Who was Edmond Halley?
Astronomer and Mathematician.
Date and Place of Birth:
8th November 1656, Haggerston, Shoreditch, London,
England.
Family Background:
Son of a wealthy London businessman.
Education:
St. Paul's School, London. Queens College, Oxford.
Chronology/Biography of Edmond Halley:
1676: Left for the
British Island of St. Helena to make the first catalogue of the
stars in the Southern hemisphere.
1680: Visited Paris
observing comets and their orbits which led him to successfully
predict the return of one seen in 1583. This became known as Halley's
comet. He was the first also to observe the transit of Mercury.
1683: Worked on
magnetic variations and the barometric pressure of the air on earth
at various heights above sea level. (Based on the theories of Robert
Boyle).
1686: Studied the
Trade Winds and also monsoons.
1687: He encouraged
Isaac Newton to write "Principia Mathematica"
and organised and paid for the publication himself.
1693: With the Publication
of his "Breslau Table of Mortality" he was the first to
organise fully the basis of life assurance and annuities.
1701: All his work
on magnetism and the sea culminated in the first publication of
his magnetic sea chart. He was the first person to use isometric
representation in his map making.
1703: Appointed
Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford University. He built an
observatory on the roof of his house.
1715: Successfully
predicted the path of totality of the solar eclipse.
This work led him on to the motions of other stars.
1720: Appointed
Astronomer Royal.
Written Works:
- 1679:
"Catalogus Stellarum Australium".
- 1705:
"Synopsis Astronomiae Cometicae".
Marriage:
1682 to Mary Tooke.
Places of Interest:
LONDON:
Greenwich Observatory.
OXFORD:
Observatory on roof of his house still stands.
Date and Place of Death:
14th Jan 1742, Greenwich, London, England.
Age at Death:
85.
Site of Grave:
Original Gravestone now set in the wall
at the Greenwich Observatory, London.
