William Frederick Denning

William Frederick Denning (25 November 1848 – 9 June 1931) was a British amateur astronomer who achieved considerable success without formal scientific training.

Denning devoted a great deal of time to searching for comets, and discovered several including the periodic comet 72P/Denning–Fujikawa and the lost comet D/1894 F1. The latter was the last comet discovered on British soil until the discoveries of George Alcock.

Denning also studied meteors and novae, discovering Nova Cygni 1920 (V476 Cyg). He won the Prix Valz of the French Academy of Sciences for 1895. He won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1898. He won the Donohoe Comet Medal for his July 23, 1890 discovery of a comet.

During his life, Denning published 1179 articles in prominent scientific journals including Nature, The Observatory, Astronomische Nachrichten, Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Journal des Observateurs, and Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Craters on Mars and the Moon are named in his honor.

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