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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.
Approves RP's method of preparing isographic projection charts of the distribution of bright stars, noting that JH's gauges of the southern stars are incomplete.
Thanks JH for advice on planned chart; explains method of dealing with unguaged areas. RP has adopted a somewhat different method of charting.
Has sent JH a copy of his new book [The Sun].
Thanks RP for sending RP's Sun. Suggests a theory that the solar corona, rather than originating in the earth's atmosphere, is produced by reflection from meteoric dust. Informs RP that he has completed a catalogue of all observations of double stars.
Raises objections to JH's theory of the solar corona. Discusses possible existence of extensive meteoric dust in the solar system. Requests permission to dedicate a book on sidereal astronomy to JH. Asks JH whether his father in later years always used a front focus for his large telescopes and whether he saw the supposed four additional Uranian satellites with his 40-foot reflector.
Replies to RP's objections to his theory of the solar corona. Informs RP that William Herschel's larger telescopes were used as front focus. Suggests explanation of his father's disconfirmed discovery of four additional Uranian moons.
Discusses JH's response to his comments on JH's theory of the solar corona. Discusses great difficulty of writing his planned book on sidereal astronomy.
Reports on recent solar eclipse photographs of the solar corona which jeopardize JH's meteoric theory of the corona's origin. Concludes the corona must be 'after all a phenomenon of eruption!!'
Admits that recent heliographs of the corona favor the eruption theory over JH's meteoric theory. Notes that this raises question of the nature of the photosphere. Cites recent results showing link between sunspot formation and terrestrial magnetic disturbances.
Suggests that meteors come sometimes from the sun, more typically from other stars.