Was There Such a Thing as Stellar Astronomy in the Eighteenth Century?

See Cantor G. , “The eighteenth century problem”. History of science, xx (1982), 44–63, in which he reviews Rousseau G. and Porter R. S. (eds), The ferment of knowledge (Cambridge, 1980).

These surveys include Grant R. , A history of physical astronomy (London, 1852); Wolf G. , Geschichte der Astronomie (Munich, 1877); Berry A. , A short history of astronomy (London, 1898); Doig P. , A concise history of astronomy (London, 1950); Pannekoek A. , A history of astronomy (English trans., London, 1961).

For example, Jaki S. L. , The Milky Way (Newton Abbot, 1973), and The paradox of Olbers' paradox (New York, 1969); Jones K. Glyn , The search for the nebulae (Chalfont St Giles, 1975); Hoskin M. A. , “Stellar distances: Galileo's method and its subsequent history”, Indian journal of history of science, i (1966), 22–29, and “Goodricke, Pigott and the quest for variable stars”, Journal for the history of astronomy, x (1979), 23–41; Fernie J. D. , “The historical search for stellar parallax”, Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, lxix (1975), 153–61, 222–39; Peters C. A. F. , “Recherches sur la parallaxe des étoiles fixes”, Mémoires de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences de St Petersbourg, 6 série, v (St Petersburg, 1853), 1–180.

Grant , op. cit. (ref. 2), ch. 21.

Wolf , op. cit. (ref. 2); and Gierke A. , A history of astronomy during the nineteenth century (London, 1885, 1887, 1893, 1902), ch. 1.

Hoskin M. A. , “Sidereal astronomy in adolescence”, in Taton R. (ed.), Avant, avec, après Copernic (Paris, 1975), 315–42, and Stellar astronomy: Historical studies (Chalfont St Giles, 1982).

Hoskin M. A. , “The cosmology of Thomas Wright of Durham”, Journal for the history of astronomy, i (1970), 44–52, and William Herschel and the construction of the heavens (London, 1963); Forbes E. G. , Introduction to Tobias Mayer's Opera inedita (London, 1971); idem, “Tobias Mayer's contributions to observational astronomy”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xi (1980), 28–49; idem, parts of Tobias Mayer (1723–62), pioneer of enlightened science in Germany (Göttingen, 1980).

See for example the final three papers in ref. 3.

See Hoskin , op. cit. (ref. 6), and especially Jones, op. cit. (ref. 3), 20–82.

Jones , op. cit. (ref. 3), 2; Halley E. , “An account of several nebulae or lucid spots like clouds, lately discovered among the fixt stars by the help of the telescope”, Philosophical transactions, xxix (1715–16), 390–2.

le Gentil G.J. , “Mémoire sur une étoile nébuleuse”, Mémoires de mathématiques et physiques (savons étrangers), ii (1755), 137–44, and “Remarques sur les étoiles nébuleuses”, Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences pour 1759 (1765), 453–71; Bode J. E. , “Ueber einige neuentdeckte Nebelsterne und einem vollständigen Verzeichnisse der bisher bekannten”, Astronomisches Jahrbuch für 1779 (1777), 65–71, followed by a note in Astronomisches Jahrbuch für 1782 (1780), 155–7; Messier's three publications were lists of nebulae, updated as necessary: Messier C. , “Catalogues des nébuleuses et des amas d'étoiles …”, Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences pour 1771 (1774), 435–61, continued in Connoissance des temps pour 1783 (1780), 225–49, and Connoissance des temps pour 1784 (1781), 227–69.

Flamsteed J. , Historia coelestis Britannica (London, 1725), and Atlas coelestis (London, 1729). For the references made to nebulae see Jones, op. cit. (ref. 3), 21.

A detailed analysis of the extant copies of Bevis's atlas may be found in Ashworth W. B. Jr , “John Bevis and his Uranographia (c. 1750)”, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, cxxv (1981), 52–73.

de Mairan J. J. , Traité physique et historique de l'aurore boréale (Paris, 1732).

