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細節
MASKELYNE, Nevil (1732-1811). Series of thirteen autograph letters, twelve signed ('N. Maskelyne', once ‘Nevil Maskelyne’), eleven to Edward Pigott and two to John Goodricke, Greenwich, 9 April 1781 – 9 September 1799, occasional pencil additions in Pigott’s hand.
27 pages in total, 4to and folio, chiefly on bifolia with address dockets (occasionally split at folds and small marginal losses, seal tears), laid into an album, quarter calf, marbled boards, folio. Provenance: Fairfax of Cameron, 20th C ex-libris; Roy Davids Collection.
LETTERS OF SCIENTIFIC COLLABORATION, SUPERVISION AND ADVICE FROM THE ASTRONOMER ROYAL. In this correspondence to Pigott and Goodricke at York, the exchange of astronomical observations chiefly relating to Maskelyne’s work on the transits of the moon is accompanied on many occasions by notes and news relating to the study of astronomy – such as the possibility of 20 foot telescopes instead of the more routine 4 or 5 – and its practitioners, many of whom are mentioned by name, including [Charles] Messier, [Pierre] Méchain, Michael Taylor, [Giuseppe] Toaldo, [James] Bradley and Flamsteed. Maskelyne has original manuscripts from the latter two: he explains a consistent flaw in the observations of Flamsteed to Pigott. At the centre of the letters are Maskelyne’s details of his lunar observations, both descriptive and technical: on one occasion these technical notes fill an entire folio page, elsewhere tables of calculations are incorporated into the text. Relying on information from York for tracking the transit of the moon and its crossing of the meridian, Maskelyne offers advice alongside exhortations to accuracy; one letter includes a diagram of a suggested transit instrument, after the note ‘I do not approve of a transit instrument placed as a diameter of the field’ – an altered diagram has been added in pencil by Pigott, as well as the comment that ‘The wires of our transit are much nearer than those at Greenwich’. Maskelyne mentions, generally with approval, Pigott's – and Goodricke’s – work on observing comets, Jupiter’s satellites, lunar eclipses, and using the night ascensions of the moon to compare meridians (‘I recommended it among others p. 41 of my instructions for the transit of Venus annexed to the nautical almanac of 1769’), stars of specific interest (ß Virginis, d Cephei), as well as the matter of putting papers of Pigott and Goodricke before the Royal Society. Reviews and recommendations of astronomical publications are included: Michael Taylor’s Table of Logarithms will be useful to the practical astronomer, as will Giuseppe Toaldo’s pamphlet on lunar night ascensions (though ‘you will see that he had no idea of such exactness as we pretend to’). The discoveries of comets by Pigott and Goodricke in 1783 and 1799 are noted, whilst elsewhere Maskelyne remarks ruefully that ‘I hope some time or other we shall be before Rand with the French in discovering telescopic comets. One of Dallard’s night-glasses of 30 inches long & 2 ½ inches aperture magnifying only 6 times is the best for it … This I believe is Mr Messier’s way. If ever you make such a discovery I shall be much obliged to you for the earliest intelligence’. [With:] manuscript numerical notes of moon transits, 1 May 1784-14 Nov 1785, in another hand, one page, 4to [and:] three engraved portraits of Maskelyne.
For Maskelyne, tasked with the weighty job as Astronomer Royal at Greenwich of ‘perfecting the Art of Navigation’ by the night sky, the astronomer Edward Pigott (1753-1825), who had built his own observatory at York, represented a worthy collaborator with whom he might exchange technical observations and more general comment. Piggott’s young friend and colleague, John Goodricke (1764-1786), would win the Royal Society’s Copley medal for the discovery and work on the periodic variation of d Cephei (with Pigott) in 1783, but would die at 21 before he could learn of his election to the Royal Society on the 16 April 1786.
27 pages in total, 4to and folio, chiefly on bifolia with address dockets (occasionally split at folds and small marginal losses, seal tears), laid into an album, quarter calf, marbled boards, folio. Provenance: Fairfax of Cameron, 20th C ex-libris; Roy Davids Collection.
LETTERS OF SCIENTIFIC COLLABORATION, SUPERVISION AND ADVICE FROM THE ASTRONOMER ROYAL. In this correspondence to Pigott and Goodricke at York, the exchange of astronomical observations chiefly relating to Maskelyne’s work on the transits of the moon is accompanied on many occasions by notes and news relating to the study of astronomy – such as the possibility of 20 foot telescopes instead of the more routine 4 or 5 – and its practitioners, many of whom are mentioned by name, including [Charles] Messier, [Pierre] Méchain, Michael Taylor, [Giuseppe] Toaldo, [James] Bradley and Flamsteed. Maskelyne has original manuscripts from the latter two: he explains a consistent flaw in the observations of Flamsteed to Pigott. At the centre of the letters are Maskelyne’s details of his lunar observations, both descriptive and technical: on one occasion these technical notes fill an entire folio page, elsewhere tables of calculations are incorporated into the text. Relying on information from York for tracking the transit of the moon and its crossing of the meridian, Maskelyne offers advice alongside exhortations to accuracy; one letter includes a diagram of a suggested transit instrument, after the note ‘I do not approve of a transit instrument placed as a diameter of the field’ – an altered diagram has been added in pencil by Pigott, as well as the comment that ‘The wires of our transit are much nearer than those at Greenwich’. Maskelyne mentions, generally with approval, Pigott's – and Goodricke’s – work on observing comets, Jupiter’s satellites, lunar eclipses, and using the night ascensions of the moon to compare meridians (‘I recommended it among others p. 41 of my instructions for the transit of Venus annexed to the nautical almanac of 1769’), stars of specific interest (ß Virginis, d Cephei), as well as the matter of putting papers of Pigott and Goodricke before the Royal Society. Reviews and recommendations of astronomical publications are included: Michael Taylor’s Table of Logarithms will be useful to the practical astronomer, as will Giuseppe Toaldo’s pamphlet on lunar night ascensions (though ‘you will see that he had no idea of such exactness as we pretend to’). The discoveries of comets by Pigott and Goodricke in 1783 and 1799 are noted, whilst elsewhere Maskelyne remarks ruefully that ‘I hope some time or other we shall be before Rand with the French in discovering telescopic comets. One of Dallard’s night-glasses of 30 inches long & 2 ½ inches aperture magnifying only 6 times is the best for it … This I believe is Mr Messier’s way. If ever you make such a discovery I shall be much obliged to you for the earliest intelligence’. [With:] manuscript numerical notes of moon transits, 1 May 1784-14 Nov 1785, in another hand, one page, 4to [and:] three engraved portraits of Maskelyne.
For Maskelyne, tasked with the weighty job as Astronomer Royal at Greenwich of ‘perfecting the Art of Navigation’ by the night sky, the astronomer Edward Pigott (1753-1825), who had built his own observatory at York, represented a worthy collaborator with whom he might exchange technical observations and more general comment. Piggott’s young friend and colleague, John Goodricke (1764-1786), would win the Royal Society’s Copley medal for the discovery and work on the periodic variation of d Cephei (with Pigott) in 1783, but would die at 21 before he could learn of his election to the Royal Society on the 16 April 1786.
榮譽呈獻
Eugenio Donadoni