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See also:PRITCHARD, See also:CHARLES (1808–1893) , See also:British astronomer,
was See also:born at. Alberbury, See also:Shropshire, on the 29th of See also:February
18o8. At the See also:age of eighteen he was enrolled as a See also:sizar at St
See also:John's See also:College, See also:Cambridge, whence he graduated in 183o as
See also:fourth wrangler. In 1832 he was elected See also:fellow of his college,
and in the following See also:year he was ordained, and became See also:head
See also:master of a private school at Stockwell. From 1834 to 1862
i See also:Report of the Royal See also:Commission on Penal See also:Servitude (1878–1879). he was headmaster of Clapham See also:grammar school. He then
retired to See also:Freshwater, in the Isle of See also:Wight, and took an active PRIVAS, a See also:town of See also:south-eastern See also:France, See also:capital of the depart-See also:interest in the affairs of the Royal Astronomical Society, of
which he became honorary secretary in 1862 and See also:president in 1866. His career as a professional astronomer began in 187o, when he was elected Savilian See also:professor of See also:astronomy at See also:- OXFORD
- OXFORD, EARLS OF
- OXFORD, EDWARD DE VERE, 17TH EARL
- OXFORD, JOHN DE VERE, 13TH EARL OF (1443-1513)
- OXFORD, PROVISIONS OF
- OXFORD, ROBERT DE VERE, 9TH EARL OF (1362-1392)
- OXFORD, ROBERT HARLEY, 1ST
Oxford. At his See also:request the university determined to erect a See also:fine See also:equatorial See also:telescope for the instruction of his class and for purposes of See also:research, a See also:- SCHEME (Lat. schema, Gr. oxfjya, figure, form, from the root axe, seen in exeiv, to have, hold, to be of such shape, form, &c.)
scheme which, in consequence of See also:Warren de la See also:Rue's munificent See also:gift of See also:instruments from his private See also:observatory at Cranford, See also:expanded into the See also:establishment of the new university observatory. By De la Rue's See also:advice, Pritchard began his career there with a determination of the See also:physical See also:libration of the See also:- MOON (a common Teutonic word, cf. Ger. Mond, Du. maan, Dan. maane, &c., and cognate with such Indo-Germanic forms as Gr. µlip, Sans. ma's, Irish mi, &c.; Lat. uses luna, i.e. lucna, the shining one, lucere, to shine, for the moon, but preserves the word i
- MOON, SIR RICHARD, 1ST BARONET (1814-1899)
moon, or the See also:nutation of its See also:axis. In 1882 Pritchard commenced a systematic study of stellar See also:photometry. For this purpose he employed an See also:instrument known as the " See also:- WEDGE (O. Eng. wecg, a mass of metal, cognate with Dutch wig, wigge, Dan. vaegge, &c.; in Lith. the cognate form outside Teut. is found in wagis, a peg, spigot; there is no connexion with " weigh," " weight," which must be referred to the root wegh, to li
wedge photometer " (see PHOTOMETRY, See also:CELESTIAL, and Mem. R.A.S. xlvii. 353), with which he measured the relative brightness of 2784 stars between the See also:North See also:Pole and about —ro° See also:declination. The results were published in 1885 in his Uranometria Nova Oxoniensis, and their importance was recognized by the bestowal in 1886 upon him, conjointly with Professor See also:Pickering, of the Royal Astronomical Society's See also:gold See also:medal. He now resolved to try the experiment of applying See also:photography to the determination of stellar See also:parallax. With the See also:object of testing the capabilities of the method, he took for his first See also:essay the well-known See also:star 61 Cygni, and his results agreed so well with those previously attained that he undertook the systematic measurement of the parallaxes of second-magnitude stars, and published the outcome in the third and fourth volumes of the Publications of the Oxford University Observatory. Although some lurking errors impaired the authority of the concluded parallaxes this See also:work ranks as a valuable contribution to astronomy, since it showed the possibility of employing photography in such delicate investigations. When the See also:great scheme of an See also:international survey of the heavens was projected, the See also:zone between 25° and 310 north declination was allotted to him, and at the See also:- TIME (0. Eng. Lima, cf. Icel. timi, Swed. timme, hour, Dan. time; from the root also seen in " tide," properly the time of between the flow and ebb of the sea, cf. O. Eng. getidan, to happen, " even-tide," &c.; it is not directly related to Lat. tempus)
- TIME, MEASUREMENT OF
- TIME, STANDARD
time of his See also:death some progress had been made in recording its included stars. Pritchard became a fellow of New College, Oxford, in 1883, and an honorary fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, in 1886. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1840, and in 1892 was awarded one of the royal medals for his work on photometry and stellar parallax. He died on the 28th of May 1893.
See Proc. See also:Roy. See also:Soc. liv. 3; See also:Month. Notices, Roy. See also:Asir. Soc. liv. 198; W. E. Plummer, Observatory, xvi. 256 (portrait); Astr. and See also:Astrophysics, xii. 592; J. See also:Foster, Oxford Men and their Colleges, p. 206; Hist. See also:Register of the Univ. of Oxford, p. 95; The Times (May 3o, 1893); C. J. See also:- ROBINSON, EDWARD (1794–1863)
- ROBINSON, HENRY CRABB (1777–1867)
- ROBINSON, JOHN (1575–1625)
- ROBINSON, JOHN (1650-1723)
- ROBINSON, JOHN THOMAS ROMNEY (1792–1882)
- ROBINSON, MARY [" Perdita "] (1758–1800)
- ROBINSON, SIR JOHN BEVERLEY, BART
- ROBINSON, SIR JOSEPH BENJAMIN (1845– )
- ROBINSON, THEODORE (1852-1896)
Robinson's Register of See also:Merchant Taylors' School, ii. 21o; Charles Pritchard, D.D., See also:Memoirs of his See also:Life, by Ada Pritchard (See also:London, 1897).
End of Article: PRITCHARD, CHARLES (1808–1893)
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