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Astrophysical Techniques
Astrophysical Techniques
Seventh Edition

C. R. Kitchin
Seventh edition published 2020
by CRC Press
6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300, Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742

and by CRC Press

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© 2021 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Sixth edition published by CRC Press 2013

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Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data

Names: Kitchin, C. R. (Christopher R.), author.

Title: Astrophysical techniques / C.R. Kitchin.
Description: Seventh edition. | Boca Raton : CRC Press, 2020. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020017234 | ISBN 9781138590168 (hardback) | ISBN
9780429491139 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Astrophysics--Technique. | Astronomy--Technique. |
Astronomical instruments. | Imaging systems in astronomy.
Classification: LCC QB461 .K57 2020 | DDC 522--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020017234

ISBN: 978-1-138-59016-8 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-59120-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-49113-9 (ebk)

Typeset in Times
by Lumina Datamatics Limited
 For

Christine,
Rowan and Willow,
Arthur and Lottie,
and
Bob.
Contents
Preface............................................................................................................................................ xiii
Author............................................................................................................................................... xv

Chapter 1 Detectors....................................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Optical Detection................................................................................................ 1
1.1.1 Introduction.......................................................................................... 1
1.1.2 Detector Types...................................................................................... 1
1.1.3 The Eye.................................................................................................2
1.1.4 Semiconductors....................................................................................3
1.1.4.1 The Photoelectric Effect......................................................6
1.1.5 A Detector Index.................................................................................. 8
1.1.6 Detector Parameters.............................................................................8
1.1.7 Cryostats...............................................................................................9
1.1.8 Charge-Coupled Devices (CCDs)....................................................... 10
1.1.8.1 CCDs................................................................................. 10
1.1.8.2 Charge Injection Devices (CIDs).......................................25
1.1.8.3 CCDs – The Future...........................................................25
1.1.9 Avalanche Photodiodes (APDs)..........................................................26
1.1.9.1 Photodiodes.......................................................................26
1.1.9.2 Avalanche Photodiode.......................................................28
1.1.9.3 Single Photon Avalanche Photodiodes.............................. 30
1.1.10 Photography........................................................................................ 30
1.1.11 Photomultipliers (PMTs).................................................................... 30
1.1.12 Superconducting Tunnel Junction (STJ) Detectors............................ 32
1.1.13 Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs)
or Kinetic Inductance Detectors (KIDs)............................................ 32
1.1.14 Future Possibilities............................................................................. 33
1.1.15 Infrared Detectors.............................................................................. 35
1.1.15.1 Photoconductive Cells....................................................... 36
1.1.15.2 Bolometers......................................................................... 37
1.1.15.3 Other Types of Detectors................................................... 39
1.1.15.4 Astronomical Applications................................................ 41
1.1.16 Ultraviolet Detectors.......................................................................... 45
1.1.16.1 Applications....................................................................... 47
1.1.17 Noise, Uncertainties, Errors, Precision and Accuracy....................... 48
1.1.17.1 Intrinsic Noise................................................................... 49
1.1.17.2 Signal Noise....................................................................... 50
1.1.17.3 Digitisation........................................................................ 51
1.1.17.4 Errors and Uncertainties in Data Reduction,
Analysis, and Presentation................................................ 51
1.1.18 Telescopes........................................................................................... 56
1.1.18.1 Telescopes from the Beginning......................................... 56
1.1.18.2 Optical Theory.................................................................. 58

vii
viii Contents

1.1.19
Telescope Designs................................................................................ 77
1.1.19.1 Background......................................................................... 77
1.1.19.2 Designs................................................................................80
1.1.20 Telescopes in Space..............................................................................90
1.1.21 Mountings............................................................................................ 91
1.1.22 Real-Time Atmospheric Compensation...............................................94
1.1.22.1 Sampling System.................................................................97
1.1.22.2 Wavefront Sensing............................................................. 100
1.1.22.3 Wavefront Correction........................................................ 102
1.1.23 Future Developments......................................................................... 104
1.1.24 Observing Domes, Enclosures and Sites............................................ 108
1.2 Radio and Microwave Detection...................................................................... 110
1.2.1 Introduction........................................................................................ 110
1.2.2 Detectors and Receivers..................................................................... 111
1.2.2.1 Detectors........................................................................... 111
1.2.2.2 Receivers........................................................................... 114
1.2.3 Radio Telescopes................................................................................ 117
1.2.3.1 Construction...................................................................... 128
1.2.3.2 Future................................................................................ 129
1.3 X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Detection.................................................................. 131
1.3.1 Introduction........................................................................................ 131
1.3.2 Detectors............................................................................................ 132
1.3.2.1 Geiger Counters................................................................. 132
1.3.2.2 Proportional Counters....................................................... 133
1.3.2.3 Scintillation Detectors....................................................... 134
1.3.2.4 Pair Production Detectors................................................. 136
1.3.2.5 Gas Scintillation Proportional Counters........................... 136
1.3.2.6 Compton Interaction Detectors......................................... 136
1.3.2.7 Solid-State Detectors......................................................... 137
1.3.2.8 Microchannel Plates.......................................................... 139
1.3.2.9 Čerenkov Detectors........................................................... 141
1.3.2.10 Future Possibilities............................................................ 141
1.3.3 Shielding............................................................................................ 142
1.3.4 Imaging.............................................................................................. 143
1.3.4.1 Collimation........................................................................ 143
1.3.4.2 Coincidence Detectors...................................................... 146
1.3.4.3 Occultation........................................................................ 146
1.3.4.4 Reflecting Telescopes........................................................ 146
1.3.5 Resolution and Image Identification.................................................. 151
1.3.6 Spectroscopy...................................................................................... 153
1.3.6.1 Grating Spectrometers...................................................... 153
1.3.6.2 Bragg Spectrometers......................................................... 156
1.3.7 Polarimetry........................................................................................ 158
1.3.8 Observing Platforms.......................................................................... 158
1.4 Cosmic Ray Detectors...................................................................................... 159
1.4.1 Background........................................................................................ 159
1.4.2 Detectors............................................................................................ 160
1.4.2.1 Real-Time Methods........................................................... 161
1.4.2.2 Residual Track Detectors.................................................. 164
1.4.2.3 Indirect Detectors.............................................................. 164
Contents ix

1.4.3
Arrays................................................................................................... 167
1.4.4
Correction Factors................................................................................ 169
1.4.4.1 Atmospheric Effects............................................................. 169
1.4.4.2 Solar Effects......................................................................... 169
1.4.4.3 Terrestrial Magnetic Field.................................................... 170
1.5 Neutrino Detectors........................................................................................... 171
1.5.1 Background.......................................................................................... 171
1.5.2 Neutrino Detectors............................................................................... 174
1.5.2.1 Direct Čerenkov Detectors................................................... 174
1.5.2.2 Indirect Čerenkov Detectors................................................ 180
1.5.2.3 Radiochemical Detectors..................................................... 180
1.5.2.4 Scintillator-Based Detectors................................................. 183
1.5.2.5 Acoustic Detectors................................................................ 185
1.5.2.6 Indirect Detectors................................................................. 185
1.5.2.7 Other Types of Detectors...................................................... 185
1.6 Gravitational Radiation.................................................................................... 186
1.6.1 The Quite Remarkable GW150914 ..................................................... 186
1.6.2 Introduction.......................................................................................... 190
1.6.3 Detectors.............................................................................................. 193
1.6.3.1 Direct Resonant Detectors.................................................... 195
1.6.3.2 Direct, Non-Resonant Detectors.......................................... 195
1.6.3.3 Pulsar Timing Arrays...........................................................205
1.6.3.4 Indirect Detectors................................................................. 211
1.6.3.5 The Future............................................................................ 211
1.7 Dark Matter and Dark Energy Detection......................................................... 213
1.7.1 Introduction.......................................................................................... 213
1.7.1.1 Dark Matter.......................................................................... 214
1.7.1.2 Dark Energy......................................................................... 216
1.7.2 Dark Matter and Dark Energy Detectors............................................. 216
1.7.2.1 Non-Baryonic Dark Matter – Direct Detectors.................... 216
1.7.2.2 Non-Baryonic Dark Matter – Indirect Detectors................. 220
1.7.2.3 Non-Baryonic Dark Matter – Making Your Own................ 222
1.7.2.4 Dark Energy Detectors......................................................... 223

Chapter 2 Imaging..................................................................................................................... 227

2.1 The Inverse Problem........................................................................................ 227
2.1.1 Deconvolution...................................................................................... 227
2.2 Photography..................................................................................................... 231
2.2.1 Requiem for a Well-Loved Friend........................................................ 231
2.3 Electronic Imaging........................................................................................... 232
2.3.1 Introduction.......................................................................................... 232
2.3.2 Television and Related Systems........................................................... 232
2.3.3 Image Intensifiers................................................................................. 232
2.3.4 Photon Counting Imaging Systems...................................................... 233
2.4 Scanning........................................................................................................... 233
2.5 Interferometry.................................................................................................. 236
2.5.1 Introduction.......................................................................................... 236
2.5.2 Michelson Optical Stellar Interferometer............................................ 237
2.5.3 Michelson Radio Interferometer..........................................................246
x Contents

2.5.4 Aperture Synthesis............................................................................... 250

2.5.5 Data Processing.................................................................................... 256
2.5.6 Intensity Interferometer....................................................................... 258
2.6 Speckle Interferometry.................................................................................... 261
2.7 Occultations.....................................................................................................264
2.7.1 Background..........................................................................................264
2.7.2 Techniques........................................................................................... 268
2.7.3 Analysis................................................................................................ 270
2.7.4 Stellar Coronagraphs............................................................................ 270
2.8 Radar................................................................................................................ 273
2.8.1 Introduction.......................................................................................... 273
2.8.2 Theoretical Principles.......................................................................... 274
2.8.2.1 Basic Radar Systems............................................................ 274
2.8.2.2 Synthetic Aperture Radar Systems...................................... 277
2.8.3 Equipment............................................................................................ 279
2.8.4 Data Analysis.......................................................................................280
2.8.5 Ground Penetrating Radar................................................................... 281
2.8.6 Meteors................................................................................................. 282
2.9 Electronic Images............................................................................................. 282
2.9.1 Image Formats..................................................................................... 282
2.9.2 Image Compression.............................................................................. 282
2.9.3 Image Processing................................................................................. 283
2.9.3.1 Grey Scaling.........................................................................284
2.9.3.2 Image Combination..............................................................284
2.9.3.3 Spatial Filtering....................................................................284
2.9.3.4 Ready-Made Computer Packages......................................... 285

Chapter 3 Photometry................................................................................................................ 287

3.1 Photometry....................................................................................................... 287
3.1.1 Background.......................................................................................... 287
3.1.1.1 Introduction.......................................................................... 287
3.1.1.2 Magnitudes........................................................................... 288
3.1.2 Filter Systems....................................................................................... 290
3.1.3 Stellar Parameters................................................................................ 296
3.2 Photometers......................................................................................................304
3.2.1 Instruments..........................................................................................304
3.2.1.1 Introduction..........................................................................304
3.2.1.2 Photographic Photometry.....................................................304
3.2.1.3 CCD and Photoelectric Photometers....................................304
3.2.2 Observing Techniques.......................................................................... 305
3.2.3 Data Reduction and Analysis...............................................................306
3.2.4 High-Speed Photometry.......................................................................308
3.2.5 Exoplanets............................................................................................309

Chapter 4 Spectroscopy............................................................................................................. 313

