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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.
Astronomical Society will lend instruments, including a Beaufoy Clock and a transit circle, to WS for his observations.
JH letter on Gamma Virginis read at R.A.S. meeting. Niccolo Cacciatore appointed to new position at Palermo Observatory, where he plans to sell the Almanack. Many R.A.S. members experimenting with telescopic lenses.
Agrees to support C. P. Smyth for membership in R.S.L. Objects to C. P. Smyth's statement regarding his discoveries observing at high altitudes. Stresses importance of variable star work.
Discusses the site of Cold Harbor. Visits the small personal observatory of J. G. Barclay, who WS thinks will produce good work.
Success of C. P. Smyth's Teneriffe expedition pleases JH; anxious for declination of nebulae taken from high altitudes. Upset over G. J. Stoney's reproduction of JH's collimating telescope without giving him credit.
Asks WS to take the chair at the next meeting of the R.A.S [probably concerning the Adams-Leverrier dispute].
Suggests John Lubbock's improvements in calculating planetary perturbations be discussed at a R.A.S. meeting. Plans to bring subject before the Council.
Asks WS if possible to enclose a note by Francis Beaufort to John Russell concerning request for pension for Thomas Maclear. Lays aside double star observations; continues work on orbit equation.
Skeptical of reports of seeing Jupiter's satellites with the naked eye.
Asks JH's advice on the purchase of the lunar model. Anxious to see JH's new method of calculating double star orbits.
C. P. Smyth receives appointment as Astronomer Royal of Scotland. Again thanks JH for recommendation.
Thanks WS for having accepted his medal from R.A.S. Finds that the [Thomas] Brisbane Catalogue contains insufficient right ascension information, complicating reduction observations. Observed Halley's Comet.
Concerned over the fact the retiring pension for John Russell does not provide for his wife and children.
Sends information on occultation of Alpha Tauri. Describes meteors sighted during the night of 12 Aug.
Sends angular results from various astronomers using similar epoches.
Sends JH copy of his address to Royal Geographical Society. Inquires about a means to make astronomical instruments steadier with poles devised by JH.
Discusses the naming of a Plateau of Brussels. Discusses names to go on list; gives JH's and Michael Faraday's recommendations.
Sends copy of James Graham's letter concerning transfer of Paramatta Observatory to government authority. Thanks JH for advice on the matter. Discusses methods of magnitude estimation.
Observed two known satellites of Uranus, confirming William Herschel's observations. States, 'I am sure there are more than two.'
Writes that he was not aware of W. R. Dawes's hand in discovery of Hyperion; will note this in R.S.L. records.