HERSCHEL, WILLIAM. - THE DYNAMICAL THEORY OF STARS AND NEBULAE.

Astronomical Observations relating to the Construction of the Heavens, arranged for the Purpose of a critical Examination, the Result of which appears to throw some new Light upon the Organization of the celestial Bodies. Read June 20, 1811.

(London, W. Bulmer and Co., 1811). 4to. No wrappers as extracted from "Philosophical Transactions" Year 1811-Part II. With titlepage to vol. II. 269-336 and 2 engraved plates showing the shapes of 42 nebulae and star-clusters. Some brownspots to margins of the plates, otherwise clean and wide-margined.

First appearance of a milestone papers in cosmology in which Herschel demonstrates the irregular distribution of the stars in space, and "for the first time recognized that the clusters in and near the Milky Way really belonged to it, and were not independent systems that happened to lie in the same direction as seen by us."(Berry, Short History of Astronomy, p. 340).

"In 1811 and 1814 he published a complete theory of a possible process wherby the shining fluid consisting a diffused nebula might gradually condense - the denser portions of it being centres of attraction - first into a denser nebula or compressed star cluster, then into one or more nebulous stars, lastly into a single star or group of stars. Every supposed stage in this process was abundantly illustrated from records of actual nebulae and clusters which he had observed."(Berry).

Order-nr.: 45879