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71-461: Edmond (or Edmund ) Halley FRS ( / ˈ h æ l i / ; 8 November [ O.S. 29 October] 1656 – 25 January 1742 [ O.S. 14 January 1741]) was an English astronomer , mathematician and physicist . He was the second Astronomer Royal in Britain, succeeding John Flamsteed in 1720. From an observatory he constructed on Saint Helena in 1676–77, Halley catalogued

142-543: A diving bell , a device in which the atmosphere was replenished by way of weighted barrels of air sent down from the surface. In a demonstration, Halley and five companions dived to 60 feet (18 m) in the River Thames , and remained there for over an hour and a half. Halley's bell was of little use for practical salvage work, as it was very heavy, but he made improvements to it over time, later extending his underwater exposure time to over 4 hours. Halley suffered one of

213-763: A Chair (all of whom are Fellows of the Royal Society ). Members of the 10 Sectional Committees change every three years to mitigate in-group bias . Each Sectional Committee covers different specialist areas including: New Fellows are admitted to the Society at a formal admissions day ceremony held annually in July, when they sign the Charter Book and the Obligation which reads: "We who have hereunto subscribed, do hereby promise, that we will endeavour to promote

284-576: A doubt of its being round; others no less knowing imagin'd all they were not acquainted with, desart and uninhabitable. But now geography and hydrography have receiv'd some perfection by the pains of so many mariners and travelers, who to evince the rotundity of the earth and water, have sail’d and travell'd round it, as has been here made appear; to show there is no part uninhabitable, unless the frozen polar regions, have visited all other countries, tho never so remote, which they have found well peopl'd, and most of them rich and delightful…. Astronomy has receiv'd

355-441: A few days of May 8 ( descending node ) and November 10 ( ascending node ), with the angular diameter of Mercury being about 12″ for May transits, and 10″ for November transits. The average date for a transit increases over centuries as a result of Mercury's nodal precession and Earth's axial precession . Transits of Mercury occur on a regular basis. As explained in 1882 by Newcomb, the interval between passages of Mercury through

426-524: A series of observations of what became known as Halley's Comet ; his name became associated with it because of his work on its orbit and predicting its return in 1758 (which he did not live to see). In early 1686, Halley was elected to the Royal Society's new position of secretary, requiring him to give up his fellowship and manage correspondence and meetings, as well as edit the Philosophical Transactions . Also in 1686, Halley published

497-625: A series. For November transits each series would include about 135 transits over 30,000 years. For May transits each series would include about 110 transits over 24,000 years. For both the May and November series, the path of Mercury across the Sun passes further north than for the previous transit. Series numbers have not been traditionally allocated on the basis of the 217 year grouping. Predictions of transits of Mercury covering many years are available at NASA, SOLEX , and Fourmilab. At inferior conjunction,

568-527: A third and final voyage on the Paramour to study the tides of the English Channel . In 1702, he was dispatched by Queen Anne on diplomatic missions to other European leaders. The preface to Awnsham and John Churchill 's collection of voyages and travels (1704), supposedly written by John Locke or by Halley, valourised expeditions such as these as part of a grand expansion of European knowledge of

639-518: A vessel. Halley returned the ship to England to proceed against officers in July 1699. The result was a mild rebuke for his men, and dissatisfaction for Halley, who felt the court had been too lenient. Halley thereafter received a temporary commission as a captain in the Royal Navy , recommissioned the Paramour on 24 August 1699 and sailed again in September 1699 to make extensive observations on

