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!).
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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..]