Sir William (originally Friedrich Wilhelm) Herschel (1738-1822) is one of the greatest figures in the history of astronomy. Born in Germany, he moved to England in 1757 and started his astronomical observations while working as a professional musician in Bath. With the help of his sister, Caroline, Herschel began a series of systematic "reviews of the heavens" to record the motion and distribution of the stars. Using massive telescopes built by himself, Herschel was able to see much futher than any previous astronomer, and he was the first to give a correct description of the form of our galaxy, The Milky Way. In 1781 he discovered the planet Uranus, and in 1782 he was appointed King's Astronomer by George III. Eventually, when The Royal Astronomical Society was founded in 1820, Herschel became its president. Sir William Herschel's many ground-breaking astronomical papers were scattered over 40 volumes of "The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society" and elsewhere until 1912, when they were collected by John Louis Emil Dreyer and published as "The Scientific Papers of Sir William Herschel".
Dreyer - who was himself an eminent astronomer - also included Herschel's unpublished papers on general science and a 60-page biography of the author. The Dreyer edition remains the only complete edition of the writings of Sir William Herschel. The books have always been extremely rare, and this reprinting by Thoemmes Press offers an opportunity to acquire one of the great landmarks of science.
- ISBN10 1843710226
- ISBN13 9781843710226
- Publish Date 15 June 2003
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 26 February 2016
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Imprint Thoemmes Continuum
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 1441
- Language English