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A painting showing Chevalier de Chaumont presenting a letter from King Louis XIV to King Narai in 1685. He is accompanied by the Jesuit missionaries, Fathers Tachard and Vachet. Constantine Phaulkon is crouching on the left, with his hand raised (en.wikipedia.com).
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The first great ruler to encourage the adoption of Western culture and technology throughout Siam (present-day Thailand) was King Narai, who also had a passion for astronomy. He showed this by encouraging French and other Jesuit missionaries, some with astronomical interests and training, to settle in Siam from the early 1660s. One of these was Fat...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... the King's astrologers had been assembled to deter- mine -... the luckiest day of the Year to be pitch- ed upon for his [de Chaumont's official] Recep- tion ...‖ at court (Love, 1994a: 60). This turned out to be 18 October, when the French delegation had an audience with King Narai (Figure 4) in Ayutthaya. ...
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Citations
... The Jesuits always had a special interest in science, and they have a proud history of astronomical research that stretches back more than 400 years (see Udias, 2003;2015), particularly in Asia (e.g. see Gislén, 2017;Gislén et al., 2018;Orchiston et al., 2016;Udias, 1994). Secchi's pioneering efforts in astrophysics should be seen in this chronological context. ...
... In our paper (Orchiston et al., 2016) we were able to pin-pointed the site from which the eclipse was observed and even the room amongst the current palace ruins where the King was located. In a follow-up paper (Gislén et al., 2018) we examined the observations in more detail, and one of the co-authors, Francoise Launay (2003) used an earlier study she had published in l'Astronomie to discuss Cassini's Moon map. ...
... You Gislén, (2004), Gislén et al. (2018) and Orchiston (2016) have all written about this Thai eclipse, only Cassini mentioned Promontorium Somnii. ...
... 15. A delegation of French Jesuit missionaries, including the astronomer Guy Tachard (1651Tachard ( -1712, observed the 10-11 December 1685 lunar eclipse from Lop Buri, Siam (Tachard, 1686;Orchiston et al., 2016). They used their lunar-eclipse timing observations to determine the longitude of their observing site as 121° 02′ East of the Canary Island of Ferro (El Hierro), a commonly used reference meridian at the time (e.g., de Grijs, 2017 (Dew, 2010;footnote 17). ...
... Also the method of measuring lunar distances (de Grijs, 2020) from reference stars could be used but there is no indication the this method was ever used by the French Jesuits in China. The French Jesuit Guy Tachard (1651Tachard ( -1712, determined the longitude of Cape Town timing the eclipse of the Jovian moon Io in the night of 2 June 1685 and of Lop Buri in Siam (present-day Thailand) using the lunar eclipse of 11 December 1685 (see Gislén, 2004;Gislén et al., 2018;Orchiston et al., 2016;Tachard, 1981). An even rarer event of this kind is documented in the records, the transit of Mercury on 10 October 1689, which was observed and timed from Canton, China, by Father Jean de Fonteney (1643-1710 at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon (Anonymous, 1729: 825). ...
... The appearance of ‗modern astronomy' in Siam was made possible only because of the personal interest of King Narai. One of the most rever- (Figure 1; see Orchiston et al., 2016) was born in 1633 and died prematurely in July 1688. Narai was the fourth king to rule during the Prasat Dynasty, which was the fourth of the five dynasties of the Ayutthaya Kingdom (see Table 1). ...
... (ibid.). Figure 5 is a drawing that was published later, and purportedly shows the Jesuit astronomers and King Narai observing the eclipse. 8 Elsewhere (Orchiston et al., 2016) we have shown that this drawing contains considerable artistic licence and should not be regarded as a realistic representation of the eclipse observations. ...
... The currently accepted value is 14° 48′ 00″ N, while Lop Buri is now known to be 118° 42′ E of the island of El Hierro. For further information about the 1685 eclipse and the dynamic socio-political environment in which it was observed see Orchiston et al. (2016), while Gislén et al. (2018) provide a detailed examination of the contact timings for different lunar craters and other features. ...
... In a series of research papers we have shown how eclipses and Royal patronage played a key role in the development of astronomy in presentday Thailand (Orchiston et al., 2018;Soonthornthum, 2017). Lunar and solar eclipses largely were responsible for the birth of Western astronomy in Siam during the eighteenth century (Gislén et al., 2019;Orchiston et al., 2016;2019a;2019b;cf. Bhumadhon, 2000), and an association with total solar eclipses and Thai Royalty continued during the nineteenth century (Orchiston and Orchiston, 2018;cf. Aubin 2019;Euarchukiati, 2019;Hutawarakorn-Kramer and Kramer, 2017) and through into the following century (Soonthornthum et al., 2019). ...
... Their voyage to China was delayed in Siam, and fortuitously there was a lunar eclipse during their sojourn. Their observations of this event were facilitated by Siam's King Narai (1633 -1688), who had a progressive foreign policy and a keen personal interest in astronomy (for details see Orchiston et al., 2016). Before they left France, the six Jesuit astronomers (Landry-Delon, 2011) … were admitted to the Académie Royale des Sciences, and supplied with astronomical instruments on the understanding that these would be used-among other things-to determine the latitude and longitude of different geographical features and population centres. ...
