LASSELL Observations and papers of William Lassell (1799–1880).
These papers were ordered and listed by J. L. E. Dreyer in 1921. His list is kept with the MSS, and his order has been preserved.
1.1. Notebook: Transits 1842–65.
1.2. Double stars extracted from Sir William Herschel’s catalogue, Phil Trans., 1782.
1.3. Copy, by Lassell, of part of a letter from R. Sheepshanks, 1845, on how to represent graphically the orbit of a comet.
1.4. Miscellaneous notes on astronomy, with copies of and extracts from various books and papers.
2. Miscellaneous notes on astronomy, with an index.
3. Notebook marked ‘Construction of Telescopes’. An incomplete tract, written before 1833, followed by dated entries, 1833–48.
4. List of double stars and nebulae, various epochs, in order of RA.
5. ‘Chiefly Sextant Observations’, 1830–39.
6. Notebook marked ‘Astronomical Observations 1821 to 1847’, which in fact contains some observations,
1821–36, and some miscellaneous notes.
7.1. Rough Book for Construction of Four-foot Equatorial. A. Aug. 1857 – Jan. 1860.
7.2. Ditto. B. Jan. 1860 – July 1861.
7.3. Ditto. C. July 1861 – May 1862.
7.4. Rough Book of Observations with Four foot Equatorial. D. May 1862 – Oct. 1862.
7.5. Ditto. E. Oct. 1862 – Jan. 1864.
7.6. Ditto. F. Jan. 1864 – Sept. 1864.
(Note 17.3.)
8.1. Lassell’s index to his papers.
8.2. Notebook marked ‘Correspondence &c 1840 to 1855’. Copies of papers and letters on astronomy.
8.3. Notebook: ‘Measurements of double Stars in order of AR & Epochs of Observations of Nebulae &c’.
9.1. Optical Memoranda, Aug. 1828 – Feb. 1829.
(Note 19.)
9.2. Astronomical and Telescopic Observations, May 1833 – March 1838.
9.3. Astronomical Observations, April 1838 – July 1842.
9.4. Transits, 1831–39. Astronomical observations Aug. 1842 – March 1844.
9.5. Astronomical Observations, March 1845 – Sept. 1845. ‘Minutes of the Weather’, Nov.–Dec. 1845. Observations of Saturn and satellites, Aug.–Oct. 1846. Rough Book for Transit Observations, Aug. 1854 – Nov. 1857.
9.6. Astronomical Observations, Sept. 1845 – April 1846.
9.7. Astronomical Calculations, 1839–40. Astronomical Observations, April 1846 – May 1847. (Contains a copy of a letter from ‘Lassell to The Times, 15 May 1846.)
9.8. Astronomical Observations, May 1847 – Dec. 1847.
9.9. Astronomical Observations, Dec. 1847 – Sept. 1848.
9.10. Astronomical Observations, Sept. 1848 – June 1849.
9.11. Astronomical Observations, June 1849 – Aug. 1850.
10.1. Rough Book for Astronomical Calculations. Sept. – Nov. 1829.
10.2. Ditto. Nov. 1829 – Sept. 1830.
10.3. Ditto. Dec. 1831 – April 1837.
10.4. Ditto. April 1838 – Aug. 1839.
10.5. Ditto. Aug. 1839 – Oct. 1840.
10.6. Ditto. Dec. 1840 – Sept. 1844.
10.7. Rough Book for Transit & Equatoreal, Jan. 1844 – Feb. 1845.
10.8. Waste Book and Rough Calculations, Jan.–July 1854, May 1859 – Jan. 1863.
10.9. Working Catalogue.
11.1. Notebook marked ‘Minutes 1842 to 1847’. (specula and telescopes.)
11.2. ‘Results of the Polishing Machine’. Jan. 1848 – Aug. 1851.
11.3. ‘Construction of Reflecting Telescopes’. A tract dated ‘about 1822’. Opened from the back: ‘First principles of Universal Arithmetic’.
11.4. Notebook marked ‘Rough A’, Sept. 1844 – May 1846. (Rough notes and calculations.)
11.5. Ditto. B. May 1846 – Sept. 1847.
11.6. Ditto. C. Oct. 1847 – Nov. 1848.
11.7. Ditto. D. Nov. 1848 – Oct. 1849.
11.8. Ditto. E. Oct. 1849 – Nov. 1850.
11.9. Ditto. F. Nov. 1850 – Jan. 1852.
11.10. Ditto. G. Jan. 1852 – July 1853.
11.11. Ditto. H. July 1853 – Oct. 1856.
11.12. Ditto. I. Oct. 1856 – July 1857.
11.13. Ditto. J. July 1857 – Nov. 1861.
11.14. ‘Journal of Maltese Expedition also Rough K’, Sept. 1861 – Dec. 1864. Opened from the back: ‘Register of Specula’.
11.15. L. May 1864 – Feb. 1874. (Though marked: ‘Rough Book of Observations & General Memoranda during Maltese Expedition’.)
