William Herschel's Agenda for His Son John

Royal Astronomical Society Herschel Archive (hereafter: RAS) W.2/6, f. 25.

Letter of 27 April 1802, RAS W.1/13.W.76. I thank Clifford Cunningham for this referemce.

Hoskin Michael , Discoverers of the universe: William and Caroline Herschel (Princeton, 2011; hereafter: Discoverers), 153.

“Account of telescopes”, undated but before the casting of new mirrors for the 20-ft by William and John in June 1817 (see below). Transcribed in Dreyer J. L. E. (ed.), The scientific papers of Sir William Herschel (2 vols, London, 1912; hereafter: Papers), i, p. lv: “I cannot recommend the 40 feet to be kept up.”

Hoskin , Discoverers, 182–3.

Hoskin Michael , “Herschel's 40ft reflector: Funding and functions”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xxxiv (2003), 1–32.

Serio G. Foderà Manara A. Sicoli P. , “Giuseppe Piazzi and the discovery of Ceres”, Asteroids III, ed. by Bottke W. F. (Tucson, 2002), 17–24.

Hoskin , Discoverers, 49–51.

RAS W.2/4.

RAS W.2/8.1.

If he had, there would be mention of it in his observing logs, RAS J.1.

For the final polishing, see Herschel John Mrs , Memoir and correspondence of Caroline Herschel , 2nd edn (London, 1879; hereafter: Memoir), 124. For the final observation, see RAS W.2/2.8, where there is no doubt that the year in question is 1814. Unfortunately in later writing up the observation for the Saturn file, Caroline erroneously wrote “August 1815”, RAS W.3/1.9, and this misled Dreyer (Papers, i, p. liii).

See ref. 4.

Letter of 6 June 1801, RAS W.1/13.B.117.

RAS W.1/8.

“Review of the Ecliptic. By triangles trapesia etc”, RAS W.4/3, f. 1.

Letter of 27 October 1801, RAS W.1/1.

By Nevil Maskelyne, letter of 4 Feb. 1802, RAS W.1/13.M.63.

William's first measurements were conveyed to the Royal Society in a paper that was not published at the time, “Observations of a new planet”, Dreyer , Papers, pp. cix–cxi.

“Observations on the nature of the new celestial body discovered by Dr. Olbers …”, Philosophical transactions , xcvii (1807), 260–6; Dreyer , Papers , ii, 399–402, p. 401. In his published papers, William never commented on the suggestion made to him by Olbers in his letter of 17 June 1802 (RAS W.1/13.O.2) that Ceres and Pallas may be fragments of a planet that had long ago burst into pieces either through the impact of a comet or from an internal explosion (Constance A. Lubbock, The Herschel chronicle (Cambridge, 1933), 273). But in 1813 he told his friend Thomas Campbell that “He was convinced that there had existed a planet between Mars and Jupiter, in our system, of which all little Asteroids, or platetkins, lately discovered, are indubitably fragments” (ibid., 336).

Letter of 29 Aug. 1808, RAS W.1/13.G.22.

Letter of 6 Sept. 1808, RAS W.1/13.G.23.

RAS W.3/1.13, 1–3.

Letter of 24 May 1811, RAS W.1/13.G.24.

Letter of 24 Oct. 1812, RAS W.1/13.G.29.

RAS W.3/1.13, 4.

Letter of 6 Nov. 1813, RAS W.1/13.G.30.

Letter of 8 Feb. 1814, RAS W.1/13.G.31.

RAS W.3/1.13, 4. Groombridge was to try one more time. On 7 September 1818 he sent William (and therefore John) ephemerides for both Pallas and Ceres; but there was no response from either. RAS W.1/13.G.32.

RAS J.1/1, 6.

RAS J.1/1, 9.

See for example the discussion in Barthélemy de Saint-Fond Faujas , Travels through England, Scotland, and the Hebrides, i (London, 1799), 63–77.

William's 1783 paper on the solar apex is reprinted and analysed in Hoskin Michael , The construction of the heavens: William Herschel's cosmology (Cambridge, 2012), 22–33, 87–98.

Letter of 15 March 1783, RAS W.1/13.M.22.

Eddington Arthur , “Herschel's researches on the structure of the heavens”, Occasional notes of the Royal Astronomical Society, i (1938–41), 27–32, p. 30.

Bessel F. W. , Fundamenta astronomiae pro anno 1755 (Königsberg, 1818).

Michell John , “An inquiry into the possible parallax and magnitude of the fixed stars …”, Philosophical transactions, lvii (1767), 234–64.

“Account of the changes that have happened, during the last twenty-five years, in the relative situation of double stars …”, Philosophical transactions , xciii (1803), 339–82; “Continuation …”, ibid, xciv (1804), 353–84.

John's mother Mary warned him that he faced “a long, arduous task if you mean to go over all your Father's double stars. It will take years to do it”. Mary Herschel to John Herschel, 1816, Herschel Papers, Harry Ransom Humanities Center, University of Texas at Austin, M0620.5. 40. RAS J.1/1, 1.

