Saturn

Date

26 September 1670

Creator

Unknown, Artist

Object type

manuscript
drawing

Archive reference number

RBC/3

Manuscript page number

p184

Material

ink
paper

Dimensions

height (page): 365mm
width (page): 233mm

Subject

Astronomy

Content object

space
   > Solar system
      > planet
         > Saturn

Description

Copy of a drawing of Saturn observed by Robert Hooke and dated 16/26 September 1670, added at the end of 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 of the Royal Society, vol. 5, no. 65 (November 1670).

This is copied from RBO/4/109.

Transcription

Text with image: Sat Obs. Lond. a R. Hook Septemb. 26/16 1670
Transcribed by the Making Visible project

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