Scope and Contents

Stamped ‘Edmond Halley Memorial Service Westminster Abbey’ and marked ‘Star Card no. M’ [sic.].

Scope and Contents

'A problem proposed by Dr Halley' on finding longitude, and the course steered, with its attached solution. The author and date of the piece are not known.

Scope and Contents

Isaac Cohen uses these folios as evidence for a lost three book draft of Principia, from which Humphrey Newton copied the version eventually sent via Halley to the Royal Society for printing (Beth HannantCohen, pp.336-344.) He also discusses the probability of Halley's authorship (pp.124-127.) On f.96v Newton himself has roughly drafted some additions and corrections to the scholium to proposition 31 of De Motu Corporum (see M.P. VI, I.3, Appendix 2, pp.413-422.)

Scope and Contents

Edmund Halley's transcription of portions of the first five propositions of De Motu Corporum. Probably transcribed from the putative Humphrey Newton fair copy sent to London in November 1684 and entered into the Royal Society's Register Book (6: ff.218-234.)

Scope and Contents Side A: 'The Comet Man'. BBC Radio 4 programme on the life of Edmund Halley. A dramatic presentation covering comets in general, Halley's Comet, and the life work and nature of Edmund Halley and his colleagues and contemporaries. Presented by John Ebdon, director of the London Planetarium. Producer Angela Hind.Side B: 'Cosmic Pursuits'. BBC Radio 4 programme detailing activities during National Astronomy Week. Includes reports on: the organisation of the week; activities of amateur...

Scope and Contents

Contains miscellaneous notes, including 'Definitions of the first Book of Apollonius' Conics.' Possibly in the hand of Halley.

Scope and Contents

A series of four letters, including some calculation tables, written by Gabriel Morris to the Revd. Arthur Ashley Sykes (1684?-1756), discussing the extent of various eclipses, with mention of Edmund Halley.

Scope and Contents A copy of Porter's script for 'The Night Sky in August' on statistical methods in astronomy; the Plough and the movement of Arcturus over 1,800 years since the time of Ptolemy, which Edmond Halley called attention to in 1718; the proper motions of stars, including Arcturus, Sirius and Procyon, analysed statistically by William Herschel, giving similar results to modern measurements; stellar velocities determined by spectroscopic analysis, the velocities increasing towards the galactic...

Scope and Contents An annotated copy of Porter's script for 'The Night Sky in May' on the Plough overhead, Arcturus in the south, Leo in the west, and Jupiter below Arcturus near Spica in Virgo; the retrograde motion of the planets, the difficulty in observing this motion and the lack of perspective in the sky; the misleading impression of distance given if apparent brightness is relied on, the proper motion of stars, and the importance of their distribution in this galaxy and their movements; the difficulties...

Scope and Contents Two copies of Porter's script for 'The Night Sky in September' on Mercury, Venus and Mars as morning stars and Jupiter; Vega, the Southern stars, Cygnus, Altair and Aquila, Vulpecula and Saturn, Sagitta, Equuleus and Delphinus; the Revd T.W. Webb's solution to the mystery of the names Svalocin and Rotanev for Alpha and Beta Delphinus; the Milky Way, the proper motions of stars and the movement of Sirius, Aldabaran, Betelgeuse and Arcturus listed in Ptolemy's catalogue and noted by Halley;...

Scope and Contents Various observations and calculations, primarily of the stars.1. Tables and equations for the Earth's perturbations by Venus and Jupiter and for the lunar equation.2. Catalogue of the stars for 1690 and 1760, with elements for their aberrations.3. Corrections for the tables of Dalembert, Halley, Mayer and Clairaut.4. To find the aberration in right ascension and declination.5. Comparisons with Nicholas Louis de Lacaille's star catalogue, 1750 and...

Scope and Contents Remarks and tables on proper motion and comparisons of star positions. The volume includes the apparent diameter of the Sun, Moon and primary planets as viewed from the Earth; changes in the obliquity of the ecliptic, 1668-1822, and that observed by the Arab astronomers, 832-1463; unused forms for observational results; proper motion of Arcturus in right ascension from Tycho's observations; rules on aberration of light in calculating the place of a planet; longitude of Cambridge, New...

Scope and Contents From the Sub-Fonds:

Early drafts of the Principia and related notes; additions, corrections and revisions to the Principia. This is the 'general' category: papers relating specifically to lunar theory or containing mathematical problems are classified separately.

Scope and Contents Eclipses predicted for 1675 (211r-213v); Halley's nonagesimal tables (216v-217r); equations of the earth's orbit (218v-219r); lunar tables and data (223r-232r); observations of stars omitted by Tycho (233v); 'De motibus stella Jovis Commentaria', with tables of Jupiter from several sources (234v-241r); a table identifying stars by numbers and Greek letters (244r-245r); tables of Saturn (246r-247v); 'An Opticall Essay proveing the truth and accuracy of coelestiall observations made with long...

Scope and Contents

Undated tables of Saturn's motion, apparently in Edmond Halley's hand.

Scope and Contents

Notes on how to observe the satellites and use the tables are included, together with copied pieces on Ole Rømer, 'Progressive Motion of Light in the Eclipses of Jupiter's Satellites', from 'Philosophical Transactions', Vol. 1, p. 409; Edmond Halley's hypothesis of Jupiter's satellites and his counter-arguments, from 'Philosophical Transactions', No. 214, November and December 1694; and James Bradley, 'Observations of Jupiter's Satellites'.

Scope and Contents From the Fonds:

The Macclesfield Collection principally comprises the archives of John Collins (1625-1683) and William Jones (1675-1749). As well as being mathematicians in their own right, both men corresponded with leading scientific figures of their day and so the collection includes autograph material by Isaac Newton, Edmond Halley, Henry Briggs, Roger Cotes, Henry Oldenburg and Robert Hooke.

Scope and Contents

A set of commemorative envelopes and postcards with Halley’s Comet stamps affixed. Four Halley’s Comet Stamps were issued to commemorate the return of the comet on 18 Feb. 1986, titled: ‘Dr Edmond Halley 1656-1742’ (17p), ‘Giotto’ (22p), ‘Maybe Twice in a Lifetime’ (31p), and [Comet] (34p).

Scope and Contents Theories of the Sun, Moon and planets, including a circular from M. Montagne on solar parallax; notes on Montucla, Pliny, Ptolemy and Halley relating to the saros of solar eclipses; tables by S. Newcomb on the transformation of P.A. Hansen's lunar theory as regards longitudes into modern notations; letters and calculations on the motion of the Moon and other lunar theory; a formula for the heliocentric co-ordinations of a planet; and letters and calculations by A. Hall, M. Souillant, W.A....