Joseph Edward Evans (18 September 1855 – 25 December 1938) was a British schoolmaster and amateur

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 ...

, headmaster of the Royal Hospital School in Greenwich and a Fellow of the

Royal Astronomical Society (Whatever shines should be observed) , predecessor = , successor = , formation = , founder = , extinction = , merger = , merged = , type = NG ...

Early and personal life

Joseph Edward Evans was born in Great Coggeshall, Essex, the eldest son of Lieutenant Charles Evans who was Chief Officer of the

Coastguard A coast guard or coastguard is a maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with customs and security duties to ...

at Robin Hood Bay. He entered the Royal Hospital School at Greenwich in 1866 aged eleven, took a Bachelor's Degree at London University and became a teacher.
He taught in

Dindigul Dindigul, also spelt Thindukkal (), is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the administrative headquarters of the Dindigul district. Dindigul is located southwest from the state capital, Chennai, away from Tiruchirappalli, away ...

, Madras Province, in India where his three sons and eldest daughter were born. He returned to the UK in 1890, taking on various teaching posts before becoming headmaster at the Royal Hospital School in 1899 – a position he held until his retirement in 1920.

Astronomical contributions

Evans combined his duties as Headmaster at the Royal Hospital School with work at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. He collaborated with

Edward Walter Maunder Edward Walter Maunder (12 April 1851 – 21 March 1928) was an English astronomer. His study of sunspots and the solar magnetic cycle led to his identification of the period from 1645 to 1715 that is now known as the Maunder Minimum. Early and ...

, a professional astronomer, with research into the question of whether there were

canals on Mars During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was erroneously believed that there were "canals" on the planet Mars. These were a network of long straight lines in the equatorial regions from 60° north to 60° south latitude on Mars, observed ...

– a topic of debate at the time. He used his position at the school to arrange an experiment in which boys were asked to reproduce drawings of various disc images, including ones on which no canals had been drawn but which contained "minute dot-like markings". Maunder and Evans found that when the disc was viewed from certain distances the boys visualised, and drew, "canals".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, Joseph Edward 1855 births 1938 deaths 19th-century British astronomers Heads of schools in England 20th-century British astronomers