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EDWARD JAMES STONE (1831-1897)

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 956 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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EDWARD See also:JAMES See also:STONE (1831-1897)  , See also:British astronomer, was See also:born in See also:London on the 28th of See also:February 1831 . Educated at the See also:City of London School, he obtained a studentship at See also:King's See also:College, London, and in 1856 a scholarship at See also:Queen's College, See also:Cambridge, graduated as fifth wrangler in 1859, and was immediately elected See also:fellow of his college . The following See also:year he succeeded the Rev . R . See also:Main as See also:chief assistant at the Royal See also:Observatory, See also:Greenwich, and at once undertook the fundamental task of improving astronomical constants . The most important of these, the See also:sun's mean See also:parallax, was at that See also:time subject to considerable uncertainty . From a discussion of the observations of See also:Mars made in 186o and 1862 at Greenwich and See also:Williams-See also:town (near See also:Melbourne), See also:Stone deduced for it a value of 8.932" (Mon . Not . R.A.S. See also:xxiii . 183), and in a further investigation in which he included the observations made in 1862, at the Cape of See also:Good See also:Hope, he obtained 8.945" (Mein. of R.A.S., vol. xxxiii.) . Confirmatory results were afforded by his discussion of the observations of the transit of See also:Venus in 1769 which yielded the figure 8.91" (Mon . Not .

R.A.S. See also:

xxviii . 255) . In 1865 he contributed a memoir to the Royal Astronomical Society on the See also:constant of lunar parallax . He also deter-See also:mined the See also:mass of the See also:moon, and from a discussion of the Greenwich transit circle observations between 1851 and 1865 he found for the constant of See also:nutation the value 9.134" . These services were recognized by the See also:award of the Royal Astronomical Society's See also:gold See also:medal in 1869, and on the resignation of See also:Sir See also:Thomas Maclear in 1870 he was appointed Her See also:Majesty's astronomer at the Cape . His first task on taking up this See also:post was the reduction and publication of a large mass of observations See also:left by his predecessor, from a selected portion of which (those made 1856-186o) he compiled a See also:catalogue of 1159 stars . His See also:principal See also:work was, however, a catalogue of 12,441 stars to the 7th magnitude between the See also:South See also:Pole and 25° S. See also:declination, which was practically finished by the end of 1878 and published in 1881 . Shortly after the See also:death of Main on the 9th of May 1878, Stone was appointed to succeed him as See also:Radcliffe Observer at See also:Oxford, and he left the Cape on the 27th of May 1879 . At Oxford he extended the Cape observations of stars to the 7th magnitude from 25° S. declination to the See also:equator, and collected the results in the Radcliffe Catalogue for 189o, which contains the places of 6424 stars . Stone observed the transit of Venus of 1874 at the Cape, and organized the See also:government expeditions for the corresponding event in 1882 . He was elected See also:president of the Royal Astronomical Society (1882-1884), and he was the first to recognize the importance of the old observations accumulated at the Radcliffe Observatory by Hornsby, See also:Robertson and See also:Rigaud (Mon . Not .

R.A.S., vol. lv.) . He successfully observed the See also:

total See also:solar See also:eclipse of the 8th of See also:August 1896 at Novaya Zemlya, and purposed a voyage to See also:India for the eclipse of 1898, but died suddenly at the Radcliffe Observatory on the 9th of May 1897 . The number of his astronomical publications exceeds 150, but his reputation depends mainly on his earlier work at Greenwich and his two See also:great See also:star catalogues— the Cape Catalogue for 188o and the Radcliffe Catalogue for 1890 . See Proc . See also:Roy . Society, Ixii . 10; See also:Month . Not . Roy . See also:Ast . See also:Soc. lviii . 143; The Times, loth of May 1897; Observatory, xx.234; Astr .

Nach . No . 3426; Roy . Soc . See also:

Cat . Scient . Papers . (A M .

End of Article: EDWARD JAMES STONE (1831-1897)
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