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Humans have gazed at the night sky for thousands of years, and found it pretty interesting. They learned that you could navigate using the celestial map and, over time, also learned that certain events could be predicted. These learned people were quite prized by their brethren, and their endeavors helped advance our understanding of the world.
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Edmond Halley

bornactivedied
1656, Nov 81675-17421742, Jan 14
an English astronomer, geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist, and physicist who is best known for computing the orbit of the eponymous Halley's Comet.
Timeline (7)Links (22)


Cross-listed in Scientists

William Rowan Hamilton

borndied
1805, Aug 31865, Sep 2
an Irish mathematician, Andrews Professor of Astronomy at Trinity College Dublin, and Royal Astronomer of Ireland. He worked in both pure mathematics and mathematics for physics. He made important contributions to optics, classical mechanics and algebra. Although Hamilton was not a physicist–he regarded himself as a pure mathematician–his work was of maj...
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Peter Andreas Hansen

bornactivedied
1795, Dec 81820-18741874, Mar 28
a danish astronomer. In 1838 he published a revision of the lunar theory, entitled Fundamenta nova investigationis, &c., and the improved Tables of the Moon ("Hansen's Lunar Tables") based upon it were printed in 1857.
Links (1)


Christopher Hansteen

bornactivedied
1784, Sep 261806-18611873, Apr 11
a Norwegian geophysicist, astronomer and physicist, best known for his mapping of Earth's magnetic field. The crater Hansteen and the mountain Mons Hansteen on the Moon is named after him.
Links (1)


Karl Ludwig Harding

bornactivedied
1765, Sep 291796-18341834, Aug 31
a German astronomer notable for having discovered the asteroid 3 Juno. In addition to Juno, he discovered three comets, and published three papers. The crater Harding on the Moon is named after him, and so is the asteroid 2003 Harding.
Links (1)


Cross-listed in AstronomersWritersScientists

Thomas Harriot

aka: Harriott, Hariot, Heriot
bornactivedied
1560 ca1580-16211621, Jul 2
an English astronomer, mathematician, ethnographer, and translator. He is sometimes credited with the introduction of the potato to the British Isles. Harriot was the first person to make a drawing of the Moon through a telescope, on 26 July 1609, over four months before more
Timeline (2)Links (1)


Cross-listed in Scientists

Joseph Harris [2]

borndied
1703, Feb1764, Sep 26
a British blacksmith, astronomer, navigator, economist, natural philosopher, government adviser and King's Assay Master at the Royal Mint. As far as biographies of Joseph Harris are concerned, things remain much the same now as they had been in 1805, when Theophilus Jones was writing. The Harris family history of three brothers, all highly successful in enti...
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Cross-listed in Writers

George Hartgill

bornactivedied
unknown1590sunknown
an English astronomer. Hartgill was in considerable repute during Elizabeth I's reign, from his knowledge of the stars and his skill in astrology. He designated himself "minister of the word", and may therefore have been a Protestant preacher. Hartgill published Generall Calendars in 1594. It was dedicated to William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester, and d...
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Cross-listed in Clergy

Maximilian Hell

bornactivedied
1720, May 151756-17891792, Apr 14
a Hungarian astronomer and an ordained Jesuit priest from the Kingdom of Hungary. Hell became the director of the Vienna Observatory in 1756. He published the astronomical tables Ephemerides astronomicae ad meridianum Vindobonemsem ("Ephemerides for the Meridian of Vienna").
Links (1)


Karl Ludwig Hencke

bornactivedied
1793, Apr 81807-18471866, Sep 21
a German amateur astronomer. He discovered two asteroids from his private observatory at #9, Kietz (now #43, Kietzerstraße), Driesen, by comparing star maps with the sky seen through his telescope.
Links (1)


Thomas Henderson

bornactivedied
1798, Dec 281832-18441844, Nov 23
a Scottish astronomer and mathematician noted for being the first person to measure the distance to Alpha Centaur and for being the first Astronomer Royal for Scotland.
Timeline (1)Links (1)


