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William Herschel’s ‘Star Gages’ and the Structure of the Milky Way

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The Scientific Legacy of William Herschel

Part of the book series: Historical & Cultural Astronomy ((HCA))

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Abstract

William Herschel’s epochal observing campaign, using a self-made 18.7-in. reflector, lasted from 1783 to 1802. During his ‘sweeps,’ designed to find new nebulae and star clusters, he carried out a great number of star counts. In these so-called ‘star gages’ Herschel counted the number of stars seen in the field of view. One major result was the star distribution for a considerable part of the sky, observable from the Windsor area. Of course, the stars appeared strongly concentrated towards the band of the Milky Way.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Herschel always used the incorrect word ‘gage’ instead of ‘gauge.’ Here we will go mainly with the correct term.

  2. 2.

    Caroline’s contribution is comprehensibly described in: Hoskin, M., Caroline Herschel – Priestess of the New Heavens, Science History Publications 2013.

  3. 3.

    Except the double star M 40 in Ursa Major, Herschel has observed all 103 Messier-objects (the missing one was seen by Caroline).

  4. 4.

    Flamsteed, J., Historia coelestis Britannica, London 1725.

  5. 5.

    Steinicke, W., William Herschel and the ‘garnet’ stars: μ Cephei and more, Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage 18, 199–217 (2015).

  6. 6.

    Later the term ‘zone of avoidance’ was created.

  7. 7.

    Herschel, W., Account of some Observations tending to investigate the Construction of the Heavens, Philosophical Transactions 74, 437–451 (1784).

  8. 8.

    For a detailed study of Herschel’s various papers on the ‘Construction of the Heavens’see: Hoskin, M., The Construction of the Heavens – William Herschel’s Cosmology, Cambridge University Press 2012.

  9. 9.

    Ferguson, J., Astronomy explained upon Sir Isaac Newton’s Principles, London 1756, p. 383–384.

  10. 10.

    Steinicke, W., William Herschel, Flamsteed Numbers and Harris’s Star Maps, Journal for the History of Astronomy 45, 287–303 (2014).

  11. 11.

    RAS W.2/3.2.

  12. 12.

    The eastern sweeps are not listed in Caroline’s records (RAS W.2/3), but in the Journal No. 10 A (RAS W.2/1.10). There was a test observation on 29 September; the target was the Andromeda Nebula (M 31).

  13. 13.

    RAS W.2/8.5.

  14. 14.

    Herschel, W., On the Construction of the Heavens, Philosophical Transactions 75, 213–266 (1785). The publication shows two added notes below the text, mentioning observations of nebulae made on 1 and 7 February.

  15. 15.

    RAS W.2/24.1.

  16. 16.

    See Fig. 3.8 (made by the author) in Hoskin, M. (ref. 8), p. 52.

  17. 17.

    He probably had purchased an English translation of Newton’s Principia by Andrew Motte, published 1729 (private communication M. Hoskin).

  18. 18.

    RAS W.2/8.5.

  19. 19.

    RAS W.4/24.1.

  20. 20.

    This wrong interpretation often appears in the literature; this point is discussed in the last chapter. However, it may be interesting to create a section in the Milky Way plane, based on the star count data. The author has produced such a planar view of the galactic ‘boundary’. Due to the observational limits of Herschel’s method, it does not show any significant structure.

  21. 21.

    Caroline recorded the sidereal time and the elevation of the tube for each observation (e.g. object and reference star).

  22. 22.

    A slight distortion at the field edge, due to the tilted main mirror, was not problematic. See the article by Roger Ceragioli (Herschel’s Front View Telescopes) in this book.

  23. 23.

    Herschel. W., On the Nature and Construction of the Sun and the fixed Stars, Philosophical Transactions 85, 1795, 46–72.

  24. 24.

    A sweep, numbered 1113, was made on 31 May 1813 in Bootes; it lasted only 25 min (Royal Society RS/278).

  25. 25.

    Holden, E. S., Publications of the Washburn Observatory, Vol. II, 1884. The star count data are given in two chapters: X. The Star-gauges of Sir William Herschel, reduced to 1860.0. First Series, (Nos. 1–683), p. 113–140. XI. The Star-gauges of Sir William Herschel, reduced to 1860.0. Second Series, p. 141–173.

  26. 26.

    Caroline’s final version of the sweep records (RAS W.2/3) gives positions for 1800.

  27. 27.

    Steinicke, W., Observing and Cataloguing Nebulae and Star Clusters – from Herschel to Dreyer’s New General Catalogue, Cambridge University Press 2010.

  28. 28.

    Dreyer, J. L. E., The Scientific Papers of Sir William Herschel, Vol. II, London 1912, p. 699–711.

  29. 29.

