Bücher der Reihe Cambridge Library Collection - Astronomy

A fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and a pioneer in modern astronomy, Isaac Roberts made significant advances in the field of stellar photography. This second volume of Photographs of Stars, published in London in 1899, contains 29 plates of stars, and his conclusions about their origins and nature.

The Concise Knowledge Astronomy, published in 1898, was one of a series of popular reference books by experts. Illustrated by over 100 photographs and drawings, the book aims to provide the educated non-specialist reader with an understanding of current astronomical knowledge and theories, including a historical outline of astronomy.

Astronomical guides were available in the early nineteenth century, but it was rare to find examples in English since most came from the continent. This two-volume work by the astronomer William Pearson (1767-1847) sought to rectify the problem. First published in 1824, Volume 1 includes extensive tables and instructions.

Astronomical guides were available in the early nineteenth century, but it was rare to find examples in English since most came from the continent. This two-volume work by the astronomer William Pearson (1767-1847) sought to rectify the problem. First published in 1829, Volume 2 focuses on descriptions of useful equipment.

John Flamsteed (1646-1719), the first Astronomer Royal, complied a 'Catalogue of British Stars' but quarrelled with Newton and Halley over his failure to publish it. In 1835 Francis Baily (1774-1844) published Flamsteed's edited papers, with a revised version of the catalogue, rehabilitating his reputation and promoting observational astronomy.

Astronomer J. P. Nichol (1804-59), Regius Professor of Astronomy at the University of Glasgow, brings the discovery of Neptune, the first planet to be revealed by mathematical prediction rather than empirical observation, to a popular audience in this book, first published in 1855.

Touching on optics, gravity, trigonometry and a host of other astronomical ideas, this collection of ten lectures was originally written for the young women under the tutelage of the author. Although the practice of introducing girls to science was controversial, the work was published in 1797 to wide acclaim.

Including a biography and a wealth of previously unpublished material, this two-volume collection of papers by the astronomer William Herschel (1738-1822) first appeared in 1912. Volume 1 contains his earlier work, from the discovery of Uranus to observations relating to the likelihood of life on the Moon.

This second edition, originally published in 1929, is an extensive survey at the forefront of cosmology and astronomy with particular reference to the physical state of matter, the structure, composition and life-cycle of stars, and the superstructures of nebulae and galaxies. It was intended as a rigourously argued scientific treatise.

Spherical astronomy is concerned with the location of objects on the celestial sphere. In this technical introduction to the subject, first published in 1908 and intended for advanced students, Sir Robert Stawell Ball (1840-1913) goes through the subject systematically, including exercises derived from contemporary Cambridge examinations.

In this entertaining and highly illustrated history of the Royal Observatory, first published in 1900, astronomer Edward Walter Maunder (1851-1928) explores the departments of the institution and the lives of its Astronomers Royal, illuminating the fabulous and often overlooked advances made there since its founding in the seventeenth century.

Irish mathematician and astronomer Sir Robert Stawell Ball (1840-1913) excelled in writing for a general readership. Including star charts, maps of the moon, and concise, non-technical explanations of basic terms, this highly illustrated introduction to astronomy was originally published in 1905.

In this 1874 monograph, James Nasmyth (1808-90) and James Carpenter (1840-99) look closely at the lunar surface, illustrating their work with photographs of accurate plaster models. Among the topics discussed are the possibility of a lunar atmosphere, life on the moon, and the probable causes of its craters.

Both an amateur astronomer and a strongly religious man, Thomas Wright (1711-86) is known for his description of the Milky Way as disc-shaped. The various claims he made, based on a combination of his observations and his religious beliefs, are given in this illustrated and influential work of 1750.

Joseph Harris (c.1704-64) was an astronomer and teacher of navigation who published a number of books on scientific subjects. Reissued in its first edition, this 1731 popular introduction to the solar system and the use of astronomical apparatus, such as globes and orreries, went through fourteen printings by 1793.

Admiral William Henry Smyth's Sidereal Chromatics (1864) represents a landmark achievement in nineteenth-century astronomy, offering the most precise observations of the colours of double stars yet recorded. An expansion upon his well-known Bedford Cycle of Celestial Objects, which garnered a gold medal from the Royal Astronomical Society, Sidereal Chromatics provides both a theory concerning the source of double-star colours and a method for determining their most exact description. Detailed charts compare Smyth's measurements of more than one hundred double stars with his own previously published observations and those of his fellow astronomer, Father Benedetto Sestini. This edition also includes Smyth's famous colour chart, an attempt to standardise the process of identifying double-star colours. Sidereal Chromatics ends with Smyth's plea to amateur astronomers to continue the effort of charting the heavens, aided by improved telescopes and works such as his, 'trustworthy treatises available to all men'.

Astronomer and philosopher Sir John Herschel (1792-1871), the son of William and the nephew of Caroline, published his 1833 Treatise on Astronomy in the 'Cabinet Cyclopaedia' series of which the first volume had been his enormously successful Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy. He is regarded as the founder of the philosophy of science, and made contributions in many fields including mathematics, the newly discovered process of photography, and the botany of southern Africa, which he studied while making astronomical observations of the southern hemisphere, and where he was visited by Darwin and Fitzroy on the Beagle voyage. It was however as the natural successor to his father's astronomical studies that he is best remembered, and this book, which is written for the interested lay person, places strong emphasis on the importance of accurate observation and on avoiding preconceptions or hypotheses not based on such observation.

John Pringle Nichol (1804-59) was a Scottish polymath whose major interests were economics and astronomy; he did much to popularise the latter by his writings. He became Regius Professor of Astronomy at Glasgow in 1836, and in the following year published Views of the Architecture of the Heavens which was immediately successful. George Eliot wrote in a letter of 1841, 'I have been revelling in Nichol's Architecture of the Heavens and Phenomena of the Solar System, and have been in imagination winging my flight from system to system, and from universe to universe ...' Nichol was a supporter of the nebular hypothesis - that stars form in massive and dense clouds of molecular hydrogen which are gravitationally unstable, and coalesce to smaller denser clumps, which then collapse and form stars - which in modified form is the model most widely accepted today.

Sir George Biddell Airy (1801-1892) was a prominent mathematician and astronomer. He was an honorary fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, fellow of the Royal Society and Astronomer Royal from 1835 until 1881. His many achievements include important work on planetary orbits, the calculation of the mean density of the earth and the establishment of the prime meridian at Greenwich. He was also consulted by the government on a wide range of issues and projects, serving on the weights and measures commission, the tidal harbours commission and the railway gauge commission as well as acting as an advisor for the repair of Big Ben and the laying of the Atlantic cable. His autobiography, edited by his son Wilfred, comprises ten chapters and is drawn from the astronomer's own records of the scientific work he carried out at Greenwich Observatory along with his printed reports and private and business correspondence.

Memoir and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel (1876) contains the letters and diaries of the celebrated astronomer Caroline Herschel (1750-1848), edited by her niece, Mary Herschel. Caroline was born in Hanover to a musician father and an illiterate mother who did not want her daughter to be educated. However Caroline's brother William, an organist employed in Bath, persuaded their mother to allow Caroline to join him there. She left for England in 1772 to live with William, to whom she remained devoted all of her life. In Bath, William turned towards telescope-making and astronomy, to such effect that in 1781 he discovered the planet Uranus. He was appointed 'the King's astronomer' in 1782, and Caroline, trained by William, continued to work at his side as a scientist in her own right. Between them, they discovered eight comets and raised the number of recorded nebulae from a hundred to 2500.