Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Scientific Papers of Sir William Herschel Knt. Guelp., LL. D., F. R. S, Vol. 1: Including Early Papers Hitherto Unpublished; Collected and Edited Under the Direction of a Joint Committee of the Royal Society and the Royal Astronomical Society
It seemed desirable to reprint all herschel's published papers exactly as they had been issued by him, without omissions or altera tions, - except that actual errors of observation, or identification of the observed objects, should be pointed out. Some errors of this kind in the observations of Double Stars had been found, chie?y by the late Mr. H. Sadler, from an examination of the ms. Sheets belonging to the Royal Astronomical Society; and these have now been checked where necessary by reference to the original observing Journal. But it appeared to be specially important to take this Opportunity to make a revision of the three catalogues of Nebulae in order to clear up many difficulties in reconciling herschel's results with those of later observers. This has been done by an examination of the original sweeps, which, together with caroline herschel's Zone Catalogue and the observa tions of the objects in messier's catalogue, were lent for this purpose by the Royal Society. It is hoped that this revision has resulted in improving the accuracy of the three catalogues; but at the same time it should be stated that the revision has furnished additional proofs of the very great care with which the observations were both made and reduced.
The reprint has been made complete as regards the published scientific work, though this has involved the insertion in Vol. II. Of three papers on newton's coloured rings, which have not more than a personal interest (see Introduction, pp. Lvii-lviii).
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
