- Thomas Hornsby
Thomas Hornsby FRS (1733—1810) was a British astronomer and mathematician.
Hornsby became a Fellow of
Corpus Christi College, Oxford in 1760.He occupied the
Savilian Chair of Astronomy atOxford University from 1763. In the same year, he became professor ofexperimental philosophy .Hornsby was especially concerned with the observation of the
transit of Venus . In 1761, he observed the transit of Venus fromShirburn Castle , inOxfordshire , the possession of theEarl of Macclesfield .George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield (ca. 1695-1764), celebrated as anastronomer , had spent most of his time conducting astronomical observations at Shirburn Castle; here he had built anobservatory and a chemical laboratory.In 1769, Hornsby viewed Venus' transit at the
Tower of the Five Orders , where theBodleian Library is situated.In the periodical "
Philosophical Transactions ", Hornsby published a comparative analysis of 1761 transit (1763); a plan for suitable viewing stations for 1769, including possible locations in thePacific (1765); a description of organising and reporting observing groups in Oxford (1769); and a comparative analysis of the 1769 transit (1771).Hornsby was instrumental in the establishment of the
Radcliffe Observatory at Oxford in 1772, and was made Radcliffe Observer in the same year. In 1782, he was appointedSedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy . In 1783, he became Radcliffe Librarian.Hornsby made tens of thousands of astronomical observations. These were not published, however, until 1932.
Hornsby crater, on the
Moon , is named after him.ources
* [http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/Harriot.html Thomas Harriot's manuscripts]
* [http://www.vt-2004.org/Background/Infol1/BIS-F3.html History of transit observing]
*Stephen Johnston, "Blast from the Past: Measurement and morals in the early Transits of Venus," "Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford", at http://www.physics.ox.ac.uk/phystat05/Talks/johnston.ppt (accessed July 2006)
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