Astronomical

[Mary Somerville, Scottish scientist after whom Somerville College, Oxford, is named.] Autograph Signature ('Yours truly | Mary Somerville') cut from letter.

Author: 
Mary Somerville [née Fairfax, sometime Greig] (1780-1872), Scottish scientist and author after whom Somerville College, Oxford, is named
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£35.00

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. Since 2017 she has been depicted on the Scottish ten pound note. On 2.5 x 8.5 cm slip of paper, cut from letter. In good condition, lightly aged. Laid down on 4 x 9.5 cm piece of paper. Reads 'Yours truly | Mary Somerville'.

[ Agnes Giberne, British astronomer. ] Autograph Note Signed ('Agnes Giberne'), sending her autograph to 'Mr Case'.

Author: 
Agnes Giberne (1845-1939), prolific British author and astronomer, who helped set up the British Astronomical Association
Publication details: 
Worton House, Eastbourne. 11 June 1902.
£35.00

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Reads: 'Dear Mr Case, | You are most welcome to my Autograph, which I send in signing myself - | Yours faithfully | Agnes Giberne'.

[ Sir William Huggins, astronomer. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('William Huggins') [ to Alexander Ramsay, editor of the 'Scientific Roll' ], regarding 'one small correction' necessary in 'the spare proof'.

Author: 
Sir William Huggins (1824-1910), pioneer, with his wife Margaret Lindsay Huggins, in the field of astronomical spectroscopy [ Alexander Ramsay, editor of the 'Scientific Roll' ]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of 90 Upper Tulse Hill, S.W. [ London ] 22 May 1892.
£90.00

2pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper. He begins: 'On taking up the spare proof I find one small correction which should have been made'. He describes the correction that needs to be made on 'page 5 of th proof 13th line from bottom'. Ramsay is not named, but the item is from his papers.

[ Agnes Giberne, author and astronomer. ] Autograph Letter Signed to 'Mrs Ranks'

Author: 
Agnes Giberne (1845-1939), prolific British author and astronomer, who helped set up the British Astronomical Association
Publication details: 
Abergeldie, Eastbourne. 1 September 1880.
£50.00

1p., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Abergeldie, Eastbourne, 'is at present my permanent address. We are not likely to return to Clifton, but shall probably settle down in Eastbourne, - though not in this house.' She thanks her for her invitation to Dalston: 'If I find it possible, when in London, to get there, I will write to let you know.'

[ Sir Frank Watson Dyson (1868-1939), Astronomer Royal. ] Autograph Note Signed ('F. W. Dyson') to 'Prof. Adams'

Author: 
Sir Frank Watson Dyson (1868-1939), Astronomer Royal who introduced Greenwich time signals ('pips') and helped prove Einstein's theory of general relativity
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the Royal Greenwich Observatory. 1 July 1919.
£200.00

1p., 16mo. In good condition. Reads: 'Dear Prof. Adams, | Will you give us the pleasure of your company at lunch at the Royal Observatory on July 8 at 1 o'clock?'

[ George Christoph Eimmart, German engraver, and his daughter Maria Clara Eimmart, astronomer. ] Autograph Signatures ('Georg: Christoph: Eimmart' and 'Marie Claire Eimmart') with improving autograph quotations in Latin and French.

Author: 
Georg Christoph Eimmart the younger (1638-1705), German draftsman, engraver, and astronomer; his daughter Maria Clara Eimmart (1676-1707), astronomer, engraver and designer [ Riedener ]
Eimmart
Publication details: 
Both dated from Nuremburg. G. C. Eimmart's autograph on 12 May 1699; M. C. Eimmart's autograph on 27 April 1699.
£500.00
Eimmart

Each on one side of a 9.5 x 13.5cm piece of paper. Both in fair condition, with light signs of age and wear. G. C. Eimmart's autograph headed by a four-line quotation in Latin beginning: 'Omnes probi viri actiones ad sua intima vergunt'. Signed: 'in Gonorem | Nobilissimi

[ Andrew Ainslie Common, English astronomer and astronomical photographer. ] Typed Letter Signed ('A. A. Common') to the Sandwich bankers Messrs Emmerson & Co., with receipt, regarding golf balls purchased from Ramsay Hunter of St. George's Golf Club

Author: 
A. A. Common [ Andrew Ainslie Common ] (1841-1903), astronomer and astronomical photographer [ Ramsay Hunter, Scottish greenkeeper and 'architect' of the [Royal] St George's Golf Club, Sandwich, Kent]
Publication details: 
Both letter and receipt from Eaton Rise, Ealing. W. [London] 31 March and 12 May 1900.
£56.00

For more information on Common, see his entry in the Oxford DNB. Both items on aged and worn paper. ONE: Typed Letter Signed. 31 March 1900. 1p., 4to. 'I bought a gross of balls of Hunter and paid for them on the understanding that I should take them as I wanted them'. He has a rough idea how many he has had, and will be 'able to say exactly when I look in my locker'. He ends by asking the firm to refer to Hunter's books regarding the matter. TWO: Typed Receipt, signed by Common over two red Inland Revenue penny stamps. 12 May 1900. 1p., 4to. 'Received of Messrs Emmerson & Co.

