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See also: British astronomer,
was See also: born at
.
Alberbury, See also: Shropshire, on the 29th of See also: February
18o8
.
At the age of eighteen he was enrolled as a See also: sizar at St
See also: John's
See also: College, Cambridge, whence he graduated in 183o as
See also: fourth wrangler
.
In 1832 he was elected See also: fellow of his college,
and in the following See also: year he was ordained, and became See also: head
master of a private school at Stockwell
.
From 1834 to 1862
i Report of the Royal Commission on Penal Servitude (1878–1879). he was headmaster of Clapham grammar school
.
He then
retired to See also: Freshwater, in the Isle of See also: Wight, and took an active PRIVAS, a See also: town of See also: south-eastern See also: France, capital of the depart-See also: interest in the affairs of the Royal Astronomical Society, of
which he became honorary secretary in 1862 and president in 1866
.
His career as a professional astronomer began in 187o, when he was elected Savilian professor of astronomy at See also: Oxford
.
At his See also: request the university determined to erect a See also: fine See also: equatorial See also: telescope for the instruction of his class and for purposes of research, a scheme which, in consequence of See also: Warren de la Rue's munificent gift of See also: instruments from his private See also: observatory at Cranford, See also: expanded into the establishment of the new university observatory
.
By De la Rue's advice, Pritchard began his career there with a determination of the See also: physical See also: libration of the See also: moon, or the See also: nutation of its See also: axis
.
In 1882 Pritchard commenced a systematic study of stellar photometry
.
For this purpose he employed an instrument known as the " wedge photometer " (see PHOTOMETRY, See also: CELESTIAL, and Mem
.
R.A.S. xlvii
.
353), with which he measured the relative brightness of 2784 stars between the See also: North See also: Pole and about —ro° declination
.
The results were published in 1885 in his Uranometria Nova Oxoniensis, and their importance was recognized by the bestowal in 1886 upon him, conjointly with Professor Pickering, of the Royal Astronomical Society's gold medal
.
He now resolved to try the experiment of applying photography to the determination of stellar See also: parallax
.
With the See also: object of testing the capabilities of the method, he took for his first essay the well-known See also: star 61 Cygni, and his results agreed so well with those previously attained that he undertook the systematic measurement of the parallaxes of second-magnitude stars, and published the outcome in the third and fourth volumes of the Publications of the Oxford University Observatory
.
Although some lurking errors impaired the authority of the concluded parallaxes this See also: work ranks as a valuable contribution to astronomy, since it showed the possibility of employing photography in such delicate investigations
.
When the See also: great scheme of an See also: international survey of the heavens was projected, the zone between 25° and 310 north declination was allotted to him, and at the See also: time of his See also: death some progress had been made in recording its included stars
.
Pritchard became a fellow of New College, Oxford, in 1883, and an honorary fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, in 1886
.
He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1840, and in 1892 was awarded one of the royal medals for his work on photometry and stellar parallax
.
He died on the 28th of May 1893
.
See Proc
.
See also: Roy
.
See also: Soc. liv
.
3; See also: Month
.
Notices, Roy
.
See also: Asir
.
Soc. liv
.
198; W
.
E
.
Plummer, Observatory, xvi
.
256 (portrait); Astr. and See also: Astrophysics, xii
.
592; J
.
See also: Foster, Oxford Men and their Colleges, p
.
206; Hist
.
See also: Register of the Univ. of Oxford, p
.
95; The Times (May 3o, 1893); C . J . See also: Robinson's Register of See also: Merchant Taylors' School, ii
.
21o; See also: Charles Pritchard, D.D.,
See also: Memoirs of his See also: Life, by Ada Pritchard (See also: London, 1897)
.
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