4.1 Spectroscopy.................................................................................................... 313
4.1.1 Introduction.......................................................................................... 313
4.1.2 Diffraction Gratings............................................................................. 313
4.1.3 Prisms................................................................................................... 323
Contents xi

4.1.4
Interferometers................................................................................... 325
4.1.4.1 Fabry-Perot Interferometer.................................................. 326
4.1.4.2 Michelson Interferometer.................................................... 331
4.1.5 Fibre-Optics....................................................................................... 337
4.2 Spectroscopes................................................................................................... 338
4.2.1 Basic Design Considerations.............................................................. 338
4.2.2 Prism-Based Spectroscopes............................................................... 345
4.2.3 Grating Spectroscopes.......................................................................346
4.2.4 Integral Field Spectroscopy............................................................... 351
4.2.5 Multi-Object Spectroscopy................................................................ 353
4.2.6 Techniques of Spectroscopy............................................................... 355
4.2.7 Exoplanets.......................................................................................... 358
4.2.8 Future Developments.........................................................................360

Chapter 5 Other Techniques...................................................................................................... 361

5.1 Astrometry....................................................................................................... 361
5.1.1 Introduction........................................................................................ 361
5.1.2 Background........................................................................................ 362
5.1.2.1 Coordinate Systems............................................................. 362
5.1.2.2 Position Angle and Separation............................................364
5.1.3 Transit Telescopes.............................................................................. 365
5.1.4 Photographic Zenith Tube and the Impersonal Astrolabe................. 366
5.1.5 Micrometers....................................................................................... 367
5.1.6 Astrographs and Other Telescopes..................................................... 367
5.1.7 Interferometers................................................................................... 368
5.1.8 Space-Based Systems......................................................................... 369
5.1.9 Detectors............................................................................................ 370
5.1.10 Measurement and Reduction.............................................................. 371
5.1.11 Sky Surveys and Catalogues.............................................................. 373
5.1.12 Exoplanets.......................................................................................... 373
5.2 Polarimetry...................................................................................................... 374
5.2.1 Background........................................................................................ 374
5.2.1.1 Stokes’ Parameters.............................................................. 374
5.2.2 Optical Components for Polarimetry................................................. 377
5.2.2.1 Birefringence....................................................................... 377
5.2.2.2 Polarisers............................................................................. 380
5.2.2.3 Converters........................................................................... 383
5.2.2.4 Depolarisers........................................................................ 386
5.2.3 Polarimeters....................................................................................... 387
5.2.3.1 Photoelectric Polarimeters.................................................. 388
5.2.4 Data Reduction and Analysis............................................................. 391
5.3 Solar Studies.................................................................................................... 392
5.3.1 Introduction........................................................................................ 394
5.3.2 Solar Telescopes – Part 1................................................................... 394
5.3.2.1 Binoculars........................................................................... 394
5.3.2.2 Telescopes........................................................................... 395
5.3.3 Solar Telescopes – Part 2................................................................... 398
5.3.4 Spectrohelioscope..............................................................................400
5.3.5 Narrow Band Filters........................................................................... 401
5.3.6 Coronagraph.......................................................................................407
xii Contents

5.3.7 Pyrheliometer/Radiometer...................................................................408
5.3.8 Solar Oscillations.................................................................................409
5.3.9 Other Solar Observing Methods..........................................................409
5.4 Magnetometry.................................................................................................. 411
5.4.1 Background.......................................................................................... 411
5.4.1.1 Zeeman Effect...................................................................... 411
5.4.2 Magnetometers..................................................................................... 416
5.4.3 Data Reduction and Analysis............................................................... 420
5.5 Experimental Astrophysics.............................................................................. 421
5.6 Computers and the Internet.............................................................................. 422
5.6.1 Introduction.......................................................................................... 422
5.6.2 Digital Sky Surveys and Catalogues.................................................... 423
5.6.3 Virtual Observatories........................................................................... 424
5.6.4 Management of Large Data Samples................................................... 425
5.7 Astronomy and the Real World........................................................................ 426
5.7.1 Introduction.......................................................................................... 426
5.7.2 Outreach/Education............................................................................. 426
5.7.2.1 Outreach............................................................................... 426
5.7.2.2 Education.............................................................................. 427
5.7.3 Pro-Am Collaborations and Citizen Science....................................... 428
5.7.4 Citizen Science..................................................................................... 429

Epilogue......................................................................................................................................... 431
Bibliography.................................................................................................................................. 433
Index............................................................................................................................................... 437
Preface
The aim of this book is to provide a coherent state-of-the-art account of the instruments and tech-
niques used in astronomy and astrophysics today. Whilst every effort has been made to make it as
complete and up to date as possible, the author is only too aware of the many omissions and skimp-
ily treated subjects throughout the work. For some types of instrumentation, it is possible to give full
details of the instrument in its finally developed form. However, for the ‘new astronomies’ and even
some aspects of established fields, development is occurring at a rapid pace, and the details will
change between the writing and publishing of this edition. For those areas of astronomy, therefore,
a fairly general guide to the principles behind the techniques is given, and this should enable the
reader to follow the detailed designs in the scientific literature.
The coverage of this book is restricted, as it has been since its first edition in 1984, largely to the
techniques used to study objects beyond the solar system. The reason for this is that 35 years ago,
while the study of solar system objects had expanded enormously since 1957 (Sputnik 1) through
the use of spacecraft, the individual instruments and techniques onboard those spacecraft were still
being invented, designed, and developed very rapidly. Then, therefore, a book covering these sub-
jects, would have been outdated almost before it could be published. By 2020 though, the science of
the study of the solar system using spacecraft has matured considerably, with many of the experi-
ments and instruments being third- or fourth-generation versions of those used in the 1970s and
1980s. The author’s companion book to this one; Remote and Robotic Investigations of the Solar
System (Taylor & Francis Group, 2018), therefore, provides a comparable review to that given here
(for the techniques used to study objects beyond the solar system), for those instruments, experi-
ments, and techniques now used to investigate objects inside the solar system. That book and this
one, though, are free-standing and should not be considered as ‘Volumes 1 and 2’; however, some
readers may well find it helpful, useful, or interesting to study both.
With this seventh edition of Astrophysical Techniques, many new instruments and techniques
are included for the first time, and some topics have been eliminated on the grounds that they have
not been used by either professional or amateur astronomers1 for many years. Other topics, although
no longer employed by professional observers for current work, are included because archive mate-
rial that is still in use was obtained using them or because amateur astronomers use the techniques.
Insofar as may be possible, the material in this edition is up to date to the end of January 2020.
The section on gravitational wave detection, at long last, no longer begins with the statement
that gravitational waves have ‘yet to be detected’ – the first such wave, resulting from the merger
of a 31 M⊙2 black hole with a 36 M⊙ black hole, was picked up by the AdvLIGO detectors on 14th
September 2015 – and at the time of writing, a further 55 similar events have been detected. Major
efforts are now being made to detect dark matter and dark energy, though without success to date.
The developments, new instruments, and techniques for dark matter and energy investigations are
covered in a much-expanded Section 1.7. Multi-messenger astrophysics is now becoming a real-
ity, albeit this does not much affect the individual techniques and instruments used for each of the
‘messengers’. Additionally, the number of known exoplanets is now several thousand, though the
techniques used for their detection have not changed much in the last seven years.
A few references to Internet sites have been included, but not many, because the sites change so
frequently and search engines are now so good. However, this resource now is usually the point of
first call for most scientists when they have a query and much material, such as large sky surveys, is

1 The distinction between amateur and professional astronomers can be blurred. Often both work to similar standards and
the professionals have just found someone to pay their salary whilst pursuing their interests. Amateurs, though, need their
day job to be able to pursue their real vocation.
2 A widely used symbol for the mass of the Sun = ~2 × 1030 kg.

xiii
xiv Preface

only available over the Internet. Furthermore, the Internet is used for the operation of some remote
telescopes, and it forms the basis of ‘virtual’ observatories discussed in the last chapter.
As in previous editions, another aim has always been to try and reduce the trend towards frag-
mentation of astronomical studies, and this is retained in this edition. The new techniques that are
required for observing in exotic regions of the spectrum bring their own concepts and terminology
with them. This can lead to the impression that the underlying processes are quite different, when
in fact they are identical but are merely being discussed from differing points of view. Thus, for
example, the Airy disc and its rings and the polar diagram of a radio dish do not at first sight look
related, but they are simply two different ways of presenting the same data. As far as possible,
therefore, broad regions of the spectrum are dealt with as a single area, rather than as many smaller
disciplines. The underlying unity of all of astronomical observation is also emphasised by the lay-
out of the book; the pattern of detection  imaging  ancillary techniques has been adopted, so
that one stage of an observation is encountered together with the similar stages required for related
information carriers. This is not an absolutely hard-and-fast rule, however and in some places, it
seemed appropriate to deal with topics out of this sequence – either to prevent a multiplicity of very
small sections or to keep the continuity of the argument going.
The treatment of the topics is at a level appropriate to a science-based undergraduate degree. As
far as possible, the mathematics or physics background which may be needed for a topic is developed
or given within that section. In some places, it was felt that some astronomy background might be
needed as well, so that the significance of the technique under discussion could be properly realised.
Although aimed at an undergraduate level, most of the mathematics should be understandable by
anyone who has attended a competently taught mathematics course in their final years at school
and some sections are non-mathematical. Thus, many amateur astronomers will find the aspects of
the book to be of great use and interest. The fragmentation of astronomy, which has already been
mentioned, means that there is a third group of people who may find the book useful and that is
professional astronomers themselves. The treatment of the topics in general is at a sufficiently high
level, yet in a convenient and accessible form, to be of some use to those professionals seeking infor-
mation on techniques in areas of astronomy with which they might not be totally familiar.
Lastly, I must pay a tribute to the many astronomers and other scientists whose work is sum-
marised here. It is not possible to list them by name and to study the text with detailed references
would have ruined the intention of making the book readable. I would, however, like to take the
opportunity afforded by this preface to express my deepest gratitude to them all.
Clear Skies and Good Observing to you all!

C. R. Kitchin
Author
C. R. Kitchin is currently professor emeritus at the University of Hertfordshire and a freelance
writer of astrophysics textbooks. From 1987 to 2001, he was the director of the University’s
Observatory at Bayfordbury and from 1996 to 2001, he served as the head of the division of physics
and astronomy. He took early retirement in 2001 to concentrate on his writing interests. Kitchin has
written 16 books as sole author and contributed to another dozen or so, as well as writing hundreds
of articles covering interests ranging from popular to specialist research.
When not writing books, Kitchin enjoys gardening and being taken for walks by his two border
collies.

xv
 1 Detectors

1.1 OPTICAL DETECTION

1.1.1 Introduction
In this and the immediately succeeding sections, the emphasis is upon the detection of the radia-
tion or other information carrier and upon the instruments and techniques used to facilitate and
optimise that detection. There is inevitably some overlap with other sections and chapters, and
some material might arguably be more logically discussed in a different order from the one chosen.
In particular in this section, telescopes are included as a necessary adjunct to the detectors them-
selves. The theory of the formation of an image of a point source by a telescope, which is all that
is required for simple detection, takes us most of the way through the theory of imaging extended
sources. Both theories are, therefore, discussed together, even though the latter should perhaps be in
Chapter 2. There are many other examples such as X-ray spectroscopy and polarimetry that appear
in Section 1.3 instead of Sections 4.2 and 5.2. In general, the author has tried to follow the route
detection→imaging→ancillary techniques throughout the book but has dealt with items out of this
order when it seemed more natural to do so.
The optical region is taken to include the mid/near infrared, the visible and the long-wave ultra-
violet (UV) regions (sometimes called the Ultraviolet, Optical and Infrared [UVOIR] region) and,
thus, roughly covers the wavelength range from 100 μm to 10 nm (3 THz to 30 PHz, 10 meV to
100 eV).1 The techniques and physical processes employed for investigations over this region bear at
least a generic resemblance to each other and so may conveniently be discussed together.

