Memoir and Correspondence of Caroline HerschelHerschel, John, Mrs.
History
Memoir and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel
Herschel, John, Mrs.
Herschel, Caroline Lucretia, 1750-1848
At the end of the Catalogue of Nebulæ I have put a list of memorandums
to the catalogue of omitted stars, and index to Flamsteed’s
Observations, contained in his second vol. They are properly not all to
be called errata, but mem. of errors, which could only be solved by
later observations, &c., &c.
* * * * *
All your father’s papers from the Phil. Trans., which are bound in five
volumes, and in which I have carried all corrections (in the Catalogues
of Nebulæ) I could find, I must keep a little longer, but they shall
come safe to your hands—along with Bode’s and Wollaston’s catalogues,
when my eyes have robbed me of the pleasure of reading—for which
misfortune I am in daily fear.
I am, dear nephew,
Yours affectionately,
C. HERSCHEL.
[Sidenote: 1825. _Life in Hanover._]
FROM J. F. W. HERSCHEL TO MISS HERSCHEL.
_April 18, 1825._
DEAR AUNT,—
I received this afternoon your most valuable packet containing your
labours of the last year, which I shall prize, and more than prize—shall
use myself, and make useful to others. A week ago I had the twenty-foot
directed on the nebulæ in Virgo, and determined afresh the right
ascensions and polar distances of thirty-six of them. These curious
objects (having now nearly finished the double stars) I shall now take
into my especial charge—nobody else can see them. I hope very soon (in a
fortnight or three weeks) to be able to transmit to you and to MM. Gauss
and Harding our work (Mr. South’s and my own) on the double stars, in
which you will find some of my father’s most interesting discoveries
placed beyond the reach of doubt. It will contain measures of the
position and distance of 380 double stars. But Mr. South, who is an
industrious astronomer (almost as much so as yourself), has just sent me
complete and accurate measures of 279 more, making in all 659. Among
these we have now verified not less than seventeen connected in binary
systems in the way pointed out by my father, and twenty-eight at least
in which no doubt of a material change having taken place can exist. M.
Struve, at Dorpat, and M. Amici, in Italy, have also taken up the
subject of double stars, and are prosecuting it with vigour.
I am particularly obliged to you for my father’s letters and
pocket-book—they are to me a real treasure. The style of the _Éloge_ in
the _Moniteur_ is very inferior to what I expected from Fourier; but on
the whole it contains nothing materially untrue. The publications
enclosed were very acceptable. I wish my uncle had not confined himself
to a mere catalogue of insects, but had told us a little of their
habits. Of Leibnitz’s MSS. more hereafter....
The _mettwursts_ are excellent. The packets to my mother and Mary shall
be sent....
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