Celestial Shadows

- Preface

Part I. The Diversity of Eclipse Events

- Eclipse Phenomena

- The Waltz of the Planets

- The Performers

Part II. A Transit Chronicle

- The Beginnings

- Scaling the Heavens

- A Century of Progress and Disappointment - and Completion

- Our Own Venus Transit - The June Flowers of 2004

Part III. 2012 - Our Last Chance for a Venus Transit

- The 2012 Event

- Observing the 2012 Transit

- Mercury also Transits the Sun

- Transits Galore

- The Splendor of a Solar Eclipse

- The Beauty of a Lunar Eclipse

- Planetary Satellites

- Occultations - When Blocking the View is Helpful

- Appendices

- References

- Index

William Sheehan has written many books on astronomy, including: Planets and Perception (1988), The Immortal Fire Within: the life and work of Edward Emerson Barnard (1995), The Planet Mars (1996), In Search of Planet Vulcan (with Richard Baum; 1997), Epic Moon (with Thomas Dobbins; 2001), and Transits of Venus (with John Westfall; 2004). He is a consultant to the International Astronomical Union's Working Group on Planetary System Nomenclature, a Special Research Fellow in history of astronomy at the Lowell Observatory, a contributing editor to Sky & Telescope magazine and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. He is also past fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and a recipient of the Gold Medal of the Oriental Astronomical Association. Asteroid no. 16037 has been named Sheehan in his honor by the I.A.U.

With Springer, he has published a translation of James Lequeux's biography of the French astronomer U.J.J. Leverrier:Le Verrier-Magnificent and Detestable Astronomer (with Bernard Sheehan; 2013); Galactic Encounters (with Chris Conselice; 2014); and a translation of Camille Flammarion's The Planet Mars (with the late Sir Patrick Moore; 2014).


Professionally, William Sheehan is a psychiatrist. He is married, with two sons. He divides his time between his psychiatric and astronomical activities and between homes in Willmar, Minnesota and Flagstaff, Arizona. Among Sheehan's most recent observations have been those of Venus's atmosphere made at Lowell Observatory, during the transit of Venus of June 5-6, 2012, as a member of the international Venus Twilight Experiment.


For most of his life a denizen of the Bay Area, Dr. Westfall majored in geography at the University of California, Berkeley (BA 1960) and the George Washington University (MA 1964, PhD 1969). Employed by the (then) Coast and Geodetic Survey from 1961-64, he joined the faculty of San Francisco State University's

Selected by Choice magazine as an "Outstanding Academic Title" for 2015
"In Celestial Shadows, westfall ... summarize all the ways in which observational astronomers and planetary scientists use eclipses, transits, and occultations to study distant objects. ... This 22-chapter book collects in one place such a tremendous amount of information that it will be very useful, in particular, to those who wish to learn about how these events have previously allowed and continue to allow scientists to study solar system objects in unique ways. ... Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries." (C. Palma, Choice, Vol. 52 (10), June, 2015)                      
"The authors explain the astronomy, how to make observations, flag up future events, and link them to a rich history in which such observations contributed to significant developments in astronomy. ... this work is as good a place as any for amateur astronomers to begin engagement with a history that takes them beyond the usual accounts of heroes and moments of discovery and makes a useful resource for historians and educators." (Rebekah Higgitt, Journal for the History of Astronomy, Vol. 47 (4), November, 2016)