[ASTRONOMY] Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. For the year MDCCCXXIX. Part III. Containing astronomical observations made at the Observatory at Parramatta ; by Charles Rumker,

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Limited edition

London : Printed by Richard Taylor, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street, 1829. Quarto (275 x 220 mm), period-style modern binding of half black calf over marbled papered boards, spine lettered in gilt; pp. v, [1 Contents], 152; astronomical tables throughout; a fine copy, with discreet stamps of the Dublin Library Society to a couple of the preliminary leaves. These astronomical observations made at Parramatta in the late 1820s by Australia s first Government Astronomer, Charles Rümker, were issued as a supplementary volume to the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society at the expense of the New South Wales colonial government. This publication must rank as one of the very earliest if not the first by an Australian scientist. The first private observatory in Australia, which was established some thirty-three years after the Dawes Observatory in Sydney, was built by Governor Sir Thomas Brisbane, the sixth governor of New South Wales, at the rear of Government House, Parramatta. The small wooden and canvas building was constructed around two sandstone piers, and was completed in March 1822. Astronomical observations at Parramatta were initially carried out by two astronomers whom Brisbane had brought out with him from England, German-born Christian Carl Ludwig Rümker (1788-1862) and James Dunlop (1793-1848). Rivalry between these two scientists led in June 1823 to Rümker s retirement to his own property near Picton, where he continued to carry out observations of the night sky

• Binding: Hardcover

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