Charles Pritchard
Charles Pritchard | |
|---|---|
Alberbury, Shropshire, England | |
| Died | 20 May 1893 (aged 85) |
| Awards | Royal Medal (1892) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | astronomy |
Reverend Charles Pritchard (29 February 1808 – 28 May 1893) was a British
Biography
He was born at
His career as a professional astronomer began in 1870, when he was elected
In 1882 Pritchard commenced a systematic study of stellar photometry. For this purpose he employed an instrument known as the "wedge photometer", with which he measured the relative brightness of 2,784 stars between the North Pole and about -10° declination. The results were published in 1885 in his Uranometria Nova Oxoniensis, and their importance was recognized by the bestowal in 1886 upon him, conjointly with Professor Pickering, of the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society.[5]
He then decided to experiment with applying photography to the determination of stellar parallax. With the object of testing the capabilities of the method, he took for his first essay the well-known star 61 Cygni, and his results agreed so well with those previously attained that he undertook the systematic measurement of the parallaxes of second-magnitude stars, and published the outcome in the third and fourth volumes of the Publications of the Oxford University Observatory. Although some lurking errors impaired the authority of the concluded parallaxes this work ranks as a valuable contribution to astronomy, since it showed the possibility of employing photography in such delicate investigations.[5]
When an international survey of the heavens was proposed, the zone between 25° and 31° north declination was allotted to him, and at the time of his death some progress had been made in recording its included stars. Pritchard became a fellow of New College, Oxford, in 1883, and an honorary fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, in 1886. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1840, and in 1892 was awarded one of the royal medals for his work on photometry and stellar parallax.[5]
Family
A son, Sir Charles Bradley Pritchard, was an administrator in British India.
Works
- C. Pritchard (1866). The Continuity of the Schemes of Nature and Revelation: A Sermon Preached, by request, on the occasion of the meeting of the British Association at Nottingham. With remarks on some relations of modern knowledge to theology. London: Bell and Daldy.
- Occasional thoughts of an astronomer on nature and revelation (1889)
- Modern science and natural religion (1874)
References
- Proc. Roy. Soc. liv. 3
- Astr. and Astrophysics, xii. 592
- J. Foster, Oxford Men and their Colleges, p. 206
- Hist. Register of the Univ. of Oxford, p. 95
- The Times (30 May 1893)
- C. J. Robinson's Register of Merchant Taylors' School, ii. 210
- Charles Pritchard, D.D., Memoirs of his Life, by Ada Pritchard (London, 1897).[6]
- ^ A. W. D. Larkum, A Natural Calling: Life, Letters and Diaries of Charles Darwin and William, p. 264
- ^ Toman, John (17 July 2011). "Francis Kilvert and Charles Pritchard Clapham Connections". Clapham Society. Retrieved 16 May 2014.
- ^ "Pritchard, Charles (PRTT825C)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ Chisholm 1911, pp. 369–370.
- ^ a b c d Chisholm 1911, p. 370.
- ^ "Review: Charles Pritchard, D.D., F.R.S., late Savilian Professor of Astronomy in the University of Oxford. Memoirs of his Life compiled by his Daughter". The Athenæum (3611): 51–52. 2 January 1897.
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Pritchard, Charles". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 369–370.
External links
- Awarding of RAS gold medal
- Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1888). . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 16. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 403–406.
Obituaries
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