1.1.2 Detector Types
In the optical region, detectors fall into two main groups: thermal and quantum (or photon) detec-
tors. Both these types are incoherent; that is to say, only the amplitude of the electromagnetic wave
is detected, and the phase information is lost. Coherent detectors are common at long wavelengths
(Section 1.2), where the signal is mixed with that from a local oscillator (heterodyne principle). But
only recently have heterodyne techniques been developed for wavelengths as short as the infra-
red (IR) and applied to astronomy (see Mid Infrared Laser Heterodyne Instrument [MILAHI], for
example, Section 1.1.15.4). We may, therefore, safely regard almost all current astronomical optical
detectors as still being incoherent in practice. With optical aperture synthesis (Section 2.5), some
phase information may be obtained providing that three or more telescopes are used.
In quantum detectors, the individual photons of the optical signal interact directly with the elec-
trons of the detector. Sometimes individual detections are monitored (photon counting), and at other
times, the detections are integrated to give an analogue output like that of the thermal detectors.
Examples of quantum detectors include the eye, photographic emulsion, photomultiplier, photodi-
ode, charge-coupled devices (CCDs) and many other solid-state detectors.

1 At longer wavelengths, the frequency equivalent of the wavelength is listed (using c = 300,000 km/s for the conversion)
because many astronomers researching in this region are accustomed to working with frequency. Usually this applies
for wavelengths of 10 μm (30 THz) or longer, but the conversion is given at shorter wavelengths when (as here) it seems
appropriate to do so. Similarly, at short wavelengths the energy in electron-volts (eV) is listed as well as the wavelength.
One eV, equals 1.6 × 10−19 J and is a convenient unit for use in this spectral region (and also when discussing cosmic
rays in Section 1.4). Since the values of the corresponding frequencies are 1017 Hz and above, they are not commonly
encountered in the literature.

1
2 Astrophysical Techniques

Thermal detectors, by contrast, detect radiation through the increase in temperature that its
absorption causes in the sensing element. They are generally less sensitive and slower in response
than quantum detectors, but they have a much broader spectral response. Examples include thermo-
couples, thermistors, pyroelectric detectors, and bolometers.

1.1.3 The Eye
This is undoubtedly the most fundamental of detectors to a human astronomer, although it is a
way from being the simplest. It is now rarely used for primary detection except, of course, for
the billions of people who gaze into the skies for pleasure – and that includes most professional
astronomers.
If you live in a city, only a few stars may be visible, even on the clearest of nights. From a city’s
suburbs you might see a few tens of stars, but throughout most urban or semi-rural parts of most
countries, you will be lucky to see more than a hundred stars with the unaided eye. Because around
5,000 to 6,000 stars should be visible (2,500 to 3,000 at any given moment, of course, because half
the sky is below the horizon), thousands of stars are ‘missing’. The ‘missing’ stars, though, have
not truly vanished; they have just been swamped by the lights from the city.
In the last three decades or so, many high-publicity campaigns have been initiated to try and
reduce light pollution and restore the glories of really dark skies to millions of city dwellers, but
regrettably such efforts have had little effect. However, there are still some areas of most countries
where light pollution is much reduced. Some of those areas now advertise their dark skies as tourist
attractions and so can be found via an internet search. At the time of writing, eleven sites around the
world have been identified as ‘International Dark Sky Reserves’. These are areas of at least 700 km2
that have exceptional night sky quality and within which further human developments which might
increase levels of light pollution are (at least somewhat) controlled. An internet search will quickly
list these reserves and any more that may have been recognised recently. If you think you know
your constellations but have learnt to identify them only from a ‘normal’ darkish site, then a visit to
one of the reserves will amaze you; the constellations will no longer be recognisable because of the
hundreds of additional stars that have suddenly become visible (of course, it will need to be a clear
night, but that problem remains to be solved!).
Much more detailed coverage of the ways in which eyes and vision work, and how their idiosyn-
crasies may affect astronomical observations have been included in previous editions of this book.
However, most astronomers, both amateur and professional, now use their eyes mainly for monitor-
ing their instruments and for looking at computer VDUs or printouts, so such detailed coverage is no
longer appropriate. If needed, further information of how the nature of the human eye affects astro-
nomical observation may be found in the author’s book Telescopes and Techniques (2013), previous
editions of Astrophysical Techniques, other introductory and observational astronomy sources and
biological and medical sources dealing with the eye and ophthalmology.
One aspect of the eye’s behaviour though, will still be discussed briefly here because it is to
be encountered in many aspects of observational astronomy, even today – and that is the use of
magnitudes to measure the brightness or luminosity of objects in the sky, especially over the visual
region (see also Section 3.1). The magnitude scale is used to measure the brightness of stars and
other celestial objects as seen in the sky (i.e., the light energy arriving from the star at the surface
of the Earth) and has its roots in eye estimates of stellar brightness made more than 2,000 years
ago for Hipparchus’ star catalogue. In that catalogue, the brightest stars were first class, the next
brightest were second class, then third class and so on down to the sixth-class stars which could
only just be seen.
These classes became roughly our modern stellar magnitudes and so retain the (now unusual)
custom of denoting the brighter of two stars by a numerically smaller value of the magnitude i.e.,
a magnitude 2 star is brighter than a magnitude 3 star, etc.
Detectors 3

Additionally, the eye’s response to changes in illumination is approximately logarithmic

(Fechner’s law2), so the magnitude scale varies logarithmically with the visual brightness of the
stars and not linearly. That is to say; if two sources, A and C are observed to differ in brightness by
a certain amount and a third source, B, appears to the eye as being midway in brightness between
them, then the energy from B will differ from that from A by the same factor as that of C differs
from B. Thus, if we use L to denote the perceived luminosity and E to denote the actual energy at
the Earth’s surface of the sources, then for

1
LB =
2
( LA + LC ) (1.1)

we have

E A EB  1 
=
E B EC or log E B = 2 ( log E A + log EC )  (1.2)

In other words, a magnitude 2 star is not only brighter than a magnitude 3 star, it is 2.51 times
brighter in energy terms. Similarly, a magnitude 3 star is not only brighter than a magnitude 4 star,
it is 2.51 times brighter. The magnitude 2 star is thus 6.30 times (2.51 × 2.51) brighter than the
magnitude 4 star.3
Fechner’s law and the magnitude scale’s ancient historic background are the reasons for the (awk-
ward) nature of the magnitude scale used by astronomers to measure stellar brightness (Section 3.1).
The faintest stars visible to the dark-adapted naked eye from a good observing site on a clear
moonless night are (still) of about magnitude six. This corresponds to the detection of about 3 × 10−15
W or about 8,000 visible light photons per second. Special circumstances or especially sensitive
vision may enable this limit to be improved upon by one to one and a half stellar magnitudes (×2
to ×4). Conversely, the normal ageing processes in the eye, such as a decreasing ability to dilate the
eye’s pupil and increasing numbers of ‘floaters’, etc., mean that the retina of a 60-year old person
receives only about 30% of the amount of light seen by a person half that age.4 Eye diseases and
problems, such as cataracts, may reduce this much further. Observers should thus expect a reduction
in their ability to perceive very faint objects as time goes by.

1.1.4 Semiconductors
The photomultiplier, CCD and several of the other detectors considered later derive their properties
from the behaviour of semiconductors. Thus, some discussion of the relevant physics of these mate-
rials is a necessary prerequisite to a full understanding of detectors of this type.
Conduction in a solid may be understood by considering the electron energy levels. For a single
isolated atom, they are unperturbed and are the normal atomic energy levels. As two such isolated
atoms approach each other, though, their interaction causes the levels to split (Figure 1.1). If further
atoms approach, then the levels develop further splits. So that for N atoms in close proximity to each
other, each original level is split into N sublevels (Figure 1.2). Within a solid, therefore, each level
becomes a pseudo-continuous band of permitted energies because the individual sublevels overlap

2 Sometimes called the Weber-Fechner law, although strictly speaking the Weber law is a different formulation of the same
physical phenomenon.
3 The factor is actually 2.511886 …, or the fifth root of 100. Further details on the magnitude scale, including how it is
used to measure the intrinsic brightness of objects in the sky, not just the brightness as we see them, may be found in
Section 3.1.
4 The eye is fully formed by the time a person is about age 13 and almost so from the age of about 3 onwards. There are
thus no equivalent age-related changes amongst young people.
4 Astrophysical Techniques

FIGURE 1.1 Schematic diagram of the splitting of two of the energy levels of an atom resulting from its
proximity to another similar atom.

FIGURE 1.2 Schematic diagram of the splitting of two of the energy levels of an atom resulting from its
proximity to many similar atoms.

each other. The energy level diagram for a solid, thus, has the appearance shown in Figure 1.3.
The innermost electrons remain bound to their nuclei, while the outermost electrons interact to bind
the atoms together. They occupy an energy band called the ‘valence band’.
To conduct electricity through such a solid, the electrons must be able to move within the solid.
From Figure 1.3 we may see that free movement could occur for electrons within the valence and
higher bands. However, if the original atomic level that became the valence band upon the forma-
tion of the solid was fully occupied by electrons, then all the sublevels within the valence band will
still be fully occupied. If any given electron is to move under the influence of an electric potential,
then its energy must increase. This it cannot do because all the sublevels are occupied and so there is
Detectors 5

FIGURE 1.3 Schematic energy level diagram of a solid.

no vacant level available for it at this higher energy. Thus, the electron cannot move after all. Under
these conditions we have an electrical insulator.
If the material is to be a conductor, we can now see that there must be vacant sublevels which
the conduction electron may enter. There are two ways in which such empty sublevels may become
available. Either the valence band is unfilled, for example when the original atomic level had only a
single electron in an s sub-shell,5 or one of the higher-energy bands becomes sufficiently broadened
to overlap the valence band. In the latter case at a temperature of absolute zero, all the sublevels of
both bands will be filled up to some energy that is called the ‘Fermi level’. Higher sublevels will
be unoccupied. As the temperature rises, some electrons will be excited to some of these higher
sublevels but will still leave room for conduction electrons.
A third type of behaviour occurs when the valence and higher bands do not actually overlap
but have only a small energy separation.6 Thermal excitation may then be sufficient to push a few
valence electrons into some of the higher bands. An electric potential can now cause the electrons in
either the valence or the higher band to move. The material is known as a ‘semiconductor’ because
its conductivity is generally better than that of an insulator but considerably poorer than that of a true
conductor. The higher-energy bands are usually known as the ‘conduction bands’.

