Discusses contribution of WS's son, C. P. Smyth, as Thomas Maclear's assistant. Discusses observations of Halley's Comet, Gamma Virginis, other celestial objects, and the use of a double image micrometer.
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The Sir John Herschel Collection
The preparation of the print Calendar of the Correspondence of Sir John Herschel (Michael J. Crowe ed., David R. Dyck and James J. Kevin assoc. eds, Cambridge, England: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1998, viii + 828 pp) which was funded by the National Science Foundation, took ten years. It was accomplished by a team of seventeen professors, visiting scholars, graduate students, advanced undergraduates, and staff working at the University of Notre Dame.
The first online version of Calendar was created in 2009 by Dr Marvin Bolt and Steven Lucy, working at the Webster Institute of the Adler Planetarium, and it is that data that has now been reformatted for incorporation into Ɛpsilon.
Further information about Herschel, his correspondence, and the editorial method is available online here: http://historydb.adlerplanetarium.org/herschel/?p=intro
No texts of Herschel’s letters are currently available through Ɛpsilon.
Discusses contribution of WS's son, C. P. Smyth, as Thomas Maclear's assistant. Discusses observations of Halley's Comet, Gamma Virginis, other celestial objects, and the use of a double image micrometer.
Describes voyage to Cape as being uneventful. 20-ft. reflector operating since late February; has already examined much of the southern sky. Believes the Milky Way is not equidistant from the earth at all points; and that the earth is between Canopus and Alpha Centauri. Amazed at clusters such as Omega Centauri. Describes richness of Magellanic Clouds. Details progress in erecting instruments. Sends observations of Alpha Crucis, which he believes is a double star.
Thanks JH for Gamma Virginis observations, which are finally in accord with his. Sends observation of the double stars JH suggested watching. Works with Richard Sheepshanks. Francis Baily delivers details on Edinburgh meeting of philosophers. Sends news from Niccolo Cacciatore, who has returned to the Observatory in Naples.
Sends observations of the double stars, which JH had suggested.