Richard Christopher Carrington

Infobox Scientist
name = Richard Christopher Carrington
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caption = Richard Christopher Carrington
birth_date = May 26 1826
birth_place = Chelsea, London, England
death_date = November 27 1875
death_place = Churt, England
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nationality = English
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field = Astronomy
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known_for = Solar observations
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prizes = Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1859
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Richard Christopher Carrington (May 26 1826 – November 27 1875) was an English amateur astronomer who discovered the differential rotation of the sun by means of sunspot observations in 1863.

Life and work

In 1859, Carrington and Richard Hodgson, another English amateur astronomer, independently made the first observations of a solar flare. Because of a simultaneous "crochet" observed in the Kew Observatory magnetometer record by Balfour Stewart and a geomagnetic storm observed the following day, Carrington suspected a solar-terrestrial connection. World wide reports on the effects of the geomagnetic storm of 1859 were compiled and published by Elias Loomis which support the observations of Carrington and Balfour Stewart.

Even though he did not discover the 11-year sunspot activity cycle, his observations of sunspot activity after he heard about Heinrich Schwabe's work led to the numbering of the cycles with Carrington's name. For example, the sunspot maximum of 2002 was Carrington Cycle #23.

Carrington also determined the elements of the rotation axis of the Sun, based on sunspot motions, and his results remain in use today. Carrington rotation is a system for measuring solar longitude based on his observations of the low-latitude solar rotation rate.

Carrington made the initial observations leading to the establishment of Spörer's law.

He won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1859.

No pictures of Carrington are known at present.

Selected writings

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* "Catalogue of 3735 Circumpolar Stars" (1857)

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* "Observations of the Spots on the Sun from 1853 to 1861" (1863)

Further reading

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* - an obituary

External links

* [http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article2731374.ece "Carrington's star billing"] : an article in [http://www.the-tls.co.uk The Times Literary Supplement] by John North, October 24 2007
* [http://www.hao.ucar.edu/Public/education/bios/carrington.html Biography at High Altitude Observatory]
* [http://www.solarstorms.org/SCarrington.html Extensive history and timeline about Carrington by Astronomer Sten Odenwald]
* [http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/06may_carringtonflare.htm? NASA - Carrington Super Flare] NASA May 6 2008