5 See, for example, the author’s book Optical Astronomical Spectroscopy (1995), or other sources dealing with atomic
structure and/or spectroscopy for further details of this topic and its notation.
6 The energy gaps (band gaps) in the widely used semiconductors, silicon and germanium, are 1.09 and 0.72 eV, respec-
tively. These energies correspond to infrared photons with wavelengths of 1.14 and 1.72 μm, respectively, so these wave-
lengths are the nominal lower-energy limits for detectors based upon silicon or germanium.
6 Astrophysical Techniques

A pure substance will have equal numbers of electrons in its conduction bands and of spaces
in its valence band. However, an imbalance can be induced by the presence of atoms of different
elements from that forming the main semiconductor. If the valence band is full and one atom
is replaced by another that has a larger number of valence electrons (a donor atom), then the
excess electron(s) usually occupy new levels in the gap between the valence and conduction
bands close to the bottom of the conduction band. From there they may more easily be excited
into the conduction band by thermal motions or other energy sources. The semiconductor is then
an n-type because any current within it will largely be carried by the (negative) electrons in the
conduction band.
In the other case, when an atom is replaced with the one that has few valence electrons (an accep-
tor atom), then new empty levels will be formed just above the top of the valence band. Electrons
from the valence band can easily be excited into these new levels leaving energy gaps in the valence
band. Physically this means that an electron bound to an atom within the crystal is now at a higher,
but still bound, energy level. However, the excited electron no longer has an energy placing it within
the valence band. Other electrons in the valence band can now take up the energy ‘abandoned’ by
the excited electron. Physically this means that a valence electron is now able to move within the
crystal. Without an externally applied voltage, the electron movement will be random, but if there
is an externally applied voltage then the electron will move from the negative potential side towards
the positive potential side. The movement will comprise that of an electron from a neighbouring
atom hopping over to the atom which has the gap in its electron structure. The moving atom will
then be bound to its new atom but will have left a gap in the electron structure of its originating
atom. An electron from the next atom over can now therefore hop into that gap. A third electron
from the next atom over can then hop into this new gap – and so on. Since the hops occur rapidly, the
appearance to an external observer would be that of the absence of an electron within atoms’ electron
structures moving continuously from the positive side towards the negative side. The absence of a
(negatively charged) electron however is equivalent to the presence of an equivalent positive charge.
The process is thus usually visualised, not as comprising a series of electron hops, but as the continu-
ous movement of a positively charged particle, called a ‘hole’ in the opposite direction. This type of
semiconductor is called p-type (from positive charge carrier), and its electric currents are thought of
as mainly being transported by the movement of the positive holes in the valence band.

1.1.4.1 The Photoelectric Effect

The principle of the photoelectric effect is well known; the material absorbs a photon with a wave-
length less than the limit for the material and an electron is then emitted from the surface of the
material. The energy of that electron is a function of the energy of the photon, while the number
of electrons depends upon the intensity of the illumination. In practice, the situation is somewhat
more complex, particularly when what we are interested in is specifying the properties of a good
photoemitter.
The main requirements are that the material should absorb the required radiation efficiently and
that the mean free paths of the released electrons within the material should be greater than that of
the photons. The relevance of these two requirements may be most simply understood from looking
at the behaviour of metals in which neither condition is fulfilled. Since metals are conductors there
are many vacant sublevels near their Fermi levels (see the previous discussion). After absorption
of a photon, an electron is moving rapidly and energetically within the metal. Collisions will occur
with other electrons and because these electrons have other nearby sublevels that they may occupy,
they can absorb some of the energy from our photoelectron. Thus, the photoelectron is slowed by
collisions until it may no longer have sufficient energy to escape from the metal even if it does reach
the surface. For most metals, the mean free path of a photon is about 10 nm and that of the released
electron is less than 1 nm; thus, the eventually emitted number of electrons is considerably reduced
by collisional energy losses. Furthermore, the high reflectivity of metals results in only a small
Detectors 7

fraction of the suitable photons being absorbed, and so the actual number of electrons emitted is
only a small proportion of those potentially available.
A good photoemitter must thus have low-energy loss mechanisms for its released electrons whilst
they are within its confines. The loss mechanism in metals (collision) can be eliminated by the use
of semiconductors or insulators. Then the photoelectron cannot lose significant amounts of energy
to the valence electrons because there are no vacant levels for the latter to occupy. Neither can it
lose much energy to the conduction electrons because there are few of these around. In insulators
and semiconductors, the two important energy-loss mechanisms are pair production and sound
production. If the photoelectron is energetic enough, then it may collisionally excite other valence
electrons into the conduction band thus producing pairs of electrons and holes. This process may be
eliminated by requiring that E1, the minimum energy to excite a valence electron into the conduction
band of the material (Figure 1.4), is larger than E2, the excess energy available to the photoelectron.
Sound waves or phonons are the vibrations of the atoms in the material and can be produced by col-
lisions between the photoelectrons and the atoms, especially at discontinuities in the crystal lattice,
etc. Only 1% or so of the electron’s energy will be lost at each collision because the atom is so much
more massive than the electron. However, the mean free path between such collisions is only 1 or
2 nm, so that this energy loss mechanism becomes significant when the photoelectron originates
deep in the material. The losses may be reduced by cooling the material because this then reduces
the available number of quantised vibration levels in the crystal and also increases the electron’s
mean free path.
The minimum energy of a photon, if it is to be able to produce photoemission, is known as the
‘work function’ and is the difference between the ionisation level and the top of the valence band
(Figure 1.4). Its value may, however, be increased by some or all of the energy-loss mechanisms
mentioned previously. In practical photoemitters pair production is particularly important at photon
energies above the minimum and may reduce the expected flux considerably as the wavelength
decreases. The work function is also strongly dependent upon the surface properties of the material;
surface defects, oxidation products and impurities can cause it to vary widely even amongst samples
of the same substance. The work function may be reduced if the material is strongly p-type and is
at an elevated temperature. Vacant levels in the valence band may then be populated by thermally
excited electrons, bringing them nearer to the ionisation level and so reducing the energy required
to let them escape. Since most practical photoemitters are strongly p-type, this is an important

FIGURE 1.4 Schematic partial Grotrian diagram of a good photoemitter.

8 Astrophysical Techniques

process and confers sensitivity at longer wavelengths than the nominal cut-off point. The long-wave
sensitivity, however, is variable because the degree to which the substance is p-type is strongly
dependent upon the presence of impurities and so is sensitive to small changes in the composition
of the material.

1.1.5 A Detector Index

After the ‘natural’ detector formed by the eye, there are numerous types of ‘artificial’ optical detec-
tors. Before going to look at some of them in more detail, however, it is necessary to place them in
some sort of logical framework or the reader is likely to become confused rather than enlightened
by this section. We may idealise any detector as simply a device wherein some measurable property
changes in response to the effects of electromagnetic radiation. We may then classify the types of
detector according to the property that is changing and this is shown in Table 1.1.
Other processes may be sensitive to radiation but fail to form the basis of a useful detector.
For example, we can feel the (largely IR) radiation from a fire directly on our skins, but this pro-
cess is not sensitive enough to form an IR detector for any celestial objects other than the Sun.
Conversely as yet unutilised properties of matter, such as the initiation of stimulated radiation from
excited atomic states as in the laser or maser, may become the basis of detectors in the future.

1.1.6 Detector Parameters
Before resuming discussion of the detector types listed, we need to establish the definitions of
some of the criteria used to assess and compare detectors. The most important of these are listed
in Table 1.2.
For purposes of comparison, D* is generally the most useful parameter. For photomultipliers
in the visible region, it is around 1015–1016. Figures for the eye and for photographic emulsion are
not directly obtainable, but values of 1012–1014 can perhaps be used for both to give an idea of their
relative performances.

TABLE 1.1
Classification Scheme for Types of Detector
Sensitive Parameter Detector Names Class
Voltage Photovoltaic cells Quantum
Thermocouples Thermal
Pyroelectric detectors Thermal
Resistance Blocked impurity band device (BIB) Quantum
Bolometer/Calorimeter Thermal
Photoconductive cell Quantum
Phototransistor/Photodiode Quantum
Transition Edge Sensor (TES) Thermal
Charge Charge-coupled device (CCD) Quantum
Charge injection device (CID) Quantum
Current Superconducting tunnel junction (STJ) Quantum
Electron excitation Photographic emulsion Quantum
Electron emission Photomultiplier Quantum
Television Quantum
Image intensifier Quantum
Chemical composition Eye Quantum
Detectors 9

TABLE 1.2
Some Criteria for Assessment and Comparison of Detectors
QE (quantum efficiency)
DQE (detective quantum
efficiency)
τ (time constant)
Dark noise
NEP (noise equivalent power or
minimum detectable power)
D (detectivity)
D* (normalised detectivity)
Ratio of the actual number of photons that are detected to the number of incident
photons.
Square of the ratio of the output signal-to-noise ratio to the input signal-to-noise ratio.
This has various precise definitions. Probably the most widespread is that τ is the time
required for the detector output to approach to within (1 − e−1) of its final value after
a change in the illumination; i.e., the time required for about 63% of the final change
to have occurred.
The output from the detector when it is unilluminated. It is usually measured as a
root-mean-square voltage or current.
The radiative flux as an input that gives an output signal-to-noise ratio of unity. It can
be defined for monochromatic or black body radiation and is usually measured in
watts.
Reciprocal of NEP. The signal-to-noise ratio for incident radiation of unit intensity.
The detectivity normalised by multiplying by the square root of the detector area and
by the electrical bandwidth. It is usually pronounced ‘dee star’.

( a ∆f )
1/ 2

D* = (1.3)
NEP

R (responsivity)
Dynamic range
Spectral response
λm (peak wavelength)
λc (cut-off wavelength)
The units, cm Hz1/2 W−1, are commonly used, and it then represents the signal-to-
noise ratio when 1 W of radiation is incident on a detector with an area of 1 cm2 and
the electrical bandwidth is 1 Hz.
Detector output for unit intensity input. Units are usually volts per watt or amps per
watt. For the human eye, it is called the ‘luminosity function’ and its unit is lumens
per watt.
Ratio of the saturation output to the dark signal. Sometimes only defined over the
region of linear response.
The change in output signal as a function of changes in the wavelength of the input
signal. Usually given as the range of wavelengths over which the detector is useful.
The wavelength for which the detectivity is a maximum.
There are various definitions. Amongst the commonest are: wavelength(s) at which
the detectivity falls to zero; wavelength(s) at which the detectivity falls to 1% of its
peak value; wavelength(s) at which D* has fallen to half its peak value.

