JH and family are beginning to feel at home at Collingwood.
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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.
JH and family are beginning to feel at home at Collingwood.
The Herschels bought a Christmas tree this year; JH reports that his children loved it and that 'they will be sure to keep up the custom which is a very merry one.'
Reports the birth of Amelia Herschel, JH's eighth child. Forwarding to CH an article describing the telescope of William Parsons.
Has not unpacked William Herschel's letters that JH secured from the R.S.L.
The reductions for JH's Cape Results are progressing. JH's mapping work has been 'carried over the whole surface of the heavens' this year.
Summarizes James Clark Ross's expedition to reach the Southern Magnetic Pole; JH reports that Ross has discovered that the pole lies several degrees more south than Carl Gauss had calculated.
Is confident that by summer his sweeps will all be reduced and arranged in three catalogs for JH's Cape Results.
Remarks that he is 50 years old, and that he and CH have 'seen something of that odd and most changeable compound called Human Nature.'
Enjoyed CH's last letter.
Met Friedrich Bessel at the Manchester B.A.A.S. meeting; invited him to Collingwood, where he expects Bessel in a few days. Enclosed with the letter a specimen of a new photographic process called 'Chrysotype.' Marvels at traveling from Hawkhurst to Manchester round trip (420 miles) in under 23 hours!
Describes the total solar eclipse seen by Francis Baily at Pavia and George Airy at Turin. They were thrilled to witness three purple flames from the blocked sun emerge around the edge of the moon. Thirty more Cape Town sweeps remain to be reduced.
Reports the erection of an obelisk at Feldhausen to commemorate the site of JH's 20-ft. reflector. Back at Cape Town, Thomas Maclear is measuring N. L. Lacaille's Arc of the Meridian. JH received the Prussian Order of Merit.
Reports the birth of JH's ninth child, Julia.
JH finished his catalog of stars for his Cape Results; hopes to be finished with his nebulae and double star catalogs soon.
Finished the reductions of all of the nebulae and double stars recorded at Cape Town; JH soon hopes to prepare for the publication of his Cape Results.
Wishes CH a happy 93rd birthday. Occupied with remodelling the Southern Constellations, which 'are all in confusion;' admits that not everyone will be satisfied with his constellation reforms.
Concerning the great comet of 1843, JH remarks that both Thomas Henderson and Johann Encke noted that the comet bounced off the sun's atmosphere.
Completed 'one of the most curious products' of JH's Cape Results: the map and catalog of the 'Nubecula major' region.
Enjoyed reading CH's account of some significant events from her life. Reports that James Clark Ross has returned safely from his South Pole expedition in which Ross discovered the true position of the South Magnetic Pole.
Assures CH that he has preserved everything that she ever wrote to JH or that he found in William Herschel's library.