... For the French astronomers, successful observations of the 11 December 1685 eclipse would reveal the longitude of Lop Buri. It also would allow them to compare and contrast the position of Lop Buri with respect to nearby Ayutthaya, which another Jesuit astronomer, Father Antoine Thomas, had successfully pinpointed in 1681 and 1682 (see Orchiston et al., 2016;2018;2019b). ...
On 18 February 1679 Paris Observatory astronomer Jean Dominique Cassini presented a new map of the Moon to the Academy of Sciences in Paris, and this then became the standard reference work for French astronomers who carried out selenographical observations. Among these was a contingent of Jesuit missionary-astronomers who sailed from Brest on 3 March 1685, bound for China. En route they were forced to spend some months in Siam (present-day Thailand) and used the map when they observed the lunar eclipse of 11 December 1685. In this paper we examine the creation of the 1679 Moon map and its use by the French Jesuit missionary-astronomers in Siam in 1685.
... In a series of research papers we have shown how eclipses and Royal patronage played a key role in the development of astronomy in presentday Thailand (Orchiston et al., 2018;Soonthornthum, 2017). Lunar and solar eclipses largely were responsible for the birth of Western astronomy in Siam during the eighteenth century (Gislén et al., 2019;Orchiston et al., 2016;2019a;2019b;cf. Bhumadhon, 2000), and an association with total solar eclipses and Thai Royalty continued during the nineteenth century (Orchiston and Orchiston, 2018;cf. Aubin 2019;Euarchukiati, 2019;Hutawarakorn-Kramer and Kramer, 2017) and through into the following century (Soonthornthum et al., 2019). ...
... Their voyage to China was delayed in Siam, and fortuitously there was a lunar eclipse during their sojourn. Their observations of this event were facilitated by Siam's King Narai (1633 -1688), who had a progressive foreign policy and a keen personal interest in astronomy (for details see Orchiston et al., 2016). Before they left France, the six Jesuit astronomers (Landry-Delon, 2011) … were admitted to the Académie Royale des Sciences, and supplied with astronomical instruments on the understanding that these would be used-among other things-to determine the latitude and longitude of different geographical features and population centres. ...
... For the French astronomers, successful observations of the 11 December 1685 eclipse would reveal the longitude of Lop Buri. It also would allow them to compare and contrast the position of Lop Buri with respect to nearby Ayutthaya, which another Jesuit astronomer, Father Antoine Thomas, had successfully pinpointed in 1681 and 1682 (see Orchiston et al., 2016;2018;2019b). ...
On 18 February 1679 Paris Observatory astronomer Jean Dominique Cassini presented a new map of the Moon to the Academy of Sciences in Paris, and this then became the standard reference work for French astronomers who carried out selenographical observations. Among these was a contingent of Jesuit missionary-astronomers who sailed from Brest on 3 March 1685, bound for China. En route they were forced to spend some months in Siam (present-day Thailand) and used the map when they observed the lunar eclipse of 11 December 1685. In this paper we examine the creation of the 1679 Moon map and its use by the French Jesuit missionary-astronomers in Siam in 1685.
... After being provided with all the necessary scientific instruments, the Jesuit Fathers sailed from Brest on 3 March 1685 with Father Fontaney as leader. After spending some time in Siam, 1 where Tachard remained (see Orchiston et al., 2016), they finally arrived in Peking on 7 February 1688. The Jesuits were well received by the Kangxi Emperor ( Figure 1). ...
The methods and quality of seventeenth century timings of immersions and emersions of the Galilean satellite Io were studied. It was found that the quality of the observations was very good but that in the cases where these observations were used for longitude determinations, the results were impaired by the inaccuracy of Cassini's ephemerides that were used.
... 24 A drawing showing Siam's King Narai and French Jesuit missionary-astronomers observing the 11 December 1685 total lunar eclipse from the King's country retreat which was on an island in the water reservoir that was located to the northeast of his palace in Lop Buri. In our analysis of this drawing we have demonstrated that it contains considerable artistic licence (see Orchiston et al. 2015c) . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Figure 1. 25 A generalized geological map of Tennessee, U.S. A., showing the locations of the four largest cities (black dots) and the two confirmed and two suspected meteorite impact sites (small black dots with circles). ...
... This not only allowed me to continue my previous research projects-including the preparation of this and other books-but also to initiate new projects pertaining to Thai astronomy. Thus far, my main focus has been on the lunar and solar observations conducted by French Jesuit missionary-astronomers in the 1680s (Orchiston et al. 2015c, 2016b and on French observations of the 1868 total solar eclipse (Orchiston and Soonthornthum 2016). In addition, currently I am in the process of conducting Fig. 1.20 As a young graduate student in physics at the University of Tokyo, Koichi Shimoda carried out the first radio astronomical observations in Japan when he recorded a partial solar eclipse on 9 May 1948. ...
... A drawing showing Siam's King Narai and French Jesuit missionary-astronomers observing the 11 December 1685 total lunar eclipse from the King's country retreat which was on an island in the water reservoir that was located to the northeast of his palace in Lop Buri. In our analysis of this drawing we have demonstrated that it contains considerable artistic licence (see Orchiston et al. 2015c) ...