Helen B. Sawyer A Bibliography of Individual Globular Clusters

A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF INDIVIDUAL GLOBULAR
CLUSTERS
By Helen B. Sawyer
(With Plate XXXII)
Advertisement.—Whoever attempts the enlargement of the bounds of
knowledge in any particular branch of science, in justice to himself, the public,
and previous laborers in the same field, should make himself familiar with all
that has been previously published on the subject. But information of this kind
is so widely dispersed through the journals and transactions of learned societies
of all parts of the civilized world, that index catalogues or references to authorities
are of the utmost importance to the investigator.
Smithsonian Institute, Washington, 1877.
I. Purpose and Development of Work
—
Joseph Henry, Secretary,
In this bibliography an attempt is made to list under the cluster
concerned, all research papers containing information on individual
globular clusters. The purpose is to enable any astronomer to find
out what work has been done on a specific cluster, thus saving time
and avoiding duplication of research. Globular clusters, with a
large range in linear diameter, absolute magnitude, and numbers of
variable stars are being treated more and more as individual
systems.
Only clusters thought to belong directly to our own galaxy are
included, and only clusters considered globular at present. A few
minutes of studying the bibliography will show the type of information
available on the cluster. A few hours of reading the original
sources indicated in this work will give the reader all the published
facts about the object. For only a few clusters, notably Messier 13
in Hercules and Messier 3 in Canes Venatici, is the literature volumi-
nous and unwieldy.
For over twenty years I have maintained a card catalogue of
references to globular cluster literature. This catalogue is a necessary
complement to the 2000 globular cluster photographs which
have now been accumulated at the David Dun lap Observatory on
about one-half of the known globular clusters. One result of this
catalogue was the publication by the writer in 1939 of A Catalogue
of 1116 Variable Stars in (lobular Clusters (Dunlap Publication,
383