Dear Miss Herschel,—
I am sure you have a better opinion of me than to think I have been ungrateful for your very, very kind letter of the 2nd August. You will have judged I wished to give you some account of your comet before I answered it. I wish you joy, most sincerely, on the discovery. I am more pleased than you can well conceive that you have made it, and I think I see your wonderfully clever and wonderfully amiable brother, upon the news of it, shed a tear of joy. You have immortalized your name, and you deserve such a reward from the Being who has ordered all these things to move as we find them, for your assiduity in the business of astronomy, and for your love for so celebrated and so deserving a brother. I received your very kind letter about the comet on the 3rd, but have not been able to observe it till Saturday, the 5th, owing to cloudy weather. I found it immediately by your directions; it is very curious, and in every respect as you describe it. I have compared it to a fixed star, on Saturday night and Sunday night....
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You see it travels very fast—at the rate of 2° 10ʹ per day—and moves but little in N. P. D. These observations were made with an equatorial micrometer of Mr. Smeaton’s construction, which your brother must recollect to have seen at Loam Pit Hill. I need not tell you that meridian observations with my transit instrument and mural quadrant must have been much more accurate. I give you a little figure of its appearance last night and the preceding night upon the scale of Flamsteed’s Atlas Cœlestis [here follows the sketch-figure].
By the above, you will see it will be very near 19 of Comæ Berenices to-night, and it will be a curious observation if it should prove an occultation of one of the stars of the Comæ. Notice has been given to astronomers at home and abroad of the discovery. I shall continue to observe it, and will give you by-and-by a further account of it. In the meanwhile believe me to be, with much gratitude and regard,
Dear Miss Herschel,
Your most obedient and obliged
humble servant,
Alex. Aubert.
P.S.—I was glad to hear to-day, by my friends at our club, that they had seen you last night in good health; pray let me know what news you have of your brother, and when we may expect to see him. I have had twice at Loam Pit Hill his serene highness the Duke of Saxe Gotha, and entertained him, Count Bruhl, and Mr. Oriani (a Milanese astronomer), with your comet last night. My sisters return you many thanks for your kind remembrance, and, with their best compliments, enjoin me to wish you joy.