Charles Piazzi Smyth

Charles Piazzi Smyth (born January 3, 1819 in Naples , Italy , † February 21, 1900 in Ripon , England ) was a Scottish astronomer and esotericist .

Life

Smyth was the son of the astronomer William Henry Smyth ; He got his middle name from his godfather , the astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi . After the family moved from southern Italy to Bedford, he received his first instruction in astronomy from his father. At the age of 16 he went to South Africa , where he worked at the Cape of Good Hope as an assistant to the astronomer Sir Thomas Maclear . In 1845 he became Astronomer Royal for Scotland and Regius Professor of Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh . In 1865 Smyth traveled to Egypt , where he measured the Cheops pyramid near Giza and took photographs of its interior. In 1888 he gave up his office and lived in seclusion until his death in 1900.

Smyth was considered brilliant but eccentric . His research into the suitability of high-altitude peaks in Tenerife as a site for an astronomical observatory in 1856 is considered a pioneering act. He also did pioneering work in the use of photography: as early as 1839 (when Daguerre had just made his method known), Smyth began to experiment with the new technique. His photographs of South African motifs from 1843 are considered to be the earliest from that area. Also significant is its contribution to the solution of the meridian problem of La Caille . Spectra of polar lights , the zodiacal light and in the infrared wave range became his specialty. In 1877/78 he created a precise representation of the solar spectrum , for which he received the Macdougall Brisbane Prize in 1880 . In 1846 he was elected a member ( Fellow ) of the Royal Society of Edinburgh . Since 1855 he was a corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences .

Smyth also became known for his commitment to pyramidology : due to his surveying work on the Cheops pyramid (which later turned out to be not so reliable), he advocated the thesis that prophecies and other mystical information were hidden in the dimensions of this building .

In the case of the bent pyramid, however, Smyth had to admit that estimates (e.g. for calculating an excavation duration) cannot always be calculated and measured.

The crater of the moon, Piazzi Smyth , was named after him.

Works

Three Cities in Russia . - London: Lovell, Reeve & Co., 1862
Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid . - London: A. Strahan, 1864
Life and Work at the Great Pyramid . 3 volumes. - Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, 1867
On the Antiquity of Intellectual Man: from a Practical and Astronomical point of View . - Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, 1868

literature

Hermann Brück , Mary Brück: The peripatetic astronomer: The life of Charles Piazzi Smyth , Adam Hilger 1988

Web links

Individual evidence

^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed April 9, 2020 .
^ Carl von Voit : Charles Piazzi Smyth (obituary) . In: Meeting reports of the mathematical-physical class of the KB Academy of Sciences in Munich . tape 32 , 1902, pp. 248–249 ( online [PDF; accessed April 18, 2017]).

personal data
SURNAME	Smyth, Charles Piazzi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Scottish astronomer and esotericist
DATE OF BIRTH	January 3, 1819
PLACE OF BIRTH	Naples
DATE OF DEATH	February 21, 1900
Place of death	Ripon , England

[1] Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed April 9, 2020 .

[2] Carl von Voit : Charles Piazzi Smyth (obituary) . In: Meeting reports of the mathematical-physical class of the KB Academy of Sciences in Munich . tape 32 , 1902, pp. 248–249 ( online [PDF; accessed April 18, 2017]).