98

William Herschel (1738-1822)

Description of a Forty-feet Reflecting Telescope.

London: 1795.
First edition, academic extract from the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, read before the Society on 11 June 1795; consisting of pages 347-410; illustrated with 19 folding engravings of the telescope; bound in modern half leather with marbled paper boards (chipping and toning to text leaves and plates); 9 x 7 in.

Herschel had a number of interests and abilities but is best remembered for his work building reflecting telescopes. With his oversized and high-powered inventions, he was able to spot celestial objects that had never been observed at the same level of detail before, including nebulae, double stars, and notably Uranus, not visible to the naked eye, but first observed by Herschel in 1781. He worked closely with his sister Caroline who independently discovered M1110, a dwarf elliptical galaxy that circles the Andromeda Galaxy and Comet Encke.

ESTC N6196.

See also lot 14, Herschel's lightly annotated copy of Babbage's Ninth Bridgewater Treatise.

  • Notes: Ex libris Professor, Astronomer, Historian & Bibliophile Owen Gingerich.
  • Condition: Please contact us to request a condition report:
    Devon Eastland, Senior Specialist: [email protected]
    Grace Meschery-McCormack, Cataloguer: [email protected]


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