1.1.7 Cryostats
The noise level in many detectors can be reduced by cooling them to below ambient temperature.
Indeed, for some detectors, such as superconducting tunnel junctions (STJs; see Section 1.1.12) and
transition edge sensors (TESs; see Section 1.1.15.3) cooling to very low temperatures is essential for
their operation. Small CCDs produced for the amateur market are usually chilled by Peltier-effect
coolers, but almost all other approaches require the use of liquid nitrogen or liquid helium as the
coolant. Since these materials are both liquids, they must be contained in such a way that the liquid
does not spill out as the telescope moves. The container is called a ‘cryostat’, and while there are
many different detailed designs, the basic requirements are much the same for all detectors. In addi-
tion to acting as a container for the coolant, the cryostat must ensure that the detector and sometimes
pre-amplifiers, filters, and optical components are cooled whatsoever the position of the telescope,
that the coolant is retained for as long as possible, that the evaporated coolant can escape and that
the detector and other cooled items do not ice up.
10 Astrophysical Techniques

These requirements invariably mean that the container is a Dewar (vacuum flask) and that the
detector is behind a window within a vacuum or dry atmosphere. Sometimes the window is heated
to avoid ice forming on its surface. Most cryostats are of the ‘bath’ design and are essentially tanks
containing the coolant with the detector attached to the outside of the tank or linked to it by a ther-
mally conducting rod. Such devices can only be (roughly) half-filled with the coolant if none is to
overflow as they are tilted by the telescope’s motion. If the movement of the telescope is restricted
though, higher levels of filling may be possible. Hold times between refilling with coolant of a few
days can currently be achieved. When operating at Nasmyth or Coudé foci or if the instrument is
in a separate laboratory fed by fibre-optics from the telescope, so that the detector is not tilted, con-
tinuous flow cryostats can be used, in which the coolant is supplied from a large external reservoir;
therefore, hold times of weeks, months or longer are then possible.
Closed-cycle cryostats have the coolant contained within a completely sealed enclosure.
The exhausted (warm) coolant is collected, re-cooled and reused. This type of cryostat design is
mostly needed when (expensive) liquid or gaseous helium is the coolant. Open cycle cryostats allow
the used coolant to escape from the system. It is then simply vented to the atmosphere, or may, espe-
cially for helium, be collected and stored for future use, in a separate operation.
The detector, its immediate electronics and sometimes filters or other nearby optical components
are usually cooled to the lowest temperature. Other parts of the instrument such as heat shields, win-
dows and more distant optical components may not need to be quite so cold. Hence, especially when
helium is the main coolant, cheaper cryogens may be used for these less critical components. Thus,
a Stirling engine used in reverse can routinely cool down to 70 K and in exceptional circumstances
down to 40 K (a multi-stage variant on the Stirling system called a ‘Pulse Tube Refrigerator’ and
utilising helium as its working fluid has recently achieved 1.7 K), liquid nitrogen is usually around
77 K, dry ice (solid carbon dioxide – not now used much by astronomers) reaches 195 K and Peltier
coolers can go down to around 220 K, depending upon the ambient temperature.
Bolometers, STJs, and TESs require cooling to temperatures well below 1 K. Temperatures down to
about 250 mK can be reached using liquid helium-3. The helium-3 itself has to be cooled to below 2 K
before it liquifies, and this is achieved by using helium-4 under reduced pressure. Temperatures down
to a few mK require a dilution refrigerator. This uses a mix of helium-3 and helium-4 at a temperature
lower than 900 mK. The two isotopes partially separate out under gravity, but the lower helium-4 layer
still contains some helium-3. The helium-3 is removed from the lower layer distilling it off at 600 mK in
a separate chamber. This forces some helium-3 from the upper layer to cross the boundary between the
two layers to maintain the equilibrium concentration. However, crossing the boundary requires energy
and this is drawn from the surroundings, so cooling them. The Submillimetre Common User Bolometer
Array (SCUBA-2)7, for example (see bolometers in Section 1.1.15.2), uses a dilution refrigeration system
to operate at 100 mK. An alternative route to mK temperatures is the adiabatic demagnetisation refrig-
erator. The ions in a paramagnetic salt are first aligned by a strong magnetic field. The heat generated in
this process is transferred to liquid helium via a thermally conducting rod. The rod is then moved from
contact with the salt, the magnetic field is reduced and the salt cools adiabatically.

1.1.8 Charge-Coupled Devices (CCDs)

1.1.8.1 CCDs
Willard Boyle and George Smith invented CCDs in 1969 at the Bell telephone labs for use as a
computer memory. The first application of CCDs within astronomy as optical detectors occurred in
the late 1970s. Since then they have come to dominate the detection of optical radiation at profes-
sional observatories and to be widely used amongst amateur astronomers. Their popularity arises
from their ability to integrate the detection over long intervals, their dynamic range (>105), linear
response, direct digital output, high quantum efficiency, robustness, wide spectral range and from

7 On the James Clerk Maxwell telescope.

Detectors 11

FIGURE 1.5 Basic unit of a charge-coupled device (CCD).

the ease with which arrays can be formed to give two-dimensional (2D) imaging. In fact, CCDs can
only be formed as an array; a single unit is of little use by itself.
The basic detection mechanism is related to the photoelectric effect. Light incident on a semicon-
ductor (usually silicon) produces electron-hole pairs as we have already seen. These electrons are then
trapped in potential wells produced by numerous small electrodes. There, they accumulate until their
total number is read out by charge coupling the detecting electrodes to a single read-out electrode.
An individual unit of a CCD is shown in Figure 1.5. The electrode is insulated from the semi-
conductor by a thin oxide layer. In other words, the device is related to metal-oxide-silicon (MOS)
transistors.8 The electrode is held at a small positive voltage that is sufficient to drive the positive
holes in the p-type9 silicon away from its vicinity and to attract the electrons into a thin layer imme-
diately beneath it. The electron-hole pairs produced in this depletion region by the incident radiation
are thereby separated and the electrons accumulate in the storage region. Thus, an electron charge
is formed whose magnitude is a function of the intensity of the illuminating radiation. In effect, the
unit is a radiation-driven capacitor.
Now if several such electrodes are formed on a single silicon chip and zones of very high p-type
doping10 insulate the depletion regions from each other, then each will develop a charge that is pro-
portional to its illuminating intensity.11 Thus, we have a spatially and electrically digitised reproduc-
tion of the original optical image (Figure 1.6).
All that remains is to retrieve this electron image in some usable form. This is accomplished by
the charge coupling. Imagine an array of electrodes such as those we have already seen in Figure 1.6
but without their insulating separating layers. Then if one such electrode acquired a charge, it would

8 Also known as Metal Oxide Field Effects Transistors (MOSFETs), these are widely used in electronics, where devices based
upon diamond (band gap 5.47 eV), silicon carbide (2.3 to 3.3 eV), gallium nitride (3.4 eV) and other wide band gap semicon-
ductors are now under development. Possibly, improved UV CCD-type detectors may follow from this work in due course.
9 Usually boron is the doping element.
10 Near atomic-scale precision in the levels of doping can now be achieved using molecular beam epitaxy. The technique is

known as ‘delta-doping’ because it can (almost) produce a spike change in the doping levels mimicking the mathematical
delta function. Such precise control of doping levels helps to increase detection efficiency and reduce noise levels in CCDs.
11 Unless anti-blooming is used (see below), the electron charge is linearly related to the optical intensity, at least until the

number of electrons approaches the maximum number that the electrode can hold (known as its ‘well capacity’).
12 Astrophysical Techniques

FIGURE 1.6 Array of charge-coupled device (CCD) basic units.

diffuse across to the nearby electrodes. However, if the voltage of the electrodes on either side of the
one containing the charge were to be reduced, then their hole-depletion regions would disappear and
the charge would once again be contained within two p-type insulating regions (Figure 1.7). This time,
however, the insulating regions are not permanent but may be changed by varying the electrode volt-
age. Thus, the stored electric charge may be moved physically through the structure of the device by
sequentially changing the voltages of the electrodes. Hence, in Figure 1.7, if the voltage on electrode C
is changed to about +10 V, then a second hole-depletion zone will form adjacent to the first. The stored
charge will diffuse across between the two regions until it is shared equally. Now if the voltage on
electrode B is gradually reduced to +2 V, its hole-depletion zone will gradually disappear and the
remaining electrons will transfer across to be stored under electrode C. Thus, by cycling the voltages
of the electrodes as shown in Figure 1.8, the electron charge is moved from electrode B to electrode C.
With careful design, the efficiency of this charge transfer (or coupling) may be made as high
as 99.9999%. Furthermore, we may obviously continue to move the charge through the struc-
ture to electrodes D, E, F and so on by continuing to cycle the voltages in an appropriate fashion.
Eventually the charge may be brought to an output electrode from whence its value may be deter-
mined by discharging it through an integrating current meter or some similar device. In the scheme
outlined here, the system requires three separate voltage cycles to the electrodes to move the charge.
Hence, it is known as a three-phase CCD (variants on the basic CCD are discussed below). Three
separate circuits are formed, with each electrode connected to those three before and three after it
(Figure 1.9). The voltage supplies, α, β and γ (Figure 1.9), follow the cycles shown in Figure 1.10 to
move charge packets from the left towards the right (Figure 1.11). Since only every third electrode
holds a charge in this scheme, the output follows the pattern shown schematically at the bottom of
Figure 1.10. The order of appearance of an output pulse at the output electrode is directly related to
the position of its originating electrode in the array. Thus, the original spatial charge pattern and,
hence, the original optical image may easily be inferred from the time-varying output.
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esquire beyond sea’39. This particular collar given to John Gower
was a comparatively cheap one, worth apparently only 26s. 8d.,
while the silver collar to be given to John Payne is valued at 56s. 8d.,
and a gold collar of SS for Henry himself costs no less than £26 8s.
11d. The fact that Gower wears a collar of SS on his tomb makes it
probable enough that he is the esquire mentioned in this document.
It will afterwards be seen that we cannot base any argument upon
the fact that the collar upon the effigy is now gilt, and apparently was
so also in Leland’s time.
25 Jan. 1397-8. A licence from the bishop of Winchester for
solemnizing the marriage between John Gower and Agnes
Groundolf, both parishioners of St. Mary Magdalene, Southwark,
without further publication of banns and in a place outside their
parish church, that is to say, in the oratory of the said John Gower,
within his lodging in the Priory of Saint Mary Overey in Southwark.
Dated at Highclere, 25 Jan. 139740. At this time then Gower was
living in the Priory of St. Mary Overey, and no doubt he continued to
do so until his death.
Finally, Aug. 15, 1408, the Will of John Gower, which was proved
Oct. 24 of the same year41. His death therefore may be presumed to
have taken place in October, 1408.
This will has been printed more than once, in Gough’s Sepulchral
Monuments, by Todd in his Illustrations of Gower and Chaucer and
in the Retrospective Review.
The testator bequeathes his soul to the Creator, and his body to be
buried in the church of the Canons of St. Mary Overes, in the place
specially appointed for this purpose (‘in loco ad hoc specialiter
deputato’). To the Prior of the said church he bequeathes 40s., to the
subprior 20s., to each Canon who is a priest 13s. 4d., and to each of
the other Canons 6s. 8d., that they may all severally pray for him the
more devoutly at his funeral. To the servants of the Priory 2s. or 1s.
each according to their position; to the church of St. Mary Magdalene
40s. for lights and ornaments, to the parish priest of that church 10s.,
‘vt oret et orari faciat pro me’; to the chief clerk of the same church 3s.
and to the sub-clerk 2s. To the following four parish churches of
Southwark, viz. St. Margaret’s, St. George’s, St. Olave’s, and St. Mary
 Magdalene’s near Bermondsey, 13s. 4d. each for ornaments and
lights, and to each parish priest or rector in charge of those churches
6s. 8d., ‘vt orent et orari pro me in suis parochiis faciant et procurent.’
To the master of the hospital of St. Thomas in Southwark 40s., to each
priest serving there 6s. 8d. for their prayers; to each sister professed
in the said hospital 3s. 4d., to each attendant on the sick 20d., and to
each sick person in the hospital 12d., and the same to the sisters
(where there are sisters), nurses and patients in the hospitals of St.
Anthony, Elsingspitell, Bedlem without Bishopsgate, and St.
Maryspitell near Westminster; to every house for lepers in the suburbs
of London 10s., to be distributed amongst the lepers, for their prayers:
to the Prior of Elsingspitell 40s., and to each Canon priest there 6s.
8d.
For the service of the altar in the chapel of St. John the Baptist, ‘in
qua corpus meum sepeliendum est,’ two vestments of silk, one of blue
and white baudkin and the other of white silk, also a large new missal
and a new chalice, all which are to be kept for ever for the service of
the said altar. Moreover to the Prior and Convent the testator leaves a
large book, ‘sumptibus meis nouiter compositum,’ called Martilogium,
on the understanding that the testator shall have a special mention of
himself recorded in it every day (‘sic quod in eodem specialem
memoriam scriptam secundum eorum promissa cotidie habere
debeo,’ not ‘debes,’ as printed).
He leaves to his wife Agnes, £100 of lawful money, also three
cups, one ‘cooperculum,’ two salt-cellars and twelve spoons of silver,
all the testator’s beds and chests, with the furniture of hall, pantry and
kitchen and all their vessels and utensils. One chalice and one
vestment are left to the altar of the oratory belonging to his apartments
(‘pro altare quod est infra oratorium hospicii mei’). He desires also that
his wife Agnes, if she survive him, shall have all rents due for his
manors of Southwell in the county of Northampton (?) and of Multoun
in the county of Suffolk, as he has more fully determined in certain
other writings given under his seal.
The executors of this will are to be as follows:—Agnes his wife,
Arnold Savage, knight, Roger, esquire, William Denne, Canon of the
king’s chapel, and John Burton, clerk. Dated in the Priory of St. Mary
Overes in Southwark, on the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin,
mccccviii.

