![John Macon Thome](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/John_Macon_Thome.jpg)
John Macon Thome (August 22, 1843 – September 27, 1908) was an American-
Argentine astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...
. Some sources say John Macom Thome. He is sometimes known as ''Juan M. Thome''.
He was born in
Palmyra, Pennsylvania
Palmyra (Pennsylvania German: ''Pallemschteddel'') is a borough in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of the Lebanon, Pennsylvania Metropolitan statistical area. The population was 7,807 at the 2020 census.
Geography
Palmyra ...
, and attended
Lehigh University
Lehigh University (LU) is a private research university in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. The university was established in 1865 by businessman Asa Packer and was originally affiliated with the Epi ...
.
He came to the Argentine National Observatory (today
Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba) in 1870, working as the senior assistant of the director
Benjamin A. Gould. He succeeded Gould as director in 1885.
Under his initiative, the ''
Cordoba Durchmusterung
In astronomy, Durchmusterung or Bonner Durchmusterung (BD) is an astrometric star catalogue of the whole sky, compiled by the Bonn Observatory in Germany from 1859 to 1903. The name comes from ('run-through examination'), a German word used for ...
''
star catalogue began to be compiled in 1892, although he did not live to see its completion.
He won the
Lalande Prize
The Lalande Prize (French: ''Prix Lalande'' also known as Lalande Medal) was an award for scientific advances in astronomy, given from 1802 until 1970 by the French Academy of Sciences.
The prize was endowed by astronomer Jérôme Lalande in 180 ...
for astronomy from the
French Academy of Sciences in 1901.
Thome died in
Córdoba and was succeeded as director of the observatory by
Charles Dillon Perrine
Charles Dillon Perrine (July 28, 1867June 21, 1951) was an American astronomer at the Lick Observatory in California (1893-1909) who moved to Cordoba, Argentina to accept the position of Director of the Argentine National Observatory (1909-1936) ...
.
References
1843 births
1908 deaths
19th-century Argentine astronomers
19th-century American astronomers
20th-century Argentine astronomers
Lehigh University alumni
Discoverers of comets
American emigrants to Argentina
Recipients of the Lalande Prize
{{US-astronomer-stub