710-1326: Is a significant honour. It has been awarded to many eminent scientists throughout history, including Isaac Newton (1672), Benjamin Franklin (1756), Charles Babbage (1816), Michael Faraday (1824), Charles Darwin (1839), Ernest Rutherford (1903), Srinivasa Ramanujan (1918), Jagadish Chandra Bose (1920), Albert Einstein (1921), Paul Dirac (1930), Winston Churchill (1941), Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1944), Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis (1945), Dorothy Hodgkin (1947), Alan Turing (1951), Lise Meitner (1955), Satyendra Nath Bose (1958), and Francis Crick (1959). More recently, fellowship has been awarded to Stephen Hawking (1974), David Attenborough (1983), Tim Hunt (1991), Elizabeth Blackburn (1992), Raghunath Mashelkar (1998), Tim Berners-Lee (2001), Venki Ramakrishnan (2003), Atta-ur-Rahman (2006), Andre Geim (2007), Bai Chunli (2014), James Dyson (2015), Ajay Kumar Sood (2015), Subhash Khot (2017), Elon Musk (2018), Elaine Fuchs (2019) and around 8,000 others in total, including over 280 Nobel Laureates since 1900. As of October 2018 , there are approximately 1,689 living Fellows, Foreign and Honorary Members, of whom 85 are Nobel Laureates. Fellowship of

781-688: Is confirmed by the Council in April, and a secret ballot of Fellows is held at a meeting in May. A candidate is elected if they secure two-thirds of votes of those Fellows voting. An indicative allocation of 18 Fellowships can be allocated to candidates from Physical Sciences and Biological Sciences; and up to 10 from Applied Sciences, Human Sciences and Joint Physical and Biological Sciences. A further maximum of six can be 'Honorary', 'General' or 'Royal' Fellows. Nominations for Fellowship are peer reviewed by Sectional Committees, each with at least 12 members and

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852-748: Is fully on the disk of the sun. As a general rule, 1st and 4th contacts cannot be accurately detected, while 2nd and 3rd contacts are readily visible within the constraints of the Black Drop effect, irradiation , atmospheric conditions, and the quality of the optics being used. Observed contact times for transits between 1677 and 1881 are given in S Newcomb's analysis of transits of Mercury. Observed 2nd and 3rd contacts times for transits between 1677 and 1973 are given in Royal Greenwich Observatory Bulletin No.181, 359-420 (1975). Sometimes Mercury appears to only graze

923-421: Is nominated by two Fellows of the Royal Society (a proposer and a seconder), who sign a certificate of proposal. Previously, nominations required at least five fellows to support each nomination by the proposer, which was criticised for supposedly establishing an old boy network and elitist gentlemen's club . The certificate of election (see for example ) includes a statement of the principal grounds on which

994-460: Is not to Halley's credit that he failed to acknowledge Gregory's priority in this matter. In 1717–18 he discovered the proper motion of the "fixed" stars (publishing this in 1718) by comparing his astrometric measurements with those given in Ptolemy's Almagest . Arcturus and Sirius were two noted to have moved significantly, the latter having progressed 30 arc minutes (about the diameter of

1065-810: The Astronomer Royal (England's first), telling him that the leading published tables on the positions of Jupiter and Saturn were erroneous, as were some of Tycho Brahe 's star positions. In 1676, Flamsteed helped Halley publish his first paper, titled "A Direct and Geometrical Method of Finding the Aphelia, Eccentricities, and Proportions of the Primary Planets, Without Supposing Equality in Angular Motion", about planetary orbits , in Philosophical Transactions of

1136-482: The Bodleian Library at Oxford. He also completed a new translation of the first four books from the original Greek that had been started by the late David Gregory . He published these along with his own reconstruction of Book VIII in the first complete Latin edition in 1710. The same year, he received an honorary degree of doctor of laws from Oxford. In 1716, Halley suggested a high-precision measurement of

1207-555: The aurora borealis . He suggested, "Auroral rays are due to particles, which are affected by the magnetic field, the rays parallel to Earth's magnetic field." In 1693 Halley published an article on life annuities , which featured an analysis of age-at-death on the basis of the Breslau statistics Caspar Neumann had been able to provide. This article allowed the British government to sell life annuities at an appropriate price based on

1278-458: The chord of the transit and the position of the planet Mercury in its orbit, the maximum length of this event is 7  50 . Transit events are useful for studying the planet and its orbit. Examples of the scientific investigations based on transits of Mercury are: Transits of Mercury can only occur when the Earth is aligned with a node of Mercury's orbit. Currently that alignment occurs within

