The scientific papers of Sir William Herschel
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The scientific papers of Sir William Herschel
Thoemmes Press, 2003
- : [set]
- v. 1
- v. 2
Available at 2 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
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  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
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Note
Reprint. Originally published: London : Royal Society : Royal Astronomical Society, 1912
"Collected and edited under the direction of a joint committee of the Royal Society and the Royal Astronomical Society"--Original t.p
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Sir William (originally Friedrich Wilhelm) Herschel (1738-1822) is one of the greatest figures in the history of astronomy. Born in Germany, he moved to England in 1757 and started his astronomical observations while working as a professional musician in Bath. With the help of his sister, Caroline, Herschel began a series of systematic "reviews of the heavens" to record the motion and distribution of the stars. Using massive telescopes built by himself, Herschel was able to see much futher than any previous astronomer, and he was the first to give a correct description of the form of our galaxy, The Milky Way. In 1781 he discovered the planet Uranus, and in 1782 he was appointed King's Astronomer by George III. Eventually, when The Royal Astronomical Society was founded in 1820, Herschel became its president. Sir William Herschel's many ground-breaking astronomical papers were scattered over 40 volumes of "The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society" and elsewhere until 1912, when they were collected by John Louis Emil Dreyer and published as "The Scientific Papers of Sir William Herschel".
Dreyer - who was himself an eminent astronomer - also included Herschel's unpublished papers on general science and a 60-page biography of the author. The Dreyer edition remains the only complete edition of the writings of Sir William Herschel. The books have always been extremely rare, and this reprinting by Thoemmes Press offers an opportunity to acquire one of the great landmarks of science.
Table of Contents
- Volume 1 (717pp, 22 plates): A short account of Sir William Herschel's life and work, chiefly from unpublished sources, by J.L.E. Dreyer - Early years, scientific work at Bath, observatory work after 1782, the 40-foot and other telescopes, later years
- unpublished papers - papers read before the Philosophical Society of Bath, 1780-81 (25 papers), papers communicated to the Royal Society (4 papers), miscellaneous papers of unknown date (3 papers)
- papers published in "The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society" and elsewhere (39 papers). Volume 2 (724pp, 6 plates): papers published in "The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society" and elsewhere (31 papers). Appendix: unpublished observations of Messier's nebulae and clusters
- synopsis of Sir W. Herschel's measures of double stars, by Sir J.F.W. Herschel
- star-gauges from the 358th to the 111th sweep, brought together by Caroline Herschel.
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