Francis Baily and Related Topics

Royal Astronomical Society

Learned society and charity that encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science.

The Royal Astronomical Society at the University of London History Day, 2016.

The Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society awarded to Asaph Hall

Francis Baily and George Airy were elected a record four times each.

$Diamond ring effect visible during the total solar eclipse of August 21, 2017, in Ravenna, Nebraska. (The diffraction spikes emanating tangentially from the diamond are an artifact of the camera optics, not a natural phenomenon.)$

Baily's beads

Feature of total and annular solar eclipses.

$Diamond ring effect visible during the total solar eclipse of August 21, 2017, in Ravenna, Nebraska. (The diffraction spikes emanating tangentially from the diamond are an artifact of the camera optics, not a natural phenomenon.)$

The diamond ring effect as totality ends during the total solar eclipse of August 21, 2017, in central Wyoming. The rainbow coloration is a lens flare and not a natural phenomenon.

The effect is named after Francis Baily, who explained the phenomenon in 1836.

Ulugh Beg

Timurid sultan, as well as an astronomer and mathematician.

Jade dragon cup that once belonged to Ulugh Beg, 1420–1449 AD, British Museum.

Ulugh Beg and his astronomical observatory scheme, depicted on the 1987 USSR stamp. He was one of Islam's greatest astronomers during the Middle Ages. The stamp says "Uzbek astronomer and mathematician Ulugbek" in Russian.

Observatory built by Ulugh Beg in the 1420s. The site was later rediscovered by Russian archaeologists in 1908.

Ulugh Beg Observatory in Samarkand. In Ulugh Beg's time, the walls were lined with polished marble.

Ulugh Beg's headstone at the foot of Timur's in the Gur-e-Amir

The Ulugh Beigh crater on the moon, named for Ulugh Beg.

More recent editions are those by Francis Baily in 1843 in vol. xiii of the Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society and by Edward Ball Knobel in Ulugh Beg's Catalogue of Stars, Revised from all Persian Manuscripts Existing in Great Britain, with a Vocabulary of Persian and Arabic Words (1917).

John Flamsteed

English astronomer and the first Astronomer Royal.

Plaque marking the grave of John Flamsteed and his wife in the chancel of St Bartholomew's Church in Burstow, Surrey

Bust of John Flamsteed in the Museum of the Royal Greenwich Observatory

Francis Baily. A Catalogue of the Positions (in 1690) of 564 Stars observed by Flamsteed, but not inserted in his British Catalogue, together with some Remarks on Flamsteed's Observations. (1829)

President of the Royal Astronomical Society

The President of the Royal Astronomical Society (prior to 1831 known as President of the Astronomical Society of London) chairs the Council of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) and its formal meetings.

Francis Baily and George Airy were elected a record of four times each.

Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille

French astronomer and geodesist who named 14 out of the 88 constellations.

A memorial to the Abbé de Lacaille and Thomas Maclear, at Aurora in the Western Cape of South Africa. The English portion of the inscription reads: "This is the site of the Maclear Beacon positioned in 1838 near the original North Terminal of the Arc of Meridian positioned by Abbé de Lacaille, the first surveyor to introduce Geodetic Surveying into South Africa." Open the image to see the Afrikaans portion.

Leçons elementaires d'astronomie, géométrique et physique, 1755 edition

Messier 55 is a globular cluster discovered in 16 June 1752.

A catalogue of 9766 stars in the southern hemisphere,for the beginning of the year 1750: from the observations of the Abbé de Lacaille, made at the cap of Good Hope in the years 1751 and 1752; with a preface by Sir J. F. W. Herschel (1847), giving zone observations of about 10,000 stars, re-edited by F. Baily

George Biddell Airy

English mathematician and astronomer, and the seventh Astronomer Royal from 1835 to 1881.

Computer-generated image simulating an Airy Disk

Airy's Transit Circle in the Transit Circle Room, Greenwich

George Biddell Airy caricatured by Ape in Vanity Fair Nov 1875

George Biddell Airy (John Collier, 1883)

On sound and atmospheric vibrations with the mathematical elements of music, 1871

Elected president of the Royal Astronomical Society four times, for a total of seven years (1835–37, 1849–51, 1853–55, 1863–64). No other person has been president more than four times (a record he shares with Francis Baily).

Tobias Mayer

German astronomer famous for his studies of the Moon.

His star catalogue was re-edited by Francis Baily in 1830 (Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society IV, 391) and by Arthur Auwers in 1894.

Part of the facade of Camp Hopson of Newbury, dating from 1663 with classical brick pilasters, in 2014.

Newbury, Berkshire

Market town in the county of Berkshire, England, and is home to the administrative headquarters of West Berkshire Council.

View of Newbury and surroundings from Donnington Castle

The Kennet and Avon Canal runs through the middle of Newbury

The bridge next to the Lock Stock and Barrel pub

Main Street in Newbury, view from the Bridge

Intersection between Northcroft Street, Northbrook Street and Bridge Street

The Berkshire Stand and The Grandstand at Newbury Racecourse

Francis Baily (1774–1844) – astronomer

Seen in the 1824 star chart set Urania's Mirror (in the lower right)

Telescopium

Minor constellation in the southern celestial hemisphere, one of twelve named in the 18th century by French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille and one of several depicting scientific instruments.

The constellation of Telescopium, the telescope, as it can be seen by the naked eye

An artist's depiction of the orbits of the hierarchical triple star system HR 6819, with the inferred black hole (red orbit) in the inner binary

Location of HR 6819 the star system containing the black hole.

The globular cluster NGC 6584, as observed with the Hubble Space Telescope

The interacting galaxy system NGC 6845, as observed with GALEX

Telescopium was later much reduced in size by Francis Baily and Benjamin Gould.