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The Royal Society: Science in the Making

Unpublished paper, 'On a photographic method for determining variability in stars' by Isaac Roberts

Reference number: AP/66/26

Date: 1889-1890

Description

Roberts explains that some of the uncertainties which necessarily attend the determination of variability in the brightness of stars by eye observations are removed by the application of photographic methods, and particularly by that of giving two or more exposures of the same photographic plate to a given sky space, with intervals of days or weeks between each exposure. In this way any errors caused by atmospheric, actinic, or chemical changes, together with those due to personal bias, are eliminated, and the study of stellar variability can be pursued under conditions that admit of the necessary exactitude. For Roberts' earlier work on astrophotography, see AP/64/5.

Includes a photograph of the Great Nebula in Orion.

Subject: Astronomy / Photography

Received 14 January 1890.

Whilst the Royal Society declined to publish this paper in full, an abstract of the paper was published in volume 47 of the Proceedings of the Royal Society as 'On a photographic method for determining variability in stars'.

Reference number
AP/66/26
Earliest possible date
1889-1890
Physical description
Ink on paper and gelatin silver photographic print
Page extent
9 pages
Format
Typescript
Photograph

Creator name

Isaac Roberts

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Citation

Isaac Roberts, Unpublished paper, 'On a photographic method for determining variability in stars' by Isaac Roberts, 1889-1890, AP/66/26, The Royal Society Archives, London, https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/ap_66_26/unpublished-paper-on-a-photographic-method-for-determining-variability-in-stars-by-isaac-roberts, accessed on 05 December 2024

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https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/ap_66_26/unpublished-paper-on-a-photographic-method-for-determining-variability-in-stars-by-isaac-roberts

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    Dates: 1768-1989

    The 'Archived Papers' collection is comprised of original manuscript scientific papers and letters submitted to the Royal Society which remained unpublished or were abstracted in the journal 'Proceedings of the Royal Society' published from 1830 onwards.

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