John Grigg (astronomer)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Grigg (born June 4, 1838 in London , † June 20, 1920 in Thames (New Zealand) ) was a New Zealand amateur astronomer .

resume

John Grigg was born in London, the youngest son of James and Ruth Grigg. His father was the managing director and financial director of a London furniture store and gave his son a solid musical, scientific and commercial education. In 1858 Grigg married Emma Mitchell, in 1863 they both emigrated to New Zealand and settled in Auckland . After Emma's death (1867), Grigg moved to Thames in 1868 , a town that was thriving due to gold discoveries . There he founded an interior design business, which he later expanded to include music .

Grigg gave singing lessons, composing, conducting by him co-founded Thames Choral Society and for ten years was the organist and one of the curators of the Baptist community .

In 1871 Grigg married Sarah Allaway, who died unexpectedly in 1874. In 1887 he finally married Jane Henderson. Grigg and his three wives had a total of six sons, three daughters and one adopted son.

astronomy

The Passages of Venus in 1874 and 1882 revived Grigg's earlier interest in astronomy. In 1884 he built a wooden observatory for a small refractor of 90 mm aperture behind the residential and commercial building on Pollen Street . In 1894 he withdrew from business life in order to devote more time to his scientific inclinations. He moved the observatory to a new location on Queen Street; it was now two-story, with a work room and workshop on the first floor. Both observatories housed a small passage instrument in a small annex , which Grigg used for the time duty for Thames.

Grigg gave popular astronomical lectures and wrote a regular astronomical newspaper column . His observatory was always open to visitors.

Grigg was one of the astrophotographic pioneers in New Zealand. He photographed sunspots , the (in New Zealand partial) solar eclipse of December 12, 1890, the moon and comets .

In addition to other astronomical observations such as regular sunspot series, he was particularly interested in comets, whose orbits he followed and calculated. He observed the known and expected comets, but also searched systematically for new comets, using a list of nebulae he had compiled himself in order not to confuse them with a comet. Grigg was the first to find comet 2P / Encke when it returned in 1898.

Grigg discovered four comets, three of which now bear his name:

  • On July 22, 1902, Grigg found a new comet in a systematic search. During six nights up to August 3, he was able to receive 14 position measurements and calculate a path. However, the comet's weakness of light , the region of the sky rich in "nebulae" and the poor accuracy of Grigg's position measurements prevented other astronomers from finding and tracking the comet, so Grigg remained the only observer of this comet. On May 17, 1922, John Francis Skjellerup rediscovered the comet in South Africa , so that it now bears the name 26P / Grigg-Skjellerup .
  • On April 17, 1903, Grigg discovered another comet, which he observed for 29 nights until May 26. This time the comet - C / 1903 H1 (Grigg) - could also be followed by other astronomers.
  • A comet discovered by Grigg on March 19, 1906, had already been found by David Ross in Melbourne in February - Comet C / 1906 F1 (Ross).
  • On April 8, 1907, Grigg discovered a comet that was also found independently by John Mellish five days later . The comet - C / 1907 G1 (Grigg – Mellish) - could be followed by astronomers until May 14th.

The Astronomical Society of the Pacific awarded Grigg two of the comet medals donated by Joseph A. Donohoe for his discoveries. He was a member of the British Astronomical Association from 1897 and was admitted to the Royal Astronomical Society in 1906 . A moon crater is named after Grigg.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ WW Campbell, Wm. Pierson, Chas. Burckhalter: (Forty-fifth) Award of the Donohoe Comet-Medal. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Vol. 15 (1903), No. 91, p. 202, "for his discovery of an unexpected comet on April 16, 1903" ( online )
  2. ↑ WW Campbell, CD Perrine, Chas. Burckhalter: (Sixty-third) Award of the Donohoe Comet-Medal. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Vol. 20 (1908), No. 119, p. 93, "for his discovery of an unexpected comet on April 9, 1907" ( online )
  3. ↑ Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature: Grigg
personal data
SURNAME Grigg, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH June 4, 1838
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH June 20, 1920
Place of death Thames (New Zealand)