11.16. M. March 1874 – Oct. 1877. Opened from the back: ‘Account of the Construction of a Forty-foot Equatoreal’.
12.1. Description of a Machine for polishing Specula with directions for its use.... See Mem., xviii, 1–15.
12.2. Description of the Nine-Inch Equatorial erected at Starfield (Mem., xii, 265–72). Account of an Observation of the Solar Eclipse of the 7th July 1842... (Mem., xv, 91–96). Observations of Mauvais’ Comet....
12.3. Description of the two-foot Equatoreal. See Mem., xviii, 1–20.
12.4. Construction of Telescopes.
13. Papers relating to the construction of the four-foot equatoreal. Account of the manufacture of the specula, drawings for the construction of the telescope, etc.
14. A bundle of papers marked: ‘Chiefly relating to Maltese Observations 1861 to 1864. Duplicates or copies of papers drawings &c’. (Includes MSS relevant to the papers in Mem., xxxvi. Some papers are in the hand of A. Marth.
15. A bundle of papers marked: ‘Constants of Eye pieces &c’. (Various papers, mostly related to the 4 ft equatorial.)
16.1. Astronomical Observations, Sept. 1849 – Sept. 1850. (At the beginning of this volume there are some loose pages of observations of Saturn and satellites, 1848, 9; also two drawings of Saturn, as seen by Lassell, 10 Sept. 1851, and by Dawes, 25 Sept. 1852.)
16.2. ‘A Astronomical Observations’, Sept. 1850 – Jan. 1852.
16.3. Ditto, B, Feb. 1852 – Dec. 1852. (At the back of this vol.: ‘Observations of the Planet Saturn with the twenty-foot equatoreal at Valletta’, with drawings.)
16.4. Ditto, C, Dec. 1852 – Nov. 1856.
16.5. Ditto, D, Nov. 1856 – Jan. 1862. (Contains a letter from W. R. Dawes to Lassell, 1857.)
17.1. Time Determinations, June 1867 – Oct. 1869.
17.2. Astronomical Observations, Oct. 1852 – March 1853. (Also contains a list of Lassell’s observations of the solar system.)
17.3. Rough Book of Observations with Four-Foot Equatoreal G, Sept. 1864 – May 1867.
17.4. Astronomical Observations, July 1869 – May 1878.
18. Loose miscellaneous observations and notes, many written by A. Marth.
19. Astronomical Observations, Feb. 1829 – April 1833.
20. Observations of M17, etc., 1862–64, one sheet. (Not on Dreyer’s list.)
MADRAS Observations and papers from the East India Company’s Observatory at Madras.
1. ‘Account of an Observation taken at Fort Marlborough of the Transit of Venus over the Sun 4th June 1769.’
2. ‘Description of an Astronomical Observatory, erected at Madras, in 1792 by order of the East India Company’.
3. M. Topping: two papers, one on finding longitude by eclipses of Jupiter’s satellites, the other on improvements in the Hadley Sextant, with a list of instruments ‘wanted for The Honble. Company’s Observatory at Madras’, and a covering letter to Sir Charles Oakeley, 1792. Copies.
4. M. Topping, ‘List of Instruments (Astronomical and geodetical) belonging to the Honble Company at present in my Charge’, 1794.
5. John Goldingham, ‘Corresponding Observations of Eclipses of Satellites of Jupiter, 1796.
6. John Warren, ‘An Account of the Comet which appeared in the Months of September, October and November 1807’, 1808.
7. John Warren, ‘Zenith Distances & Corrected Declination of 52 Stars near the Zenith of Madras from which the Latitude of the Observatory is deduced with precision taken in 1806 & 1807’, 1808.
8. John Warren: On the length of the simple pendulum at Madras, 1809.
9. Transit observations, 3 vols, 1840–51.
10. Mural circle observations, 3 vols, 1840–50.
MOLESWORTH Letters, papers and observations of Percy Braybrooke Molesworth (1867–1908).
1. Correspondence. Includes letters to Molesworth from E. M. Antoniadi, 2, 1896–97; A. S. D. Maunder, 12, 1900–05; E. W. Maunder, 22, 1897–1905; T. E. R. Phillips, 17, only three dated, 1901–05.
2. Thirty-five notebooks: observations and notes, the majority on Mars and Jupiter, 1882–1905. They are arranged chronologically and have been given volume numbers by Molesworth, but the series is incomplete. 2.32 contains a list of the complete series.
3. Drawings of Mars and Jupiter, 6 vols (342 drawings of Mars, 141 of Jupiter), 1898–1905.
4. A series of notebooks marked ‘Rough Notes’, 6 vols, 1897–1905.
5. Eight rough notebooks on astronomy, containing various draft reports.
6. Loose sheets of notes, etc., on Mars, 3 folders.
7. ‘Design for Mounting (Equatorial) for 41/2 inch Achro’.
8. Eight miscellaneous notebooks.
9. Loose miscellaneous papers. They include some drawings, and 2 letters, E. M. Antoniadi to E. W. Maunder, 1918.
NEVILL Lunar papers of Edmund Neville Nevill (Neison) (1849–1940).
1. Notebook: lunar observations, 1872–74.
2.1. Memoir on the lunar tables, bound vol., 292 pp. Part I is dated Dec. 1894; Part II, March 1901; Part III, Oct. 1903.
