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HERSCHEL, John Frederick William (1792-1871). Results of astronomical observations made during the years 1834, 5, 6, 7, 8, at the Cape of Good Hope; being the completion of a telescopic survey of the whole surface of the visible heavens, commenced in 1825. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1847.
4o (305 x 244 mm). Half-title, lithographed frontispiece, a few woodcut diagrams, 17 numbered plates of stars and nebulae after Herschel (4 folding) of which 13 engraved by James Basire and 4 lithographed. (Occasional light foxing.) Contemporary black blind-stamped morocco, spine gilt lettered and tooled in blind, pale blue moir silk doublures, gilt edges (upper joint split); cloth folding case. Provenance: Lady Charlotte Florentina Clive, the Dowager Duchess of Northumberland (author's inscription on front flyleaf).
FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY TO THE DEDICATEE'S WIDOW, of Herschel's monumental survey of the stars of the southern hemisphere, a complement to his father's survey of the northern celestial hemisphere. Herschel devoted 5 years to the project, which he had chosen to carry out at the Cape of Good Hope. In a suburb south of Cape Town he constructed a 20-foot reflecting telescope, with which he methodically explored the night skies. "By 1838 he had swept the whole of the southern sky, cataloged 1,707 nebulae and clusters, and listed 2,102 pairs of binary stars. He carried out star counts, on William Herschel's plan, of 68,948 stars in 3,000 sky areas... He produced detailed sketches and maps of several objects, including the Orion region, the Eta Carinae nebula, and the Magellanic Clouds, and extremely accurate drawings of many extragalactic and planetary nebulae... Herschel invented a device called an astrometer, which enabled him to compare the brightness of stars with an image of the full moon of which he could control the apparent brightness, and thus introduced numerical measurements into stellar photometry" (DSB). He dedicated the final work to the memory of Hugh Percy, third Duke of Northumberland (1785-1847), chancellor of Cambridge University and a patron of science, who had died shortly before the book's publication. Norman 1056.
4o (305 x 244 mm). Half-title, lithographed frontispiece, a few woodcut diagrams, 17 numbered plates of stars and nebulae after Herschel (4 folding) of which 13 engraved by James Basire and 4 lithographed. (Occasional light foxing.) Contemporary black blind-stamped morocco, spine gilt lettered and tooled in blind, pale blue moir silk doublures, gilt edges (upper joint split); cloth folding case. Provenance: Lady Charlotte Florentina Clive, the Dowager Duchess of Northumberland (author's inscription on front flyleaf).
FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION COPY TO THE DEDICATEE'S WIDOW, of Herschel's monumental survey of the stars of the southern hemisphere, a complement to his father's survey of the northern celestial hemisphere. Herschel devoted 5 years to the project, which he had chosen to carry out at the Cape of Good Hope. In a suburb south of Cape Town he constructed a 20-foot reflecting telescope, with which he methodically explored the night skies. "By 1838 he had swept the whole of the southern sky, cataloged 1,707 nebulae and clusters, and listed 2,102 pairs of binary stars. He carried out star counts, on William Herschel's plan, of 68,948 stars in 3,000 sky areas... He produced detailed sketches and maps of several objects, including the Orion region, the Eta Carinae nebula, and the Magellanic Clouds, and extremely accurate drawings of many extragalactic and planetary nebulae... Herschel invented a device called an astrometer, which enabled him to compare the brightness of stars with an image of the full moon of which he could control the apparent brightness, and thus introduced numerical measurements into stellar photometry" (DSB). He dedicated the final work to the memory of Hugh Percy, third Duke of Northumberland (1785-1847), chancellor of Cambridge University and a patron of science, who had died shortly before the book's publication. Norman 1056.