Author's presentation copy

SMYTH, William Henry.

Sidereal Chromatics; Being A Re-Print, with Additions, from the 'Bedford Cycle of Celestial Objects' and its 'Hartwell Continuation' on the Colours of Multiple Stars.

London: Printed for private circulation by J. B. Nichols and Sons, 1864.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #003832

8vo (255 x 160 mm). ix, [4], 14-96 pp., one color plate, text diagrams and tables. Publisher's blue cloth, "Colours of Double-Stars" stamped in gilt on front board and spine, original yellow endpapers (head of spine with minor repair), cloth spotted and stained, corners bumped, light wear to extremities). Pages opened bu uncut. Text little age-toned, but in all clean and bright throughout. Provenance: William Parsons, 3rd. Earl of Rosse, Birr Castle (armorial bookplate of Smyth to front pastedown), presented from the author and inscribed on front pastedown, 'Presented to Lord Rosse, F.R.S. etc. etc. etc. with the respects of Admiral Smyth & D. Lee, Hartwell, 10 December, 1864." ----

RARE FIRST EDITION, and one of a few copies printed for presentation, of the work on the color and brightness of stars, published one year before the author's death. William Henry Smyth was an admiral of the Royal Navy and a British astronomer. In 1817 he met the Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi in Palermo and visited his observatory. This awakened his interest in astronomy. So in 1825 he took leave of the Navy and established a private observatory in Bedford, England. Smyth's Sidereal Chromatics can be regarded a landmark work in 19th century astronomy, providing the most precise observations of the colors of double stars ever recorded. The work provides both a theory of the origin of the colors of double stars and a method for describing them as accurately as possible. Detailed diagrams compare Smyth's measurements of more than one hundred double stars with his own previously published observations and those of his astronomy colleague, Father Benedetto Sestini. This edition also includes Smyth's famous color chart, an attempt to standardize the process of identifying double star colors. - Visit our website to see more images!

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