tickled that <[email protected]> lets me know that my Twitter file is ready for download - not a black and white X in sight, and the little blue bird is still singing in the corner.....

A link to my recently-published review of Thomas Morel's monograph on the mathematics of early-modern mining. In brief (and to continue the M alliteration), it's marvellous. Open access in the journal HoST: sciendo.com/article/10.2...

The online version has been available for 10 days but it's only today that Josh Nall's excellent obituary of Jim Bennett has appeared in the print edition of the Guardian. Very good to have Jim's work and achievements recognised in a national newspaper.