1349-426: The post-nominal letters FRS . Every year, fellows elect up to ten new foreign members. Like fellows, foreign members are elected for life through peer review on the basis of excellence in science. As of 2016 , there are around 165 foreign members, who are entitled to use the post-nominal ForMemRS . Honorary Fellowship is an honorary academic title awarded to candidates who have given distinguished service to

1420-403: The southern celestial hemisphere and recorded a transit of Mercury across the Sun. He realised that a similar transit of Venus could be used to determine the distances between Earth, Venus, and the Sun. Upon his return to England, he was made a fellow of the Royal Society , and with the help of King Charles II , was granted a master's degree from Oxford . Halley encouraged and helped fund

1491-726: The Astronomer Royal, John Flamsteed, and the Anglican Church questioned his religious views, largely on the grounds that he had doubted the Earth's age as given in the Bible . After Flamsteed wrote to Newton to rally support against Halley, Newton wrote back in hopes of reconciliation, but was unsuccessful. Halley's candidacy was opposed by both the Archbishop of Canterbury , John Tillotson , and Bishop Stillingfleet , and

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1562-518: The Astronomy of Comets ); in this, he stated his belief that the comet sightings of 1456, 1531, 1607, and 1682 were of the same comet, and that it would return in 1758. Halley did not live to witness the comet's return, but when it did, the comet became generally known as Halley's Comet. By 1706 Halley had learned Arabic and completed the translation started by Edward Bernard of Books V–VII of Apollonius 's Conics from copies found at Leiden and

1633-613: The Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society ( FRS , ForMemRS and HonFRS ) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge , including mathematics , engineering science , and medical science ". Fellowship of the Society, the oldest known scientific academy in continuous existence,

1704-485: The Royal Society . Influenced by Flamsteed's project to compile a catalogue of stars of the northern celestial hemisphere , Halley proposed to do the same for the southern sky , dropping out of school to do so. He chose the south Atlantic island of Saint Helena (west of Africa), from which he would be able to observe not only the southern stars, but also some of the northern stars with which to cross-reference them. King Charles II supported his endeavour. Halley sailed to

1775-439: The Royal Society has been described by The Guardian as "the equivalent of a lifetime achievement Oscar " with several institutions celebrating their announcement each year. Up to 60 new Fellows (FRS), honorary (HonFRS) and foreign members (ForMemRS) are elected annually in late April or early May, from a pool of around 700 proposed candidates each year. New Fellows can only be nominated by existing Fellows for one of

1846-451: The Society to help resolve a dispute: because astronomer Johannes Hevelius ' observing instruments were not equipped with telescopic sights , Flamsteed and Hooke had questioned the accuracy of his observations; Halley stayed with Hevelius and checked his observations, finding that they were quite precise. By 1681, Giovanni Domenico Cassini had told Halley of his theory that comets were objects in orbit. In September 1682, Halley carried out

1917-663: The Society, we shall be free from this Obligation for the future". Since 2014, portraits of Fellows at the admissions ceremony have been published without copyright restrictions in Wikimedia Commons under a more permissive Creative Commons license which allows wider re-use. In addition to the main fellowships of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS & HonFRS), other fellowships are available which are applied for by individuals, rather than through election. These fellowships are research grant awards and holders are known as Royal Society Research Fellows . In addition to

1988-417: The Sun during a transit. There are two possible scenarios: The possibility that, at mid-transit, Mercury is seen to be fully on the solar disk from some parts of the world, and completely miss the Sun as seen from other parts of the world cannot occur. The first observation of a Mercury transit was observed on November 7, 1631 by Pierre Gassendi . He was surprised by the small size of the planet compared to

2059-716: The Sun. Johannes Kepler had predicted the occurrence of transits of Mercury and Venus in his ephemerides published in 1630. Images of the November 15, 1999 transit from the Transition Region and Coronal explorer (TRACE) satellite were on Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) on November 19. Three APODs featured the May 9, 2016 transit. The Shuckburgh telescope of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich in London

