Record

HSF - Correspondence of Sir John Frederick William Herschel, and the Herschel family
- 2 - Correspondence of Colonel John Herschel
  - 1 - Letters of John Herschel to Margaret Brodie Herschel and John Frederick William Herschel

RefNo	HSF/2/1/49
Previous numbers	32.8.32 and 32/8/32A
Level	Item
Title	Letter from J [John] Herschel, Murree, to 'Dearest Vater' [Sir John Frederick William Herschel]
Creator	Herschel; John (1837-1921); British army officer and astronomer
Date	13-14 July 1860
Description	He finds that he made an egregious error about the comet noticed in his last letter. He mentioned that two days after the first sighting it was not in the same place but had moved closer to Jupiter. He was certain that the second apparition was no star, as he had not noticed it before. If not a planet then the only conclusion to be made was that it was a comet, but it did not occur to him that it was a different one. He describes the differences between the number 1 and number 2 sightings and had decided that the erratic individual was indeed a comet although it did not look like one. Some days afterwards, he realised that although the object was moving eastward, and the Sun was moving faster in the same direction, that the object was approaching the Sun, and therefore it must be the comet expected in August. It is now much brighter, but still has the appearance of a star. They will lose sight of the object in a few days. When John wrote last, it was to say that they were then working on the azimuth at Dajil and the result shows a difference of 8" between the observed and the computed azimuth brought down from Kalianpur and he will try to show this as a picture. He gives thanks to his father for his last letter in which he explained the effect of dislevelment of the azimuth circle and the attraction of mountain masses, etc., in the elimination of errors of graduation. This is too much for John at present. Franceur [Louis Benjamin Francouer?] is still on the shelf and because their 24 hours are filled, he has little time for reading. He has succeeded with 'Adam Bede' [by George Elliot] and half of 'Pendennis' [by William Makepeace Thackeray] but that is all. This is partly because their house is full: he and Thuillier moved out of their original home for a larger one, and were joined by Haig of the Bombay Engineers and two others. Colonel [Andrew Scott] Waugh is defiitley not leaving, for which John is glad, and he will pay a visit to Kashmir during the next hot weather. He notes the increasing number of Europeans now going into Kashmir, for which Murree is a staging post from Rawalpindi and the Punjab, although not on the busiest route. John intends to travel in the next month or two before starting for the next season's work. His father will receive with this mail 'The Englishman', which Willy [William James Herschel] directed to be passed on. With a sketch on an attached sheet of the Sulaiman Range, and associated tables of data 'from memory', with comments.
Extent	6p.
Format	Manuscript
PhysicalDescription	Ink on paper
AccessStatus	Open

Fellows associated with this archive

Code	PersonName	Dates
NA7955	Herschel; John (1837 - 1921)	1837 - 1921

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