- James Craig Watson
James Craig Watson (
January 28 1838 –November 22 1880 ) was a Canadian-Americanastronomer born in the village of Fingal,Ontario Canada. His family relocated toAnn Arbor, Michigan in 1850.At age 15 he was matriculated at the
University of Michigan , where he studied the classical languages. He later was lectured inastronomy by professorFranz Brünnow .He was the second director of
Detroit Observatory (from 1863 to 1879), succeedingFranz Brünnow . He wrote the textbook "Theoretical Astronomy" in 1868.He discovered 22
asteroid s, beginning with79 Eurynome in 1863. One of his asteroid discoveries,139 Juewa was made inBeijing when Watson was there to observe the 1874transit of Venus . The name Juewa was chosen by Chinese officials (瑞華, or in modernpinyin , "ruìhuá").He was a strong believer in the existence of the planet Vulcan, a hypothetical planet closer to the
Sun than Mercury, which is now known not to exist (however the existence of smallVulcanoid planetoids remains a possibility). He believed he had seen such two such planets during a July 1878 solar eclipse inWyoming .He died of
peritonitis at the age of only 42. He had amassed a considerable amount of money through non-astronomical business activities. By bequest he established theJames Craig Watson Medal , awarded every three years by the National Academy of Sciences for contributions toastronomy .The
asteroid 729 Watsonia was named in his honour.References
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