John Ellard Gore - Planetary and Stellar Studies [Provenance: Sir J. Norman Lockyer] - 1888

First Edition. This book owned and signed by Sir J. Norman Lockyer, the pioneering astronomer who discovered helium. This is among John Ellard Gore’s most intriguing works, written at a moment when astronomy stood at the threshold between speculation and modern science. In this work, Gore explores the vast architecture of the universe, proposing that a thinning of the ether at the cosmic boundaries might obscure light from external universes, a bold hypothesis made just as the Michelson–Morley experiment was beginning to dismantle the very notion of the luminiferous ether itself. Light wear to the cover, with handwritten inscriptions identifying stars visible to the boards. Pages show some scattered foxing.