The paper discusses the origin of the commonly used Flamsteed star numbers, which are missing in John Flamsteed’s British Catalogue (1725) and accompanying Atlas coelestis (1729). Johann Elert Bode introduced these numbers in the Sammlung Astronomischer Tafeln (1776). Herschel independently created them in 1781 for his third star review. At that time he purchased Flamsteed’s Atlas coelestis and the question arises, which star chart did he use before, especially when Uranus was discovered. This leads to two star maps, linked to the Welsh astronomer Joseph Harris and based on stars whose positions were measured by Flamsteed and Halley.
BailyF., An account of the Revd. John Flamsteed, the first Astronomer Royal (London, 1835). The preface contains the story of Halley’s edition and Flamsteed’s response. Part I of Baily’s book is a detailed biography; Part II gives a revised version of the British Catalogue.
4.
GingerichO., “A unique copy of Flamsteed’s Historia coelestis (1712)”, in: WillmothF. (ed.), Flamsteed’s stars: New perspectives on the life and work of the first Astronomer Royal, 1646–1719 (Woodbridge, 1997), 189–97. There exist a few other copies in the UK with just the parts that were burned, but that owned by Gingerich is the only one with annotations.
5.
There are no reliable life dates for Joseph Crosthwait. Some sources give “1681–1719”, but this is wrong (note that 1719 is Flamsteed’s year of death), Wolfgang Dick, private communication.
6.
PerkinsA., “It was Flamsteed indeed”, Sky & telescope, lxxxii (1991), 454 and 491. Flamsteed’s manuscript differs from Halley’s publication in the star coordinate format: Halley (and the British Catalogue) gives the right ascension in degrees and the polar distance; the manuscript gives the right ascension in hours and the zenith distance.
7.
GingerichOwen, private communication.
8.
Flamsteed’s British Catalogue (1725) and Atlas coelestis (1729) were edited by his wife Margaret and the mathematician James Hodgson. The southern extension (based on Halley’s observation on St Helena) is the work of Flamsteed’s friend and early assistant Abraham Sharp. It lists stars below −30° declination, presented in the atlas on a planisphere.
9.
KilburnK. J.PasachoffJ. M.GingerichO., “The forgotten star atlas: John Bevis’s Uranographia Britannica”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xxxiv (2003), 125–44.
10.
WarnerD. J., Letter to Sky & telescope, xlvi (1973), 95; see also: RidpathI., Star tales (Cambridge, 1989). Lalande’s catalogue contains 2884 stars (again for 1690); the numbers appear in the column “Flamsteed” (see ref. 17).
11.
SchweminF., Der Berliner Astronom – Leben und Werk von Johann Elert Bode (Frankfurt, 2006).
12.
BodeJ. E., Sammlung Astronomischer Tafeln (3 vols, Berlin, 1776), iii, 81–224. Owen Gingerich called my attention to this work.
13.
The star catalogues of Hevelius, Lacaille and Bradley were published in 1690, 1763 and 1762, respectively.
14.
BodeJ. E., Astronomisches Jahrbuch für 1781 (Berlin, 1778), 98–113.
15.
BodeJ. E., Vorstellung der Gestirne auf XXXIV Kupfertafeln nach der Pariser Ausgabe des Flamsteedschen Himmelsatlas (Berlin and Stralsund, 1782). “Pariser Ausgabe [Paris edition]” indicates Jean Fortin’s French version of the Atlas coelestis, published in 1771. Bode’s atlas is available at the Linda Hall Library: http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/astro_atlas/id/3179.
16.
It is not known why Bode turned back from 1800 to 1780. The positions of 280 stars in the Astronomisches Jahrbuch were always calculated for the almanac’s target year. Because there was no target year 1780, he perhaps wanted to fill the gap.
17.
LalandeJ. J., “Explication du Catalogue Britannique de Flamsteed”, Éphémérides des mouvemens célestes, 1785 à 1792 (Paris, 1782), pp. xxiii–xl; here the author mentions Bode’s Sammlung of 1776 (p. xxiii). The catalogue is on pp. 17–72.
18.
Royal Astronomical Society Herschel Archive (hereafter: RAS) W.2/1.1.
19.
