Charles Edward Barns 1862-1937

[Putaendo Patrick]

In the July edition of Sky and Telescope, James Mullaney recalls US amateur astronomer Charles Edward Barns and his book 1001 Celestial Wonders, as observed through Home-built Instruments first published in 1927, with second and third revised editions in 1929 and 1931. And it does indeed look like a very interesting tome! Apart from the Wonders, there are notes on telescope-making, astrophotography and even sun-dials.

1001 Celestial Wonders  is available on-line at https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id =uc1.$b527144;view=1up;seq=13

but it seems you need to be in a US academic institution to download it. Another copy of the third edition however can be freely downloaded at http://libarch.nmu.org.ua/handle/GenofondUA/13381

A biography of Barns can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Edward_Barns#1001_Celestial_Wonders

Some extra notes and photos which were not included in Mullaney's article are at http://www.skyandtelescope.com/sky-and-telescope-magazine/beyond-the-printed-page/more-from-c-e-barness-1001-celestial-wonders/

IMHO it's well worth a look.

[Physopto]

Thanks for posting this. Just had a very cursory look and it has some interesting pages.

Derek

[jambouk]

What another fascinating chap. And what a great book that is; I've added to my list of books to look out for

I love this paragraph:

 

[Guest]

For interest there is a reprint from India of this book in both paperback and hardback at https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&cm_sp=SearchF-_-home-_-Results&an=&tn=1001+celestial+wonders&kn=&isbn=

I did get the  paperback version and it seems OK. Shipping was reasonably quick. Not sure how long the covers will last so it maybe best to get the hardback version. It is of interest, although most deep sky objects are referred to by their Herschel numbesr and of course their type is as known in 1927 so some may be wrong (NGC 6229 for instance is classified as a PN whereas it is in fact a globular cluster)

 

unfortunately the link to the download version (free) no longer works ?

 

Owen