Biographical information on Isaac Roberts is available in several sources, but they are all rather brief. For concise summaries of his life, see: AbbeyL. B., “Roberts, Isaac”, in HockeyThomas (eds), Biographical encyclopedia of astronomers (New York, 2007), 97–8; B[all]R. S., “Isaac Roberts. 1829–1904”, Proceedings of the Royal Society, lxxv (1905), 1905–63; FranksW. S., “Dr. Isaac Roberts, F.R.S.”, Popular astronomy, xii (1904), 1904–72; HollisH. P., rev. by JohnsonK. L., “Roberts, Isaac (1829–1904), geologist and astronomer”, Oxford dictionary of national biography (Oxford, 2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/35770, accessed 10 June 2009]; HoskinMichael A., “Roberts, Isaac”, in Dictionary of scientific biography, xi (New York, 1975), 484–5; and JamesS. H. G., “Dr Isaac Roberts (1829–1904) and his observatories”, Journal of the British Astronomical Association, ciii (1993), 1993–2.
2.
This definition of ‘grand amateurs’ follows that in ChapmanAllan, The Victorian amateur astronomer: Independent astronomical research in Britain, 1820–1920 (Chichester, 1998), p. xii.
3.
SmithRobert W., The expanding universe: Astronomy's ‘Great Debate’ 1900–1931 (Cambridge, 1982), 3–5; and SmithRobert W., “Beyond the Galaxy: The development of extragalactic astronomy 1885–1965, Part 1”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xxxix (2008), 2008–119, pp. 95–8.
4.
Chapman, The Victorian amateur astronomer (ref. 2), 5.
5.
LankfordJohn, “Amateurs and astrophysics: A neglected aspect in the development of a scientific specialty”, Social studies of science, xi (1981), 275–303, p. 294.
6.
LankfordJohn, “Amateurs versus professionals: The controversy over telescope size in late Victorian science”, Isis, lxxii (1981), 11–28.
7.
The 1895 controversy is referred to in PenningtonPhilip Joseph, “Isaac Roberts and astronomy in the Victorian era”, M.Sc. dissertation, University of Liverpool, 1993, 41–2 and 45.
8.
“Meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society, Friday, January 8, 1886”, The observatory, ix (1886), 81–91, p. 82.
9.
Since 1936 the telescope has belonged to the Science Museum at South Kensington in London.
10.
“Meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society, Friday, January 8, 1886”, The observatory, ix (1886), 81–91, p. 82.
11.
Letter from Roberts to Secretaries of the RAS, 6 December 1886. RAS Archives, RAS Letters, 86.
12.
“Meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society, Friday, December 14, 1888”, The observatory, xii (1889), 51–59, pp. 51–2. Some of these remarks are also quoted in Smith, “Beyond the Galaxy” (ref. 3), 96.
13.
MeadowsA. J., Science and controversy: A biography of Sir Norman Lockyer (London, 1972), 188.
14.
TurnerH. H., “From an Oxford note-book”, The observatory, xxxiii (1911), 350–2, p. 351. Also quoted in Smith, “Beyond the Galaxy” (ref. 3), 95.
15.
“Meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society, Friday, December 13, 1895”, The observatory, xix (1896), 35–42, p. 37.
16.
Roberts to Wesley (RAS), 11 December 1888. RAS Archives, RAS Letters, 88.
17.
“Meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society, Friday, January 11, 1889”, The observatory, xii (1889), 91–103, p. 94.
18.
“Meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society, Friday, May 11, 1894”, The observatory, xvii (1894), 191–200, p. 195.
19.
“Meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society, Friday, January 9, 1891”, The observatory, xiv (1891), 73–83, p. 77.
20.
RobertsIsaac, Photographs of stars, star-clusters and nebulae, together with records of results obtained in the pursuit of celestial photography, ii (London, 1899), 64.
21.
Roberts, Photographs (ref. 20), 64.
22.
“Meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society, Friday, December 13, 1895”, The observatory, xix (1896), 35–42, p. 37.
23.
The only book-length biography of Barnard is SheehanWilliam, The immortal fire within: The life and work of Edward Emerson Barnard (Cambridge, 1995).
24.
BarnardE. E., “On some celestial photographs made with a large portrait lens at the Lick Observatory”, Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, l (1890), 310–14.
25.
“Meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society, Friday, May 10, 1895”, The observatory, xviii (1895), 215–25, pp. 217–18.
26.
Ibid., 218.
27.
Ibid., 218.
28.
Ibid., 220.
29.
