Sidereal Chromatics: Being a Re-Print, with Additions from the Bedford Cycle of Celestial Objects and its Hartwell Continuation on the Colours of ... (Cambridge Library Collection - Astronomy) - Softcover

Smyth, William Henry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1108015174 ISBN 13: 9781108015172

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2010

Synopsis

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'.

About this title

Book Description

A major achievement of nineteenth-century astronomy, Admiral William Henry Smyth's Sidereal Chromatics (1864) presented the most precise analysis of the colours of double stars yet recorded. Detailed observations by Smyth and a range of correspondents, together with his famous colour chart, make this a landmark work of amateur astronomy.

About the Author

Smyth was President of the Royal Geographical Society from 1849 to 1851

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1108015174
• ISBN 13: 9781108015172
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 104