Milestones of Science Books

HANSEN, Peter Andreas.

Tables de la lune, construites d'apres la principe Newtonien de la gravitation universelle.

London: George Edward Eyre & William Spottiswoode, 1857.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Good. Item #002190

4to (305 x 250 mm). [20], 511 [1] pp. Contemporary cloth, printed paper label on spine (head and lower portion of spine chipped, upper joint split, corners bumped, wear to extremities). Text little age-toned, title-page a bit soiled, light dust-soiling elsewhere. Provenance: British Astronomical Association (stamps on title and front endpaper, inscription that this copy was presented by Charles Cooper in Sept. 1947); A. Sidney Field (ink stamps on title and front pastedown). ----

Hansen (1795-1874). Danish-born German astronomer whose most important work was the improvement of the theories and tables of the orbits of the principal bodies in the solar system. Hansen became director of the Seeberg Observatory, near Gotha, in 1825, and in 1857 a new observatory was built for him. He worked on theoretical geodesy, optics, and probability theory. His most important books on the theory of the motion of the Moon are the Fundamenta nova investigationis orbitae verae quam Luna perlustrat (1838; "New Foundations of the Investigation of the True Orbit That the Moon Traverses") and the Darlegung der theoretischen Berechnung der in den Mondtafeln angewandten Störungen (1862-64; "Explanation of the Theoretical Calculation of Perturbations Used in Lunar Tables"). The systematic character of Hansen's methods carried celestial mechanics to a new level of power and precision. The tables based on his theory were printed in Great Britain in 1857 and were used until 1923. From his theory of the Moon, Hansen deduced a value close to that now accepted for the distance between Earth and the Sun. Assisted by the astronomer Christian Olufsen, Hansen in 1853 compiled new tables of the Sun's positions at various times. - Visit our website to see more images!

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