Newcomb, Simon

Newcomb, Simon

(1835–1909) astronomer, mathematician; born in Wallace, Nova Scotia. Born to New England parents who had moved to Nova Scotia, he immigrated to America in his teens; eventually finding work at the office of the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac, then located at Harvard College, he took a degree from the college's Lawrence Scientific School (1858). Appointed a professor of mathematics by the U.S. Navy in 1861, he was assigned to the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C.; he remained affiliated there until 1897; he also served as professor at Johns Hopkins University (1884–94, 1898–1900). Although he made telescopic observations, his major contributions came through his complex mathematical calculations; with these he effectively recalculated and corrected all the known positions and motions of the bodies of the solar system and the major celestial reference objects, a monumental accomplishment that was accepted throughout the world. He also did pioneer work in calculating the sun's parallax, and, with A. A. Michelson, determined the velocity of light. In addition to his scientific writing he published popular texts, Reminiscences of an Astronomer (1903), and three novels. He helped found and was first president of the American Astronomical Society (1899–1905) and was the recipient of many honors abroad as well as in America.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Newcomb, Simon

 

Born Mar. 12, 1835, in Wallace, Nova Scotia; died July 11, 1909, in Washington, D.C. American astronomer.

Newcomb came to the USA in 1853. From 1861 to 1877 he was a professor of mathematics in the US Navy and an observational astronomer at the US Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. From 1877 to 1897 he was director of the American Nautical Almanac Office, which published the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac.

Newcomb was primarily involved in the study of the motion of the principal planets, the determination of astronomical constants, and the computation of tables of the exact positions of stars. He also studied the theory of lunar motion, the theory of the motion of planetary satellites, the theory of solar eclipses, and the problem of the origin of asteroids.

WORKS

A Compendium of Spherical Astronomy. New York-London, 1906.
The Elements of the Four Inner Planets and the Fundamental Constants of Astronomy. Washington D.C, 1895.
Researches of the Motion of the Moon. Washington D.C, 1878.
In Russian translation:
Astronomiia dlia vsekh. Odessa, 1905.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.