HerschelW., “On the proper motion of the Sun and solar system”, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society, lxxiii (1783), 247–83, p. 249.
20.
RAS W.7/8.
21.
RAS W.4/1, 5.
22.
HerschelW., “Catalogue of double stars”, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, lxxii (1782), 112–62. Herschel’s first catalogue of double stars has 289 entries.
23.
RAS W.5/12.1, #45.
24.
RAS W.2/2.1, 107–8.
25.
Thus Herschel’s instrument was a forerunner of the modern Dobson reflector.
26.
It was not until December 1781 that Herschel received Mayer’s “De novis in coelo sidereo phaenomenis in miris stellarum fixarum comitibus” (1779); the catalogue lists 72 double stars, discovered at Mannheim. It was sent by William Watson, together with the second Messier catalogue of 1780. See: LubbockC. A., The Herschel chronicle (Cambridge, 1933), 96.
27.
Op. cit. (ref. 24).
28.
RAS W.2/2.2.
29.
RAS W.2/2.3.
30.
Herschel, op. cit. (ref. 19).
31.
GriffithsM., “Joseph Harris of Trevecka”, The antiquarian astronomer, no. 6 (January2012), 19–33. Some sources give 1702 for the year of Harris’s birth, but Griffiths found that he was christened on 16February1704.
HalleyE., “An account of several nebulae or lucid spots like clouds, lately discovered among the fixt stars by help of the telescope”, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society, xxix (1715), 390–2. The northern map additionally shows Praesepe (M 44). The Atlas coelestis contains no nebulae or clusters.
36.
This changed in 1784 when Herschel discovered many new nebulae and clusters, requiring modern positions for reference stars taken from the British Catalogue. He introduced an epoch of 1785 (later 1800); the necessary calculations were made by Caroline (RAS C.2/1.2).
37.
The star is SAO 30076 (4.8 mag), 3.5° NW of µ Draconis (5.6 mag).
38.
RAS W.4/1.1, 91–5.
39.
Concerning the 7-ft reflector at power 227, Herschel wrote: “my field of view is 4′ 27″.968”; op. cit. (ref. 38), memorandum of March 18. He also reported that the “comet [Uranus] was followed by a small star at the distance of 2/3 of the field”, which “is about 2′ 58″”; the star is SAO 77589 (9.2 mag).
40.
In Herschel’s double star catalogues the maximum distance between the reference star (Bayer, Flamsteed) and the discovered double/multiple star is 4.4° (mean 1.1°). Herschel must have thoroughly scanned the vicinity with his small field of view.
41.
When on 17 February 1782 Herschel found the double star III 53 near γ Virginis, he was only 1.4° away from Neptune (7.9 mag)! The star (SAO 138952, 7.3 mag) is listed in the first catalogue of double stars, op. cit. (ref. 22).
42.
BodeJ. E., Astronomisches Jahrbuch für 1788 (Berlin, 1784), 243–7.
43.
RAS C.3/1.1; RAS W.4/1.5, 440. During this period, Herschel moved from Bath to Datchet (2August1782).
44.
RAS W.2/2.4.
45.
Herschel, op. cit. (ref. 19). Indeed, the mean separation of new double stars was halved in the third review.
46.
Lubbock, op. cit. (ref. 26), 60.
47.
FergusonJ., Astronomy explained upon Sir Isaac Newton’s principles (London, 1756), sect. 355.
48.
HerschelW., “On the method of observing the changes that happen to the fixed stars”, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society, lxxxvi (1796), 166–226, p. 187: “Each page [of Herschel’s star table] is divided into four columns, the first of which gives the number of the stars in the British catalogue of Mr. FLAMSTEED, as they stand arranged in the edition of 1725.”
49.
Herschel, op. cit. (ref. 19), 2. The star “near the lucid foot of Pollux” is γ Geminorum.
50.
Herschel also claimed to have observed the 4th and 5th satellite of Saturn on 4, 5 and 7 April. Actually, they were the 6th (Titan) and 8th (Japetus).
51.
Ferguson, op. cit. (ref. 47), sect. 359. The 27-inch celestial globe (the other is a terrestrial) produced by Senex was also based on Halley’s pirated edition of the Flamsteed catalogue; it was advertised: “on the Celestial, are placed all the Stars in Mr. Flamsteed’s Catalogue, as published by Dr Halley” (Elly Dekker, private communication).
