 Science & Nature
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The Arts |
The Elements of the Four Inner Planets and the Fundamental Constants of Astronomy, by Simon Newcomb U.S. Govt. Printing Office, Washington, DC,
1895, 202 pages. Subtitle: "Supplement to the American Ephmeris and Nautical Almanac for 1897." First edition. Hardcover, blue cloth with gold-stamped spine. Slight wear to head/tail/corners; a couple small light spots on top edge; owner inscrip. on front pastedown. Pages very lightly age toned, three pages with a dogeared corner, a couple tiny edge nicks. Clean, solidly bound, fully collated.
Simon Newcomb (1835-1909) was a famed American astronomer, director of the American Nautical Almanac office from 1877-1897, editor of the American Journal of Mathematics and a professor of mathematics and astronomy at the Johns Hopkins University. Newcomb served as Secretary for the American Transit of Venus Commission in 1874; in 1882, he led the Venus transit expedition team for South Africa. Newcomb was also known for his research relative to theories of the moon's motion and his detailed observations of Uranus and Neptune. This book, perhaps his most important contribution, represented 20 years of work by Newcomb to produce a uniform set of planetary astronomical constants and element values. The lack of uniform data prior to this had consequences both for astronomical work and maritime navigation. In particular, Newcomb's constants were adopted for use in the nautical almanacs of nearly every country. $199
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Star-Land, Being Talks with Young People About the Wonder of the Heavens. sir Robert Ball. Boston: Ginn & Company, 1899. Second, revised edition. 402 pages, 7.5"x5". Silver lettering to cover and spine, and a silver Jupiter with moons and orbit track on cover. Pebbled dark blue cloth has a little wear to tips, bump at tail, and very slight spine roll. Well bound and text very clean, many delightful illustrations. An exceptionally nice copy, of a book usually found in quite worn condition. $22.00