Vince Astronomy 1811

When a good friend heard that I was interested in astronomy he gave me this book from his collection. Big thanks to DH for this 1811 first American edition of Samuel Vince’s Elements of Astronomy. It’s amazing!! Planets had only been established out to "Georgian" at that time.

The planet "Georgian" had been discovered by a telescope maker and musician William Herschel in 1781. He named it after King George III in order to try to get a full time astronomy job at the castle - which worked. But in later years after Herschel had passed, non-English astronomers argued that the name of the planet didn't fit the trend of the other planets names after classical mythology figures. Ultimately it was changed to Uranus (in myth. father of Saturn and grandfather to Jupiter) consistent with the previous trend.

The original binding of the book was cracked, but now it has been now fully restored thanks to Starr Bookworks in Apache Junction, AZ.