OLBERS, WILLIAM. - COMPUTING THE ORBIT OF COMETS.

An Essay on the easiest and most convenient Method of calculating the Orbit of a Comet from Observations. Weimar, 1797. Translated from the German. With Notes. (5 Parts).

(London, John Murray, 1820, 1821, 1822). Wirhout wrappers as ectracted from "The Quarterly Journal of Science and the Arts. (The Royal Institution of Great Britain)", vol. IX, X, XI, XII, XIII. Pp. 149-164, 416-426, 177-182, 137-151 a. 366-385, textillustr.

First English translation of Olber's famous work on the orbits of comets.

"In 1796 Olbers discovered a Comet and calculated its parabolic orbit with a new method, simpler than that used by Laplace. In a letter to F.X. von Zach...Olbers asked whether his treatise on this method shouild be printed, and if so, how this could be done. After reading the tratise and using it with excellent results to compute the orbit of the comet of 1779, which had presented great difficulties to many astronomers, von Zach decided to see it through the press himself. It appeared in Weimar in 1797 under the title "Über die leichteste und bequemste Methode, die Bahn eines Kometen aus einigen Beobachtungen zu berechnen" This work immediately established Olbers among the formost astronomers of his time, and his method was used tyhroughout the nineteenth century."(DSB X, p. 198).

Order-nr.: 43735