Comet observation (1682)
Date
8-10 September 1682
Creator
Robert Hooke (1635 - 1703, British) , Natural philosopher
Object type
Archive reference number
Manuscript page number
p52
Material
Dimensions
height (page): 330mm
width (page): 214mm
width (page): 214mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Observation of a comet by Robert Hooke on 8, 9 and 10 September 1682. The head of the comet is indicated in ink and the tail in graphite. This comet later came to be known as Halley's Comet.
Cl.P/24/88 contains observations of comets by Robert Hooke between 1680 and 1683. These must be the papers found inserted into Hooke’s copy of the star chart Uranometria (Augsburg: Christoph Mang, 1603) by Johannes Bayer (1572-1625), which was purchased by the naturalist John Woodward FRS (1665-1728) at an auction of Hooke’s library after his death. Hooke’s copy of Uranometria is likely now the copy in the British Library (Maps C.10.a.17). Hooke used Bayer's symbols for stars in his observations.
Hooke read a paper about the nature of comets based on some of these observations at the meeting of Royal Society on 25 October 1682, though it is unlikely that Hooke read out the entire discourse, which runs to 40 pages as printed in his Posthumous Works (1705), pp. 150-90: ‘A discourse of the nature of comets’.
Cl.P/24/88 contains observations of comets by Robert Hooke between 1680 and 1683. These must be the papers found inserted into Hooke’s copy of the star chart Uranometria (Augsburg: Christoph Mang, 1603) by Johannes Bayer (1572-1625), which was purchased by the naturalist John Woodward FRS (1665-1728) at an auction of Hooke’s library after his death. Hooke’s copy of Uranometria is likely now the copy in the British Library (Maps C.10.a.17). Hooke used Bayer's symbols for stars in his observations.
Hooke read a paper about the nature of comets based on some of these observations at the meeting of Royal Society on 25 October 1682, though it is unlikely that Hooke read out the entire discourse, which runs to 40 pages as printed in his Posthumous Works (1705), pp. 150-90: ‘A discourse of the nature of comets’.
Object history
At the meeting of the Royal Society on 25 October 1682, ‘Mr. Hooke read a discourse concerning comets, and in this first part of it gave an account of several of his own observations concerning the appearances of the comets in 1680 and 1681; in which he mentioned several new and wonderful appearances of them, taking notice of the other remarks concerning them, as of their place, position, magnitude, motion, way or course, only in short, and by the bye, referring his observations in those particulars to the other parts of the discourse’ (Birch 4:162).
Hooke's observation of a comet on 8-10 September 1682 is described in R. Hooke, Posthumous Works, ed. by Richard Waller (London: S. Smith and B. Walford, 1705), pp. 161-62.
Hooke's observation of a comet on 8-10 September 1682 is described in R. Hooke, Posthumous Works, ed. by Richard Waller (London: S. Smith and B. Walford, 1705), pp. 161-62.
Related fellows
Robert Hooke (1635 - 1703, British) , Natural philosopher
Associated place