3-039-222 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The late Sir John Herschel, 1871. Engraving from a photograph by Mr. S. Walker. 'The southern heavens were to be surveyed as well as the northern; Herschel resolved, if possible, to add this hemisphere, till then comparatively unknown, to the domain of astronomy, so as to complete the survey of the whole sphere of sidereal space. He had a reflecting telescope of 18¼in. clear aperture and 20ft. focus, designed by his father [William Herschel]. With this and other apparatus he started, accompanied by his wife and children, for the Cape of Good Hope. He took up his residence at Feldhausen, near Table Bay, and began a survey of the heavens, continuing his observations until May, 1838. In 1847, nine years after his return to England, he published a large quarto volume, entitled "Results of Astronomical Observations made during 1834-8 at the Cape of Good Hope; being the Completion of a Telescopic Survey of the Whole Surface of the Visible Heavens, commenced in 1825."...On his return to England, in 1838, he was received with every demonstration of public honour...In 1842 he became Lord Rector of Marischal College, Aberdeen; and in 1848 was elected President of the Astronomical Society'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.