Page talk:Nature - Volume 1.pdf/13

Personal equation of astronomical observers
I do not know what is meant to be referred to by "Letter on, 3" in the first item listed on this page. Page 3 is an advertising page, and in any case printed well before the letter on page 85 which it is supposedly in response to. I have skimmed the letters section of every single issue (before, after, and including the letters section on page 85), reading in detail every letter relating to astronomy, and the only reference to that first one is the response by van Stadt on page 337.

A later letter by George C. Thompson, on page 507, does use the phrase "personal equations" with reference to astronomical observation, but in a somewhat different sense and in response to the article "How large seems the moon?"

I considered whether the glyphs that appear to be "3;" might actually be "By" with some ink faded, so that the entry would actually read "Letter on, By Dr. Van Stadt", but it really does look like a "3" when I look at it closely. My best guess at the moment is that that portion of the entry is simply spurious in its entirety, rather than just having a mis-numbered page (as some other index entries do). --Superiority (talk) 21:11, 22 January 2024 (UTC)