    RAS C.3/1.1. Unfortunately, both the archives of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) and the Royal Society (RS) do not have Caroline’s manuscript. A search in the Herschel family papers, archived at the Harry Ransom Center (University of Texas at Austin), brought a negative result too. Therefore the author had extracted the gauge data directly from Caroline’s sweep records (RAS W.2/3).

  30. 30.

    Herschel, W., Catalogue of 500 new Nebulae, nebulous Stars, planetary Nebulae, and Clusters of Stars; with Remarks on the Construction of the Heavens, Philosophical Transactions 92, 477–528 (1802).

  31. 31.

    VI = very compressed and rich clusters of stars, VII = pretty much compressed clusters of large and small stars, VIII = coarsely scattered clusters of stars. Herschel’s eight objects classes should not be confused with his five forms of stellar systems described in the 1785 paper (ref. 14).

  32. 32.

    These are NGC 2358 (VIII 45), NGC 2432 (VI 38), NGC 2479 (VII 58) and NGC 2509 (VIII 1).

  33. 33.

    There were only a few sweeps made with the 40-ft reflector in the early years; the field of view was 9.5′, which is significantly smaller than that of the 20-ft. No gages were performed in the sweeps.

  34. 34.

    Herschel, W., Astronomical Observations relating to the Construction of the Heavens, arranged for the Purpose of a critical Examination, the Result of which appears throw some new Light upon the Organization of the celestial Bodies, Philosophical Transactions 101, 269–336 (1811), p. 269–270.

  35. 35.

    Herschel, W., Astronomical Observations relating to the sidereal part of the Heavens, and its Connection with the nebulous part; arranged for the purpose of a critical Examination, Philosophical Transactions 104, 248–284 (1814), p. 282.

  36. 36.

    Herschel, W., Astronomical observations and experiments tending to investigate the local arrangement of the celestial bodies in space, and to determine the extent and conditions of the Milky Way, Philosophical Transactions 107, 302–331 (1817), p. 325.

  37. 37.

    Herschel, W. (ref. 36), p. 327.

  38. 38.

    Herschel, W., Astronomical observations and experiments, selected for the purpose of ascertaining the relative distances of clusters of stars, and of investigating how far the power of our telescopes may be expected to reach into space, when directed to ambiguous celestial objects, Philosophical Transactions 108, 429–470 (1818).

  39. 39.

    Herschel W. (ref. 38), p. 463.

  40. 40.

    RAS W.4/1.7, p. 623.

  41. 41.

    Herschel W. (ref. 14), p. 256–257.

  42. 42.

    See his table of 52 cases: Herschel, W. (ref. 34), p. 275–276.

  43. 43.

    Lubbock, C. A., The Herschel chronicle, Cambridge 1933, p. 373

  44. 44.

    See also: Evans, D. S., Herschel at the Cape, Austin 1969, p. 72.

  45. 45.

    The full story will be told by the author in another paper.

  46. 46.

    ‘My sister swept by way of practise to myself of booking for her.’

  47. 47.

    RAS C.3/1.1, p. 40.

  48. 48.

    Dreyer, J. L. E. (ref. 28), p. 712–713.

  49. 49.

    Herschel, W. (ref. 14), p. 216.

  50. 50.

    Hoskin, M., John Herschel’s Cosmology, Journal for the History of Astronomy 18, 1–34 (1987).

  51. 51.

    Hoskin, M. (ref. 50), p. 18.

  52. 52.

    Herschel, J., Treatise on Astronomy, London 1833, p. 376; Herschel, J., Outlines of Astronomy, London 1849, p. 527.

  53. 53.

    Steinicke W., Birr Castle Observations of Non-stellar Objects and the Development of Nebular Theories, in: Mollan, C., William Parsons, third Earl of Rosse – Astronomy and Aristocracy in Nineteenth Century Ireland, Manchester University Press 2014, p. 210–270.

  54. 54.

    Herschel, J., Observations of nebulae and clusters of stars, made at Slough, with a 20-ft reflector, between the years 1825 and 1833, Philosophical Transactions 123, 359–509 (1833), Fig. 3.25.

  55. 55.

    More details in: Hoskin, M. (ref. 50), p. 9–14.

  56. 56.

    Now using the correct word.

  57. 57.

    Herschel, J., Astronomical Observations, London 1847, p. 375–379.

  58. 58.

    Herschel, J. (ref. 57), p. 381–382.

  59. 59.

    Hoskin (ref. 50), p. 22.

  60. 60.

    This wrong interpretation can be seen on several websites too.

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  1. History of Astronomy Section of the German, Vereinigung der Sternfreunde, Heppenheim, Germany

    Wolfgang Steinicke

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  1. Austin, Texas, USA

    Clifford J. Cunningham

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Steinicke, W. (2018). William Herschel’s ‘Star Gages’ and the Structure of the Milky Way. In: Cunningham, C. (eds) The Scientific Legacy of William Herschel. Historical & Cultural Astronomy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32826-3_3

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