Abstract

Popular science writing has been viewed as a way to obtain economic and social support for science, to legitimise scientific research, as part of the scientific culture and as a scientific mediator. This paper explores the popularisation of astronomy undertaken by the one-time Royal Astronomer of Ireland Sir Robert Ball during the second half of the nineteenth century. The complex interactions between popular science and other elements of scientific culture are examined by looking at the different audiences for astronomy and the strategy adopted by Ball.