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.
Describes the difficulty of [P. Laplace's] Mécanique céleste. Has a new pupil. Discusses proper boundary of a front view mirror.
Discusses problem of the ellipse and offers a method of solving it. States the proper boundary of a front mirror is too difficult to ascertain. Still having problems with teaching.
Describes lunar rainbow seen on 22 August. Congratulates JH on his mathematical attainments. Describes his enjoyment of mathematics. Hopes JH will continue to correspond.