Abbe

57.3S

175.2E

66

Ernst K. ~ (1840-1905), German educator, optician, physicist and astronomer; appointed professor of physics and mathematics at the University of Jena (1870) and director of the astronomical and meteorological observatories at Jena (1878). Invented the apochromatic lens system for the microscope.

Abbot

5.6N

54.8E

10

Charles Greeley ~ (1872-1973), American astrophysicist; as director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (Washington, D.C.) for almost four decades, he engaged in a career-long campaign to demonstrate that the Sun's energy output varies and has a measurable effect on the Earth's weather.

Abduh

14.7N

39.0E

9

Mohammed ~ (1849-1905), Egyptian reformer; pioneer of Islamic modernism and nationalism who preached Muslim unity against Western imperialism. After serving as a judge in his country's national courts, Abduh became grand mufti, Egypt's highest official interpreter of the shari'a (Islamic law).

Abel

34.5S

87.3E

122

Niels Henrik ~ (1802-1829), Norwegian mathematician; investigated generalizations of the binomial theorem, pioneered in the general theory of elliptic functions, and showed that elliptic functions are a generalization of trigonometric functions. Commutative groups are called Abelian Groups in his honor. Died of tuberculosis at age 26.

Abenezra

21.0S

11.9E

42

Abraham Bar Rabbi ben-Ezra, or ~ of Toledo (1092-1167), Spanish-Jewish mathematician and astronomer; published the renowned mathematic works "Book of Unity," "Book of Numbers" and "Stratagem" in Hebrew.

Abetti

19.9N

27.7E

65

Antonio ~ (1846-1928), Italian civil engineer and astronomer; director of the observatory in Arcetri and professor of astronomy at the University of Florence. In 1874, he observed the transit of Venus across the Sun's disk through a spectroscope, the first time the instrument was used for this purpose.
Also Georgio ~ (1882-1982), Italian astronomer, son of Antonio ~; after serving as assistant astronomer at the observatory of the Collegio Romano in Rome, he succeeded his father as director of the astrophysical observatory at Arcetri (1921). Vice president of the International Astronomical Union.
N.B., The minor planet (2646) Abetti is named in honor of the Abettis.

Abul W'afa

1.0N

116.6E

55

Abul Wafa Muhammad Ibn Muhammad Ibn Yahya Ibn Ismail al-Buzjani (940-997), Persian mathematician and astronomer, born in Buzjan, Nishapur; first to show the generality of the sine theorem relative to spherical triangles. He developed a new method of constructing sine tables, the value of sin 30' being correct to the eighth decimal place. As an astronomer, he discussed different movernents of the Moon and discovered 'variation.' He was also one of the last Arabic translators and commentators of Greek works.

Abulfeda

13.8S

13.9E

65

Ismail Abu'l Fida, or ~ (1273-1331), Syrian geographer; wrote Thakwim el-Boldan ("The true position of the countries"), in which he used astronomically-determined locations and the Columns of Hercules as a reference point for the longitude.

Acosta

5.6S

60.1E

13

Cristobal ~ (1515-1580), Portuguese doctor and natural historian; a pioneers in studying the plants of the Orient, especially in their pharmaceutical uses. His Tractado de las drogas y medicinas de las Indias orientales contains systematic, first hand observations on Eastern medicines.

Adams

31.9S

68.2E

66

John Couch ~ (1819-1892), British mathematician and astronomer; as an undergraduate at St. Johns College, Cambridge, he performed an investigation to explain the reason for the irregularities in the motion of the planet Uranus. Adams theorized that the unexpected planetary orbit could be due to the presence of an as yet undiscovered planet in the vicinity, and that the new planet was twice as far from the Sun as Uranus. All of the calculations were worked out in his head before he ever wrote them down. Once Adams did put his work on paper, he submitted it to the director of the Cambridge Observatory, who took no action on his work. Several months later, Urbain le Verrier (q.v.) submitted similar work to Johann Gottfried Galle (q.v.), the director of the Berlin Observatory. Galle acted on Le Verrier's work and became the first person to observe Neptune. After the discovery of Neptune, the director of the Cambridge Observatory pointed out that Adams had been the first to predict the presence of Neptune. Le Verrier resented the effort to have Adams declared the sole discoverer of Neptune. Adams, a quiet, unambitious man, was content to share the credit.
Also Charles H. "Carlie" ~ (1868-1951), American astronomer; secretary/treasurer of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (1925-1950). His enthusiastic support of astronomy and the ASP brought in many new members, and he personally mentored many students. Father of the photographer Ansel Adams.
Also Dr. Walter Sydney ~ (1876-1956), American astronomer; director of Mt. Wilson Observatory (1923-46). His spectroscopic studies of the Sun and stars led to the discovery, with Arnold Kohlschütter, of a spectroscopic method for determining stellar distances. He worked with George Ellery Hale (q.v.) on the discovery of magnetic fields in sunspots, and he used photography to measure the differential rotation of the sun. He shared with Theodore Dunham, Jr., in the discoveries of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of Venus and the molecules CN and CH in interstellar gas clouds. Adams identified Sirius B as the first white dwarf star known, and his measurement of its gravitational redshift was taken as confirming evidence for the general theory of relativity. Awarded the Bruce Medal in 1928.

