9781508885566: Great Astronomers

Synopsis

Great Astronomers is a classic astronomer biography collection by R.S. Ball that includes biographical sketches of the following: 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. It has been my object in these pages of astronomer biography 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.

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Biographie de l'auteur

Sir Robert Stawell Ball F.R.S. (1 July 1840, Dublin – 25 November 1913, Cambridge) was an Irish astronomer. He worked for Lord Rosse from 1865 to 1867. In 1867 he became Professor of Applied Mathematics at the Royal College of Science in Dublin. In 1874 Ball was appointed Royal Astronomer of Ireland and Andrews Professor of Astronomy in the University of Dublin at Dunsink Observatory. In 1892 he was appointed Lowndean Professor of Astronomy and Geometry at Cambridge University at the same time becoming director of the Cambridge Observatory. His lectures, articles and books (e.g. Starland and The Story of the Heavens) were mostly popular and simple in style. However, he also published books on mathematical astronomy such as A Treatise on Spherical Astronomy. His main interest was mathematics and he devoted much of his spare time to his "Screw theory". He served for a time as President of the Quaternion Society. His work The Story of the Heavens is mentioned in the "Lestrygonians" chapter of James Joyce's Ulysses. He was the son of naturalist Robert Ball and Amelia Gresley Hellicar. He is buried at the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge, with his wife Lady Francis Elizabeth Ball. Their children were: Frances Amelia, Robert Steele, William Valentine (later Sir), Mary Agnetta, Charles Rowan Hamilton, and Randall Gresley (later Colonel).

Présentation de l'éditeur

Great Astronomers is a classic astronomer biography collection by R.S. Ball that includes biographical sketches of the following: 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. It has been my object in these pages of astronomer biography 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.

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