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Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 14(1), 78-80 (2011).
78
BOOK REVIEWS
Observing and Cataloguing Nebulae and Star
Clusters. From Herschel to Dreyer’s New General
Catalogue, by Wolfgang Steinicke (Cambridge,
Cambridge University Press, 2010), pp. 648, 359
illustrations. ISBN 978-0-521-19267-5 (hard cover),
248 x 192 mm, £90.00.
This is the slightly revis-
ed English edition of W.
Steinicke’s German thesis,
reviewed in JAH
2
12(3),
p. 255 (2009). With the
text arranged in two col-
umns, and the use of a
slightly larger font size,
this fundamental investi-
gation of the prehistory,
genesis and content of
Dreyer’s New General Ca-
talogue makes a much
more agreeable read than
the German print-on-demand book. With 359 figures,
among them many portraits of nowadays little-known
astronomers and contemporary sketches of objects,
238 tables and 1628 references, this will remain the
standard reference work in the field. An appendix
gives a timeline of major events, from Messier’s 1781
catalogue up to Dreyer’s and Bigourdan’s studies in
the early twentieth century. This is followed by a long
table with technical data on telescopes employed for
nebular work, arranged by site. The final 28 pages
contain indexes of names, sites, objects and subjects.
The numerous citations, kept in their original language
in the German edition, are now all translated into
English, but scholars can always turn to the properly-
referenced original sources.
With this labour of love, Steinicke has provided an
invaluable service to historians of astronomy and deep
sky observers.
Professor Hilmar W. Duerbeck
History of Astronomy in Finland 1828 - 1918,
by Raimo Lehti and Tapio Markkanen (Sasta-
mala, Societas Scientiarum Fennica, 2010),
pp. 269, 40 b&w and 38 colour figures, ISBN
978-951-653-379-0 (soft cover), 150 x 235 mm,
€28.
This book is part of the
series The History of
Learning and Science in
Finland 1828 - 1918, and
represents the first major
account on this topic
written in English.
The reader should not
take the above time inter-
val too seriously: the first
100 pages describe learn-
ing in the Middle Ages,
Maupertuis’ degree mea-
surement in the eight-
eenth century, the rise of
the Abo Academy, the
installation of an obser-vatory there and the
appointment of Friedrich Argelander as its Director.
The infamous Abo (Turku) town fire of 1827 put an
end to these activities. The decision to build a new
university in Helsinki, and the close collaboration of
Argelander with its architect, Carl Ludwig Engel, led
to the construction of a new observatory, finished in
1834, which would be a model for other ones like
Pulkovo.
The next 100 pages trace the activities of the Hel-
sinki Observatory Directors Argelander, Lundahl,
Woldstedt, Lindelöf, and the more famous Adalbert
Krueger and Anders Donner, who were responsible for
the Finnish share of the Astronomische Gesellschaft
and Carte du Ciel sky surveys. Special chapters are
dedicated to Hugo Gyldén and Karl Frithiof Sundman,
two specialists in celestial mechanics. The final two
dozen pages trace the history of Finnish astronomy to
the present. Memberships in the European Space
Agency (1985) and the European Southern Observa-
tory (2004), as well as the joint project of a Nordic
Optical Telescope (NOT) on the Canary Islands are
modern examples of the international collaboration
that has always influenced the course of Finnish
astronomy.
This book is highly recommended as a concise
overview of the important astronomical contributions
made by Finland.
Professor Hilmar W. Duerbeck
Centre for Astronomy, James Cook University
Astronomie in Nürnberg, edited by Gudrun
Wolfschmidt (Tredition Science, Hamburg
2010), pp. 388, many color and b&w
illustrations), ISBN 978-3-86850-609-9), 175 x
227 mm, €49.90.
This book includes 14
papers given at a con-
ference held in Nur-
emberg in early 2005,
commemorating the
500th anniversary of
Bernhard Walther’s
death, and the 300th
of that of Georg
Christian Eimmart.