2.2. Another version of the Memoir, on loose sheets, in 18 chapters.
2.3. Loose MS pages relevant to the Memoir.
3. On the Theoretical Development of the Terms of Long Period in the Mean Motion of the Moon, MS tract.
4. The Lunar Theory. The Terms arising from the Disturbing Action of the Planets. (MS presented to the RAS by Nevill.)
5. Four folders of loose papers, many from Natal, in their original arrangement.
6. ‘Natal Observatory Results’, 3 vols.
7. ‘Supplementary Lunar Tables’, bound vol.
8. Two photographs of Nevill.
NEWBEGIN Solar observations of Algernon Montagu Newbegin (1885–1965).
1. Solar Spectroscopic Observations, 26 vols, 1914–46.
2. ‘Prominences’, 5 loose leaf notebooks, 1914–18.
3. ‘Weather’, loose leaf notebook, 1919–25.
4. ‘Spectroscopic Observations’, loose-leaf notebook, 1925.
5. ‘Spectroscopic Observations and Weather’, 14 loose-leaf notebooks, 1926–42.
6. ‘Solar Notes’, 4 loose-leaf notebooks, 1943–46.
7. ‘Bright Ha Eruptions 1936–1946’, loose-leaf notebook.
8. ‘Monthly Summaries of Solar Observations’, 4 loose-leaf notebooks, 1928–43.
9. Volume of photographs, mostly solar, 1905–12.
PARAMATTA Observations of Karl Ludwig Christian (Charles) Rümker (1788–1862) and of James Dunlop (d. 1848), made at Paramatta, 1819–26.
Note MN, xxii, 278.
1. Letters of Rümker (4), J. Lee (2) and W. H. Smyth (1), concerning Rümker’s observations.
2. Rümker: loose sheets of original transit and circle observations, 4 folders, 1822–23.
3. Transit and circle observations, copies by Rümker, 3 vols, 1822–23.
4. Transit observations, 2 vols, 1823–25. A note at the beginning of 4.1 says that the observer was Sir Thomas M. Brisbane, but although the early observations are by him, the predominant hand is Dunlop’s.
5. Dunlop: circle observations, 7 vols and some loose sheets, 1823–26.
6. A miscellaneous collection of loose and stitched sheets: mainly original observations by Dunlop, roughly arranged by date:
6.1. 1819–23
6.2. 1824 (2 folders)6.3. 1825
6.4. 1826 (4 folders)
6.5. Miscellaneous and undated.
7. Dunlop: notes on the Magellanic Clouds, nebulae, etc.
8. Various fragments of catalogues.
9. ‘Repetitions on the Sun with Raechenbach’s Circle, for the Winter Solstice... 1824.’
10. Dunlop: astronomy notebook.
11. Miscellaneous loose MSS.
PIGOTT Letters and papers of Nathaniel Pigott (d. 1804).
1. Letters to Pigott from:
John BEVIS. Letter no. 1, 25 July 1765; no. 2 is Bevis’s observations of the transit of Venus and solar eclipse, 3 June 1769.
John BIRD. Letters 3–7, 12 Sept. 1771 – 1 Feb. 1774, 1 n.d.
Peter DOLLOND. 8–9, 1 Nov. 1764, 15 April 1768.
Thomas HORNSBY. 10–11, 3 Oct. 1775, 25 July 1779.
Edme-Sébastien JEAURAT. 12–14, 29 Sept. 1777 – 29 Dec. 1777.
Abbé Nicolas-Louis de LACAILLE. 15, 28 Jan. 1762.
Pierre-Charles LE MONNIER. 16–24, 12 June 1769 – 16 March 1771, 1 n.d.
Jean-Hyacinthe de MAGELLAN (Joao Hyazinthe de MAGALHAENS). 25–45, 23 March 1773 – 29 Jan. 1779, 2 n.ds.
Giovanni Domenico MARALDI. 46, 7 March 1771.
Nevil MASKELYNE. 47–61, 10 March 1773 – 28 Aug. 1794.
Pierre-François-André MÉCHAIN. 62–63, 22 June 1786, 13 July 1787.
Charles MESSIER. 64–72, 4 March 1773 – 12 Dec. 1779.
John ROBERTSON. 73, 30 March 1772.
James SHORT. 74, 3 Jan. 1766.
Jeremiah SISSON. 75–78, 27 Aug. 1777 – 16 Jan. 1789.
Le Chevalier Étienne-François TURGOT, Marquis de Sousmont. 79–82, 28 May 1769 – 10 July 1769.
Tycho WING. 83, 31 Oct. 1770.
Robert WADDINGTON. 84–103, 26 May 1761 – 29 May 1775.
2. Dissertation sur les deux contacts des bords de venus et du soliel observés a Caën le 3 juin 1769 par Monsieur Pigot. Lu a L’acad. de Caen le 1er Fevrier 1770.
3. Another copy of the same, with a copy of a letter from Pigott to J. Bevis, 8 Feb. 1770.
4. Several loose pages of notes by Pigott, including a copy of part of a letter written by Le Monnier, 22 July 1769.