Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- NOTE
- Contents
- CHAPTER I Personal Sketch of George Biddell Airy
- CHAPTER II From his birth to his taking his B.A. Degree at Cambridge
- CHAPTER III At Trinity College, Cambridge, from his taking his B.A. Degree to his taking charge of the Cambridge Observatory as Plumian Professor
- CHAPTER IV At Cambridge Observatory, from his taking charge of the Cambridge Observatory to his residence at Greenwich Observatory as Astronomer Royal
- CHAPTER V At Greenwich Observatory, 1836–1846
- CHAPTER VI At Greenwich Observatory, 1846–1856
- CHAPTER VII At Greenwich Observatory, 1856–1866
- CHAPTER VIII At Greenwich Observatory, 1866–1876
- CHAPTER IX At Greenwich Observatory, from January 1st, 1876, to his resignation of office on August 15th, 1881
- CHAPTER X At the White House, Greenwich, from his resignation of office on August 15th, 1881, to his death on January 2nd, 1892
- APPENDIX: List of Printed Papers by G. B. Airy, and List of Books written by G. B. Airy
- INDEX
CHAPTER IV - At Cambridge Observatory, from his taking charge of the Cambridge Observatory to his residence at Greenwich Observatory as Astronomer Royal
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2010
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- NOTE
- Contents
- CHAPTER I Personal Sketch of George Biddell Airy
- CHAPTER II From his birth to his taking his B.A. Degree at Cambridge
- CHAPTER III At Trinity College, Cambridge, from his taking his B.A. Degree to his taking charge of the Cambridge Observatory as Plumian Professor
- CHAPTER IV At Cambridge Observatory, from his taking charge of the Cambridge Observatory to his residence at Greenwich Observatory as Astronomer Royal
- CHAPTER V At Greenwich Observatory, 1836–1846
- CHAPTER VI At Greenwich Observatory, 1846–1856
- CHAPTER VII At Greenwich Observatory, 1856–1866
- CHAPTER VIII At Greenwich Observatory, 1866–1876
- CHAPTER IX At Greenwich Observatory, from January 1st, 1876, to his resignation of office on August 15th, 1881
- CHAPTER X At the White House, Greenwich, from his resignation of office on August 15th, 1881, to his death on January 2nd, 1892
- APPENDIX: List of Printed Papers by G. B. Airy, and List of Books written by G. B. Airy
- INDEX
Summary
FROM MARCH 15TH 1828 TO JAN. 1ST 1836.
1828
“I attended a meeting of the Board of Longitude on Apr. 3rd. And again on June 4th; this was the last meeting: Sheepshanks had previously given me private information of the certainty of its dissolution.—On Apr. 4th I visited Mr Herschel at Slough, where one evening I saw Saturn with his 20-foot telescope, the best view of it that I have ever had.—In June I attended the Greenwich Observatory Visitation.— Before my election (as Plumian Professor) there are various schemes on my quires for computation of transit corrections, &c. After Apr. 15th there are corrections for deficient wires, inequality of pivots, &c. And I began a book of proposed regulations for observations. In this are plans for groups of stars for R.A. (the Transit Instrument being the only one finished): order of preference of classes of observations: no reductions to be made after dinner, or on Sunday: no loose papers: observations to be stopped if reductions are two months in arrear: stars selected for parallax.—The reduction of transits begins on Apr. 15th. On May 15th Mr Pond sent me some moon-transits to aid in determining my longitude.—Dr Young, in a letter to me of May 7th, enquires whether I will accept a free admission to the Royal Society, which I declined. On May 9th I was elected to the Astronomical Society.—Towards the end of the year I observed Encke's Comet: and determined the latitude of the Observatory with Sheepshanks's repeating circle.—On my papers I find a sketch of an Article on the Figure of the Earth for the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana.
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- Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy , pp. 82 - 122Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1896