Author's presentation copy

ROBERTS, Isaac.

A Selection of Photographs of Stars, Star-Clusters and Nebulae. Together with methods employed in the pursuit of Celestial Photography.

London: Universal Press &, 1893.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #002774

Two volumes. [1893-1899]. Folio (307 x 236 mm). Vol. I, 134 pp. and 53 collotype photographic plates. Vol. II, 178 pp., errata slip, and 28 collotype photographic plates. Bound in original blind-stamped publisher's cloth, gilt-lettered spines and upper boards (extremities rubbed, spine ends frayed and little chipped, corners worn, spines little tanned, remnant of shelf label to spine of vol. II). Text and plates littl age-toned only, otherwise crisp and clean. Provenance: Royal College of Science, London and Solar Physics Observatory, South Kensington (ink stamps to title-pages). Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on inserted paper slip, Crowborough Hill, Sussex, dated January 1900. A fine, untouched copy. ----

FIRST EDITION AND A FINE ASSOCIATION COPY of Isaac Robert's first publication of his celebrated astronomical photographs, presented to the Royal College of Science. Roberts (1829-1904) was a Welsh engineer and business man best known for his work as an amateur astronomer, pioneering the field of astrophotography of nebulae. He was a member of the Liverpool Astronomical Society in England and was a fellow of the Royal Geological Society. Roberts was also awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1895. In 1878, Roberts had a 7-inch refractor at his home in Rock Ferry, Birkenhead. Although at the time he used this for visual observation, he began to explore stellar photography, his forte, a few years later. In 1883, Roberts began experimenting with astrophotography. In 1886 Roberts displayed his first photographs at the Royal Astronomical Society at Liverpool, of which he was president. These images showed, for the first time, "the vast extensions of nebulosity in the Pleiades and Orion." Most consider Roberts' magnum opus to be a photograph showing the structure of M31, the Great Nebula in Andromeda (now known as the Andromeda Galaxy) taken on 29 December 1888, shown in the present work on plate 10 of vol. I and plate 3 of vol. II, respectively. - Visit our website for additional images and information.

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