Saturn

Date

26 September 1670

Creator

Robert Hooke (1635 - 1703, British) , Natural philosopher

Object type

manuscript
drawing

Archive reference number

RBO/4/33

Manuscript page number

p109

Material

ink
paper

Dimensions

height (page): 361mm
width (page): 230mm

Subject

Astronomy

Content object

space
   > Solar system
      > planet
         > Saturn

Description

Drawing of Saturn observed by Robert Hooke, dated 16/26 September 1670 (Old and New Styles), on a piece of paper (H:92mm W:173mm) which was glued onto an entry about Hooke's later observation of a lunar eclipse (September 1671). The drawing was shown at the meeting of the Royal Society on 27 October 1670, and judged to agree with Christian Huygens's observation of Saturn in the same month. Hooke's figure was printed in Philosophical Transactions vol. 5, no. 65 (November 1670).

This is copied in RBC/3/184.

Object history

At the first meeting after the summer recess on 27 October 1670, Henry Oldenburg read a letter ‘from Monsr. Huygens dated at the Hague, 31 Oct. 1670, N.S. containing his observation of Saturn agreeing with those of Mr. Hevelius and Mr. Hooke, the latter of whom produced his also made in September preceding’ (Birch 2:449).

Tab. 1, Fig. III: Hooke's observation of the ring of Saturn, September 26/16 1670, in 'Some communications, confirming the present appearance of the ring about Saturn, by M. Huygens and Mr. Hooke', Phil. Trans. vol. 5, no. 65 (November 1670), p. 2093.

Related fellows

Robert Hooke (1635 - 1703, British) , Natural philosopher
Renatus Franciscus Slusius (1622 - 1685, Belgian) , Mathematician
Henry Oldenburg (1612 - 1677, German) , Scientific correspondent
Christiaan Huygens (1629 - 2006, Dutch) , Natural philosopher

Associated place

<The World>
> Europe
> United Kingdom