Benjamin West (astronomer)
- Benjamin West (astronomer)
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name = Benjamin West
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birth_date = March 1730
birth_place = Rehoboth, Massachusetts
death_date =
death_place = August 26 1813
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field = Astronomy
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Benjamin West (March 1730–August 26 1813) was an American astronomer and almanac publisher.
Born in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, he was largely an autodidact. After a school he started in Providence, Rhode Island proved unprofitable, he worked as a store owner, then made clothes during the American Revolutionary War. He and Joseph Brown observed the transit of Venus on June 3, 1769, publishing "An Account of the Observation of Venus upon the Sun the Third Day of June 1769". He observed a comet in July 1770, the same year he earned honorary degrees from Harvard University and Rhode Island College. He also earned an honorary degree from Dartmouth College in 1772.
The publication of "An Almanack, for the year of our Lord Christ, 1763" In 1781 he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and began teaching as a professor after 1786.
References
* [http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/Databases/Encyclopedia/search.php?serial=W0170 West, Benjamin] in Martha Mitchell’s "Encyclopedia Brunoniana"
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