Memoir and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel

by Mrs. John Herschel

C. Herschel.

1835. Sir John Herschel at the Cape.

FROM J. F. W. HERSCHEL TO MISS HERSCHEL.

Feldhausen, C. G. H., Feb. 22, 1835.

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For my own part I never enjoyed such good health in England as I have done since I came here. The first coming on of the hot season affected me a little (odd enough with colds and rheumatisms), but it soon went off.

The stars continue to be propitious, and the nights which follow a shower, or a “black south-easter,” are the most observing nights it is possible to imagine. I have swept well over Scorpio, and have many entries in my sweeping books of the kind you describe, viz., blank space in the heavens without the smallest star. For example:—

R.A. 16^h 15^m—N.P.D. 113° 56ʹ—a field without the smallest star.

R.A. 16 19 N.P.D. 116 3—Antares (α Scorpii.)

R.A. 16 23 N.P.D. 114 25 to 214° 5ʹ—fields entirely void of stars.