Handsome prize binding. Ninth edition one of the most influential books by astronomer John Herschel, in a handsome red red calf prize binding. This copy was awarded by Queenwood College to Charles Hopkinson at Christmas 1869, in recognition of achievement in mathematics. Queenwood was a public school in Stockport, Hampshire that operated between 1847 and 1896.

Author John Herschel (1792-1871) was the son of astronomer William Herschel and himself a respected polymath. Outlines of Astronomy 'was based partly on his earlier and shorter Treatise on Astronomy. Hailed as the definitive presentation of astronomy available in English, Herschel's Outlines had by 1871 gone through eleven editions and also translations into Chinese and Arabic. Changes in these later editions record the evolution of Herschel's thought. For example, in the first edition Herschel, aware of the resolutions of nebulae into stars achieved by Lord Rosse and others, inclined to the view that all nebulae are composed of stars, but in the 1869 edition of Outlines, by then aware that William Huggins had spectroscopically shown the gaseous nature of at least some nebulae, Herschel returned to his father's notion that true nebulosity can and does exist' (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography).

Ninth edition; 8vo (21 x 13.5 cm); frontispiece and 8 stipple-engraved plates by Henry Adlard, folding chart, numerous engravings within the text, prize bookplate, occasional small spots to text but overall fresh; contemporary red calf prize binding for Queenwood College by Palmer & Howe of Manchester, spine elaborately gilt in compartments, green morocco labels, double gilt fillets and dotted blind roll, yellow-coated endpapers, turn-ins and all edges gilt, binding just a little rubbed and marked, primarily on the spine and edges, excellent condition; 741pp.