BarnardE. E., “On the extended nebulosity about 15 Monocerotis”, Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, lvi (1895), 63–5, pp. 64–5.
30.
Ibid., 65.
31.
“Meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society, Friday, April 10, 1896”, The observatory, xix (1896), 179–85, pp. 181–2.
32.
Ibid., 182.
33.
BarnardE. E., “On the comparison of reflector and portrait lens photographs”, Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, lvii (1896), 10–16, p. 14.
34.
Ibid., 10.
35.
Letter from Roberts to Secretaries of RAS, 14 December 1896. RAS Archives, RAS Letters, 96.
36.
“Meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society, Friday, May 13, 1898”, The observatory, xxi (1898), 221–32, pp. 221–2.
37.
RobertsIsaac, “Photographs of the nebulae in the Pleiades, of stars in the surrounding regions and of spurious nebulosity”, Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, lviii (1898), 392–7, p. 397. (Roberts's photographs of the Pleiades are reproduced facing p. 392.).
38.
“Meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society, Friday, May 13, 1898”, The observatory, xxi (1898), 221–32, p. 223.
39.
Ibid., 224.
40.
“Meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society, Friday, November 11, 1898”, The observatory, xxi (1898), 425–34, pp. 431–2.
41.
BarnardE. E., “Note on the exterior nebulosities of the Pleiades”, Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, lix (1899), 155.
42.
LatusseckArndt, “William Herschel's fifty-two fields of extensive diffused nebulosity — A revision”, Journal of astronomical history and heritage, xi (2008), 235–46, pp. 236–7.
43.
“Meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society, Friday, 1902 November 14”, The observatory, xxv (1902), 417–25, p. 418.
44.
RobertsIsaac, “William Herschel's observed nebulous regions, 52 in number, compared with Isaac Roberts' photographs of the same regions, taken simultaneously with the 20-inch reflector and the 5-inch Cooke lens”, Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, lxiii (1902), 26–34; RobertsIsaac, “William Herschel's observed nebulous regions, 52 in number, compared with Isaac Roberts' photographs of the same regions, taken simultaneously with the 20-inch reflector and the 5-inch Cooke lens”, Astronomische Nachrichten, clx (1903), cols 338–44; and RobertsIsaac, “Herschel's nebulous regions”, Astrophysical journal, xvii (1903), 1903–76.
45.
WolfMax, “On three of Sir William Herschel's observed nebulous regions in Orion”, Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, lxiii (1903), 303–4, p. 303.
46.
BarnardE. E., “Diffused nebulosities in the heavens”, Astrophysical journal, xvii (1903), 77–80, pp. 77–8.
47.
Ibid., 79–80.
48.
Ibid., 80.
49.
“Meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society, Friday, 1903 March 13”, The observatory, xxvi (1903), 153–67, p. 158.
50.
Ibid., 159.
51.
Barnard, op. cit. (ref. 46), 78.
52.
RobertsMrs Isaac, née Dorothea Klumpke, Isaac Roberts' Atlas of 52 Regions: A guide to Herschel's fields (avec texte anglais et texte français). Edition commemorating ISAAC ROBERTS' centenary (1829–1904) (Thomery, France, 1929).
53.
RobertsIsaac, A selection of photographs of stars, star-clusters and nebulae, together with information concerning the instruments and the methods employed in the pursuit of celestial photography (London, 1893); Roberts, Photographs (ref. 20).
54.
Letters from Roberts to [W. H.] Wesley (Assistant Secretary, RAS), 2 April 1888 and 6 April 1888. RAS Archives, RAS Letters, 88.
55.
“Meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society, Friday, 1903 March 13”, The observatory, xxvi (1903), 153–67, p. 160.
56.
Barnard, op. cit. (ref. 46), 79.
57.
Latusseck, op. cit. (ref. 42), 242.
58.
Latusseck, op. cit. (ref. 42), 236, 244.
59.
Statement by Roberts to Council of RAS, enclosed with letter from Roberts to Secretaries of RAS, 8 February 1896. RAS Archives, RAS Letters, 96.
60.
Letter from Roberts to Secretaries of RAS, 10 February 1896. RAS Archives, RAS Letters, 96.
61.
Letter from Roberts to Turner, 15 February 1896. RAS Archives, RAS Letters, 96. From “But, a cock and a bull story” onwards, the text is crossed out, probably by Turner, but is still clearly legible.
62.
“Meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society. Friday, January 10, 1896”, The observatory, xix (1896), 71–81.
63.
Quoted in Sheehan, The immortal fire within (ref. 23), 227.
