Willem de Sitter. Einstein's friend and opponent (Q1991726)

The book under review covers a very large area of subjects. It can be classified as a historical-scientific work, as well as a bibliographic one, equally as a book concerned to celestial mechanics or to cosmology. The author made a titanic work to add separate biographic data, found mainly in the Archive of the Leiden Observatory, International Astronomical Union and other most important astronomic institutions of the time with a suitable understanding of the way of scientific discoveries in celestial mechanics and cosmology at the threshold of the last scientific revolution which occurred at the beginning of the XX-th century. As a result, the reader gets a very complex portrait of one of the most important astrophysicists of the beginning of XX-th century, which not only contributed to the establishment of a new area of the science: cosmology, but also contributed much to the development of science and scientific institutions in his homeland: Netherlands. The author describes the very difficult way to make key discoveries in celestial mechanics at the finish of XIX-th century, to which not only mathematics but also astronomical observations are very important. Willem de Sitter was one of the most important researchers of the Galilean satellites of Jupiter. Perhaps, it will be very indicated to cite the author of the book itself, which at p. 270, close to the finish of the book, is writing about Willem De Sitter: ``We can say about De Sitter, with a reference to Newton, that he had stood on the shoulders of giants, to see so far into the universe. In his lifetime there were four giants whose shoulders he had used. First there is Kapteyn, whose first and most prominent student he was. He was the first to party unravel the structure of the Universe (then only the Milky Way) and the greatest astronomer of the Netherlands around 1900. From Kapteyn, De Sitter learned the indivisibility of theory and observation. He was also a student of Gill, one of the most accomplished British practical astronomers. From Gill, De Sitter learned the instruments, the technique of observing and how to reduce the observations. In a later period there were Lorentz and Einstein, with whose help he could develop the cosmological ideas, in direct discussions or by letters. He was a lucky scientist with such excellent masters and colleagues''. The reader of the book can be happy to find here also a lot about the greatest scientists from the beginnning of the 20-th century and their contacts with Willem de Sitter, such as: Willem H. van den Bos, Karel Boscha, Dirk Brouwer, Frank W. Dyson, Arthur Eddington, Paul Ehrenfest, Albert Einstein, Hendrik van Gent, David Gill, Gijsbert van Herk, Ejnar Hertzsprung (one of most prolific colleagues of De Sitter from the Leiden Observatory), George W. Hill, Coert H. Hins, Sidney S. Hogh, Edwin P. Hubble, Robert T. A. Innes, Heike Kamerling Onnes, Jacobus C. Kapteyn, Hendrik Lorenz, Albertus Nijland, Jan H. Oort, Pieter Oosterhof, Antonie Panekoek, J. Henri Poincaré, Peter J. van Rijn, Georges Lemaitres, Ernst F. van de Sande Bakhuyzen, Hendricus G. van de Sand Bakhuyzen, Frank Schlesinger, Harlow Shapley, Aernout de Sitter (son), Woltjer Jan, some of which were his closest colleagues at the Leiden Observatory and disciples. A lot of detail about his family (ancestors), wife, sons and grand sons can be found here also. The book is richly illustrated and documented with references to archives throughout its 13 chapters.