The first third of
this book contains an
overview paper by the
editor, focussing on
the instruments (in-
cluding globes and
atlases) used and built by Nuremberg artisans and
astronomers from about AD 1450 to 1850. The next
two papers deal with Johannes Regiomontanus and
Bernhard Walther: Uta Lindgren investigates the im-
pact of Regiomontanus’ ephemerides on the discovery
of America, and Richard Kremer elucidates the quest-
ion of whether Walther was not only an excellent
observer but also a theoretician who intended to use
the observations for an improvement of planetary
Book Reviews
79
tables. Two shorter papers deal with Nuremberg
calendar-makers and solar eclipses seen from the city.
A paper by Hans Gaab focuses on the history of the
first permanent observatory, installed by the mathe-
matician, astronomer and engraver Georg Christoph
Eimmart in 1678, up to its closure about 85 years later.
Eimmart, his observatory and his assistants and suc-
cesssors are also the focus of the following papers:
Doris Gerstl describes Eimmart’s activities as an artist
(copper engraver); Inge Keil gives a brief overview of
Eimmart’s estate of letters and papers kept at the St.
Petersburg National Library; and Ronald Stoyan dis-
cusses the lunar maps of Eimmart, his daughter Maria
Clara Eimmart and Tobias Mayer. Reinhard Schie-
licke discusses Erhard Weigel, his teachings, invent-
tions and instruments, and Antal Adrás Deak describes
the activities of Eimmart’s student Johann Christoph
Müller, an early Hungarian cartographer. Three more
of Eimmart’s assistants, Johann Philipp von Wurzel-
bau, Johann Leonhard Rost and Johann Gabriel Dop-
pelmayr, are the topic of papers by Willi Deinzer,
Hans Gaab and Olaf Simon, and Siegfried Kett.
All papers are in German. Due to the long digestion
of the conference papers, some have been superseded
in the meantime, while others are just short versions of
previous publications. Eimmart’s estate has been in-
spected in more detail in the meantime (see http:
//www.naa.net/ain/personen/eimmart_nachlass.asp),
and more detailed biographies of Wurzelbau were
given by Hans Gaab in the Beiträge zur Astronomie-
geschichte series in recent years. Nevertheless, this is
a good overview of the astronomical activities in this
important German town.
Professor Hilmar W. Duerbeck
Centre for Astronomy, James Cook University
Johann Bayer: Uranometria 1603, edited by
Ulrich Schaake and Winfried Berberich
(Gerchsheim, Kunstschätzeverlag, 2010), 51
tables and text pages, unpaginated, ISBN 978-
3-934223-35-6, 340 x 450 mm; Die Himmels-
vermessung des Johannes Bayer, by Jürgen
Hamel (Gerchsheim, Kunstschätzeverlag,
2010), pp. 176, ISBN 978-3-934223-36-3, 210 x
290 mm; the set: ISBN 978-3-934223-37-0,
€178.00.
This set contains a
reprint of Bayer’s
famous star atlas
Uranometria, first
published in Augs-
burg in 1603—the
atlas in which the
stars were marked
with Greek letters for
the first time. In
addition, there is an
extensive explanatory
book (in German) by
astronomy historian
Jürgen Hamel, in
which he describes
the development of
star maps before and after Bayer, tries to elucidate the
little we know about Johannes Bayer, and adds some
explanatory information on the constellation maps—
mainly taken from the 1720 German edition of the
Bayer text. It also contains translations of the original
introductory texts and dedicationary poems in Latin
and Greek of Bayer’s Uranometria.
Besides a small-size, medium-quality pocket edition
of the Bayer atlas from the copy in the state and city
library of Augsburg, which appeared in 1981 in West
Germany, there exists the impressive large-size
Archival Facsimiles Limited (England) reprinted in
1987. So, is there a need for a new edition? Most
likely, although I would say that, at a time when
thousands of old astronomical books are available as
scanned copies in good quality (sometimes even in
colour), such editions become more and more col-
lectors’ items.
