Headlines of Issue No 120 (April 2003)
- A story of my cloisonné work
Please read the "Main article of the issue".
- Reproduction of the 7ft Herschel speculum (1)
Contribution by Mr Y Ogane, a Society member.
- John Percival Waterfield (1921-2002)
Mr J Waterfield was one of Herschel descendants.
- A new spa in Bath (from UK Now by BTA)
Our Herschel tour in March may visit there.
- A report by late Sims
Mrs Sims sent us a report Mr A Sims wrote for the bulletin of Irish Astronomical Society.
- Sunshine Planetarium to close
- Financial report of the Toranomon Astronomers' Hall
- Herschels in 21st century (1)
A photograph of Ms Charlotte Herschel Farquharson and her children.
Main article of the issue
A story of my cloisonné work "Telescopium Herschelii"
Nobuko Iizawa
I would like to write a story of my cloisonné work "Telescopium Herschelii" (August 2001 - March 2002).
Telescopium Herschelii, needless to say, was the constellation made in 1781 by the Austrian astronomer Maximilian Hell (1720-92) to commemorate William Herschel's (1738-1822) discovery of Uranus in March 1781, and was located in the general area of the discovery between Lynx and Gemini. Johann Ehlert Bode (1747-1826) published it in the star atlases "Uranographia". Hell made one more constellation of Herschel's telescope "Telescopium Herschelii Minor" in the area between Taurus and Orion, which do not exist, either. I took this constellation and Uranus to my another work "Taurus" (1997) as parts of design. The work "Telescipium Hershelii" was designed by the figure in Bode's star atlases. I added a portrait and musical instruments to express the two faces of William Herschel, who was the Royal Astronomer appointed by the King George III and musician.
I had a slight happening when I almost finished this work. In the summer of 2002 I held an individual exhibition on the theme of "Caroline's eight comets". I received through the Society a message of congratulation for my exhibition from Mrs Charlotte Herschel Farquharson. Seeing the famous picture printed on her card in my hand, I wondered why she chose a card of this picture. The picture was "Fishermen upon a Lee Shore" painted by J M W Turner (1775-1851) in 1802, which ensured his fame as a marine painter.
I remembered with my first surprise that I read just around the time when I received the card an interesting paper of Mr Toshio Yagi titled "Moby Dick and Paintings". He mentioned in the paper that Turner's influence on Melville appeared in the chapter 23 "The Lee Shore" of "Moby Dick". But this was nothing less than a coincidence. Strangely, I found with my second surprise an actual reference to Herschel's telescope in a passage of "Moby Dick" (1851) written by Herman Melville (1819-91).
I was attracted by this novel and glanced through the chapter 23, and incidentally, the lower volume, too. I focused as if light converge through a lens on the passage "But if his (a whale's) eyes were broad as the lens of Herschel's great telescope;" in the chapter 74 "The Sperm Whale's Head", with a note by the Japanese translator Nishijiro Tanaka saying that this meant the great lens made by John Herschel in 1820. I guessed that his great telescope was famous enough to be known in all over the world at that time. I also found that the novel often mentioned to Cetus and other constellations, and myths of constellations. These findings fascinated me with "Moby Dick", the marine literature of quite grand ideas. I read one available Japanese translation after another, including abridged editions.
I asked a friend of mine for the original text referring to Herschel, and he sent it to me by an e-mail with a comment that "Your finding of the reference to Herschel in this great work seems equal to discovery of a minor planet." This is a very interesting idea to describe the discovery in just a glance over 900 pages. How profound the message from Charlotte was!
I sometimes had such happenings and I expect to encounter many happenings even more interesting in my future creation.