Nevil Maskelyne
| Rev. Dr Nevil Maskelyne | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 6 October 1732 London, England |
| Died | 9 February 1811 (aged 78) Greenwich, England |
| Nationality | United Kingdom |
| Fields | Astronomy |
| Institutions | Fellow of the Royal Society, 1758 Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1784. Honorary Member of the French Institute |
| Known for | Astronomer Royal |
| Notable awards | Royal Society Copley Medal (1775) |
The Reverend Dr Nevil Maskelyne FRS (6 October 1732 – 9 February 1811) was the fifth British Astronomer Royal. He held the office from 1765 to 1811.
Maskelyne was born in London, the third son of Edmund Maskelyne of Purton, Wiltshire. Maskelyne's father died when he was 12, leaving the family in reduced circumstances. Maskelyne attended Westminster School and was still a pupil there when his mother died in 1748. His interest in astronomy had begun while at Westminster School, shortly after the eclipse of 14 July 1748.
Maskelyne entered St Catharine's College, Cambridge in 1749, graduating as seventh wrangler in 1754.Ordained as a minister in 1755, he became a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge in 1756 and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1758.
About 1785 Maskelyne married Sophia Rose of , Northamptonshire. Their only child, Margaret (1786–1858), was the mother of Mervyn Herbert Nevil Story-Maskelyne (1823–1911) professor of mineralogy at Oxford (1856–95). Maskelyne's sister, Margaret (1735-1817), married Robert Clive.
Nevil Maskelyne is buried in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin, the parish church of the village of Purton, Wiltshire, England.
In 1760 the Royal Society appointed Maskelyne as an astronomer on one of their expeditions to observe the 1761 transit of Venus. He and Robert Waddington were sent to the island of St. Helena. This was an important observation since accurate measurements would allow the accurate calculation of Earth's distance from the Sun, which would in turn allow the actual rather than the relative scale of the solar system to be calculated. This would allow, it was argued, the production of more accurate astronomical tables, in particular those predicting the motion of the Moon.
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