The reproduction presented here is, contrary to the
1987 edition, a halftone print that better shows the
delicate constellation figures, star symbols, and out-
lines of the Milky Way. In the 1603 edition, the plate
descriptions were printed on the reverse of the plates,
and in this way would faintly show up as mirror
images on the plates. For this reason, the originals of
the constellation plates were taken from the University
of Heidelberg Library copy of the 1648 edition (where
the backs of the pages are blank). However, the
Heidelberg copy shows some slightly-disturbing mar-
ginal notes and lines by a previous owner. The text
facsimiles were taken from the 1603 edition, kept at
the Linda Hall Library in Kansas City, USA (see also
http://www.lindahall.org/services/digital/ebooks/bayer/
about.shtml).
Professor Hilmar W. Duerbeck
Centre for Astronomy, James Cook University
Discoverers of the Universe. William and
Caroline Herschel, by Michael Hoskin (Prince-
ton, Princeton University Press, 2011), pp.
xviii+237, ISBN 978-0-691-14833-5, 160 x 240
mm; UA$29:95.
Michael Hoskin is un-
doubtedly the maestro of
the Herschels. Over the
decades, he has entertain-
ed us with a succession
of books and research
papers that mainly relate
to William and Caroline,
so I have to admit that
the thought of reading yet
another tome on these
famous discoverers of the
Universe did not exactly
fill me with joy.
However, I was in for a
pleasant surprise, as this
new book is not only very well written but it also reads
like a novel, not an academic text—though in this
instance fact is often stranger than fiction! Having
been bombarded over the years with details of Wil-
liam’s telescopes, his celestial observations and those
of sister Caroline, and their collective invaluable con-
tributions to astronomy, it is fascinating to read a book
that sketches out the personalities and the human
Book Reviews
80
dramas behind these ‘key players’, as well as Wil-
liam’s son, John. In the process we also learn about
William’s father; the gradual conversion of William
from musician to astronomer (including “Hobnobbing
with Royalty”); the valuable role that Alexander
played in brother William’s early telescope-making
exploits; how Caroline was craftily ‘kidnapped’ from
her over-zealous mother in Germany so that she could
‘have a life’ in England; how she also gradually
turned—but perhaps a little less willingly—from a life
of music to one dominated by the stars; how William
increasingly exploited her following his marriage to
Mary; and last, but not least, how their son, John, “…
sacrificed his chosen career in Cambridge …” in order
to perform his “sacred duty” and complete his father’s
lifetime work. This, of course, would lead him to
South Africa.
Nonetheless, these comments should not lead you
into thinking that Hoskin’s book is solely about the
politics and sociology of astronomy, for it certainly is
not. Among the 200 or so pages of text we also learn
about William’s telescopes and the observing pro-
grams to which they were assigned by William and
Caroline, William’s numerous academic publications,
and John’s fields of research.
Also scattered throughout the book is a succession
of figures. Some of these are taken from the original
publications, others derive from the Herschel manu-
scripts—which Michael Hoskin surely knows better
than anyone else—and others again present the
appearance of houses associated with the Herschels.
There are also numerous quotations, taken from pub-
lished or manuscript sources. Part way through the
book is a 16-page spread containing a selection of
attractive coloured plates, some of which were new to
me. At the end of the book there are 11 pages of notes
and references relating to the individual chapters, then
a brief “Bibliographical Essay” and finally, 3.5 pages
of “Further Reading”. The only surprising omission is
Ruskin’s 2004 book about John Herschel’s time at the
Cape.
All in all I found this ‘a great read’, and Michael
Hoskin is to be congratulated for producing a volume
that gives us far more than a mere scientific or
technical account of the Herschels. This fascinating
book deserves to be on the bookshelf of anyone with
an interest in the history of astronomy.
References
Ruskin, S., 2004. John Herschel’s Cape Voyage. Private
Science, Public Imagination and the Ambitions of Empire.
Aldershot, Ashgate.
Associate Professor Wayne Orchiston
Centre for Astronomy, James Cook University