Caroline Herschel

bornactivedied
1750 Mar 161772-18461848, Jan 9
a German British astronomer and the sister of astronomer Sir William Herschel with whom she worked throughout both of their careers. Her most significant contributions to astronomy were the discoveries of several comets.
Timeline (1)Links (1)


Cross-listed in InventorsScientists

John Herschel

bornactivedied
1792, Mar 71816-18671871, May 11
an English polymath, mathematician, astronomer, chemist, inventor, experimental photographer, and botanist. Herschel originated the use of the Julian day system in astronomy. He named seven moons of Saturn and four moons of Uranus. He also invented the photographic fixer hypo actinometer.
Timeline (3)Links (1)


Cross-listed in Composers

William Herschel

bornactivedied
1738, Nov 151774-18201822, Aug 25
a German-born British astronomer, composer, and brother of Caroline Herschel. His interest in astronomy grew stronger after he made the acquaintance of the English Astronomer Royal Nevil Maskelyne. He composed numerous musical works, including 24 symphonies ...
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Timeline (9)Links (22)


Johannes Hevelius

bornactivedied
1611, Jan 281630-16831687, Jan 28
an astronomer he gained a reputation as "the founder of lunar topography" and described ten new constellations, seven of which are still recognized by astronomers.
Timeline (2)Links (2)


John Russell Hind

bornactivedied
1823, May 121840-18951895, Dec 23
an English astronomer. Hind is notable for being one of the early discoverers of asteroids. He also discovered and observed the variable stars R Leporis (also known as Hind's Crimson Star), U Geminorum, and T Tauri (also called Hind's Variable Nebula), and discovered the variability of ? Cephei.
Links (1)


Gustave-Adolphe Hirn

borndied
1815, Aug 211890, Jan 14
a French physicist, astronomer. mathematician and engineer who made important measurements of the mechanical equivalent of heat and contributions to the early development of thermodynamics. He further applied his science in the practical development of steam engines. At 19, he entered his grandfather's cotton factory as a chemist. Later he worked as an engin...
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Links (1)


Cross-listed in InventorsCommerce

Richard Hodgson

borndied
18041872, May 4
an English publisher and amateur astronomer. After a number of years of achieving considerable success in daguerrotypy, he worked on telescopic and microscopic observations. In 1852 he built an observatory at Claybury, in Essex, in which a 6-inch refractor was mounted equatorially. In 1854 he designed the diagonal eye-piece for observing the whole of the Su...
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Links (1)


Cross-listed in Governance

Stephen Hopkins

bornactivedied
1707, Mar 71730-17791785, Jul 13
a governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, a Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was from a prominent Rhode Island family, the grandson of William Hopkins who served the colony for 40 years as Deputy, Assistant, Speaker of the House of Deputies, and Major. His great gr...
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Links (1)Notes (1)


Jeremiah Horrocks

aka: Jeremiah Horrox
bornactivedied
16181632-16401641, Jan 3
an English astronomer, the first person to demonstrate that the Moon moved around the Earth in an elliptical orbit, and the only person to predict the transit of Venus of 1639
Timeline (1)Links (1)


Cross-listed in Clergy

Thomas John Hussey

bornactivedied
1792, Apr 41835-18381854 ca
an English clergyman and astronomer. In his clerical capacity he published several sermons, but his magnum opus was a revised edition of the Bible with "a brief hermeneutic and exegetical commentary", published in two volumes in 1843–1845. His astronomical observations resulted in a series of letters, papers, and notes, including one on the rotation of Ven...
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Links (1)


Cross-listed in InventorsScientists

Christiaan Huygens

bornactivedied
1629, Apr 141649-16931695, Jul 8
a prominent Dutch mathematician, scientist, astronomer, physicist, probabilist and horologist. His work included early telescopic studies of the rings of Saturn and the discovery of its moon Titan, the invention of the pendulum clock and other investigations in timekeeping.
Timeline (3)Links (1)

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