Lovingly describes various events regarding JH's children and relatives.
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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.
Lovingly describes various events regarding JH's children and relatives.
Been working on a new mirror for the 20-ft. telescope; very pleased with its performance. Asks CH to distribute his fourth catalog of double stars among the Prussian and German astronomers.
Has determined the periods of four double stars. JH considers the determination of the elliptical orbits of double stars as 'one of the greatest [discoveries] ever made.'
JH and Margaret Herschel visited the Isle of Wight.
JH preparing for his journey to Cape Town. Compiling a catalog of nebulae and clusters. Sending to CH a comparison of a new set of elements of Gamma Virginis and a set of observations of it from 1720-1833; JH asks CH to send a copy to Carl Gauss.
Sent to CH JH's fifth catalog of double stars. JH will send to CH his new nebulae observations very soon.
Ready to embark to Cape Town; JH expects to arrive at the end of January. Sent out the last proof sheet of JH's nebulae catalog last night.
Reports that they are 'safely landed and comfortably housed' in Africa. The Herschels were at sea for nine weeks and two days. Required several days to unload the instruments and luggage from the ship. Has chosen a house, about five miles from town, called 'The Grove.' Excited with the calm, clear nights, which will be excellent for observations.
Reports that JH has been looking at Halley's Comet 'every night.'
Copies the inscription on a vase awarded to JH to commemorate his work at Cape Town.
Sent to CH her diploma from the Royal Irish Academy on account of her election as an honorary member.
Prepared to send to CH copies of the Index to John Flamsteed.
Sweeping progressing quickly; has used the 20-ft. reflecting telescope since February. Discovered two planetary nebulae. Studying Scorpio closely, as CH suggested; has found gorgeous globular clusters there. The equatorial was erected recently.
Has decisively mapped Saturn's sixth satellite; doubts, however, that he will ever see the seventh. Asks CH to inform Friedrich Bessel of his observation.
[Postscript to a letter by Margaret Herschel:] JH notes that he has finished the reduction of the first 9 hours in Right Ascension of his southern nebulae and double stars.
Reports on good health and behavior of JH's new daughter, Caroline Emilia Herschel. Comments on Greek music and on recent results of the R.S.L. Glass Committee.
Sends to CH his new book, Prelim. Discourse. Writes that he 'took little part in the proceedings about the Royal Society. Under any circumstances I would not have held the office of President more than a year and should have felt it a grievous evil to have held it at all.'
JH awarded the Guelphic Order of Knighthood by King William IV, an honor earlier bestowed on William Herschel.
Wilhelm Struve's observations support JH's findings concerning the rapid revolution of Eta Coronae. In acknowledgement of the discovery that double stars are a 'revolving binary system,' JH changed the inscription on William Herschel's monument.
On his German travels, JH left Margaret Herschel and the children at Slough because he feared their exposure to the cholera epidemic.