2130-450: The addition of many constellations never seen before. Natural and moral history is embelish'd with the most beneficial increase of so many thousands of plants it had never before receiv'd, so many drugs and spices, such variety of beasts, birds and fishes, such rarities in minerals, mountains and waters, such unaccountable diversity of climates and men, and in them of complexions, tempers, habits, manners, politicks, and religions…. To conclude,

2201-413: The age of the purchaser. Halley's work strongly influenced the development of actuarial science . The construction of the life-table for Breslau, which followed more primitive work by John Graunt , is now seen as a major event in the history of demography . The Royal Society censured Halley for suggesting in 1694 that the story of Noah's flood might be an account of a cometary impact. A similar theory

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2272-406: The ascending node of its orbit is 87.969 days, and the interval between the Earth's passage through that same longitude is 365.254 days. Using continued fraction approximations of the ratio of these values, it can be shown that Mercury will make an almost integral number of revolutions about the Sun over intervals of 6, 7, 13, 33, 46, and 217 years. In 1894 Crommelin noted that at these intervals,

2343-548: The award of Fellowship (FRS, HonFRS & ForMemRS) and the Research Fellowships described above, several other awards, lectures and medals of the Royal Society are also given. Transit of Mercury On June 3, 2014, the Mars rover Curiosity observed the planet Mercury transiting the Sun, marking the first time a planetary transit has been observed from a celestial body besides Earth . The orbit of

2414-788: The behest of King William III , Halley was given command of the Paramour , a 52 feet (16 m) pink , so that he could carry out investigations in the South Atlantic into the laws governing the variation of the compass , as well as to refine the coordinates of the English colonies in the Americas . On 19 August 1698, he took command of the ship and, in November 1698, sailed on what was the first purely scientific voyage by an English naval vessel. Unfortunately problems of insubordination arose over questions of Halley's competence to command

2485-612: The cause of science, but do not have the kind of scientific achievements required of Fellows or Foreign Members. Honorary Fellows include the World Health Organization's Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (2022), Bill Bryson (2013), Melvyn Bragg (2010), Robin Saxby (2015), David Sainsbury, Baron Sainsbury of Turville (2008), Onora O'Neill (2007), John Maddox (2000), Patrick Moore (2001) and Lisa Jardine (2015). Honorary Fellows are entitled to use

2556-465: The college granted on 3 December 1678. Just a few days before, Halley had been elected as a fellow of the Royal Society , at the age of 22. In 1679, he published Catalogus Stellarum Australium ('A catalogue of the stars of the South'), which includes his map and descriptions of 341 stars. Robert Hooke presented the catalogue to the Royal Society. In mid-1679, Halley went to Danzig ( Gdańsk ) on behalf of

2627-523: The conditions of terrestrial magnetism . In 1718, he discovered the proper motion of the "fixed" stars . Halley was born in Haggerston in Middlesex . His father, Edmond Halley Sr., came from a Derbyshire family and was a wealthy soap-maker in London. As a child, Halley was very interested in mathematics. He studied at St Paul's School , where he developed his initial interest in astronomy, and

2698-691: The conditions of terrestrial magnetism . This task he accomplished in a second Atlantic voyage which lasted until 6 September 1700, and extended from 52 degrees north to 52 degrees south. The results were published in General Chart of the Variation of the Compass (1701). This was the first such chart to be published and the first on which isogonic , or Halleyan, lines appeared. The use of such lines inspired later ideas such as those of isotherms by Alexander von Humboldt in his maps. In 1701, Halley made

2769-637: The distance between the Earth and the Sun by timing the transit of Venus . In doing so, he was following the method described by James Gregory in Optica Promota (in which the design of the Gregorian telescope is also described). It is reasonable to assume Halley possessed and had read this book given that the Gregorian design was the principal telescope design used in astronomy in Halley's day. It