[Offprint, inscribed to Mary Proctor, containing autograph note.] Detection of Venus' Rotation Period and of the Fundamental Physical Features of the Planet's Surface.

Author: 
Percival Lowell [Percival Lawrence Lowell (1855-1916), American astronomer] [Mary Proctor (1862-1957), American astronomer]
Publication details: 
'Reprint from Popular Astronomy'. 'Lowell Observatory, November, 1896.'
£450.00

5pp., 8vo, with five plates. Stitched. In brown printed wraps headed 'Compliments of the Author', with 'Reprint from Popular Astronomy' at foot. Heavily aged, in worn and stained wraps repaired with tape. At the head of the cover Lowell has written 'iss Mary E. Proctor'. Manuscript note in another hand (presumably Procter's) on cover: 'Contains a note in Lowell's own handwriting on page 2'. Lowell's autograph note on p.2, with slight loss due to trimming of the edges of the pamphlet, reads: 'For further story by me see Jan. '97 pular stronomy'.

[Yerkes Observatory, Wisconsin.] Original group photograph, including the astronomers Alice Hall Farnsworth, Otto Struve and Nicholas Bobrovnikoff, and staff including 'computers'. With caption by the astronomer Mary Proctor.

Author: 
[Yerkes Observatory, Wisconsin; Mary Proctor (1862-1957), Anglo-American astronomer; Alice Hall Farnsworth (1893-1960); Otto Struve (1897-1963); Nicholas Theodore Bobrovnikoff (1896-1988)
Publication details: 
[Yerkes Observatory, Williams Bay, Wisconsin.] Dated 10 December 1925.
£220.00

6 x 8 cm black and white photograph. In fair condition, lightly faded, with crease to one corner. Proctor's caption, in pencil on the reverse, reads; 'A group at Yerkes Obsy, Dec. 10, 1925. | Left to right | Otto Struve (Dr.) | N. T. Bobrovnikoff (student) | E. Zabler (janitor) | Mis Elizabeth Struve (Computer) | Alice Farnsworth (Dr); Margrethe Jorgensen (Computer) | Mrs. Sullivan (asst. in photo. dept.) | Mrs. Lee (Office Secretary) | Lela Cable (Computer) | This photo was made on a day when Messrs.

[Offprint.] The British Astronomical Association. Work of the Radio-Electronics Section.

Author: 
J. Heywood [John Heywood, pioneering radio astronomer] [British Astronomical Association; Sputnik 1 and 2, Russian earth satellites]
Publication details: 
Reprinted from Nature, Vol. 188, No. 4754, pp. 900-901, December 10, 1960. [Printed in Great Britain by Fisher, Knight & Co., Ltd., St. Albans.]
£80.00

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. Begins: 'In January 1957 the British Astronomical Association formed a Radio-Electronics Section. [...] The great stimulus to the Section's activities was the launching of the first Soviet Earth satellite. Its members made both visual and radio observations of Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2 which have been reported elsewhere.

Mimeographed printed notice to Fellows of the British Interplanetary Society by Arthur C. Clarke, as 'A.C. CLARKE, Chairman of the Council', regarding a reorganization of the Society's finances at a 'vital period in the development of astronautics'.

Author: 
Sir Arthur C. Clarke, science fiction writer and Chairman of the British Interplanetary Society, 1946-7 and 1951-3
Publication details: 
The British Interplanetary Society, 'Secretarial address: 157, Friary Road, London, S.E.15.' 1 July 1947.
£50.00

1p., 8vo. A fragile piece of ephemera, on aged paper, with wear at head (not affecting text). The notice begins: 'For several months past the Council has had under consideration the question of the Society's finances since it has become apparent that our annual income is insufficient to ensure a continuous and regular flow of publications.' References follow to 'donations from private members', an 'enforced summer recess', 'the acquisition of library shelves, desks and other fittings'. Two reasons are given in justification of the doubling of the 'Fellowship subscription'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('William Huggins') from the astronomer Sir William Huggins, President of the Royal Society, to 'Mr. Viney' [of printers Hazell, Watson & Viney?], regarding the printing [of Huggins' 'Atlas of representative Stella Spectra'].

