Astrometry during the past 100 years

TL;DR

This paper reviews the historical development of astrometry over the past century, highlighting key technological advances from early photoelectric methods to space missions like Hipparcos and Gaia.

Contribution

It provides a detailed historical account of astrometry's evolution, emphasizing the transition to space-based techniques and proposing future directions with CCD astrometry and the Gaia mission.

Findings

Development of photoelectric astrometry from 1925 to 1993

Proposal and planning of the Gaia space mission

Historical overview of astrometry techniques

Abstract

The reports from 2008: "Astrometry and optics during the past 2000 years", are available at arXiv and at my website: www.astro.ku.dk/~erik/History.pdf . Here are now further contributions to the history of astrometry related to space astrometry. The development of photoelectric astrometry is followed from an experiment in 1925 up to the Hipparcos satellite mission in the years 1989-93. This period continues with my proposal in 1992 for CCD astrometry with a scanning satellite called Roemer, which led to the Gaia mission due for launch in 2013. Lectures on astrometry are described. - Further installments are planned.