Gassini J. , Élémens d'astronomie (Paris, 1740), Book 1, 77–79.

de Maupertuis P. L. M. , “Discours sur les différentes figures des corps celestes”, Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences pour 1734 (1736), 55–83.

de Maupertuis P. L. M. , Discours sur les différentes figures des astres (Paris, 1732), trans. into English by J. Keill, “A dissertation on the different figures of the coelestial bodies … with a summary exposition of the Cartesian and Newtonian systems …”, appended to An examination of Dr Burnet's Theory of the Earth (London, 1734).

Maupertuis's use of the shape of celestial bodies in his polemic is discussed in Beeson D. , “The debate in France on the shape of the Earth: 1700–1740”, presented at the British Society for the History of Science conference on “New perspectives in eighteenth century science” (March 1982).

de Lacaille N. L. , “Sur les étoiles nébuleuses du ciel austral”, Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences pour 1755 (1761), 194–9; although Lacaille's vast number of observations was presented to the Academy on his return from the Cape, it was published posthumously (by Maraldi J. D. ): Coelum australe stelliferum (Paris, 1763).

See the introduction to Bode's 1777 list of nebulae (ref. 11).

It is made very clearly, for example, in Gingerich O. , “Charles Messier”, Dictionary of scientific biography, ix (New York, 1974), 329–31.

In the Connoissance des temps pour 1800, Messier wrote: “What caused me to undertake the catalogue was the nebula I discovered above the southern horn of Taurus on September 12, 1758, while observing the comet of that year… This nebula had such a resemblance to a comet, in its form and brightness, that I endeavoured to find others, so that astronomers would not confuse these same nebulae with comets just beginning to shine” (trans. by Gingerich , op. cit. (ref. 21)). Confirmation of Messier's view is also to be found in his “Notice de mes comètes”, Archives of the Paris Observatory, C.2.19.

Maraldi J. D. , “Observations de la comète qui a paru au mois d'août 1746”, Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences pour 1746 (1751), 56–62; extract of a letter from B. Oriani, published by J. E. Bode in his Astronomisches Jahrbuch für 1784 (1782), 181–2; extract of a letter from J. G. Koehler to Bode published in the Astronomisches Jahrbuch für 1782 (1780), 151; A. Darquier's observations were incorporated by Lalande in his star catalogue of 1801.

Bode , op. cit. (ref. 11, 1777), 65.

Halley , op. cit. (ref. 10), 392.

Derham W. , “Observations of the appearances among the fix'd stars, called nebulous stars”, Philosophical transactions, xxxviii (1733–34), 70–74, p. 70.

The letter was not published until the end of the next century; see Bigourdan G. , Observations de nébuleuses et d'amas stellaires (Paris, 1891), G1–G15.

Halley E. , “Considerations on the change of the latitudes of some of the principal fixt stars”, Philosophical transactions, xxx (1718), 736–8.

le Monnier P. , Histoire céleste (Paris, 1741), Introduction; Gassini J. , “Du mouvement apparent des étoiles fixes en longitude”, Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences pour 1737 (1740), 237–87.

Forbes , Mayer's Opera inedita (see ref. 7), 108–12.

Hoskin M. A. , “Herschel's determination of the solar apex”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xi.

(1980), 153–63; for an alternative interpretation of Herschel's work in this area see Hendry J. , “Mayer, Herschel and Prévost on the solar motion”, Annals of science, xxxix (1982), 61–75.

Quoted in Forbes , Mayer's Opera inedita (see ref. 7), 112, and Mayer, pioneer, 189.

See Forbes , “Mayer's contribution …” (ref. 7), 28 for the appraisals of Mayer's work made by his contemporaries and successors. On the rise of positional astronomy see idem, Greenwich observatory: Its origin and early history (London, 1975), ch. 3; and Herrmann D. , “Some aspects of positional astronomy from Bradley to Bessel”, Vistas in astronomy, xx (1976), 183–6.

Rigaud S. P. (ed.), The works and correspondence of the Rev. James Bradley (London, 1832); see also the supplement to this volume (London, 1833). Bradley's remarks on a possible solar motion were made at the end of his paper “Concerning an apparent motion observed in some of the fix'd stars”. Philosophical transactions, xlv (1748), 1–43; reprinted in Rigaud, 17–41.

de Lalande J.J. L. , “Mémoire sur les taches du soleil & sur la rotation”, Mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences pour 1776 (1178), 457–514; pp. 513–14 refer to the possible solar motion.

