Astronomy Explained upon Sir Isaac Newton's Principles, And Made Easy to Those Who Have Not Studied Mathematics. To Which are Added, A Plain Method of Finding The Distances of All the Planets from the Sun, By the Transit of Venus over the Sun's Disc, in the Year 1761. An Account of Mr. Horrox's Observation of the Transit of Venus in the Year 1639: And, Of the Distances of All the Planets from the Sun, as Deduced from Observations of the Transit in the Year 1761. The Eighth Edition.

FERGUSON, James.

Published by J. F. and C. Rivington T. Longman et al. London, 1790

Eighth edition. [vi], 503pp. [16]pp. index and instructions to binder for the placement of plates. Large folding frontis. of the Orrery made by James Ferguson with 17 large folding plates - all present as called for. Equation tables to text. Bound in full contemporary speckled brown call, professionally and almost invisibly recased with original spine and endpapers retained. Occasional browning and foxing to pages, rear 8 pages lightly stained o/w a clean and sound copy. Ferguson was born in 1710 in Banffshire in very humble circumstances. He first studied the stars and began making models of machines while employed by a neighbour to watch sheep. He was almost wholly self-educated. Having been taught to read and write by his father at the age of seven, he had only had three months of formal schooling at a local grammar school but ended up as one of the leading astronomers of his time. He was elected as a Fellow to The Royal Society of London in 1763. Seller Inventory # 55207

Bibliographic Details

Title: Astronomy Explained upon Sir Isaac Newton's ...
Publisher: J. F. and C. Rivington T. Longman et al. London
Publication Date: 1790