Papers of Nevil Maskelyne

Papers on general astronomy split into four sections.

1. Work on Saturn's rings, in particular the disappearance and reappearance of Saturn's rings, 1788-1790; aberrations of stars in right ascension, longitude and latitude and north polar distance; accounts to find the annual parallax or aberration in any given direction, 1807; and equations of time of the eclipse of Jupiter's satellites. There are many formulae, instructions and descriptions on the above matters.

2. Detailed instructions, formulae and diagrams for solving problems of nutation and precession, with tracts on the motion of the poles in the Earth's orbit and motion of the Moon's node, 1785-1801. The papers are bound by a subscription list to the Diocesan Fund, Oxford, 1843.

3. Detailed instructions, formulae and diagrams for solving problems on refraction of star light, with pieces on the errors in the instruments and micrometer, computations of refractions from James Bradley's observation of major stars, and rules to calculate the refraction to be allowed according to temperature and pressure.

4. Rules, formulae, computations and diagrams on probable errors.

Indexed