The will was proved, Oct. 24, 1408, at Lambeth before the
Archbishop of Canterbury (because the testator had property in more
than one diocese of the province of Canterbury), by Agnes the
testator’s wife, and administration of the property was granted to her
on Nov. 7 of the same year.
It may be observed with reference to this will that the testator
evidently stands already in the position of a considerable benefactor
to the Priory of St. Mary Overey, in virtue of which position he has his
apartments in the Priory and a place of honour assigned for his tomb
in the church. He must also have established by previous
arrangement the daily mass and the yearly obituary service which
Berthelette speaks of as still celebrated in his time. It is evident that
his benefactions were made chiefly in his life-time. There is some
slight difficulty as regards the manors which are mentioned in the
will. Multon in Suffolk we know already to have been in the poet’s
possession; but what is this ‘Southwell’? Certainly not the well-
known Southwell in Nottinghamshire, which cannot possibly have
been in the possession of a private person, belonging, as it did, to
the archiepiscopal see of York. Moreover, though ‘in Comitatu Nott.’
has been hitherto printed as the reading of the will, the manuscript
has not this, but either ‘Notth.’ or ‘North.,’ more probably the latter.
There were apparently other manors of Southwell or Suthwell in the
county of Nottingham, and a manor of Suwell in Northamptonshire,
but there seems to be no connexion with the name of Gower in the
case of any of these. It is possible, but not very readily to be
assumed, that the scribe who made the copy of the will in the
register carelessly wrote ‘Southwell in Com. North.’ (or ‘Com. Notth.’)
for ‘Feltwell in Com. Norff.,’ the name which is found coupled with
Multon in the other records42.
The one remaining record is the tomb in St. Saviour’s church.
This originally stood in the chapel of St. John the Baptist, on the
north side of the church, but in 1832, the nave and north aisle being
in ruins, the monument was removed to the south transept and
restored at the expense of Earl Gower. After the restoration of the
church this tomb was moved back to the north aisle in October 1894,
and was placed on the supposed site of the chapel of St. John the
Baptist, where it now stands43.
 In the course of nearly five centuries the tomb has undergone
many changes, and the present colouring and inscription are not
original. What we have now is a canopy of three arches over an altar
tomb, on which lies an effigy of the poet, habited in a long dark-
coloured gown, with a standing cape and buttoned down to his feet,
wearing a gold collar of SS, fastened in front with a device of a
chained swan between two portcullises. His head rests on a pile of
three folio volumes marked with the names of his three principal
works, Vox Clamantis, Speculum Meditantis, Confessio Amantis. He
has a rather round face with high cheek-bones, a moustache and a
slightly forked beard, hair long and curling upwards44, and round his
head a chaplet of four red roses at intervals upon a band45, with the
words ‘merci ihs46’ (repeated) in the intervals between the roses: the
hands are put together and raised in prayer: at the feet there is a lion
or mastiff lying. The upper ledge of the tomb has this inscription, ‘Hic
iacet I. Gower Arm. Angl. poeta celeberrimus ac huic sacro edificio
benefac. insignis. Vixit temporibus Edw. III et Ric. II et Henr. IV.’ In
front of the tomb there are seven arched niches. Against the wall at
the end of the recess, above the feet of the figure, a shield is
suspended bearing arms, argent, on a chevron azure three leopards’
faces or, crest a talbot (or lion) upon a chapeau. The wall behind the
tomb under the canopy is at present blank; the original painting of
female figures with scrolls has disappeared and has not been
renewed, nor has the inscription ‘Armigeri scutum,’ &c., been
replaced.
This tomb has attracted much attention, and descriptions of it
exist from early times. Leland’s account may be thus translated: ‘He
was honourably buried in London in the church of the Marian canons
on the bank of the Thames, and his wife also is buried in the same
place, but in a lower tomb. He has here an effigy adorned with a gold
chain and a chaplet of ivy interspersed with roses, the first marking
him as a knight and the second as a poet. The reason why he
established his place of burial here, was, I believe, as follows. A
large part of the suburb adjacent to London Bridge was burnt down
in the year 121247, in the reign of King John. The monastery of the
Marian canons was much damaged in this fire and was not fully
restored till the first year of Richard II. At that time Gower, moved by
the calamity, partly through his friends, who were numerous and
powerful, and partly at his own expense, repaired the church and
restored its ornaments, and the Marian canons even now
acknowledge the liberality of Gower towards them, though not to
such an extent as I declare it to have been. For this reason it was, in
my judgement, that he left his body for burial to the canons of this
house48.’ Berthelette in the Preface to his edition of the Confessio
Amantis, 1532, gives an interesting account of the tomb: ‘John
Gower prepared for his bones a resting-place in the monastery of St.
Mary Overes, where somewhat after the old fashion he lieth right
sumptuously buried, with a garland on his head in token that he in
his life days flourished freshly in literature and science. And the
same moniment, in remembrance of him erected, is on the North
side of the foresaid church, in the chapel of St. John, where he hath
of his own foundation a mass daily sung: and moreover he hath an
obit yearly done for him within the same church on the Friday after
the feast of the blessed pope St. Gregory.
‘Beside on the wall, whereas he lieth, there be painted three
virgins with crowns on their heads, one of the which is written
Charitie, and she holdeth this device in her hand,

En toy qui es fitz de dieu le pere49

Sauvé soit que gist souz cest piere.

‘The second is written Mercye, which holdeth in her hand this

device,

O bone Jesu, fait ta mercy

Al alme dont le corps gist icy50.

‘The third of them is written Pite, which holdeth in her hand this
device following,

Pur ta pité, Jesu, regarde,

Et met cest alme in sauve garde.
 ‘And thereby hangeth a table, wherein appeareth that who so
ever prayeth for the soul of John Gower, he shall, so oft as he so
doth, have a thousand and five hundred days of pardon.’
Stow, writing about 1598, says, ‘This church was again newly
rebuilt in the reign of Richard II and king Henry IV. John Gower, a
learned gentleman and a famous poet, but no knight, as some have
mistaken it, was then an especial benefactor to that work, and was
there buried in the north side of the said church, in the chapel of St.
John, where he founded a chantry. He lieth under a tomb of stone
with his image also of stone being over him. The hair of his head
brown, long to his shoulders but curling up, collar of esses of gold
about his neck; under his head,’ &c.51 The tomb is then further
described as by Berthelette, with addition of the epitaph in four Latin
hexameters, ‘Armigeri scutum,’ &c. (see p. 367 of this volume).
In the Annals of England (date about 1600) he again describes
the tomb, adding to his description of the painting of the three virgins
the important note, ‘All which is now washed out and the image
defaced by cutting off the nose and striking off the hands52,’ from
which it would appear that we cannot depend even upon the features
of the effigy which now exists, as original.
The figures of the virgins were repainted in the course of the
seventeenth century apparently, for in Hatton’s New View of London
(date 1708) they are described as appearing with ‘ducal coronets53.’
In Rawlinson’s Natural History and Antiquities of Surrey (published
1719) the effigy is spoken of as having a ‘scarlet gown,’ the older
descriptions, e.g. Stow, giving it as ‘an habit of purple damasked,’
and it is said that there is upon the head ‘a chaplet or diadem of gold
about an inch broad, on which are set at equal distances four white
quaterfoyles.’54 The writer argues also that the chain should be of
silver rather than of gold55. The arms are said to be ‘supported by
two angels,’ and ‘underneath is this inscription, “Hic iacet Iohannes
Gower Armiger Anglorum poeta celeberrimus ac huic sacro Edificio
Benefactor insignis temporibus Edw. III et Ric. II. Armigeri scutum,”’
&c. The following remark is added: ‘Our author Mr. John Aubrey
gives us an inscription which he says he saw on a limb of this
monument, something different from the foregoing, and therefore not
unworthy a place here, viz.

Johannes Gower, Princeps

Poetarum Angliae, vixit
temporibus Edwardi tertii
et Richardi secundi.’

