Index Catalogue

of

Books and Memoirs

relating to

Nebulae and Clusters, etc.,

by Edward S. Holden.

Washington:

Smithsonian Institution.

Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections.

311

Table of contents

Introduction

The design of the following Catalogue is to give a full list of the books and memoirs relating to Nebulae and Clusters, and to include references to papers on allied subjects – as the Milky Way, the Nebular Hypothesis, etc., etc., which may serve to give as complete a knowledge as possible of the first two subjects. It was undertaken in 1874, for my own use, and has been steadily prosecuted until the present time; and I am induced to offer it for publication, by the hope that it may be found as useful to others as it has already been to myself. It is believed to be nearly complete, so far as the uses of the astronomer require. It is impossible, in a work of this kind, to insure its entire completeness, but it is hoped that few important papers are omitted. It is also beyond the limits of the plan to make an index for the bibliographer chiefly.

In reading upon any special subject there are several cases which may arise: First, having any given series of publications, as the Philosophical Transactions, for example, one may wish to know all that has been printed in that series on this particular subject. The present index has under the title of each publication a reference to all works on nebulae and clusters contained in it. Second, one may wish to know all the works on the special subject which we owe to a particular author no matter where published; in the present index, under each author's name, is given a list of his writings on nebulae, etc., arranged not chronologically, as in a work of more extended scope they should be, but by periodicals. All the papers of D'ARREST, for example, in the Astronomische Nachrichten, are to be found together, chronologically arranged, and so with papers in other journals. This form is convenient for an index of so special a nature as the one in question,

particularly as difficulties frequently arise as to the date of a paper, which it is often hard to fix except by some arbitrary rule. If such a rule be once adopted it must be adhered to although it will often disarrange the true logical order of the papers. Third, the question may be to discover all the papers written on a special subject, no matter by what author. In the present case such a question might be to find the papers which have been written on a given nebula, or on the spectra of nebulae in general, or something allied to this. It is plain that in so new a subject great subdivision is not required, and I find by experience that all my own wants in this direction have been supplied by adding after the reference to each paper a note more of less extended, giving an indication of the purport of the paper. A slight familiarity with the writings of the various authorities will enable one readily to turn to the authors likely to have treated a given subject. Thus if the proper motion of nebulae was in question, the writings of OTTO STRUVE, D'ARREST, SCHONFELD, VOGEL, SCHULTZ, SCHMIDT, RUMKER, ARGELANDER, OPPOLZER, WINNECKE, etc., would naturally be first consulted, and so with other subjects.

One nebula, that in Orion, has received a vast amount of study, and I have added a special bibliography of this, as well as one referring to the Variable Nebulae.

Section IV consists of a reference-list to all published (and many unpublished) drawings of nebulae and clusters. Under this head many of the most extended memoirs will be again indexed, and nearly all the monographs, so that it supplements in a way the main index. That is if the memoirs on a certain nebula are sought for an no preliminary clue is at hand, (as to authors,) it will be well before looking through the whole list of author's names, to look for this nebula in the list of drawings. If it is found there, the references joined to it will indicate the principal papers on this object.

To facilitate the finding of nebulae I have given in this part of

the work a finding list of Sir WILLIAM HERSCHEL's classes and numbers, as well as of MESSIER's nebulae – the identifications resting on the authority of Sir J. HERSCHEL.

The abstracts of Sir WILLIAM HERSCHEL's papers I have made much more full than in other cases, in order to present, if possible, something like an adequate idea of the views of this great man on the subject which is peculiarly his own. This is the more necessary, as we have as yet no collection of his works which is generally available, (a want which it is hoped may be filled,) and as the earlier volumes of the Philosophical Transactions are now quite rare.*

References to translations and reprints of important papers have frequently been included in order that such papers may be accessible to as many as possible in the native language of the reader.

Many popular and historical papers have been refereed to which appeared in Reviews and Magazines, but it is not supposed that such references are by any means exhaustive of this part of the subject, nor does it seem desirable that they should be so, since they are largely repetitions one of another.

I have included (with some hesitation) a few references to the views of the ancients on the Milky Way, etc., which may be thought to render the Index more complete by presenting more fully the historical side of the subject; but in the main it refers to publications made between the epoch of the invention of the telescope and the present time.

