Lindsay Atkins Eddie

FRAS FRAS may refer to: * Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, post-nominal letters * Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland Fellows of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland are individuals who have bee ...

(c. 1845 – 13 October 1913) was a South-African 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, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...

, known for his observations of Venus, Mercury and Mars and 21 comets. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1880. He saw active military service in South Africa and his final rank was that of a

Major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

Personal life

Eddie was the son of an army Surgeon, William Cruikshank Eddie and Sarah Eddie (née Kaye). He had one brother and one sister. He grew up in Grahamstown and joined the civil service of the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...

in 1878. By 1892 he was clerk to judge Jones of the Eastern District Court, where he and W.G. Atherstone were asked to analyse a judgement of a libel case that a jury had been unable to decide. The case revolved around W.B. Shaw who had accused dean Williams of St Michael and St George Cathedral, Grahamstown of being a liar. He served in the military for 20 years. In 1876 he commanded the Grahamstown Rifles during an invasion of

Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...

s just prior to the 9th Xhosa War. In 1885 he was a lieutenant in command of the

Bechuanaland Expedition The Bechuanaland Expedition or Warren Expedition, of late 1884/1885, was a British military expedition to the Tswana country, to assert British sovereignty in the face of encroachments from Germany and the Transvaal, and to suppress the Boer sta ...

led by

Charles Warren General Sir Charles Warren, (7 February 1840 – 21 January 1927) was an officer in the British Royal Engineers. He was one of the earliest European archaeologists of the Biblical Holy Land, and particularly of the Temple Mount. Much of his mi ...

. His final rank was that of a

when he retired in 1901. On 2 September 1873, he married Hermina Fredrica Upton at St Bartholomews Anglican church in Grahamstown and they had five children. He died on 13 October 1913 in Grahamstown.

Astronomy

During his early education he spent some time under the guidance of Dr. Richards (later Bishop Richards) who inspired him in his astronomical pursuits. His initial equipment was a 9.5-inch reflecting telescope in Grahamstown but he later used a 76 mm refractor and a more powerful 240 mm reflector. Great Comet of 1882

He made many useful observations including observations of 21

comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ar ...

s, although he never discovered any himself. The

transit Transit may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Transit'' (1979 film), a 1979 Israeli film * ''Transit'' (2005 film), a film produced by MTV and Staying-Alive about four people in countries in the world * ''Transit'' (2006 film), a 2006 ...

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...

on 6 December 1882, which he observed from Fort Selwyn, near Grahamstown was one of the highlights of his observational career. He was assisted in this observation by the mayor of Grahamstown, J.S. Willcox, a jeweler who provided a

chronometer A clock or a timepiece is a device used to measure and indicate time. The clock is one of the oldest human inventions, meeting the need to measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units such as the day, the lunar month and th ...

with which to time the observations. Two astronomers at the Royal Observatory in Cape Town, D. Gill and W.H. Finlay sent a series of

telegraphed Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...

time signals to Eddie which allowed him to correct the chronometer. Over the 20 years of his career, some of his results were published in seven papers in the ''Monthly Notices'' of the

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

, including an extensive series of observations of '' Comet 1882b''. He published several other papers in other journals, such as his observation on the lunar eclipse of 11 March 1895 in Popular Astronomy and a curious meteor trail seen at Grahamstown on 22 October 1895, also published in Popular Astronomy. His contributions to the Journal of the

British Astronomical Association The British Astronomical Association (BAA) was formed in 1890 as a national body to support the UK's amateur astronomers. Throughout its history, the BAA has encouraged observers to make scientifically valuable observations, often in collaborati ...

included notes on a brilliant meteor and the colours and spectra of 100 southern stars in 1894 and the

conjunction Conjunction may refer to: * Conjunction (grammar), a part of speech * Logical conjunction, a mathematical operator ** Conjunction introduction, a rule of inference of propositional logic * Conjunction (astronomy), in which two astronomical bodies ...

of the moon with

in 1903. He observed a transit of

Mercury Mercury commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Merc ...

in 1894 and in 1907 he studied the

planet A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a you ...

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

with great detail and published drawings that were highly acclaimed by

E. M. Antoniadi Eugène Michel Antoniadi (Greek: Ευγένιος Αντωνιάδης; 1 March 1870 – 10 February 1944) was a Greek-French astronomer. Biography Antoniadi was born in Istanbul (Constantinople) but spent most of his adult life in France ...

of the Mars section of the British Astronomical Association. He was elected a fellow of the

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

on 14 May 1880. From 1881 to 1898 he regularly published his observations of comets in the local newspaper, the

Grahamstown Journal Makhanda, also known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 140,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Port Elizabeth and southwest of East London. Makhanda is the largest town in the Makana Loc ...

, including observations of Fabry's comet (1886), Swift's Comet (1892) and Gale's Comet (1894). Eddie Crater central peak

The

Eddie crater Eddie is a crater in the Elysium quadrangle of Mars. It is 89 km in diameter and was named after Lindsay Eddie, a South African astronomer (1845–1913). Impact craters generally have a rim with ejecta around them, in contrast volcanic crat ...

on Mars is an 89 kilometer wide crater named in his honour.

Selected publications

*Eddie, L.A. (1886) "Observations of Fabry's comet" ''Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society'' *Eddie, L.A. (1888) "The southern comet; observations made at Graham's Town, Cape of Good Hope" ''Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society'' *Eddie, L.A. (1895) "Observations of the transit of Mercury, 1894" ''Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society'' *Eddie, L.A. (1899) "Observations of Swift's comet, 1899" ''Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society'' *Eddie, L.A. (1899) "Tempel's comet (1873 II-c, 1899)" ''Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society''

References

External links

MNRAS Description of Mercury transitLindsay Adkins Eddie on S2A3
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eddie, Lindsay Atkins 1840s births 1913 deaths Cape Colony people South African astronomers South African scientists

Personal life

Astronomy

Selected publications

See also

References

External links