Texas State Physics Professor Donald W. Olson applies astronomical, meteorological and topographical data to the art of van Gogh and Munch to illustrate hidden meanings. Hear him speak at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 7, at the San Marcos Public Library.
by KIM HILSENBECK
Detective. Investigator. Private eye. Many people may think of these terms when they hear the word sleuth. But how many would connect that word with astronomy?
Donald Olson, astronomy and physics professor at Texas State University, is known as a celestial sleuth. By applying astronomy to art, Olson illustrates, for example, why there is a blood-red sky visible in the Edvard Munch painting The Scream.
That is just one of the key art pieces Olson will examine Wednesday, March 7, at the San Marcos Public Library.
Using astronomical sleuthing skills, historical documents, astronomy software, and old-fashioned research methods, Olson and his Texas State research team have solved 2,500-year-old mysteries.
The team’s work answers questions such as: How do astronomical methods make it possible to calculate dates and times for Vincent van Gogh’s night-sky paintings? And on what dates did Ansel Adams create his moonrise photographs in Yosemite National Park?
“The night sky has taken on a different meaning; art is attached to science,” says Olson.
This cross functional form of research and investigation started for Olson in 1987.
“An English literature professor asked me to work with him on astronomy in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales,” Olson said.
Olson then also used astronomy in his research of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and the poetry and prose of Walt Whitman.
After that, a history professor wanted to work with Olson on the Tarawa – an amphibious landing maneuver in World War II where the lunar configuration, which controls the tides – affected the battle.
Olson and his colleagues were asking themselves what more they could do with astronomy?
His upcoming article, “Did the Moon Sink the Titanic?” in Sky & Telescope (April 2012) coincides with the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster of April 15, 1912.
The March 7 presentation at the San Marcos Public Library is free and open to the public.
