canopus@amdahl.UUCP (Alpha Carinae) (02/26/86)
Here is a list of March Astronomical Anniversaries. As always, if you think of additions, please feel free to post them, or mail them to me (I would greatly appreciate it!). - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mar 2, 1840: H. W. Olbers, German amateur Astronomer, died at the age of 81. He spent his evenings as a successful discoverer of comets and asteroids, measuring their positions and calculating their orbits. Mar 4, 1774: William Herschel's first recorded observation of the Orion Nebula. Mar 4, 1866: Norman Lockyer began his spectroscopic observations of the sun. Codiscovered helium in the sun. Mar 8, 1618: Johann Kepler discovers Third Law of Planetary Motion. Mar 8, 1804: Alvan Clark, noted for his fine large telescope objectives, is born. He founded the firm that built the Lick 36 inch and Yerkes 40 inch refractors. Mar 11, 1811: Urbain Leverrier, French mathematical astronomer and director of Paris Observatory, is born. Predicted the existence of Neptune (with J. C. Adams) before its optical discovery (in 1846). Mar 13, 1781: William Herschel discovers Uranus with a 6 inch homemade reflector. Mar 13, 1930: Announcement of the finding of Pluto on Lowell Observatory plates by Clyde Tombaugh. Mar 13, 1933: R. T. A. Innes, famous discoverer of southern double stars, died at the age of 71. Mar 14, 1897: Albert Einstein born. Mar 14, 1936: "The whole procedure of [shooting rockets into space] ... presents difficulties of so fundamental a nature, that we are forced to dismiss the notion as essentially impractic- able, in spite of the author's insistent appeal to put aside prejudice and to recollect the supposed impossibility of heavier-than-air flight before it was actually accomp- lished." ---Richard van der Riet Wooley (British Astronomer) re- viewing P.E. Cleator's "Rockets in Space" Mar 15, 1964: Periodic comet Schwassmann-Wachmann suddenly brightened by six magnitudes, from 18 to 12. Mar 17, 1725: Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter were so near to each other in the sky as to be visible in the same telescopic field of view. Mar 17, 1846: F. W. Bessel, who determined the distance to the star 61 Cygni, died. Director of Koenigsberg Observatory in Germany, he revolutionized the art of precise astronomical measurements. Mar 18, 1934: A great fireball, widely seen in Western Canada, exploded over Alberta. Mar 22, 1799: F. W. A. Argelander, German astronomer who catalgoued and charted 324,000 stars and founded the science of variable star study, was born. Mar 25, 1655: Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens discovered Saturn's moon Titan, with a non-achromatic refractor 12 feet long. Mar 26, 1859: Lescarbault's supposed discovery of an intra-Mercurial planet, Vulcan. Mar 28, 1802: Amateur astronomer Olbers discovers the asteroid Pallas. It was his first. Mar 29, 1807: Amateur astronomer Olbers discovers the brightest asteroid, Vesta, at Bremen. It was his second. Mar 30, 1961: P. J. Melotte, discoverer of Jupiter's eighth satellite, died. He discovered the satellite in 1908, on photographs taken with the 30-inch reflector at Greenwich Observatory. -- Frank Dibbell (408-746-6493) ...!{ihnp4,cbosgd,sun}!amdahl!canopus Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA [This is the obligatory disclaimer..]