Herschel J. F. W. South J. , “Observations of the apparent distances and positions of 380 double and triple stars …”, Philosophical transactions, cxiv (1824), 1–412.

Letter from John to South, 16 April 1825, Royal Society HS 16.435. I owe this reference to Brian Warner.

Published in six articles in Memoirs of the Astronomical Society, ii (1826) to ix (1836).

Savary F. , “Sur la détermination des orbites que décrivent autour de leur centre de gravité deux étoiles très-rapprochées l'une de l'autre”, Connaissance des temps … pour l'année 1830 (Paris, 1827), 56–69, 163–71.

John to Caroline, 17 April 1832, cited in Lubbock, Chronicle (ref. 20), 381.

“Catalogue of one thousand new nebulae and clusters of stars”, Philosophical transactions, lxxvi (1786), 457–99.

“Catalogue of a second thousand …”, ibid., lxxix (1789), 212–55.

“On nebulous stars, properly so-called”, ibid., lxxxi (1791), 71–88.

“Catalogue of 500 new nebulae …”, ibid., xcii (1802), 477–528.

RAS W.2/8.2 and W.2/8.3. See Hoskin Michael , “Unfinished business: William Herschel's sweeps for nebulae”, History of science, xliii (2005), 305–20.

op. cit. (ref. 46), 457.

Caroline's rough lists, dated 10 April 1812, of “Vacant places taken from the Register by Flamsteed's time and PD”, and of “half swept places”, are in RAS W.2/7, f. 3r–v, while her four-page catalogue and its related “Polar map” are in RAS W.2/7, ff. 7r–9r.

This was the format of Messier's own catalogues, but it was one thing to search a single list of 103 objects, and quite another multiple lists that totalled 2500.

Memoir, 126.

British Library microfilm, M/588(4). She notes: “Completed the Cat. of stars in 1818.”

RAS J.1/10, 1.

RAS W.5/12.4.

See ref. 4.

So, for example, on 23 Nov. 1816 he examined M31, M32, M36, M37, M38, M1, and M35, RAS J.1/1.

Original typescript of Lubbock, Chronicle (in possession of Herschel Museum, Bath), chap. 25, 18.

Ibid.

Herschel J. W. F. , “Account of some observations made with a 20-feet reflecting telescope”, Astronomical Society memoirs, ii (1826), 459–97.

RAS J.1/1.

Ibid.

RAS J.1/1, 43–5.

RAS J.1/1, 45, observation of 2 July 1823, “Round excess. faint neb 1′ diam. resolvable.”

RAS W.2/1.2, f. 231. Hoskin, Construction (ref. 33), 56–7.

RAS J.1/1, 10v.

John to Caroline, 1 August 1823, Memoir, 169.

Caroline to John, 11 August 1823, Memoir, 171.

John to John Grahame, 25 October 1824, Royal Society HS 8.320.

Caroline to John, 14 January 1825, Memoir, 181. This remarkable work, “A catalogue of the nebulae which have been observed by William Herschel in a series of sweeps, brought into zones of N.P. Distances and order of R.A. for the year 1800”, survives as Royal Society MS/279. Her labours — Arguably her greatest single contribution to astronomy — Would win her the Gold Medal of what is now the Royal Astronomical Society.

John to Caroline, 18 April 1825, Memoir, 188.

John to Caroline, 4–11 May 1827, Memoir, 213.

John to Babbage, 12 Feb. 1828, Royal Society HS 2.219.

John Herschel, op. cit. (ref. 62), 461. See Hoskin , Discoverers, 195.

Steinicke Wolfgang , Observing and cataloguing nebulae and star clusters: From Herschel to Dreyer's New General Catalogue (Cambridge, 2010), 58.

Herschel John , “Observations of nebulae and clusters, made at Slough …”, Philosophical transactions, cxxiii (1833), 359–506.

On John's Slough catalogue, see chap. 3 of Steinicke, op. cit. (ref. 77).

John Herschel, op. cit. (ref. 78), 361.

Hoskin Michael , “William Herschel and the southern skies”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xli (2010), 503.

On 30 July 1783, when looking for double stars in Piscis Austrinus, William noted of a particular star: “I can not verify the Stars being double tho' I have still some suspicion. The prismatic power of the Atmosphere is a great hindrance; I wish myself at the cape of good hope to view it there.” RAS W.4/1.5, 400.

Mary died in January 1832 and in her will (The National Archives, Kew, Prob 11/1794) she left a total of £1900 to her nephews and nieces and some minor bequests to servants, other than which everything went to John.

Herschel John , Results of astronomical observations made … at the Cape of Good Hope. Being a completion of a telescopic survey of the whole of the visible heavens, commenced in 1825 (London, 1847).

John to Caroline, 11 July 1847, Memoir, 342.