Great Astronomers

Description

These Great Astronomers deserve more hails and praises: 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; and Adams.

“Of all the natural sciences there is not one which offers such sublime objects to the attention of the inquirer as does the science of astronomy. From the earliest ages the study of the stars has exercised the same fascination as it possesses at the present day. Among the most primitive peoples, the movements of the sun, the moon, and the stars commanded attention from their supposed influence on human affairs.” (Taken from the Foreword)

Sir Robert Stawell Ball FRS was an Irish astronomer who originated the screw theory. He was the son of naturalist Robert Ball and Amelia Gresley Hellicar. He was from Dublin.

Robert became an employee for Lord Rosse before becoming a Professor of Applied Mathematics at the Royal College of Science in Dublin. There he taught on mechanics and produced an elementary or basic account of the science.

Then he became an appointee of the Royal Astronomer of Ireland and Andrews Professor of Astronomy in the University of Dublin at Dunsink Observatory.

Robert’s dissertation The Theory of Screws can now be virtually accessed. His paper on screw dynamics acquired him in 1879 the Cunningham Medal of the Royal Irish Academy.

Popular Science Monthly brought his article “A Glimpse through the Corridors of Time”. Then it brought his second part article on “The Boundaries of Astronomy”.

He explicated the tides in Time and Tide: a Romance of the Moon. He became an appointee of Lowndean Professor of Astronomy and Geometry at Cambridge University also becoming director of the Cambridge Observatory. He was an associate of King’s College, Cambridge.
[amz_corss_sell asin=”1776742494″]