Autobiography of Sir George Biddell AiryAiry, George Biddell
Science
Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy
Airy, George Biddell
Airy, George Biddell, 1801-1892; Astronomers -- Great Britain -- Biography; Autobiographies; Royal Greenwich Observatory
Syndicate, and was understood to represent, in some measure, my
interests. The progress of the Syndicate however was by no means a
straightforward one. Members of the Senate soon began to remark that
before giving anything they ought to know the amount of the University
revenue, and another Syndicate was then appointed to enquire and
report upon it. It was more than a year before my Syndicate could
make their recommendation: however, in fact, I lost nothing by that
delay, as I was rising in the estimation of the University. The
Observatory house was furnished, partly from Woodhouse's sale, and
partly from new furniture. My mother and sister came to live with me
there. On Mar. 15th 1828 I began the Observatory Journal; on Mar. 27th
I slept at the Observatory for the first time, and on Apr. 15th I came
to reside there permanently, and gave up my college rooms."
CHAPTER IV.
AT CAMBRIDGE OBSERVATORY. FROM HIS TAKING
CHARGE OF THE CAMBRIDGE OBSERVATORY TO HIS
RESIDENCE AT GREENWICH OBSERVATORY AS ASTRONOMER
ROYAL.
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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