Great Astronomers | Page 3

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This etext was prepared by Chris Brennen [email protected] Jill
R. Diffendal Barb Grow [email protected] Christine L Hall
Goleta, CA. USA Pamela L. Hall [email protected]

GREAT ASTRONOMERS
By
SIR ROBERT S. BALL D.Sc. LL.D. F.R.S.
Lowndean Professor of Astronomy and Geometry in the University of
Cambridge
Author of "In Starry Realms" " In the High Heavens" etc.
[PLATE: GREENWICH OBSERVATORY.]

PREFACE.

It has been my object in these pages to present the life of each
astronomer in such detail as to enable the reader to realise in some
degree the man's character and surroundings; and I have endeavoured
to indicate as clearly as circumstances would permit the main features
of the discoveries by which he has become known.
There are many types of astronomers--from the stargazer who merely

watches the heavens, to the abstract mathematician who merely works
at his desk; it has, consequently, been necessary in the case of some
lives to adopt a very different treatment from that which seemed
suitable for others.
While the work was in progress, some of the sketches appeared in
"Good Words." The chapter on Brinkley has been chiefly derived from
an article on the "History of Dunsink Observatory," which was
published on the occasion of the tercentenary celebration of the
University of Dublin in 1892, and the life of Sir William Rowan
Hamilton is taken, with a few alterations and omissions, from an article
contributed to the "Quarterly Review" on Graves' life of the great
mathematician. The remaining chapters now appear for the first time.
For many of the facts contained in the sketch of the late Professor
Adams, I am indebted to the obituary notice written by my friend Dr.
J.W.L. Glaisher, for the Royal Astronomical Society; while with regard
to the late Sir George Airy, I have a similar acknowledgment to make
to Professor H.H. Turner. To my friend Dr. Arthur A. Rambaut I owe
my hearty thanks for his kindness in aiding me in the revision of the
work.
R.S.B. The Observatory, Cambridge. October, 1895

CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION.
PTOLEMY.
COPERNICUS.
TYCHO BRAHE.
GALILEO.
KEPLER.

ISAAC NEWTON.
FLAMSTEED.
HALLEY.
BRADLEY.
WILLIAM HERSCHEL.
LAPLACE.
BRINKLEY.
JOHN HERSCHEL.
THE EARL OF ROSSE.
AIRY.
HAMILTON.
LE VERRIER.
ADAMS.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
THE OBSERVATORY, GREENWICH.
PTOLEMY.
PTOLEMY'S PLANETARY SCHEME.
PTOLEMY'S THEORY OF THE MOVEMENT OF MARS.
THORN, FROM AN OLD PRINT.

COPERNICUS.
FRAUENBURG, FROM AN OLD PRINT.
EXPLANATION OF PLANETARY MOVEMENTS.
TYCHO BRAHE.
TYCHO'S CROSS STAFF.
TYCHO'S "NEW STAR" SEXTANT OF 1572.
TYCHO'S TRIGONIC SEXTANT.
TYCHO'S ASTRONOMIC SEXTANT.
TYCHO'S EQUATORIAL ARMILLARY.
THE GREAT AUGSBURG QUADRANT.
TYCHO'S "NEW SCHEME OF THE TERRESTRIAL SYSTEM,"
1577.
URANIBORG AND ITS GROUNDS.
GROUND-PLAN OF THE OBSERVATORY.
THE OBSERVATORY OF