Credit: © The Royal Society
Image number: RS.9801
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Projection of the stars in the Milky Way galaxy
Date
April 1784
Creator
William Herschel (1738 - 1822, German-British) , Astronomer
Object type
Archive reference number
Material
Dimensions
height (drawing): 224mm
width (drawing): 327mm
width (drawing): 327mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Plate 18 figure 16 for the paper “Account of some observations tending to investigate the construction of the heavens”, by William Herschel, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol.74 part 2 (1784), pp.437-451. A demonstration that an observer within the Milky Way galaxy “will see all the stars in the direction of the planes of the stratum projected into a great circle, which will appear lucid on account of the accumulation of the stars...” and explaining the scattering of stars forming the constellations. Not signed.
Transcription
Fig 16
Philos. Trans. Vol.LXXIV Tab.XVIII p.
Philos. Trans. Vol.LXXIV Tab.XVIII p.
Associated place