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
"On June 26th I started with my wife for the Highlands of
Scotland. After a short stay at Edensor, we went by Carlisle to
Glasgow, and through the Lake District to Inverness. Thence by
Auchnanault to Balmacarra, where we were received by Mr
Lillingstone. After an expedition in Skye, we returned to Balmacarra,
and passed on to Invermoriston, where we were received by Grant of
Glenmoriston. We then went to Fort William and Oban, and crossed over
to Mull, where we were received by Maclean of Loch Buy. We returned to
Oban and on to Edinburgh, where we made a short stay. Then to Melrose,
where we were received by Sir D. Brewster, and by Edensor to
Cambridge, where we arrived on Sept. 17th.
"I received (at Edinburgh I believe) a letter from Arago, writing for
the plans of our observing-room shutters.--Mr Vernon Harcourt wrote
deprecating the tone of my Report on Astronomy as related to English
Astronomers, but I refused to alter a word.--Sheepshanks wrote in
September in great anxiety about the Cambridge Circle, for which he
thought the pier ought to be raised: I would have no such thing, and
arranged it much more conveniently by means of a pit. On Oct. 9th
Simms says that he will come with the circle immediately, and Jones on
Sept. 29th says that he will make some alteration in the equatoreal:
thus there was at last a prospect of furnishing the Observatory
properly.--On Oct. 9th, I have Encke's thanks for the translation of
the Comet Paper.--One of the desiderata which I had pointed out in my
Report on Astronomy was the determination of the mass of Jupiter by
elongations of the 4th satellite: and as the Equatoreal of the
Cambridge Observatory was on the point of coming into use, I
determined to employ it for this purpose. It was necessary for the
reduction of the observations that I should prepare Tables of the
motion of Jupiter's 4th Satellite in a form applicable to computations
of differences of right-ascension. The date of my Tables is Oct. 3rd,
1832.--In October the Observatory Syndicate made their Report: quite
satisfactory.
"On Oct. 20th Sheepshanks wrote asking my assistance in the Penny
Cyclopaedia: I did afterwards write 'Gravitation' and 'Greenwich.'
--Capt. Beaufort wrote in November to ask my opinion on the
Preface to an edition of Groombridge's Catalogue which had been
prepared by H. Taylor: Sheepshanks also wrote; he had objected to
it. This was the beginning of an affair which afterwards gave me great
labour.--Vernon Harcourt writes, much offended at some terms which I
had used in reference to an office in the British Association.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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