Table of Contents

1: From Cockermouth to the Cape Via Cambridge.- The Origins of the Royal Observatory, CGH.- The Young Fallows.- Cambridge Undergraduate.- Religious Orders.- A Cambridge Career.- Mathematical Reform.- Astronomy at Cambridge.- The Royal Astronomical Society and the Royal Society.- Preparations for Departure.- 2: Cape Residence.- Voyage to the Cape.- Initial Impressions.- The Temporary Observatories.- The Catalogue of Southern Stars.- A Proposed Time Service.- The Search for a Suitable Site.- Lacaille’s Observatory.- Fallows’s Personal Life.- Financial Arrangements.- George Thompson.- Captain Owen and the Longitude of the Cape.- Minor Publications.- Observations of Eclipses.- The Assistants.- Diversions.- 3: Birth of the Observatory.- Land Acquisition: 1823–24.- The Plan Delayed.- The Architect.- The Architecture.- The First Contract.- John Cannon.- The Meridian Line.- John Skirrow.- The Foundations.- Winter 1825.- The Second Contract.- Synopsis of the Construction.- Security Measures.- Quality Control.- The Chases.- Instrument Piers.- Outhouses.- The Domes.- Fittings and Furniture.- 4: Instrumentation.- The Zenith Sector.- The Mural Circle.- The Transit Instrument.- Transportation to the Observatory.- Captain Ronald.- The Herschel 14-foot Reflector.- Clocks and Chronometers.- 5: Life at the Observatory.- Residential Occupation.- Land Acquisition: 1827–28.- Klerck’s Estate.- Completion of the Instrument Piers.- The Meridian Marks.- The Observatory Well.- Beautifying the Site.- Manuel Johnson and the St. Helena Observatory.- Cambridge University Observatory.- Paramatta Observatory.- The South African Museum.- Miscellaneous Associations.- Ecclesiastical Involvements.- The Observatory and Slavery.- The Cape Wine Trade Committee.- 6: No Bed of Roses.- Response toCriticism.- Threat of Abortion.- Swinging the Pendulum.- Testing the Transit and Mural Instruments.- The Departure of Captain Ronald.- First (and only) Meridian Results.- The Mural Circle: Completion of the Saga.- Final Days.- The Observatory in Limbo.- Mrs. Fallows.- Final Publication.- References.

Promotional Information

Springer Book Archives

Reviews

`... this is an absorbing and scholarly book by an erudite author, being one of a series he has written on the scientific and cultural life of the Cape colony. I can highly recommend it.'
Journal for the History of Astronomy, 30:3 (1999)