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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.
Will send JH meridian observations that will be published; asks for his advice on them. Applies to government for an equatorial telescope. Discusses Teneriffe site.
Sends photographs of Great Dragon and the Ice Cavern in Teneriffe. Notes that images are finer when glass plates are used.
Describes rock formations in Kamiesberg region seen while working on Arc of Meridian project. Thinks Bokkeveld would make ideal site for a meteorological observatory.
Describes conditions and instruments at Edinburgh Observatory. Observatory assistant Alexander Wallace works on reduction of Thomas Henderson's transit observations.
Thanks JH for spotting error in a publication about the Edinburgh Observatory. Discusses 'the planet that is expected to be found beyond Uranus.' Asks JH to help him send astronomical news to Thomas Maclear.
Sends atmospheric observations to JH before transmission to Admiralty.
W. S. Jacob sends Alpha Centauri observations to R.A.S.; uses JH's Cape Results as a guide to double stars.
Asks if JH observed Gamma Scorpii as a double star; sends observations of it from W. S. Jacob in India. W. S. Jacob observes Neptune.
Construction of Herschel Obelisk at Feldhausen underway. Describes items to be included at the monument.
Thanks JH for Gamma Scorpii observations. Plans to have Edinburgh Observatory record observations of 2-3000 stars over 30 years. Edinburgh observations for 1841 published.
A. G. Melville will start Meteorological Observatory at Queen's College, Galway. CPS discusses JH article on plans for building an ice-making machine.
Sends JH observations of Comet of 1843; disappointed with Cape Observatory's records of the comet. Oversees Observatory in absence of Thomas Maclear, who is at Zwartland for meridian survey. Lists and describes instruments in use at Cape Observatory. Discusses sources of error.
Received JH's note of 8 [Aug 1847] and went immediately to Smith, Elder & Co., but no copies [of JH's Cape Results] were ready. Will gladly transmit them to recipients designated by JH.
Received JH's packet of books and papers mailed a year earlier. Living alone for nine months, participating in Thomas Maclear's survey. Quotes J. C. F. Schiller's 'The Walk.' Ideas on natural theology. Experiments with photography.