Richard Hinckley Allen

Richard Hinckley Allen (1838, Buffalo, New York—1908, Northampton, Massachusetts) was a gifted polymath and amateur naturalist; his wide range of interests caused his friends to nickname him "the walking encyclopedia." His youthful ambition to pursue astronomy was thwarted by poor eyesight, and he became a moderately successful businessman instead. He continued in scientific pursuits as a hobby for the rest of his life.

He is best remembered for a work called "", originally published in 1899 as "Star-Names and Their Meanings". This work was based on his extensive research about the names of the stars and constellations in Arabic, Greco-Roman, Chinese, and many other astronomical traditions. It is still considered one of the major works on the history of astronomical nomenclature and is often consulted as a resource on star names by amateur if not by professional astronomers.

External links

* [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Topics/astronomy/_Texts/secondary/ALLSTA/home.html Richard Hinckley Allen: Star Names — Their Lore and Meaning]
* A brief on-line biography can be found here [http://www.fillingthesky.com/Docs/PDF/RHAllen/rhallenbio.pdf]
* Another summary here [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Stellarvue/message/4134]