Prévost P. , “Mémoire sur le mouvement progressif du centre de gravité de tout le système solaire”, Nouveaux mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences et Belles Lettres pour 1781 (Berlin, 1783), 418–21, and “Mémoire sur l'origine des vitesses projectiles, contenant quelques recherches sur le mouvement du système solaire”, ibid., 422–62.

See Fernie , op. cit. (ref. 3); Hoskin M. A. , “The English background to the cosmology of Wright and Herschel”, in Yourgrau W. and Breck A. D. (eds), Cosmology, history and theology (New York, London, 1977), 219–31, and “Newton, providence and the fixed stars”', Journal for the history of astronomy, viii (1977), 77–101.

This was the case Newton himself argued, see Corollary II to Proposition XIV, Book III of the 1726 edition of the Principia, in which he wrote “… since these stars are liable to no sensible parallax from the annual motion of the Earth, they can have no force, because of their immense distance, to produce any sensible effect in our system”.

These points are discussed more fully in Williams M. , “James Bradley and the eighteenth century ‘gap’ in attempts to measure annual stellar parallax”, Notes and records of the Royal Society, xxxvii (1982), 83–100.

Bradley J. , “An account of a new discovered motion of the fix'd stars”, Philosophical transactions, xxxv (1728–29), 637–61, and op. cit. (ref. 34).

The special importance of the Mémoires is discussed in Chapin S. L. , “The Academy of Sciences during the eighteenth century: An astronomical appraisal”, French historical studies, v (1968), 371–404.

It may be pointed out here that if the compilation of stellar catalogues and charts constitutes stellar astronomy that practice dates back to the time of Hipparchus at least.

The most important of these were over the figure of the Earth and the shape of planetary orbits.

de Lalande J. J. L. , Astronomie (Paris, 1764, 1771, 1792).

de Lalande J. J. L. , Bibliographie générale (Paris, 1802).

Lalande's first major publication on comets was his Histoire de la comète de 1759 (Paris, 1759); his subsequent interest in them and the way in which his audience reacted to it has been investigated by S. Schaffer, “Authorised prophets: Comets and astronomers in the eighteenth century” (unpublished paper presented at a British Society for the History of Science meeting, January 1981).

See Jaquel R. , “L'astronome et philosophe mulhousien Jean-Henri Lambert (1728–1777) et les comètes”, a series of essays in the Bulletin des professeurs du Lycée d'État de gar&çons de Mulhouse, between 1963 and 1968.

ibid., in particular the second essay: “Les études scientifiques de Lambert relatives aux comètes”, in the volume for 1965–66, 71–88, especially pp. 71–73.

Lambert J. H. , Insigniores orbitae cometarum proprietates (Augsburg, 1761); idem, Photometria, she de mensura et gradibus luminis colorum et umbrae (Augsburg, 1760); idem, Cosmologische Briefe (Augsburg, 1761), English translation, with a detailed introduction, Jaki S. L. , Cosmological letters (Edinburgh, 1976). Its lack of immediate impact is discussed by Jaki, 21–24.

Even in an assessment of Lambert, it may be noted that far more of the book is concerned with comets than is apparent in the secondary literature. The first eight letters (of twenty) deal specifically with comets, and in the seventh Lambert wrote: “You have so decreased the privilege, which the planets had in former times, only that you may show that one should look upon the comets from a higher and more important viewpoint …” (Jaki translation, 89–90).

A further point to be considered when trying to build up a network of practitioners within astronomy is clearly that certain members were not necessarily exclusively concerned with astronomical problems. An obvious candidate who had many other interests was the Rev. John Michell.

See Schaffer S. , “Herschel in Bedlam: Natural history and stellar astronomy”, British journal for the history of science, xiii (1980), 211–39, and “Uranus and the establishment of Herschel's astronomy”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xii (1981), 11–26.

See Williams M. E. W. , “Beyond the planets? Early nineteenth century studies of double stars” (forthcoming paper).