Herbert Hall Turner
| Herbert Hall Turner | |
|---|---|
| Born | 13 August 1861 |
| Died | 20 August 1930 (aged 69) |
| Nationality | British |
| Fields |
astronomy seismology |
| Notable awards | Bruce Medal (1927) |
Herbert Hall Turner FRS (13 August 1861, Leeds – 20 August 1930, ) was a British astronomer and seismologist.
Herbert Hall Turner was educated at Clifton College and Trinity College, Cambridge., In 1884 he accepted the post of Chief Assistant at the Royal Greenwich Observatory and stayed there for nine years. In 1893 he became Savilian Professor of Astronomy and Director of the Radcliffe Observatory at Oxford University, a post he held for 37 years until his sudden death in 1930.
He was one of the observers in the Eclipse Expeditions of 1886 and 1887. In seismology, he is credited with the discovery of deep focus earthquakes. He is also credited with coining the word parsec.
His 1897 Royal Society candidature citation read: " Secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society. Was Chief Assistant at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich 1884-1894. Author of various papers among which may be mentioned:-
He co-edited the first official history of the Royal Astronomical Society along with John Louis Emil Dreyer, History of the Royal Astronomical Society 1820–1920 (1923, reprinted 1987).
He died of a brain haemorrhage in 1930 at a conference in Stockholm. He had married Agnes Margaret Whyte in 1899; they had one daughter, Dr Ruth Turner of St Mary's Hospital, London.
A few months before Turner's death in 1930, the Lowell Observatory announced the discovery of a new planet, and an eleven-year-old Oxford schoolgirl, Venetia Burney, proposed the name Pluto for it to her grandfather Falconer Madan, who was retired from the Bodleian Library. Madan passed the name to Turner, who cabled it to colleagues at the Lowell Observatory in the United States. The new planet was officially named "Pluto" on 24 March 1930.
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