Agatharchides

19.8S

30.9W

48

~ of Cnidus (fl. 2nd century AD), Greek philosopher, geographer, historian, traveller and naturalist; in his writings, he provided geographic and ethnographic information about many countries and described unusual species of plants and animals (e.g., ant lions, rhinoceros, giraffes, giant snakes, etc.). He described the way of life of the peoples of Arabia and East Africa, provided information on the gold mines of Ethiopia, and explained the phenomenon of the periodic flooding of the Nile.

Agrippa

4.1N

10.5E

44

Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, or Henricus Cornelius Agrippa ab Nettesheym (1486-1535), lawyer, theologian and occultist; medieval scholar who was influenced by Platonism, Neoplatonism, and Hermeticism. His most famous work, De occulta philosophia libri tres (1531), explores magic, astrology, alchemy, theurgy, medicine, mysticism, and more, and was a major factor in the spread of the occult sciences. Agrippa was jailed at least once in his life and branded a heretic.

Airy

18.1S

5.7E

36

Sir George Biddell ~, K.C.B. (1801-1892), British mathematician, educator and astronomer. After graduating from Trinity College, Cambridge (1823), he worked as an assistant tutor in mathematics. In 1826, Airy became Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge. His interest in astronomy had developed in this period, as is reflected in his Mathematical Tracts on Physical Astronomy, published the same year. He was elected Professor of Astronomy and Director of the Cambridge Observatory in 1828, and in 1835 became the seventh Astronomer Royal. He invented and improved several devices, including the altazimuth telescope (1847) and the Airy Transit Circle, which provided the Observatory with its fourth meridian line; it is this line on which Greenwich Mean Time is based.

Aitken

16.8S

173.4E

135

Robert Grant ~ (1864-1951), American astronomer; worked at the University of California's Lick Observatory from 1895 to 1935, serving as associate director for seven years before becoming its director from 1930-1935. Aitken made systematic surveys of binary stars, discovering thousands, measuring their positions visually, and calculating orbits for many. His massive New General Catalogue of Double Stars within 120 degrees of the North Pole allowed orbit determinations which increased astronomers' knowledge of stellar masses. Awarded the 1926 Bruce Medal.

Akis

20.0N

31.8W

2

Greek female name.

Al-Bakri

14.3N

20.2E

12

Abu Abdullah al-Bakri (1010-1094), Spanish-Arab geographer.

Al-Biruni

17.9N

92.5E

77

Abu Arrayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Biruni (973-1048), Persian astronomer, mathematician and geographer, born in Uzbekistan; made important contributions to geodesy and geography, including techniques to measure the Earth and distances on it using triangulation. Among his notable writings were Cartography, India and Shadows.

Al-Khwarizmi

7.1N

106.4E

65

Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (780?-c. 825), Iraqi mathematician and astronomer; the algebra treatise Hisab al-jabr w'al-muqabala was the most famous and important of his works. The title of this text gives us the word "algebra" (al-jabr) and is widely recognized as the first book to be written on the subject.

Al-Marrakushi

10.4S

55.8E

8

al-Marrakushi ibn Al-Banna, or Abu'l-Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Uthman al-Azdi (1256-1321), Moroccan astronomer and mathematician; first to consider a fraction as a ratio between two numbers and to use the expression "almanac" (from the Arabic term al-manakh, meaning weather) in a work containing astronomical and meteorological data.

Alan

10.9S

6.1W

2

Irish male name.

Albategnius

11.7S

4.3E

114

Muhammed Ben Geber C. Al-Batani, or ~ (852-929), Mesopotamian astronomer and mathematician; generally credited for discovering the movement of the solar apogee. Described his observations of the Solar System in two papers titled Zydge Saby (Sabaeic Tables), which were translated by Plato Tiburtinus into Latin, and were later extended and published by Regiomontanus (qq.v.).