52.
RAS W.4/1.2, 140. In “Journal No. 3” the star is already mentioned on 21 August 1781 as “23 Hercules. Flamsteed”, but this seems to be a later addition (RAS W.2/1.3, 26).
53.
Herschel, op. cit. (ref. 22); the name “Harris” appears six times in this catalogue. It contains some double stars (and dates), mentioned neither in the Journals nor in the “Fixt Stars”, i.e. these documents are incomplete.
54.
DreyerJ. L. E., The scientific papers of Sir William Herschel (London, 1912).
55.
Lubbock, op. cit. (ref. 26), 203.
56.
RAS C.3/6.1, last 3 pages. The first pages of the manuscript list “Extracts from Bodes Jahrbüchern”, starting with that published in 1783 (for the year 1786). Herschel had got the first two almanacs (for 1786/87) in 1785, announced in a letter from Bode, dated 13 August 1785. See: Lubbock, op. cit. (ref. 26), 207.
57.
MaurerF. H. (ed.), G. C. Lichtenberg, Schriften und Briefe (Frankfurt, 1983), iv, 342.
58.
Lubbock, op. cit. (ref. 26), 207. When “Bode’s catalogue” is mentioned in manuscripts or publications after 1801 (e.g. in Herschel’s third catalogue of nebulae), always Bode’s new catalogue and atlas (Uranographia), containing 17240 stars, is meant: BodeJ. E., Allgemeine Beschreibung und Nachweisung der Gestirne nebst Verzeichniss der geraden Aufsteigung und Abweichung von 17240 Sternen, Doppelsternen, Nebelflecken und Sternhaufen (Berlin, 1801). The work arrived at Slough on 24 September 1801; see RAS C.4/3.1, 18.
59.
HerschelJohnMrs, Memoir and correspondence of Caroline Herschel, 2nd edn (London, 1879), 71. In the letter to Dietrich, Caroline also mentions Harris’s maps: “I believe you have a pair of Harris’s maps.”
60.
RAS C.2/10.
61.
Op. cit. (ref. 59), 45. For instance, H Geminorum is correctly designated “1” (Fig. 5). Caroline also added Messier objects, marked by a dot and an underlined number.
62.
HerschelW., “Catalogue of double stars”, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society, lxxv (1785), 40–126, p. 43. Herschel’s second catalogue of double stars has 434 entries. It is interesting that H Geminorum is mentioned as a reference star “H (FL. Iam) Geminorum”. 2/3° west of it Herschel had discovered a quadruple star (IV 48) on 6 February 1782. The curious ensemble was found a second time, now as cluster VIII 26, on 16 November 1784 (sweep 317); again the reference star was “1 (H) Geminorum”. See RAS W.2/3.3.
63.
The place of the “Georgium Sidus” at the discovery date is not marked.
64.
The plate numbers of the British editions of 1753 and 1781 are identical, whereas Fortin’s French edition of 1771 (see ref. 15) has a different chart order and numbering.
65.
Op. cit. (ref. 22).
66.
RAS W.4/1.3, 216–17; RAS W.2/1.4, 21–2.
67.
RAS W.4/1.3, 238. The fascinating story of “Herschel’s garnet star” will be told in a forthcoming paper.
68.
The neighbouring star ν Cephei is problematic too.
69.
HerschelC., Catalogue of stars, taken from Mr. Flamsteed’s observations contained in the second volume of the Historia Coelestis, and not inserted in the British Catalogue (London, 1798).
70.
SteinickeWolfgang, Observing and cataloguing nebulae and star clusters: From Herschel to Dreyer’s New General Catalogue (Cambridge, 2010).
71.
The two stars are the famous quadruple (trapezium) in the Orion Nebula (11 November 1776) and Castor (8 April 1778); see Herschel’s first double star catalogue, op. cit. (ref. 22). A third early discovery is listed there: the “periodical star in Collo Ceti” (Mira) on 20 October 1777, but this is wrong (the star was not visible); the correct date is 19 October 1779.
72.
The nebulae found by Herschel prior to his sweeps is the subject of a forthcoming paper
