| Reference number | AP/66/26 |
| Level | File |
| Title | Unpublished paper, 'On a photographic method for determining variability in stars' by Isaac Roberts |
| Date | 1889-1890 |
| Description | Roberts explains that some of the uncertainties which necessarily attend the determination of variability in the brightness of stars by eye observations are removed by the application of photographic methods, and particularly by that of giving two or more exposures of the same photographic plate to a given sky space, with intervals of days or weeks between each exposure. In this way any errors caused by atmospheric, actinic, or chemical changes, together with those due to personal bias, are eliminated, and the study of stellar variability can be pursued under conditions that admit of the necessary exactitude. For Roberts' earlier work on astrophotography, see AP/64/5.
Includes a photograph of the Great Nebula in Orion.
Subject: Astronomy / Photography
Received 14 January 1890.
Whilst the Royal Society declined to publish this paper in full, an abstract of the paper was published in volume 47 of the Proceedings of the Royal Society as 'On a photographic method for determining variability in stars'. |
| Extent | 9p |
| Format | Typescript |
| Photograph |
| Physical description | Ink on paper and gelatin silver photographic print |
| Digital images | View item on Science in the Making |
| Access status | Open |
| Related material | DOI: 10.1098/rspl.1889.0074 |
| Related records in the catalogue | RR/10/372 |
| RR/10/373 |
| RR/10/374 |
| AP/64/5 |
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | Name | Dates |
| NA7133 | Roberts; Isaac (1829 - 1904) | 1829 - 1904 |