It is to be noted that the references here made are always from a consultation of the original work, when this was accessible, and not by a transcription from any indices or general catalogues, like the Royal Society's Catalogue of Scientific Papers for example. These

--------

* A complete collection of his separate papers exists at the Pulkowa Observatory, and also one in five volumes in the possession of his descendants in England, but in order to gain an acquaintance with them in general, it is necessary to examine no less than thirty-nine separate volumes of the Philosophical Transactions. Much unpublished and most precious material exists in manuscript.

have however been consulted in order to secure the necessary checks upon accuracy.

A considerable number of the works quoted are not to be obtained in the United States, and in many cases I have had only incomplete sets of periodicals at hand, which may explain possible omissions.

Following, I give a list of all works on special astronomical bibliography which are known to me, which may be of use to those consulting this Catalogue.

Among this list of works, the only one similar in purport to the present, is the work of my friend E.B. KNOBEL, Esq., F.R.A.S., etc. A careful comparison with section 4 of his work has assured me of the accuracy both of his list and of the present one as it stood in manuscript at the time of the publication of Mr. KNOBEL's paper.

The present Index is somewhat wider in scope than section 4 of Mr. KNOBEL's, and it contains a special reference to the contents of each paper, which is not given in the other list. As the two works were done independently, each serves as a useful check upon the other.

IV

LIST OF FIGURED NEBULAE

A large portion of the following list of drawings of nebulae is taken from Sir JOHN HERSCHEL's "General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars," p.40, Phil. Trans., 1864, part i. It has been attempted first to correct his list, which as printed, contains many errors*, and second to bring it up to the present time as far as possible. In an attempt of this kind there are necessarily many omissions, and the writer solicits corrections and additions to the list. By the courtesy of Mr. LASSELL, Mr. E. B. KNOBEL, Dr. H. C. VOGEL, Mr. ELLERY, Rev. T. W. WEBB, Dr. DOBERCK and others, I have been able to include in this list a reference to some important drawings which are not yet "published;" in particular a long and valuable series of photographs of star-clusters by Dr. RUTHERFURD, which I have given separately, as well as a great number of southern star-clusters photographed by Dr. B. A. GOULD, and a list of drawings by M. TROUVELOT.

The references to the works are given below: it is to be noted that the drawings of DUNLOP are omitted for reasons given by Sir John Herschel, (op. cit., p.40,) as are those in the Philosophical Transactions, by Sir WM. HERSCHEL. For similar reasons the drawings in SMYTH'S Celestial Cycle are omitted.

--------

* In HERSCHEL'S list the references to his drawings of 1883 are to the plates in his own paper, beginning with plate i. In the Phil. Trans. for 1833, HERSCHEL'S plate i. is plate ix. I have, however, seen a separate copy of this paper in which the steel plates were numbered from i. on; it has seemed best to refer to them as they stand in the complete volumes.

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EMPLOYED

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS – Continued

LIST OF FIGURED NEBULAE.

LIST OF FIGURED NEBULAE. – Continued

LIST OF FIGURED NEBULAE. – Continued

DRAWINGS OF THE NEBULA OF ORION = G.C. 1179

LIST OF FIGURED NEBULAE. – Continued

NEBULA OF ORION – Unpublished Drawings

LIST OF FIGURED NEBULAE. – Continued

LIST OF FIGURED NEBULAE. – Continued

LIST OF FIGURED NEBULAE. – Continued

LIST OF FIGURED NEBULAE. – Continued

LIST OF FIGURED NEBULAE. – Continued

LIST OF FIGURED NEBULAE. – Continued

LIST OF FIGURED NEBULAE. – Continued

LIST OF FIGURED NEBULAE. – Continued

Following are given lists of photographs of clusters and double stars which are as yet unpublished. These lists are intended to facilitate comparisons between work done by different observers. The data were furnished by the observers themselves.

List of Photographs of Star Groups and Clusters.

By Dr. L. M. Rutherford.

The "number of stars" is the number of measurable stars on the photographic plates, which include a field of about 1°50′.

LIST OF FIGURED NEBULAE. – Continued

Following are given lists of photographs of clusters and double stars which are as yet unpublished. These lists are intended to facilitate comparisons between work done by different observers. The data were furnished by the observers themselves.

List of Star Clusters photographed at the National Observatory at Cordoba, Argentine Republic. [1875-6.]

[Under the direction of Dr. B. A. Gould.]

Unpublished Drawings of Nebulae, by L. Trouvelot, Cambridge, Mass.

Note.–Those nebulae marked "?" are not finally identified, as the observing telescope is unprovided with circles. They are, in all cases, very near to the place of the nebula which is drawn.