James bradley astronomer biography of abraham lincoln

His biography is available in 45 different languages on Wikipedia. James Bradley is the 74th most popular astronomer down from 45th inthe rd most popular biography from United Kingdom down from th in and the 9th most popular British Astronomer. James Bradley is most famous for his book The Lost History of Christianity, which is about the history of Christianity.

Among astronomers, James Bradley ranks 74 out of As a result, the massive program of observations at least 60, made at Greenwich from to attained a very high standard of accuracy, sufficient to make them useful to modern astronomers. Throughout his adult life Bradley made many observations of bodies in the solar system as well as of stars.

With his uncle, in he had derived an improved value for the solar parallax from observations of Mars. He observed and calculated the ele-ments of several comets, and published short papers on three. He made laudable attempts at the very difficult feat of measuring the diameters of Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and of Saturn and its ring system, a task that taxed the resources of astronomers with much larger and better telescopes a century and a half later.

As befitted an astronomer royal, Bradley was keenly interested in the accurate measurement of time. The clock was then sent to Jamaica and tested on the transits of certain stars, with the times and temperatures recorded. From these data Bradley worked out a correction for the higher temperatures in Jamaica and deduced a slowing of the clock by 1 minute, 58 seconds per day due to lower gravity near the equator.

He then worked out a table, for each five degrees of latitude, of the lengths required for pendulums that would keep the same time as one One use Bradley made of his new quadrants at the observatory after was to determine accurately the latitude of Greenwich. The Royal Observatory had been founded to assist navigation—to increase the safety of ships on ocean voyages by prescribing better methods of finding longitude at sea.

Bradley recognized the importance for navigation of magnetic observations, so he included magnetic instruments among his new equipment. Bradley was a brilliant original thinker, a very skillful observer, and a thoroughly practical astronomer who exercised unremitting care in examining the errors of his instruments and in insuring their accurate adjustment.

The value of his star observations increases with time, for they provide a firm starting point for long-term investigations of stellar motions. Without his two great discoveries and his work on refraction, it is difficult to see how later progress by others in the determination of star positions, distances, and motions would have been possible. Original Works.

James BradleyD. Rigaud, ed. Oxford,and Supplement to Dr. Oxford, A reprint of this valuable collection is in preparation. James Bradley D. Secondary Literature. Writings on Bradley or his work are G. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. January 8, Retrieved January 08, from Encyclopedia. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list.

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James bradley astronomer biography of abraham lincoln

The English astronomer James Bradleyone of the most determined and meticulous astronomers, discovered the aberration of light and the nutation of the earth's axis. James Bradley, who was the nephew of the astronomer James Pound, was born at Sherborne, Gloucestershire, in March He studied at Balliol College, Oxford, and took orders inwhen he was given his living at Bridstow.

In the meantime he had become a skilled astronomer in the techniques of the day, under the instruction of his uncle. He also served as the Radcliffe Observer from to Inhe became the third Astronomer Royal, succeeding Edmond Halley. Bradley's research focused on observational astronomy. His observations of stars led to the discovery of the nutation of the Earth's axis in This phenomenon occurs due to the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun on Earth's equatorial bulge.

The smallness of any parallax, compared with expectations, also showed that the stars must be many times more distant from the Earth than anybody had previously believed. This discovery of what became known as the aberration of light was, for all realistic purposes, conclusive evidence for the movement of the Earth, and hence for the correctness of Aristarchus ', Copernicus ', and Kepler 's theories; it was announced to the Royal Society in January The earliest observations upon which the discovery of the aberration was founded were made at Molyneux's house on Kew Greenand were continued at the house of Bradley's uncle James Pound in WansteadEssex.

After publication of his work on the aberration, Bradley continued to observe, to develop and check his second major discovery, the nutation of the Earth's axis, but he did not announce this in print until 14 Februarywhen he had tested its reality by minute observations during an entire revolution The publication of Bradley's observations was delayed by disputes about their ownership; but they were finally issued by the Clarendon PressOxford, in two folio volumes The insight and industry of the German astronomer Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel were, however, needed for the development of their fundamental importance.

Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikisource Wikidata item. English Astronomer Royal — For other people named James Bradley, see James Bradley disambiguation. The Reverend. Bradley by Thomas Hudsonc. SherborneGloucestershireEngland.

ChalfordGloucestershireEngland. Aberration of light Astronomer Royal. University of Oxford Ashmolean Museum. July priest. Biography [ edit ].