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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.
Chooses a publisher and printer for Cape Results. Decides against getting portrait painted. Makes suggestions for observations.
Wants to know if JH has a larger telescope in operation; if so, will he confirm some observations. Asks JH to recommend an epoch.
Does not have operational telescope. Suggests WS set 1840 as epoch.
Disappointed with format of Nautical Almanac. Arguments over this have caused many hard feeling among R.S.L. members. Details the controversy.
Plans to calculate Gamma Virginis orbit. Received WS paper on astronomical observations. Suggests WS look for a house in Kent after learning plans to move near London.
Thanks WS for C. P. Smyth drawings of Cape monument and Gamma Virginis observations. Notes J. H. Mädler's work on double stars and the doubt that they obey the inverse square law. Discusses use of photography in astronomy.
Extract from observations of 70 Ophiuchi by F. W. Bessel. Results agree with WS's measurements by different method and increase WS's confidence. Hopes for more information on Gamma Virginis before finalizing WS's manuscript.
Sends comet observations from W. S. Jacob. Obtains 'another excellent epoch of Gamma Virginis.'
Francis Beaufort to publish comet information; also wants JH's opinion as to what data should be sent to Cape Observatory. James South will lecture at Royal Institution. South's requests for several historical astronomical instruments refused.
Requests copy of JH's observations made in 1811. Asks latest opinion of JH on Gamma Virginis before the publication of his Cycle of Celestial Objects for the Use of Naval, Military, and Private Astronomers.
Will review all Gamma Virginis observations before revising orbit. Catalogue of major nebulae complete; will work on minor nebulae next.
Sends JH's 1817 observations; cannot locate any he made in 1811. Tells WS Gamma Virginis measurements will take more time.
JH's theory of orbits of Castor and Gamma Virginis. Observations of Gamma Virginis by W. R. Dawes and by WS.
Reaches conclusion about Gamma Virginis. States in regard to shape of orbit, 'We are all wrong.' Believes the orbit is less than 150 years. Claims that many errors exist in British measurements made between 1829 and 1834.
Agrees with JH opinions of Gamma Virginis orbit. Sends JH a drawing by C. P. Smyth of Halley's Comet.
Sends calculations of Gamma Virginis and determines its eccentricity. Believes the orbit is highly elongated, like that of a comet.
Pleased with JH's Gamma Virginis results. Mr. Visconti made head of Military Geographical Institute at Naples.
Devises and suggests mode of micrometric measurement of angles.
Problems with computation of Gamma Virginis.
Offers condolences to Ann Smyth. WS's calculation of Gamma Virginis orbit surprises JH. Concerned about accurate methods of calculation. Remarks on excavation of Chelsea mammoth.