Amasa Holcomb (1787–1875) was an American farmer, surveyor, civil engineer, businessman, politician, and manufacturer of surveying instruments and telescopes. From instruments he made he observed the total

solar eclipse of June 16, 1806 A total solar eclipse occurred on June 16, 1806. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's ap ...

. He made astronomical computations from his observations and published almanacs for the partial solar eclipses of 1807 and 1808 from his work. An asteroid, 45512 Holcomb, was named after him.

Early life

Holcomb was born on June 18, 1787. Holcomb grew up in a town with three names in two states as a young child, but he never changed his residence due to border disputes and resolutions. The town kept this name until 1804 when the boundary between the states of Connecticut and Massachusetts was placed further south, and his birth town became known as

Southwick, Massachusetts Southwick is a town in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 9,232 at the 2020 census, down from 9,502 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Southw ...

, where he grew up. Holcomb was Elijah Holcomb Jr. and Lucy Holcomb and a descendant of the immigrant Thomas Holcomb. His

paternal A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive fathe ...

grandfather, also named Elijah, was the son of Nathaniel Holcomb III. Holcomb's

maternal ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of gestat ...

grandfather was Silas Holcomb, son of Judah Holcomb House, Judah Holcomb I and grandson of Nathaniel Holcomb II. This grandfather married Mary Post; a daughter born in 1767 was Lucy Holcomb, Holcomb's mother. Holcomb studied from books that had been owned by his uncle Abijah, who was lost at sea.

Mid-life

Holcomb built a telescope in 1806 and could observe the total

. He made astronomical computations in the four minutes he could see the stars during the eclipse. He published an almanac for 1807 and 1808 from his computations.

Personal life

Asteroid 45512 Holcomb, discovered by astronomers with the

Catalina Sky Survey Catalina Sky Survey (CSS; obs. code: 703) is an astronomical survey to discover comets and asteroids. It is conducted at the Steward Observatory's Catalina Station, located near Tucson, Arizona, in the United States. CSS focuses on the search ...

in 2000, was named after him. The official was published by the

Minor Planet Center The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the official body for observing and reporting on minor planets under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Founded in 1947, it operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Function ...

on November 8, 2019 ().

Holcomb's telescopes

The first

reflecting telescope A reflecting telescope (also called a reflector) is a telescope that uses a single or a combination of curved mirrors that reflect light and form an image. The reflecting telescope was invented in the 17th century by Isaac Newton as an alternati ...

Holcomb made to order was for John A. Fulton of

Chillicothe, Ohio Chillicothe ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Ross County, Ohio, United States. Located along the Scioto River 45 miles (72 km) south of Columbus, Chillicothe was the first and third capital of Ohio. It is the only city in Ross Count ...

, in about 1826. It was long with a ten-inch (254 mm) aperture and six eye pieces and a magnification from 90 to 960 times. He fabricated and manufactured telescopes in earnest soon after, probably around 1826. In 1830, Holcomb took an achromatic telescope to Professor

Benjamin Silliman Benjamin Silliman (August 8, 1779 – November 24, 1864) was an early American chemist and science educator. He was one of the first American professors of science, at Yale College, the first person to use the process of fractional distillat ...

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

New Haven New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

. After inspecting it, the professor ordered one for the university and published an article about it in the ''

American Journal of Science The ''American Journal of Science'' (''AJS'') is the United States of America's longest-running scientific journal, having been published continuously since its conception in 1818 by Professor Benjamin Silliman, who edited and financed it himself ...

''. In 1834, on the recommendation of The Franklin Institute, the

City of Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

awarded him the John Scott Award.

Legacy

Holcomb's descendants donated two telescopes manufactured by Holcomb to the Smithsonian in 1933. Until then, they had been in the family at Southwick, Massachusetts. These were, * Herschelian reflector long with an eight-inch (203 mm) aperture that had been displayed in 1835 at The Franklin Institute. * Transit telescope, refractor, in length and mounted on a fourteen-inch (360 mm) cross tube with a graduated marked circle, but missing the base.

Notes

References

Sources

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