Later, in 1765, Tyler describes the gown as purple and the arms
as pendent by the dexter corner. The figures of women have ducal
coronets and scrolls of gold, and below them is the epitaph ‘Armigeri
scutum.’ Under the statue the inscription ‘Hic iacet,’ &c.56 The
monument, as here described, is engraved in Gough’s Sepulchral
Monuments (date 1796), where there is a full description of it57.
Blore, under whose direction the position of the monument was
changed, says in 1826 that the inscription on the ledge of the tomb
‘Hic iacet,’ &c., was then entirely gone.
Dollman says that there was a fire which injured the nave of the
church in the reign of Richard II, and that the windows of the nave
and aisles, which were finally removed in 1833, were of the time of
Richard II and Henry IV58. It is certain, however, that the church
remained long in an unfinished state during the period between 1207
(or 1212), the date of the early fire, and the latter part of the
fourteenth century. Dollman observes that the remains which may
have been contained in the tomb ‘disappeared when the tomb was
removed from the north aisle in 1832.’59 From what has been said it
will be perceived that the tomb has undergone a series of alterations
and renovations which have to some extent at least destroyed its
original character.
A word must be said finally about Prof. Morley’s theory that
Gower was in holy orders and held the living of Great Braxted in
Essex from 1390-7. This is founded on the fact that the parson of
Great Braxted for the period named was one John Gower, as
Professor Morley learns from Newcourt’s Repertorium Parochiale60.
The original record referred to by Newcourt is to be found in the
Registry of the diocese of London61, and is to the effect that on
February 23, 1390-1, the bishop of London admitted and instituted
John Gower, clerk, to the parochial church of Great Braksted, vacant
by the resignation of John Broun, the late rector, the said John
Gower having been duly presented by the king, who at this time was
patron of the living, the heir of the late earl of Pembroke being under
his wardship. Then later, under date March 31, 1397, there is record
of a new institution to the benefice, which is vacant by the
resignation of John Gower, late rector62.
Professor Morley thought that the expression ‘John Gower, clerk’
might indicate that the person referred to was in minor orders only,
some of the rectors inducted being called ‘priest’ (while others have
no title at all). He conceived that this John Gower held the rectory for
six or seven years without being admitted to priest’s orders at all,
and that he then resigned on his marriage63, and he found
confirmation of the theory that this was Gower the poet from the fact
that Great Braxted is near to Wigborough, where, as we have seen,
a person of this name, supposed by Professor Morley to be the poet,
had some claim to rent. We have already seen reason to think that
the John Gower who had a rent of £10 from Wigborough was not the
poet, and in any case it is evident that the fact could have nothing to
do with a presentation by the king five and twenty years afterwards
to the rectory of Great Braxted. As to resignation with a view to
marriage, it is very unlikely, if not altogether out of the question, that
a clergyman who had held an important rectory for six or seven
years should not only have been permitted to marry, but should have
had his marriage celebrated in the Priory of St. Mary Overy and with
the particular sanction of the bishop of Winchester. Add to this the
fact that John Gower the poet was undoubtedly ‘Esquire,’ being
called so not only on his tomb but also in the documents of 1382 and
1393, the latter belonging to the period when, according to this
theory, he was holding the living of Great Braxted. On the whole, the
‘minor orders’ theory must be dismissed as entirely baseless, and
the John Gower who was rector of Great Braxted must be set down
as another of the rather numerous persons of this name who were to
be found in Kent and Essex at this time. There is nothing in Gower’s
writings to suggest the idea that he was an ecclesiastic. He distinctly
calls himself a layman in the Mirour de l’Omme, and the expression
‘borel clerk’ in the Prologue of the Confessio Amantis must be taken
to mean the same thing. The language which in the Vox Clamantis
he uses about rectors who fail to perform the duties of their office,
makes it almost inconceivable that he should himself have held a
rectory without qualifying himself for the performance of the service
of the Church even by taking priest’s orders. Evidently Professor
Morley’s idea of the poet as an Essex rector must go the way of his
previous attempt to establish him as a country gentleman at Otford.
It is probable that he passed a considerable part of his literary life in
those lodgings within the Priory of St. Mary Overey which are
mentioned in his marriage licence and in his will64.
To the information which we derive from records must be added
that which is to be drawn from the poet’s own writings. From the
Speculum Meditantis we learn that in early life he composed love
poems, which he calls ‘fols ditz d’ amour’ (27340), and from two
other passages (ll. 8794 and 17649) we may perhaps assume that
he was already married at the time when this work was composed.
In the former, speaking of those who tell tales to husbands about
their wives’ misconduct, he says in effect, ‘I for my part declare (‘Je
di pour moi’) that I wish to hear no such tales of my wife:’ in the
second he speaks of those wives who dislike servants and other
persons simply because their husbands like them, and he adds, ‘I do
not say that mine does so’ (‘Ne di pas q’ensi fait la moie’). If the
inference be correct, his union with Agnes Groundolf in his old age
was a second marriage. We cannot come to any definite conclusion
from this poem about any profession or occupation which he may
have had besides literature. The statement of Leland that he
practised as a lawyer seems rather improbable, in view of the way in
which he here speaks of lawyers and their profession. Of all the
secular estates that of the law seems to him to be the worst (24085
ff.), and he condemns both advocates and judges in a more
unqualified manner than the members of any other calling.
Especially the suggestion of a special tax to be levied on lawyers’
gains (24337 ff.) is one that could hardly have come from one who
was himself a lawyer65.
Again the way in which he speaks of physicians (24301, 25621
ff.) seems almost equally to exclude him from the profession of
medicine.
Of all the various ranks of society which he reviews, that of which
he speaks with most respect is the estate of Merchants. He takes
pains to point out, both in this poem and in the Vox Clamantis, the
utility of their occupation, and the justice of their claim to reasonably
large profits on successful ventures in consideration of the risks they
run (Mirour, 25177 ff.; Vox Clam. Lib. v. Cap. xi, Heading). He makes
a special apology to the honest members of the class for exposing
the abuses to which the occupation is liable, pleading that to blame
the bad is in effect to praise the good (25213 ff., 25975 ff.), and he is
more careful here than elsewhere to point out the fact that honest
members of the class exist. He speaks of ‘our City,’ and has strong
feelings about the interests of the city of London, and about the
proceedings of a certain bad citizen who stirs up strife and aims at
giving privileges in trade to strangers (Mirour, 26380 ff.; cp. Vox
Clamantis, v. 835 ff.): moreover, the jealousy of Lombards which he
expresses has every appearance of being a prejudice connected
with rivalry in commerce (25429 ff.). He has a special enthusiasm
about the wool-trade, as a national concern of the first importance,
and he has very definite opinions about the abuses of the staple
(25360 ff.). At the same time there is no definite evidence that Gower
was a merchant, and his interest in trade and in the affairs of the city
of London may well have arisen from his residence in or near the city
and his personal acquaintance with merchants (cp. Mir. 25915 ff.).
His references to the dearness of labour and the unreasonable
demands of the labourer (24625 ff.) are what we might expect from a
man who had property in land; but again we have no sufficient
evidence that Gower was a land-owner in the ordinary sense of the
word, for, though he acquired the manors of Feltwell and Multon, he
did not reside upon either of them, but gave a lease of them at once.
He tells us that he is a man of simple tastes (26293 ff.), and we
know from the whole tone of his writings that he is a just and upright
man, who believes in the subordination of the various members of
society to one another, and who will not allow himself to be ruled in
his own household either by his wife or his servants. But, though a
thorough believer in the principle of gradation in human society, he
constantly emphasizes the equality of all men before God, and
refuses absolutely to admit the accident of birth as constituting any
claim to ‘gentilesce.’ The common descent of all from Adam is as
conclusive on this point for him as it was for John Ball. Considering
that his views on society are essentially the same as those of Wycliff,
and considering also his strong opinions about the corruption of the
Church and the misdeeds of the friars, it is curious to find how
strongly he denounces the Lollards in his later writings.
He has a just abhorrence of war, and draws a very clear
distinction between the debased chivalry of his own day and the true
ideal of knighthood. Above all he has a deep sense of religion, and is
very familiar with the Bible. He strongly believes in the moral
government of the world by Providence, and he feels sure, as others
of his age did also, that the final stage of corruption has almost
come. Whatever others may do, he at least intends to repent of his
sins and prepare himself to render a good account of his
stewardship. In both his French and his Latin work he shows himself
a fearless rebuker of evil, even in the highest places. The charge of
time-serving timidity has been sufficiently dealt with in the
Introduction to the English Works.
From the Vox Clamantis it is evident that the rising of the
Peasants produced a very powerful, indeed almost an
overwhelming, impression upon his mind. He describes the terror
inspired by it among those of his social standing in the most
impressive manner. The progress of his political development during
the reign of Richard II is clearly seen in his Latin works, with their
successive revisions. He began, it is evident, with full hope and
confidence that the youthful king would be a worthy representative of
his father the Black Prince, both in war and in peace. As time goes
on, and the boy develops into an ill-regulated young man, under evil
influences of various kinds, the poet begins to have doubts, and
these gradually increase until they amount to certainty, and rebuke
and denunciation take the place of the former favourable
anticipations. In the latest version of the Confessio Amantis, which
is, no doubt, contemporary with some of these changes in the text of
the Vox Clamantis, we see the author’s confidence transferred from
the king to his cousin, not as yet regarded as a successor to the
throne, but thought of as representing a fair ideal of chivalry and
honesty. Finally, in the Cronica Tripertita, he accepts the fall of
Richard as the fatal consequence of a course of evil government and
treachery, and rejoices in the prospect of a new order of things under
his predestined hero.
We see here the picture of one who is not devoted to a particular
party, but looks to what he conceives as the common good, deeply
impressed with the sense that things are out of joint, and hoping
against hope that a saviour of society may arise, either in the person
of the young king, or of his vigorous and chivalrous cousin. There is
no sign of any liking for John of Gaunt or of any attachment to the
Lancastrian party generally; but he is stirred to very genuine
indignation at the unfair treatment of men whom he regards as
honest patriots, such as Gloucester, the Arundels, and Cobham. He
himself was evidently a most patriotic Englishman, loving his country
and proud of its former greatness. For this we may refer especially to
Vox Clamantis, vii. 1289 ff., but the same feeling is visible also in
many other passages. He is a citizen of the world no doubt, but an
Englishman first, and he cares intensely for the prosperity of his
native land. Even when he writes in French it is for England’s sake,

‘O gentile Engleterre, a toi j’escrits.’

When he decides that the Confessio Amantis could no longer go

forth with Richard as its patron, it is to England that he dedicates his
poem, and for his country that he offers up the prayers which he can
no longer utter with sincerity on behalf of the worthless king (Conf.
Am. Prol. 24 and viii. 2987).
From the Confessio Amantis we learn the circumstances under
which that work was undertaken, owing in part at least to a
suggestion from the king himself, who, meeting Gower upon the
river, made him come into his own barge and conversed with him
familiarly on his literary projects, urging him apparently to the
composition of a poem in English, and perhaps suggesting Love as
the subject. We gather also that in the year 1390 the author
considered himself already an old man, and that he had then
suffered for some time from ill-health (Prol. 79*, viii. 3042*), and from
the Epistle to Archbishop Arundel prefixed later to the Vox
Clamantis, as well as from the Latin lines beginning ‘Henrici Regis’
(or ‘Henrici quarti’) we learn that he was blind during the last years of
his life, probably from the year 1400. We may reasonably suppose
that he was born about the year 1330, or possibly somewhat later.
From the Latin statement about his books we learn, what is tolerably
obvious from their tenour, that his chief aim in writing was edification,
while at the same time we gather from the opening of the first book
of the Confessio Amantis that he then despaired of effecting
anything by direct admonition, and preferred finally to mingle
amusement with instruction. The Latin lines at the end of this
volume, beginning ‘Dicunt scripture,’ express a principle which he
seems to have followed himself, namely that a man should give
away money for good purposes during his own life, rather than leave
such business to be attended to by his executors.
The literary side of his activity is sufficiently dealt with in the
introductions to his several works, and there also it is noted what
were the books with which he was acquainted. It is enough to say
here that he was a man of fairly wide general reading, and
thoroughly familiar with certain particular books, especially the Bible,
all the works of Ovid, and the Aurora of Peter de Riga.

THE LATIN WORKS.

