Everything about Francis Baily totally explained
Francis Baily (
28 April 1774 –
30 August 1844) was an
English astronomer, most famous for his observations of '
Baily's beads' during an
eclipse of the Sun.
Life
He was born at
Newbury in
Berkshire. After a tour in the unsettled parts of
North America in
1796–
1797, his journal of which was edited by
Augustus de Morgan in
1856, he entered the
London Stock Exchange in
1799. The successive publication of
Tables for the Purchasing and Renewing of Leases (1802), of
The Doctrine of Interest and Annuities (1808), and
The Doctrine of Life-Annuities and Assurances (1810), earned him a high reputation as a writer on life-contingencies; he amassed a fortune through diligence and integrity and retired from business in
1825, to devote himself wholly to astronomy.
Astronomical work
He had already, in
1820, taken a leading part in the foundation of the
Royal Astronomical Society; and its
Gold Medal was awarded him, in
1827, for his preparation of the Astronomical Society's
Catalogue of 2881 stars (Memoirs R. Astr. Soc. ii.). Later in
1843 he'd win the Gold Medal again.
The reform of the
Nautical Almanac in 1829 was set on foot by his protests; he recommended to the British Association in 1837, and in great part executed, the reduction of
Joseph de Lalande's and
Nicolas de Lacaille's catalogues containing about 57,000 stars; he superintended the compilation of the British Association's
Catalogue of 8377 stars (published 1845); and revised the catalogues of
Tobias Mayer,
Ptolemy,
Ulugh Beg,
Tycho Brahe,
Edmund Halley and
Hevelius (Memoirs R. Astr. Soc. iv,, xiii.).
His observations of "
Baily's Beads," during an annular
eclipse of the sun on
May 15 1836, at Inch Bonney in
Roxburghshire, started the modern series of eclipse-expeditions. The phenomenon, which depends upon the irregular shape of the moon's limb, was so vividly described by him as to attract an unprecedented amount of attention to the totality of
July 8 1842, observed by Baily himself at
Pavia.
He completed and discussed
H. Foster's pendulum experiments, deducing from them an ellipticity for the earth of 1/289.48 (Memoirs R. Astr. Soc. vii.); corrected for the length of the seconds-pendulum by introducing a neglected element of reduction; and was entrusted, in
1843, with the reconstruction of the standards of length. His laborious operations for determining the mean density of the earth, carried on by
Henry Cavendish's method (
1838–
1842), yielded for it the authoritative value of 5.66.
He died in London, on
August 30 1844 and was buried in the family vault in
Thatcham parish church. Baily's Account of the Rev.
John Flamsteed (1835) is of fundamental importance to the scientific history of that time. It included a republication of the British Catalogue.
The
lunar crater Baily was named in his honour.
Further Information
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