Australian astronomer Henry Chamberlain(e) Russell, often referred as H.C. Russell was born in West Maitland, near Newcastle on 17 March 1836. He was educated in New South Wales at Sydney University, and achieved his Bachelor of Arts in 1858 - one of the first of the science-based degrees ever produced by an Australian. By 1859, he was then employed as an assistant at Sydney Observatory, where he remained in this same position until 1870, when he became the appointed Government Astronomer of New South Wales. Renown for significant meteorological, hydrological and astronomical work in the Colony of New South Wales, he became an elected and active fellow of the Royal Society in 1886.
He retained the position of the Government Astronomer New South Wales from 1870 to 1905, and was alive during the time when the most significant changes were happening in both astronomy and astrophysics.
Russell was very active and keen when he succeeded to the directorship, being determined to improve scientific observation in Australia and the southern hemisphere. Both astronomy and meteorology became his forte. The most significant undertakings were;
• Obtaining observations and measures
of double stars, rechecking John Herschel’s own
measures some fifty years earlier.
• Setting up the first weather stations throughout
New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria, and made
records and rough predictions.
• Organised the scientific section of the Royal
Society of New South Wales (est.1866).
• Proceeded to photograph the southern hemisphere
skies.
The last item was one of the most significant, which was concieved in 1887 when Russell went to Europe to attend the Astrographic Congress in Paris. Here he committed Sydney Observatory to share in the preparation of the Astrographic Catalogue and Charts, and was subsequently assigned the declination range of -52oS to -65oS. This program once started continued for many decades to follow.
Upon returning in 1891 he experimented with various astronomical techniques in photography and produced several remarkable photographs which were exhibited to the Royal Society and to the public.
Henry Chamberlain Russell was the third Director of Sydney Observatory, who can only be described as an irascible character, being controlling, harsh and ruthless disciplinarian with his staff. He was the proverbial dominating Victorian father-figure. Russell was the contemporary equivalent of amateur John Tebbutt and an astronomer and experimenter of some distinction - Russell succeeded to the Directorship on the death of his predecessor in office, Mr. George Smalley. In July 1870, Smalley said of him;
“...[he] reorganized the observatory for systematic work on star positions and observations of double stars and star clusters…”
From 1870 to 1900, new double star work undertaken at Sydney Observatory, being the only major systematic program anywhere on southern hemisphere for doubles during that period - at least until Innes began measures. Russell’s double star work ended in the 1890’s (See Article on Innes in Southern Sky; March/ April 1994). Tebbutt during the same period does do measures of the brighter pairs or suspected systems in motion, but does no double star discovery work. These measures were never made on the same scale as Tebbutt, however looking at the available measures, Tebbutt seems slightly more accurate.
In 1870 Russell began the work of remeasuring all the Stars in John Herschel’s Cape Catalogue south of 34o Declination, excluding all the very wide ones, and those that the telescope would not do so satisfactorily. I.e. Those of 11th and higher magnitudes, except in only very few cases. Russell showed and proved he was somewhat defensive about this pet program of his. This work was originally only intended to fill up time during the intervals when there were not other pressing duties.
During John Herschel’s survey of the southern sky his search for doubles was not as systematic as the search for nebulae and clusters, “being of subordinate interest” to that task. His catalogue includes 2103 pairs, few of them very close. Doubles were found with the 18-inch reflector, and micrometer estimates made of PA and distance; 417 well measured more precisely with the 5-inch refractor.
Later in his life, John Herschel had wanted his double star work followed up. He advised on the purchase of new refractor for the Cape Observatory in 1849 to make that possible. His was the only extensive and accurate catalogue of doubles for the southern hemisphere before Russell’s 1870’s program.
The double star program was shared by three of Russell’s assistants. The earliest of these was Lawrence Hargrave, later famous for his pioneering work in aviation. He was at the Observatory 1878-1883, and made many measures, and some discoveries, all with the 7.25-inch Merz refractor.
J.A. Pollock measured doubles from 1886-1889 - he left the Observatory to take up a position in the Physics Department at Sydney University, where he was distinguished for the remarkable accuracy of his measures. He became a Professor in 1899 and continue until his death in 1922.
R.P. Sellors made measures from 1890 to 1900, and continued to find new pairs (though only 26 are recognised) - Russell made no measures in the 1890’s. Sellors own measures were published over time in multiple places (with the last measures, 1897-1900, not being published until 1910) - where the earlier two decades had seen collected measures of a decade published in the RAS Memoirs- Sellors left the Observatory for a career in the Surveyor General’s Department.