2840-404: The distances between Earth, Venus, and the Sun. Halley returned to England in May 1678, and used his data to produce a map of the southern stars. Oxford would not allow Halley to return because he had violated his residency requirements when he left for Saint Helena. He appealed to Charles II, who signed a letter requesting that Halley be unconditionally awarded his Master of Arts degree, which

2911-440: The earliest being the one accepted. These dates were wrong by thousands of years, but the idea that scientific methods could be used to date ancient monuments was revolutionary in its day. Halley succeeded John Flamsteed in 1720 as Astronomer Royal, a position Halley held until his death in 1742 at the age of 85. He was buried in the graveyard of the old church of St Margaret's, Lee (since rebuilt), at Lee Terrace, Blackheath . He

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2982-409: The earliest recorded cases of middle ear barotrauma . That same year, at a meeting of the Royal Society, Halley introduced a rudimentary working model of a magnetic compass using a liquid-filled housing to damp the swing and wobble of the magnetised needle. In 1691, Halley sought the post of Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford. While a candidate for the position, Halley faced the animosity of

3053-418: The emerging field of information visualisation . Halley spent most of his time on lunar observations, but was also interested in the problems of gravity . One problem that attracted his attention was the proof of Kepler's laws of planetary motion . In August 1684, he went to Cambridge to discuss this with Isaac Newton , much as John Flamsteed had done four years earlier, only to find that Newton had solved

3124-437: The empire of Europe is now extended to the utmost bounds of the earth, where several of its nations have conquests and colonies. These and many more are the advantages drawn from the labours of those, who expose themselves to the dangers of the vast ocean, and of unknown nations; which those who sit still at home abundantly reap in every kind: and the relation of one traveler is an incentive to stir up another to imitate him, whilst

3195-528: The fellowships described below: Every year, up to 52 new fellows are elected from the United Kingdom, the rest of the Commonwealth of Nations , and Ireland, which make up around 90% of the society. Each candidate is considered on their merits and can be proposed from any sector of the scientific community. Fellows are elected for life on the basis of excellence in science and are entitled to use

3266-540: The good of the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, and to pursue the ends for which the same was founded; that we will carry out, as far as we are able, those actions requested of us in the name of the Council; and that we will observe the Statutes and Standing Orders of the said Society. Provided that, whensoever any of us shall signify to the President under our hands, that we desire to withdraw from

3337-497: The island in late 1676, then set up an observatory with a large sextant with telescopic sights. Over a year, he made observations with which he would produce the first telescopic catalogue of the southern sky, and observed a transit of Mercury across the Sun. Focusing on this latter observation, Halley realised that observing the solar parallax of a planet—more ideally using the transit of Venus , which would not occur within his lifetime—could be used to trigonometrically determine

3408-518: The mint was profiting from it. In 1698, the Czar of Russia (later known as Peter the Great ) was on a visit to England, and hoped Newton would be available to entertain him. Newton sent Halley in his place. He and the Czar bonded over science and brandy. According to one disputed account, when both of them were drunk one night, Halley jovially pushed the Czar around Deptford in a wheelbarrow. In 1698, at

3479-436: The moon) southwards in 1800 years. In 1720, together with his friend the antiquarian William Stukeley , Halley participated in the first attempt to scientifically date Stonehenge . Assuming that the monument had been laid out using a magnetic compass, Stukeley and Halley attempted to calculate the perceived deviation introducing corrections from existing magnetic records, and suggested three dates (460 BC, AD 220 and AD 920),

3550-516: The name should be pronounced in the context of the astronomer or the comet. The alternative / ˈ h eɪ l i / is much more common in the latter context than it is when used as a modern surname. Colin Ronan , one of Halley's biographers, preferred / ˈ h ɔː l i / . Contemporary accounts spell his name Hailey, Hayley, Haley, Haly, Halley, Hawley and Hawly , and presumably pronunciations varied similarly. As for his given name, although