Author: 
Sir William Huggins (1824=1910), astronomer, President, Royal Astronomical Society (1876-1878), British Association for the Advancement of Science (1891), and Royal Society (1900-1905) [J. E. Viney?]
Publication details: 
Upper Tulse Hill, S.W. [London]; [circa 1899?].
£120.00

2pp., 12mo. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The paper appears to have an 1890s watermark, and the correspondence may relate to the publication of Huggins's 'Atlas of representative Stellar Spectra', printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney for William Wesley & Son in 1899. Apparently impressed by the speed of Viney's response to his last letter, Huggins begins 'Your lightning is treble-greased.' He is returning the corrected proof, and sent 'a new copy with your name written on, by this morning's post as yr.

On new tables of the moon's parallax, to be substituted for those of Burckhardt.

Author: 
John Couch Adams
Publication details: 
London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. Printed by Eyre and Spottiswoode. Without date, but docketed in pencil as an offprint 'From Nautical Almanac 1856'.
£105.00

English astronomer (1819-92) whose mathematical prediction of the existence of Neptune anticipated Le Verrier's discovery of that planet. Octavo. Unbound. Ten leaves and one blank. Paginated [35]-53. Very good. Five pages of text (35-9), four tables (pp.40-3) and a set of 'Tables containing the corrections to be applied to the values of the moon's equatorial horizontal parallax given in the nautical almanacs 1840-1855, in order to make them agree with those calculated from Mr. Adams' tables.' (pp.46-53). One small closed tear to antepenultimate leaf.

Three Autograph Letters Signed (all three 'Norman Lockyer') to 'Farquhar'.

Author: 
Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer (1836-1920), English scientist and astronomer, co-discoverer of helium gas [Norman Lockyer Observatory; Harrogate]
Publication details: 
9, 11 and 19 August 1900; first letter from 16 Penywern Road, London SW; second on letterhead of the Solar Physics Observatory, South Kensington, London; third on letterhead of Marine House, Whitley, R.S.O., Northumberland.
£85.00

The first and second letters are both 12mo, 2 pp; the third is 12mo, 1 p. The first and third are good, on lightly aged paper; the second has some smoke staining to top and bottom outside corners. All text clear and entire. The letters concern Farquhar's efforts, as a 'friendly service' on Lockyer's behalf, to get a room in Harrogate. References to the Majestic and Prince of Wales hotels, and to 'Oliver' (perhaps J. A. W. Oliver?).

Offprint of article entitled 'Protection Against Lightning. What is a lightning conductor? How does it protect against lightning? And how should it be applied to be effective?'

Author: 
Alfred Hands [J. W. Gray & Son, Lightning Conductor Experts]
Publication details: 
Reprinted from "The Field" newspaper, May 16th, 1914.'
£28.00

8vo: ii + 14 pp. Unbound. Stapled and in original brown printed wraps. Very good on art paper. Six photographic illustrations, including 'Clothing of a man struck by lightning' and 'Farm-house at Whaddon, near Stamford, struck and practically wrecked by lightning.' Hands is described as 'Member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society, Member of the Astronomical Society of France, Senior Partner of J. W.

Typed Letter Signed to the editor of the Journal of the Rontgen Society.

Author: 
Sir Richard Arman Gregory, Professor of Astronomy, Queen's College, London (1864-1952)
Publication details: 
25 July 1918; on letterhead of the British Science Guild (British Scientific Products Exhibition, 1918).
£33.00

Signed 'R. A. Gregory'. One page, folio. Good, with one dogeared corner. Bearing the stamp of the Royal Society of Arts. Circular letter referring to an enclosure (not present) relating to an exhibition which 'will shew that by the combination of science and industry we have done nearly as much in four years of war as the Germans did in the preceding forty. More than 250 manufacturers are sending exhibits, and the Air Ministry will make a large display, as well as the Food Production Department.' Asks for 'a sympathetic editorial note or article'.

Tables astronomiques publiées par le Bureau des Longitudes de France. Tables de la lune, par M. Burckhardt.

Author: 
Johann Karl Burckhardt [Bureau des Longitudes, Paris]
Publication details: 
Paris: Mme Ve Courcier, Imprimeur-Libraire pour les Mathématiques, Quai des Augustins, No. 57. Décembre 1812.
£200.00

Burckhardt (1773-1825) was a German astronomer, who first computed the orbits of a number of comets. First and only edition. Quarto. Pages: viii + 88. A rare survival, but in very poor condition: grubby, creased, stained and frayed at edges. In remains of makeshift wraps. Text perfectly legible throughout. Some scholarly annotations in pencil and pen.

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