Half-hours With the Telescope, Being a Popular Guide to the use of the Telescope as a Means of Amusement and Instruction

by Richard A. Proctor

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140 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1873

About the author

Richard Anthony Proctor (23 March 1837 in Chelsea, London – 12 September 1888) was an English astronomer.

He is best remembered for having produced one of the earliest maps of Mars in 1867 from 27 drawings by the English observer William Rutter Dawes.

His map was later superseded by those of Giovanni Schiaparelli and Eugène Antoniadi and his nomenclature was dropped (for instance, his "Kaiser Sea" became Syrtis Major Planum).

He used old drawings of Mars dating back to 1666 to try to determine the sidereal day of Mars. His final estimate, in 1873, was 24h 37m 22.713s, reasonably close to the modern value of 24h 37m 22.663s. Nevertheless, Frederik Kaiser's value of 24h 37m 22.622s is closer.

A crater on Mars is named after Proctor.

Reviews

[Roger Bailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was published in 1873. So is it outdated? Well, there is a lot of astronomical knowledge available that was not available then. But most of that knowledge was acquired through giant telescopes in large observatories, radio telescopes, space telescopes and other means that backyard astronomers do not and never have had access to. Backyard astronomy has not really changed a whole lot in the last 148 years. Oh, there might be some advances like electrical devices that automatically rotate the telescope, but not much has changed in what can be seen from one's backyard nor the broad techniques used to see it. So, as an introduction to backyard astronomy, this 148 year old book retains value.