Gauss and the Discovery of Ceres

The quotation, along with the rest of the information in this paragraph, is taken from an English translation of Piazzi's memoir entitled: “Results of the observations of the new star discovered on the 1st of January 1801 at the Royal Observatory of Palermo”, to be found among Maskelyne's manuscripts at the Royal Greenwich Observatory (P.R.O. Ref. 285).

The first reliable and exhaustive report of these circumstances appeared under the title: “Über einen zwischen Mars and Jupiter längst vermutheten, nun wahrscheinlich entdeckten neuen Haupt-planeten unseres Sonnen-Systems” in von Zach , Monatliche Correspondenz zur Beförderung der Erd- und Himmels-Kunde, iii (1801), 592–623.

Von Zach to Maskelyne ; Seeberg, 30 March 1802 (R.G.O. MSS, P.R.O. Ref. 249).

Von Zach , op. cit. (ref. 2), 608–9.

Cf. ref. 1, Appendix.

This is referred to by Dunnington Waldo G. , Carl Friedrich Gauss: Titan of science (New York, 1955).

This result was a direct consequence of his adoption of the inverse-square distance law of gravitational attraction. Gauss's original method, referred to here, was first published in von Zach , Monatliche Correspondenz, xx (1809), 147–192.

These were published in von Zach , Monatliche Correspondenz, i (1801), 279–83.

It was subsequently found, however, that these errors amounted to only 3” or less in the values of the right ascension. Cf. ref. 1, Appendix; also, von Zach , Monatliche Correspondenz, iv (1801), 573.

Rough notes, in Maskelyne's hand, in: R.G.O. MSS, P.R.O. Ref. 249.

Moniteur, Quartidi 4 Pluvoise An 10, 24 January 1802.

Loc. cit. (ref. 10).

The original suggestion of the harmonic progression in the planetary distances with which Bode's name has come to be associated actually stems from Professor Titius Daniel Johann , who wrote a note about it in the German translation Betrachtung über die Natur… (Leipzig, 1772) of the second edition of Charles Bonnet's Contemplation de la Nature (Amsterdam, 1768).

Herschel William , “Observations on the two lately discovered celestial Bodies”, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society, cxxii (1802), 213–32; 218.

This is preserved among the Herschel papers in the Royal Astronomical Society library, London.

These are: An increase of 1′ in the right ascension of Ceres for 10 March, an increase of 1/2′ in its declination for 18 April, and a decrease of 1/2′ in its declination for 6 April.

Gauss to Maskelyne ; Brunswick, 20 February 1802 (loc. cit. (ref. 10)).

This value is cited at the head of an ephemeris of the equatorial co-ordinates of Ceres from 21 April to 29 June 1802 enclosed with Gauss's letter to Maskelyne of 3 April 1802 (ibid.).

Olbers to Gauss ; Bremen, 16 March 1802, remarks: “So wenig kommunikabel er sonst auch mit seinen Beobachtungen ist, so wird er sie Ihnen doch gewiss nicht abschlagen”. See Schilling C. , Wilhelm Olbers sein Leben und seine Werke, ii (Berlin, 1900), 15.

Loc. cit. (ref. 10).

Maskelyne to Gauss ; Greenwich, 1 October 1804 (cf. ref. 22). Maskelyne states: “I have, however, never seen Zach's Journal…”.

Cod. Ms. Gauss 102.

Forbes Eric G. , “The Correspondence between Carl Friedrich Gauss and the Rev. Nevil Maskelyne (1802–1805)”, Annals of science, xxvii (1971), 213–237.