Turner, Herbert Hall

▪ British astronomer

born Aug. 13, 1861, Leeds, Yorkshire, Eng.

died Aug. 20, 1930, Stockholm, Sweden

      English astronomer who pioneered many of the procedures now universally employed in determining stellar positions from astronomical photographs.

      In 1884 Turner was appointed chief assistant at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and in 1893 he became Savilian professor of astronomy and director of the University Observatory at Oxford. A plan for international cooperation in compiling an astrographic chart and catalog had been formulated in 1887 at Paris. Turner worked unceasingly on Oxford's share of the project and made innovations in astronomical photography that contributed to the success of the project. Through his efforts, Oxford was the second observatory to finish its share of the catalog, and he then turned to helping others finish their zones. After the formation of the International Astronomical Union in 1919, he was appointed president of the committee in charge of the project. He also contributed much to worldwide seismological studies and established Oxford as an international centre of seismological research.

      A prolific writer as well as an exceptional speaker, Turner produced four popular expositions of astronomy: Modern Astronomy (1901); Astronomical Discovery (1904); The Great Star Map (1912); and A Voyage in Space (1915). At his suggestion the distant solar system object discovered by the American astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh in 1930 was named Pluto.

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