3621-470: The orbit of comet Kirch, based on Flamsteed's observations in 1680–1681. Although he was to accurately calculate the orbit of the comet of 1682, he was inaccurate in his calculations of the orbit of comet Kirch. They indicated a periodicity of 575 years, thus appearing in the years 531 and 1106, and presumably heralding the death of Julius Caesar in a like fashion in 45 BC. It is now known to have an orbital period of circa 10,000 years. In 1691, Halley built

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3692-416: The path of Mercury across the Sun passing further north than for the previous transit. For May transits each series includes about 10 transits over 414 years, with the path of Mercury across the Sun passing further south than for the previous transit. Some authors have allocated a series number to transits on the basis of this 46-year grouping. Similarly transits that occur 217 years apart can be grouped into

3763-494: The persistent misconception that Halley received a knighthood , it is not the case. The idea can be tracked back to American astronomical texts such as William Augustus Norton 's 1839 An Elementary Treatise on Astronomy , possibly due to Halley's royal occupations and connections to Sir Isaac Newton . Halley married Mary Tooke in 1682 and settled in Islington . The couple had three children. There are three pronunciations of

3834-399: The planet Mercury lies interior to that of the Earth, and thus it can come into an inferior conjunction with the Sun. When Mercury is near the node of its orbit, it passes through the orbital plane of the Earth. If an inferior conjunction occurs as Mercury is passing through its orbital node, the planet can be seen to pass across the disk of the Sun in an event called a transit. Depending on

3905-411: The planet Mercury subtends an angle of 12 ″ , which, during a transit, is too small to be seen without a telescope. A common observation made at a transit is recording the times when the disk of Mercury appears to be in contact with the limb of the Sun. Those contacts are traditionally referred to as the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th contacts – with the 2nd and 3rd contacts occurring when the disk of Mercury

3976-514: The post nominal letters HonFRS . Statute 12 is a legacy mechanism for electing members before official honorary membership existed in 1997. Fellows elected under statute 12 include David Attenborough (1983) and John Palmer, 4th Earl of Selborne (1991). The Council of the Royal Society can recommend members of the British royal family for election as Royal Fellow of the Royal Society . As of 2023 there are four royal fellows: Elizabeth II

4047-597: The post went instead to David Gregory , who had Newton's support. In 1692, Halley put forth the idea of a hollow Earth consisting of a shell about 500 miles (800 km) thick, two inner concentric shells and an innermost core. He suggested that atmospheres separated these shells, and that each shell had its own magnetic poles , with each sphere rotating at a different speed. Halley proposed this scheme to explain anomalous compass readings. He envisaged each inner region as having an atmosphere and being luminous (and possibly inhabited), and speculated that escaping gas caused

4118-649: The problem, at the instigation of Flamsteed with regard to the orbit of comet Kirch , without publishing the solution. Halley asked to see the calculations and was told by Newton that he could not find them, but promised to redo them and send them on later, which he eventually did, in a short treatise titled On the motion of bodies in an orbit . Halley recognised the importance of the work and returned to Cambridge to arrange its publication with Newton, who instead went on to expand it into his Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica published at Halley's expense in 1687. Halley's first calculations with comets were thereby for

4189-552: The proposal is being made. There is no limit on the number of nominations made each year. In 2015, there were 654 candidates for election as Fellows and 106 candidates for Foreign Membership. The Council of the Royal Society oversees the selection process and appoints 10 subject area committees, known as Sectional Committees, to recommend the strongest candidates for election to the Fellowship. The final list of up to 52 Fellowship candidates and up to 10 Foreign Membership candidates

4260-464: The publication of Isaac Newton 's influential Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687). From observations Halley made in September 1682, he used Newton's law of universal gravitation to compute the periodicity of Halley's Comet in his 1705 Synopsis of the Astronomy of Comets . It was named after him upon its predicted return in 1758, which he did not live to see. Beginning in 1698, Halley made sailing expeditions and made observations on