Russell published the first decade of doubles work in the Royal Astronomical Society’s Memoirs, as Measures of Sir John Herschel’s Cape Stars, together with a list of new double stars. In his preface (dated December 1881) he said work was begun with a fine refractor by Merz, 7½ inch aperture, 10ft 4in focal length, provided with a first class positional micrometer, with both dark and bright field illumination. Magnifications used was generally 159×, with the highest, 580× was sometimes used. Russell claimed that so good is the definition that using the power of 159× revealed the smallest departure from circular in any star disk.
However, for the Transit of Venus in 1874, which in various ways interrupted the double star work, this instrument had to be taken down, and a new dome put up for the new equatorial - aperture nearly 11½ inches, focal length 12ft 6in, powers 100× to 1,500× - 800× being frequently used in difficult double stars. The new Cooke and Sons micrometer was of high quality, with prisms for bright wire illumination. Measures rarely varied by more than 0.2 arcsec within any series of an observed pair.
Russell emphasised the very high optical quality of the refractors. However in 1878, he had produced a paper on the re-mounting of object glasses, to improve performance. In the 1940’s Harley Wood had the 11½ inch object-glass remounted again. Wood commented on the observed ‘triangular’ Airy disks it previously showed, due to flexure. The new lens cell eliminated this effect. Pollock had made similar comments in the 1880’s (see below), after Russell had improved the lens cell.
Both domes were of plated brass (usual in that period), whose thin metal keep the temperature balanced with the outside atmosphere, and helped avoid unnecessary heat currents.…
Notable is the large number of new pairs found - the period 1870-1881 sees 343 new doubles. (Russell’s list in the Royal Society of NSW Journal and Proceedings in 1881, has 350 new pairs). Most were found by Russell, but some by Hargrave, despite Hargrave being restricted to the smaller 7¼-inch ’scope. In 1883, there was another publication of a further 130 new pairs.
Russell wrote about the main catalogue in 1880;
“The list of 343 is of new pairs found in the course of working at Herschel’s stars; but they have not been systematically looked for, except on an evening now and then devoted to that work, and some time recently given to it by Mr Hargrave at my request… - Several of those repeatedly measured showed signs of motion. p Eridanus is mentioned as probably not a binary: one star passing the other by proper and not binary motion.”
NOTE:Nangle in 1910 published a preliminary orbit for p Eri, and it is now accepted as a binary star.
Another system of special interest was Gamma Lupi. Russell in 1880 found it not split, with powers to 1200; he suspected elongation, in PA around 90o. John Herschel had estimated it around 0.8 arsec in 1835, and around 0.7 arcsec in 1837. (Some notes on γ Lupi are in July ’94 Southern Sky)
Measures of previously known pairs were published in “Measures 1882-1889” (in the RAS Memoirs). These later measures were by Russell with the 11½ inch; Hargrave with the 7¼-inch; Pollock in 1886 with 7¼-inch, all others 11½-inch. Russell does fewer measures in this period than in 1870’s.
Gamma Lupi was again of interest. Pollock in July 1887 noted Gamma Lupi single, with 800 power on 11½ inch. Never saw definition better. The star image is triangular, apex at angle of 210; the other angles are also well marked. In a note to Zeta Sagittarii, which was measured on this night, Pollock says Gamma Lupi is not like this star. (Zeta Sag was at about 0.5 arsec in 1887.)
Innes in 1899 remarks that after 1856, Gamma Lupi had not been certainly seen double until Lowell measured it as 0.4 arcsec in 1897, and Innes saw “it clearly divided with the 18-inch McClean refractor in 1898”.
Sydney did not continue double star work after Russell’s time, although Harley Wood made measures of 71 pairs between 1942 and 1947. In 1945-47 the Mount Stromlo observers measured 319 pairs. Some amateurs in Australia around the tum of the century had made a few measures. Otherwise double star measuring effectively finishes in Australia when Sellors does his final work at Sydney Observatory in 1900. Nor was there any further searching for new pairs. which is probably less surprising given the lack of any large visual refractors in Australia. The palm of measures was to soon passed to South Africa.
Originally, the Sydney 11½-inch refractor was bought specifically for the 1874 Transit of Venus. However, it probably made more of a useful contribution to astronomy through the 30-year period of double star observation and measures. Sydney’s during this time had the largest visual refractor in the southern hemisphere, at least until the McClean 18-inch was mounted in South Africa during the late-1890’s,. This interesting instrument still exists in the South Dome at Sydney Observatory, though these days, regrettably, it seems rarely used for astronomy except for showing the sky on public viewing nights.
Russell was to die from Bright’s Disease, a chronic and painful kidney disease, in Sydney on the 22nd February 1907.
