Has received the letters and parcels safely. Is starting reducing his sweeps. Observations in Dublin Observatory. Comments on the various functions of observatories. News of scientific events at the Cape and various expeditions in progress.
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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.
Has received the letters and parcels safely. Is starting reducing his sweeps. Observations in Dublin Observatory. Comments on the various functions of observatories. News of scientific events at the Cape and various expeditions in progress.
Is glad JH has given his opinion to Francis Beaufort on the subject of observations of the first class. Encke's comet is invisible in the 14-ft. within the range of 10 degrees. Last two nights were very favorable. Has seen Encke's comet three times, and it appears just as he saw it in England.
C. P. Smyth has arrived. Remarks on the Brisbane Catalogue. Thanks for his meteorological observations. His own meteorological observations. Affairs in the Cape.
Is intrigued by the apparent displacement of several planetary nebulae from the positions found in the catalogues of other observers. Does not know what to think.
Applauds CH elected an [honorary] member of the R.A.S. Missed seeing Halley's Comet and Johann Encke's comet; Thomas Maclear, however, viewed Encke's three times. Has studied nearly the entire Southern sky.
Provides list of desiderata for activities for observatories of the '2nd and 3rd classes.' Reports his progress from the Cape, and his inability as yet to see Halley's or Encke's comet.
Discusses printing costs. Heard that Halley's Comet was seen with the naked eye in Cape Town; JH is excited about his own prospects of seeing the comet.
Still struggling with the problems inherent in using the mural circle; the comet has apparently been seen by JH's mechanic, John Stone, prior to having been sighted by TM.
Busy taking the means of TM's reduced star observations. Angry that John Stone and James Rance saw Halley's Comet and never told JH.
C. P. Smyth arrived at Cape on 10 October; Thomas Maclear seems pleased with his work. Asks WS to continue observing Gamma Virginis; JH has observed it only as a single star in recent attempts. Thanks WS for distributing meteorological brochures. George Eden visits and will send meteorological observations from India.
Warns that 'a share in a new planet is advertised and that those who will bid must be on the alert.'