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.
Congratulates NP on appointment to Madras Observatory. States that he will use both Isis and Hestia nomenclature without misgiving. Furnishes names from Greek mythology for NP to use for asteroid discoveries.
Describes, using a diagram, how the solar protuberances appeared to him as a color-blind person when he observed a solar eclipse.
Thanks for note of 29 [July]. Expresses doubt over accuracy of his observations of a solar eclipse. Stresses the necessity of careful comparison of various observations. Asks JH's opinion of a photograph with prominences greater and corona less than supposed.
Sends his certificate for the R.S.L. to JH to sign.
Thanks JH for reading his preface to The Genesis of the Earth and Man, and expresses the author's gratitude that JH believes the book will be interesting.
Glad to hear JH feeling better. Enclosing a 'shorter and simpler' explanation of some experiment by Léon Foucault, asking for comments.
Invites JH to stay at BP's home for the B.A.A.S. meeting 27 June. Notes the new museum opens at the same time.
Sends pamphlet on repaying the national debt. Discusses various problems and possibilities concerning the debt.
Asks for details about a strange drawing of Jupiter JH had seen at the Royal Observatory some months earlier, and offers some comments about Warren de La Rue's eclipse photographs.
Has a foreigner staying at his house. Has seen letter by this man addressed to JH. TR wants to know if the foreigner is respectable. Thinks his name is [B.] Birkenthal.
Comments on Jupiter's appearance and on the eclipse photographs [see JH's 1860-8-23].
Against changing location of Royal Observatory [from Greenwich], but will defer to opinion of [G. B. Airy] Astronomer Royal. Airy is most competent to judge situation. Still ill.
Too ill to work on anything besides nebula catalogue. Discusses recent meteorological phenomena, period of solar spots, and great pyramid.
Occupied with matters besides magnetism lately. Interest in science of Prince Consort [Albert] is praiseworthy. Discusses several observatories and letter of [T. W.?] Blakiston.
Lists magnetic books received from ES. It will be some time before JH can direct his attention to magnetic issues.
Asks for information concerning the magnetic observations and compilations made in various countries and regions.
A note with a copy of JH's article on telescopes for the Encyclopaedia Britannica, together with some papers to be forwarded to James Glaisher.
Thanks for declination readings from photograms at Kew. Thinks meteorological observatory on Vesuvius is good idea, but not sure a magnetic one is. Includes two charts of world.
Mentions a passage of Aristotle regarding comets. Proposes that Origen's theory of the Magi may be correct. Perhaps the Magi saw a comet.
Sends pictures of sun. Thanks JH for sparking his interest in the sun. Wants JH to direct the B.A.A.S.'s use of the Kew telescope to take pictures.