The rare off-print of the milestone work on the radiation of stars

HERTZSPRUNG, Ejmar.

Zur Strahlung der Sterne / Eine Annäherungs-formel für die Abhängigkeit zwischen Beleuchtungshelligkeit und Unterschieds-empfindlichkeit des Auges.

Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1905.

1st Edition. Hardcover. 4to - over 9¾ - 12" tall. Very Good. Item #002255

I. Zur Strahlung der Sterne. Offprint from: Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Photographie, Photophysik und Photochemie, Vol. 3, no. 11, pp. 429-442, 5 tables. II. Eine Annäherungs- formel für die Abhängigkeit zwischen Beleuchtungshelligkeit und Unterschieds-empfindlichkeit des Auges. Offprint from: Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Photographie, Photophysik und Photochemie, Vol. 3, no. 12, pp. [1] 468-472, 1 figure and 2 tables. Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1905. 8vo (237x165 mm). Library stamp on both inner end papers. Both offprints bound with the original orange wrappers in contemporary half calf with morocco labels lettered in gilt to front cover. Internally very little age-toned. Provenances: Carlsbergfondets Bibliotek (ink stamp to inner front covers), Anke Kryster (small ink stamp to top of flyleaves). Fine copies. ----

I. DSB VI, pp.350-3; A.J. Wesselink, Ejnar Hertzsprung, Quart. J. Royal Astron. Soc. 9 (1968) pp.337-341; A.V. Nielsen, Ejnar Hertzsprung, measurer of the stars, Sky & Telescope 35 (1968) pp.4-6; K.Aa. Strand, Ejnar Hertzsprung, 1873-1967, Publ. Astron. Soc. Pacific 80 (1968) pp.51-56. - FIRST EDITION and presentation copy of the very rare offprint with "Überreicht vom Verfasser" printed on front wrapper upper right. In 1905 Hertzsprung published the article "Zur Strahlung der Sterne", unfortunately in the - astronomical and academically - obscure journal "Zeitschrift für Wissenschaftliche Photographie, Photophysik und Photochemie" in which he positioned his observations and the results in tables, not in figures and diagrams.
In his paper Zur Strahlung der Sterne (on the radiation of stars), "Hertzsprung showed, ?rst, that stars with very sharp absorption lines in Antonia Maury's classi?cation system were more luminous than others - a discovery that became the foundation of the method of stellar parallax - and, second, that stars could be classi?ed in two series, the main sequence (in modern parlance) and the high-luminosity giant stars when plotted in a diagram of intrinsic luminosity vs. temperature. Because of the appearance of these results in a photography journal, it had little impact in the astronomical community, and it was not until the same relationship had been discovered by Henry Norris Russell, several years later, that Hertzsprung's discoveries were recognized. The diagram became known as the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram." (K. van Berkel et al., The History of Science in the Netherlands, 1999, p.460).
Hertzsprung's work on the radiation of stars was reprinted in Oswalds Klassiker der exakten Wissenschaften, Vol. 255.

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