Edward Walter Maunder
Edward Walter Maunder | |
---|---|
Annie Scott Dill Russell (1895–1928) | |
Scientific career | |
Fields | astronomy |
Edward Walter Maunder (12 April 1851 – 21 March 1928) was an English astronomer. His study of sunspots and the solar magnetic cycle led to his identification of the period from 1645 to 1715 that is now known as the Maunder Minimum.
Early and personal life
Maunder was born in 1851, in London, the youngest child of a minister of the Wesleyan Society. He attended King's College London but never graduated. He took a job in a London bank to finance his studies.
In 1873 Maunder returned to the
In 1895 Maunder and Russell married. In 1916 Annie Maunder became one of the first women accepted by the Royal Astronomical Society.
Solar observations
Part of Maunder's job at the Observatory involved photographing and measuring sunspots, and in doing so he observed that the solar latitudes at which sunspots occur varies in a regular way over the course of the 11-year cycle. After 1891, he was assisted in his work by his wife Annie Maunder. In 1904, he published their results in the form of the "butterfly" diagram.
After studying the work of
He travelled extensively for observations going to places such as the West Indies, Lapland, India, Algiers, Mauritius. His last eclipse expedition was to Labrador for the
Other astronomical observations
In 1882 Maunder (and some other European astronomers) observed what he called an "auroral beam"; as yet unexplained, it had some similarity in appearance to either a
He observed
Establishment of the British Astronomical Association
In 1890, Maunder was a driving force in the foundation of the British Astronomical Association. Although he had been fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society since 1875, Maunder wanted an association of astronomers open to every person interested in astronomy, from every class of society, and especially open for women.
Maunder was the first editor of the Journal of the
Publications
- Maunder, E. Walter (1899). The Indian Eclipse, 1898: Report of the Expeditions Organized by the British Astronomical Association ... London: Hazel, Watson, and Viney, Ld. Retrieved 17 April 2008.
- Maunder, E. Walter (1900). The Royal Observatory, Greenwich—Original publication: London: The Religious Tract Society[7]
- Maunder, E. Walter (1904). Astronomy without a Telescope. London: W. Thacker and Co. Retrieved 17 April 2008.
maunder edward.
- Maunder, E. W. (1904). "Note on the Distribution of Sun-Spots in Heliographic Latitude, 1874–1902". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 64 (8): 747–761. .
- Maunder, E. (1908). Astronomy of the Bible: An Elementary Commentary on the Astronomical References of Holy Scripture. New York: Mitchell Kennerley (reprinted in 2007).[8]
- Maunder, A. and E. (1910). The Heavens and their Story. London: Charles H. Kelly.
- Maunder, E. Walter (1912). The Science of the Stars. London: T.C. and E.C. Jack.
- Maunder, E. Walter (1913). Are the Planets Inhabited?. New York: Harper and Brothers. Retrieved 17 April 2008.
Commemoration
In 2022 English Heritage announced that Annie and Walter Maunder would be commemorated with a blue plaque at their former home in Brockley, London, later that year. The Maunders wrote The Heavens and their Story while they were living in Brockley.[9]
References
- .
- ^ Spörer (1887) "Über die Periodicität der Sonnenflecken seit dem Jahre 1618, vornehmlich in Bezug auf die heliographische Breite derselben, und Hinweis auf eine erhebliche Störung dieser Periodicität während eines langen Zeitraumes" (On the periodicity of sunspots since the year 1618, especially with respect to the heliographic latitude of the same, and reference to a significant disturbance of this periodicity during a long period), Vierteljahrsschrift der Astronomischen Gesellschaft (Leipzig), 22 : 323-329.
- ^ E.W.M. (1890) "Professor Spoerer's researches on sun-spots," Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 50 : 251-252.
- ^ E. Walter Maunder (August 1, 1894) "A prolonged sunspot minimum," Knowledge, 17 : 173-176.
- Bibcode:1928Obs....51..157C.
- ^ "Upper Tangent Arc". Arbeitskreis Meteore e.V.
- ^ "Review of The Royal Observatory, Greenwich by E. Walter Maunder". The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art. 92 (2385): 51–52. 11 July 1901.
- ^ "Review of The Astronomy of the Bible: an Elementary Commentary on the Astronomical References of Holy Scripture by E. Walter Maunder". The Athenaeum. 2 (4217): 216. 22 August 1908.
- ^ "Blue Plaques to tell stories of working class experience". English Heritage. Retrieved 20 February 2022.
Further reading
- Hector Macpherson (1905). Astronomers of To-day and Their Work. Gall & Inglis. p. 62.
norman lockyer biography.
by Hector Macpherson, London: Gall & Inglis, 1905
- A. J. Kinder "Edward Walter Maunder: His Life and Times" Journal of the British Astronomical Association Vol. 118 (1) 21–42 (2008).
External links
- Online catalogue of Maunder's personal and working papers (part of the Royal Greenwich Observatory Archive held at Cambridge University Library)
- Works by Edward Walter Maunder at Project Gutenberg
- Works by Edward Walter Maunder at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Works by or about Edward Walter Maunder at Internet Archive
- J. E. Evans and E. W. Maunder, "Experiments as to the Actuality of the 'Canals' observed on Mars", MNRAS, 63 (1903) 488
- Drawing of the butterfly plot