British Astronomer
Airy was born in Alnwick in the north-east
of England. His father was a tax collector. He studied in Colchester School
before going to Cambridge University in 1819. He became Lucasion Professor of
Mathematics at Cambridge in 1826, and became Plumian Professor of Astronomy
after two years. In 1835, he was appointed as Astronomer Royal, a post he held
for 46 years. He was awarded the Copley medal and Royal medal by the Royal
Society and was its president from 1827 to 1883.
When Airy was director of the Cambridge
Observatory, he introduced a much improved system of meridian observations and
set the example of reducing them in scale before publishing them.
He re-equipped the observatory, installing
an altazimuth for lunar observation in 1847, a new transit circle and 33 cm
equatorial telescope in 1859. He also created (a new department) magnetic and
meteorological department in 1838, began spectroscopic investigations in 1868
and started keeping a daily record of Sunspots with the Kew observatory
heliograph in 1873.
He was also responsible for establishing
the border between Canada and United States and later of the Oregon and Maine
boundaries.
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