Of the works which are included in the present volume the Vox
Clamantis is the most important. It is written in elegiac verse, more
or less after the model of Ovid, and consists of 10,265 lines,
arranged in seven books, of which the first, second and third have
separate prologues, and each is divided into a series of chapters
with prose headings. As to the date of composition, all that we can
say is that the work in its present form is later than the Peasants’
rising in the summer of 1381, and yet it was evidently composed
while the memory of that event was fresh, and also before the young
king had grown beyond boyhood. The advice to the king with regard
to fidelity in marriage need not be taken to have special reference to
the king’s actual marriage at the end of the year 1382, but perhaps it
is more natural to suppose that it was written after that event than
before.
The general plan of the author is to describe the condition of
society and of the various degrees of men, much as in the latter
portion of the Speculum Meditantis. This, however, is made
subordinate to the detailed account, given at the beginning, of the
Peasants’ rising, and that is in fact set down as the main subject of
the work in the Latin account of it given by the author: ‘Secundus
enim liber sermone Latino versibus exametri et pentametri
compositus tractat super illo mirabili euentu, qui in Anglia tempore
domini Regis Ricardi secundi anno regni sui quarto contigit, quando
seruiles rustici impetuose contra nobiles et ingenuos regni
insurrexerunt. Innocenciam tamen dicti domini Regis tunc minoris
etatis causa inde excusabilem pronuncians, culpas aliunde, ex
quibus et non a fortuna talia inter homines contingunt enormia,
euidencius declarat. Titulusque voluminis huius, cuius ordo septem
continet paginas, Vox Clamantis nominatur.’
So the statement of contents ran in its earlier form. Afterwards
the excuses made for the king on the ground of his youth were
withdrawn, and in the final form of the statement the events of the
Cronica Tripertita are brought into the reckoning, and the fall of
Richard seems to be represented as a moral consequence of the
earlier misfortunes of his reign.
Evidently what is quoted above is a very insufficient summary of
the Vox Clamantis, which in fact deals with the Peasants’ rising only
in its first book; and notwithstanding the fact that this event so much
overshadows the other subjects of the poem that the author in
describing his work afterwards treated it as the only theme, there is
some reason to question whether what we have is really the original
form of the poem, and even to conclude that the work may have
been originally composed altogether without this detailed narrative of
the insurrection. For this idea there is some manuscript authority. It
has not hitherto been noted that in one copy (MS. Laud 719) the Vox
Clamantis appears with the omission of the whole of the first book
after the Prologue and first chapter66. At the same time the text of
this manuscript seems to be complete in itself, and the books are
numbered in accordance with the omission, so that there are six
books only, our second book being numbered as the first67. There is
really something to be said for this arrangement, apart from the fact
that it occurs in a single manuscript. The first book, with its detailed
account of the Peasants’ revolt, though in itself the most interesting
part of the work, has certainly something of the character of an
insertion. The plan of the remainder seems to be independent of it,
though the date, June, 1381, which is found also in the Laud MS.,

‘Contigit vt quarto Ricardi regis in anno,

Dum clamat mensem Iunius esse suum,’

was doubtless intended to suggest that portentous event as the

occasion of the review of society which the work contains. The
prologue of the second book, which introduces the teachings of the
vision with an invocation of God’s assistance, an apology for the
deficiencies of the work, and an appeal to the goodwill of the reader,
and concludes with a first announcement of the name of the
succeeding poem, Vox Clamantis, would certainly be much more in
place at the beginning of the whole work than here, after more than
two thousand lines, and there is no difficulty in supposing that the
author may have introduced his account of the Peasants’ revolt as
an afterthought. The chief reason for hesitating to accept the Laud
MS. as representing an authentic form of the poem, lies in the fact
that the text of this MS. is rather closely related to that of another
copy, MS. Digby 138, which contains the first book in its usual place;
and it is perhaps more likely that the original archetype of these two
MSS. was one which included the first book, and that this was
omitted for some reason by the scribe of the Laud MS., than that the
copyist of the Digby MS. perceived the absence of this book and
supplied it from some other quarter.
 One other matter affecting our estimate of the style of the
composition generally has perhaps been sufficiently illustrated in the
Notes of this edition, that is to say, the extent to which the author
borrows in the Vox Clamantis from other writers. It is sufficiently
obvious to a casual reader that he has appropriated a good many
lines from Ovid, though the extent of this schoolboy plagiarism is
hardly to be realised without careful examination; but his very
extensive obligations to other writers have not hitherto been pointed
out. He repeatedly takes not lines or couplets only, but passages of
eight, ten or even twenty lines from the Aurora of Peter Riga, from
the poem of Alexander Neckam De Vita Monachorum, from the
Speculum Stultorum, or from the Pantheon, so that in many places
the composition is entirely made up of such borrowed matter
variously arranged and combined. This is evidently a thing to be
noted, because if the author, when describing (for example) the vices
of monasteries, is found to be merely quoting from Alexander
Neckam, we cannot attach much value to his account as a picture of
the manners of his own time. His knowledge of Ovid seems to have
been pretty complete, for he borrows from almost every section of
his works with the air of one who knows perfectly well where to turn
for what he wants; quite a large portion of Neckam’s poem is
appropriated without the smallest acknowledgement, and many long
passages are taken from the Aurora, with only one slight mention of
this source (iii. 1853). Most of the good Latin lines for which Gower
has got credit with critics are plagiarisms of this kind, and if
Professor Morley had realized to what extent the Vox Clamantis is a
compilation, he would hardly have estimated the work so highly as
he has done. The extracts from medieval authors are to some extent
tolerable, because they are usually given in a connected and
intelligible shape, but the perpetual borrowing of isolated lines or
couplets from Ovid, often without regard to their appropriateness or
their original meaning, often makes the style, of the first book
especially, nearly as bad as it can be. I have taken the pains to point
out a considerable number of plagiarisms, but it is certain that there
must be many instances which have escaped my notice. In his later
Latin verse the author is very much less dependent upon others, and
the Cronica Tripertita, from the nature of the subject, is necessarily
original.
Gower’s own style of versification in Latin is somewhat less
elegant than that of Alexander Neckam or Peter Riga, but it stands
upon much the same level of correctness. If we take into account the
fact that the Latin is not classical but medieval, and that certain
licences of prosody were regularly admitted by medieval writers of
Latin verse, we shall not find the performance very bad. Such
licences are, for example, the lengthening of a short syllable at the
caesura, the position of final short vowels before ‘st,’ ‘sp,’ ‘sc’ at the
beginning of the succeeding word, and the use of polysyllabic words,
or of two dissyllables, at the end of the hexameter, so that lines such
as these are not to be taken as irregular:

‘Omnis et inde gradus a presule sanctificatus;’

‘Quo minor est culpa, si cadat inde rea;’
‘Et quia preuisa sic vota facit, puto culpa;’
‘Si bene conseruet ordinis ipse statum.’

In any case it is certain that Gower expressed himself in Latin

with great facility and with tolerable correctness. He may have
imitated the style of Ovid ‘studiosius quam felicius,’ as Leland
observes, but the comparison with other Latin verse-writers of his
time sets his performance in a fairly favourable light.
Vox Clamantis. Analysis.

Prologus Libri Primi.

From the records of the past we derive examples; and though
credit be not commonly given to dreams, yet the writers of past time
instruct us otherwise. Daniel and Joseph were taught by visions, and
a man’s guardian angel often warns him in his sleep. Hence, as it
seems to me, my dreams should be recorded as signs of the times;
and what my vision was and at what time it came, ye may learn from
this book.
If ye desire to know the writer’s name, add to John the beginning
of Godfrey, the first letter of Wales and the word ter without its head.
But give no praise to the author, for I write not with a view to fame. I
shall write of strange things which my country has experienced, and
as my matter is woful, so also shall be my song. My pen is wet with
tears, and both my heart and my hand tremble; nor am I sufficient to
write all the troubles that belong to the time. I ask for indulgence
rather than praise: my will is good, though my powers fall short. I
pray that while I sing of those true visions which disturb my heart
with terror, he whose name I bear, to whom visions were revealed in
Patmos, may control my work.

Liber Primus.
Cap. I. It was in the fourth year of king Richard, when the month
was June: the moon had set and the morning-star had risen, when
from the West a strange light sprang, the dawn came from the region
of the setting sun and brought forth the day. The sun shone and all
the earth was bright; Phebus went forth in his glorious car, attended
by the four Seasons, Summer being nearest to him then and
honoured by all creatures. The meadows were bright with flowers
and the flocks sported in the fields, a perfect paradise of flowers and
fruits was there, with the songs of multitudinous birds. Such was the
day on which I wandered forth for my pleasure.
All things have an end, and at length that calm day had
completed its appointed hours; evening came and I lay down to rest.
The night came on, dark and gloomy as the day had been bright,
and sleep did not visit my eyes. My hair stood on end, my flesh and
my heart trembled and my senses were disturbed like water. I
reflected what the cause might be of my sudden terror, and my mind
wandered by various paths. The night went on, yet no sleep came,
and terror of a coming evil oppressed me. Thus I spent the hours of
darkness, not knowing what was approaching, seeing the past and
fearing for the future; but at length, towards dawn, sleep came upon
my weary eyes, and I began to dream.
Cap. II. Methought I went out upon a Tuesday to gather flowers,
and I saw people in bands going abroad over the fields. Suddenly
the curse of God fell like lightning upon them, and they were
changed into the forms of beasts, various bands into various forms.
 One band was changed into asses rebellious against the halter
and the burden, careering over the fields and demanding to be as
horses; and these had also horns in the middle of their foreheads,
which were stained with blood; they were swift as leopards in their
leap, and had tails like that of a lion, yet the stolid asinine mind was
in them still. I stood in terror and could advance no further.
Cap. III. With them came oxen, who refused any longer to be
subject to the yoke and who would no longer eat straw. These too
were in monstrous shape with feet like those of a bear and with the
tails of dragons; they breathed forth fire and smoke like the bulls of
Colchos. They devastated the fields and slew men: the plough, the
rake and the mattock lay idle. ‘Ah me!’ I said, ‘the cultivation of the
fields will cease and famine will come upon us.’
Cap. IV. A third band I saw transformed into swine, furious and
possessed by the devil. They followed one another, hog and hogling,
boar and little pig, the sow and her companion, and there was no
swine-herd to keep them away from the corn-fields. They wandered
where they would, and the pig ravaged like a wolf.
One boar there was, whom Kent produced, such as the whole
earth might not match. Flame came from his mouth and eyes, his
tusks were like those of an elephant; foam mixed with human blood
flowed over his flanks. He strikes down all those whom he meets and
none can prevail against him: no place except heaven is safe from
his rage. From the North comes another boar to meet him and to
plan destruction.
These boars were greater and more furious than that of Tegea or
that which Meleager hunted. They are not content with acorns for
their food or water for their drink; they devour rich food in the city and
drink good wine, so that they lie in drunkenness as dead. They
despise the pig-stye and defile kings’ palaces with their filth: their
grunting is like the roaring of a lion.
Cap. V. A fourth band was turned into dogs, who are not content
with the food from their master’s table, but range in search of better,
who do not hunt hares or stags, but bark at the heels of men. Here
are Cut and Cur from their wretched kennels, the sheep-dog and the
watch-dog, the baker’s, the butcher’s, and the miller’s dog. The one-
eyed is there and the three-legged dog limps behind barking. These
cannot be soothed by stroking, but bare their teeth in anger against
you. They tear all whom they meet, and the more they devour the
less they are satisfied. Cerberus in hell hears their howl, and
breaking away from his chains he joins himself to their company and
becomes their leader. More savage were these than the hounds
which tore Acteon or the beast which Diana sent to destroy the
Athenians. All trembled before them.
Cap. VI. Another band took the form of foxes and cats. They ran
about and searched every cavern and every hiding-place, and made
their way into secret chambers. There was venom in their bite. The
caves of the wood send forth the foxes, who rob by day without fear,
and have a treaty of peace with the dogs. The cats leave the barns
and cease to catch mice, and these do damage more than ever did
the mice of Ekron.
Cap. VII. A sixth took the form of domestic fowls, but they claimed
to be birds of prey. The cock had the beak and claws of a falcon, and
the goose soared up to the heaven. Suddenly the cock becomes a
carrion-crow and the goose a kite, and they prey upon the carcasses
of men. The cock crows horribly and the hen follows him and moves
him to evil. The goose which formerly frightened only children with its
hissing, now terrifies grown men and threatens to tear them to
pieces.
Owls join themselves to these and do by day the deeds of
darkness, sharpening their feathers with iron, in order that they may
slay men.
Cap. VIII. The dream continued, and I saw another band in the
form of flies and of frogs. These were like those that plagued Egypt:
the frogs came into houses and shed their poison everywhere; the
flies pursued with their stings all those of gentle blood, and nothing
could keep them out. Their prince Belzebub was the leader of the
host. The heat of the summer produced them suddenly in swarms:
the fly was more rapacious than the hawk and prouder than the