John Dreyer
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John Louis Emil Dreyer (February 13, 1852 – September 14, 1926) was a Danish-Irish astronomer.
He was born Johan Ludvig Emil Dreyer in Copenhagen. In 1874, at the age of 22, he went to Ireland to work as the assistant of Lord Rosse (the son and successor of the Lord Rosse who built the Leviathan of Parsonstown telescope). In 1878 he went to Dunsink Observatory and in 1882 to Armagh Observatory, where he served as director until 1916.
His major contribution was the monumental New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars, whose catalogue numbers are still in wide use today, as well as two supplementary Index Catalogues.
Dreyer was also a historian of astronomy. In 1890 he published a biography of Tycho Brahe, a noted astronomer from his native country, and in his later years he edited Tycho's publications and unpublished correspondence. History of the Planetary Systems from Thales to Kepler (1905), his survey of the history of astronomy, while dated in some respects, is still a sound introduction to the subject. It is currently printed under the title A History of Astronomy from Thales to Kepler.
He won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1916. A crater on the Moon is named after him.
[edit] References
- Alexander, A. F. O'D., "Dreyer, Johann Louis Emil," Dictionary of Scientific Biography 4:185-186.
- J. L. E. Dreyer, A History of Astronomy from Thales to Kepler, 2nd edition, Dover Publications, 1953.