4331-511: The rest of mankind, in their accounts without stirring a foot, compass the earth and seas, visit all countries, and converse with all nations. In November 1703, Halley was appointed Savilian Professor of Geometry at the University of Oxford, his theological enemies, John Tillotson and Bishop Stillingfleet having died. In 1705, applying historical astronomy methods, he published the paper Astronomiae cometicae synopsis ( A Synopsis of

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4402-450: The second part of the results from his Helenian expedition, being a paper and chart on trade winds and monsoons . The symbols he used to represent trailing winds still exist in most modern day weather chart representations. In this article he identified solar heating as the cause of atmospheric motions. He also established the relationship between barometric pressure and height above sea level. His charts were an important contribution to

4473-588: The spelling "Edmund" is quite common, "Edmond" is what Halley himself used, according to a 1902 article, though a 2007 International Comet Quarterly article disputes this, commenting that in his published works, he used "Edmund" 22 times and "Edmond" only 3 times, with several other variations used as well, such as the Latinised "Edmundus". Much of the debate stems from the fact that, in Halley's own time, English spelling conventions were not yet standardised, and so he himself used multiple spellings. Fellow of

4544-506: The successive paths of Mercury relative to the Sun are consistently displaced northwards or southwards. He noted the displacements as: Comparing these displacements with the solar diameter (about 31.7′ in May, and 32.4′ in November) the following may be deduced about the interval between transits: Transits that occur 46 years apart can be grouped into a series. For November transits each series includes about 20 transits over 874 years, with

4615-556: The surname Halley . These are / ˈ h æ l i / , / ˈ h eɪ l i / , and / ˈ h ɔː l i / . As a personal surname, the most common pronunciation in the 21st century, both in Great Britain and in the United States, is / ˈ h æ l i / (rhymes with "valley"). This is the personal pronunciation used by most Halleys living in London today. This is useful guidance but does not, of course, tell us how

4686-400: The world: What was cosmography before these discoveries, but an imperfect fragment of a science, scarce deserving so good a name? When all the known world was only Europe, a small part of Africk, and the lesser portion of Asia; so that of this terraqueous globe not one sixth part had ever been seen or heard of. Nay so great was the ignorance of man in this particular, that learned persons made

4757-485: Was elected captain of the school in 1671. The following year, Halley's mother, Anne (probably née Robinson) died. In July 1673, he began studying at The Queen's College, Oxford . Halley took a twenty-four-foot (7.3 m) long telescope with him, apparently paid for by his father. While still an undergraduate, Halley published papers on the Solar System and sunspots . In March 1675, he wrote to John Flamsteed ,

4828-529: Was independently suggested three centuries later, but is generally rejected by geologists. In 1696, Newton was appointed as warden of the Royal Mint and nominated Halley as deputy comptroller of the Chester mint. Halley spent two years supervising coin production. While there, he caught two clerks pilfering precious metals. He and the local warden spoke out about the scheme, unaware that the local master of

4899-792: Was interred in the same vault as the Astronomer Royal John Pond ; the unmarked grave of the Astronomer Royal Nathaniel Bliss is nearby. His original tombstone was transferred by the Admiralty when the original Lee church was demolished and rebuilt – it can be seen today on the southern wall of the Camera Obscura at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. His marked grave can be seen at St Margaret's Church, Lee Terrace. Despite

4970-421: Was not a Royal Fellow, but provided her patronage to the society, as all reigning British monarchs have done since Charles II of England . Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (1951) was elected under statute 12, not as a Royal Fellow. The election of new fellows is announced annually in May, after their nomination and a period of peer-reviewed selection. Each candidate for Fellowship or Foreign Membership

5041-441: Was used for the 1832 Mercury transit. It was equipped with a micrometer by Dollond and was used for a report of the events as seen through the small refractor. By observing the transit in combination with timing it and taking measures, a diameter for the planet was taken. They also reported the peculiar effects that they compared to pressing a coin into the Sun. The observer remarked: I afterwards observed, that immediately around

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