Item 29 - Letter from John Herschel

6 pp

Feldhausen, near Wynberg - No information to give WW on tides. Problem with taking observations: 'At Cape Town it was clearly impracticable to do anything - In bad weather the jetty is too much exposed and in fine nobody could be got who could be depended on to keep the register'. JH and [Thomas] Maclear have been waiting for the new self-registering apparatus to arrive [see JH to WW, 4 July 1835]. He has been working very hard to get the first six hours of his principal catalogues (the nebula and double stars) ready to send back to England in a reduced and arranged state: 'These 6 hours are by far the heaviest in the nebulae as both the Magellanic clouds come into them and I trust it will be found that my analysis of these extraordinarily complicated objects is so nearly complete that in all probability very few additional nebulae in either of them will hereafter be detected except with an instrument of superior optical power to the 20 feet'. The Duke of Northumberland has placed at his disposal a 'princely magnitude' to assist him in his astronomical work. JH has rediscovered the 6th Satellite of Saturn. It will not be possible to see the 7th Satellite with the 20ft reflector: 'He is destined for the Great Russian Refractor (whenever it shall exist)'. JH has got a beautiful series of sun spots and devised a theory of them.