Alden

23.6S

110.8E

104

Harold Lee ~ (1890-1964), American astronomer; after serving as an assistant at Yerkes Observatory (Chicago), became director of Yale University's Southern Station at Johannesburg, South Africa (1925). Professor of Astronomy, chairman of the Astronomy Department, and Director of the Leander McCormick Observatory at the University of Virginia (1945-1960). Vice-president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and chairman of its astronomy section (1951); president of the stellar parallaxes section of the International Astronomical Union (1952-1955).

Alder

48.6S

177.4W

77

Kurt ~ (1902-1958), German organic chemist; shared the 1950 Nobel Prize in chemistry with Otto Diels (q.v.) for the discovery and development of the synthesis of dienes.

Aldrin

1.4N

22.1E

3

Edwin E. "Buzz" ~, Jr., Ph.D. (1930- ), American fighter pilot, test pilot and astronaut; second man on the Moon.

Alekhin

68.2S

131.3W

70

Nikolai P. ~ (1913-1964), Soviet rocket designer and engineer.

Alexander

40.3N

13.5E

81

Alexandros III Philippou Makedonon, or Alexander the Great of Macedon (356-323 B.C.), Greek ruler, military commander and geographer; conqueror of Asia.

Alfraganus

5.4S

19.0E

20

Muhammed Ebn Ketir Al Fargani, or ~ (?-c. 861?), Arab astronomer, born in Transoxania (now Pakistan); his most important work, Elements, a thorough, non-mathematical summary of Ptolemaic astronomy, was written between 833 and 857.

Alhazen

15.9N

71.8E

32

Abu Ali Al-Hasan Ibn al-Haitham, or ~ (965-1040), Iraqi mathematician and astronomer; developed analytical geometry by establishing linkage between algebra and geometry. He studied the mechanics of motion of a body and was the first to maintain that a body moves perpetually unless an external force stops it or changes its direction of motion (the "first law of motion"). Author of more than 200 books, including a several volumes on cosmology that were translated into Latin, Hebrew and other languages.

Aliacensis

30.6S

5.2E

79

Pierre D'Ailly, or Petrus de Allaco, or ~ (1350-1420), French theologian, geographer, author and Roman Catholic cardinal; his writings embraced numerous subjects, including theology, philosophy, cosmography, plans for ecclesiastical reform, and French religious verse. One of his works, the astronomical compendium Imago mundi, was studied by Columbus.

Almanon

16.8S

15.2E

49

Abdalla al-Mamun (786-833), Persian astronomer and patron of sciences.

Aloha

29.8N

53.9W

3

Hawaiian greeting.

Alpetragius

16.0S

4.5W

39

Nur al-Din Ibn Ishaq Al-Bitruji, or Al-Betrugi, or ~ (?-c. 1100), Moroccan astronomer; a leading astronomer of his era. His 'Kitab-al-Hay'ah was popular in Europe in the thirteenth century and was first translated into Hebrew and later from Hebrew into Latin.

Alphonsus

13.7S

3.2W

108

Alfonso X el Sabio ("The Wise"), or ~ (1221-1284), Spanish ruler, king of Castile and Leon between 1252 and 1284; a noted patron of the sciences, and especially astronomy.

Alter

18.7N

107.5W

64

Dinsmore ~, Ph.D. (1888-1968), American astronomer and meteorologist; vice president of the Meteorological Society (1925-27) and president of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (1950). Associate professor at the University of Kansas, Lawrence (1919-1935); research associate at California Institute of Technology, Pasadena (1935-1942). As director of Griffith Observatory and Planetarium, Los Angeles (1935-1958), he was known for his creative and innovative public programs. Guggenheim Foundation fellow (1929).

Ameghino

3.3N

57.0E

9

Florentino ~ (1854-1911), Argentinean natural historian and paleontologist; made significant contributions to the field of vertebrate paleontology.

Amici

9.9S

172.1W

54

Giovanni Battista ~ (1786-1863), Italian astronomer and botanist; best known as the inventor of the achromatic lens and the water immersion lens. Also designed reflecting telescopes and introduced a lens for the inspection of an objective's rear focal plane, now known as the Amici-Bertrand lens. As an astronomer, Amici studied double stars, Jupiter's moons, and made improvements to reflecting telescope mirrors. With his own micrometer design, Amici made accurate measurements of the polar and equatorial diameters of the Sun. Combining botany with innovative advances in compound microscopes, he made important discoveries about the circulation of sap in plants and the processes of plant reproduction, including many details of orchid pollination and seed development.

Ammonius

8.5S

0.8W

8

~ Saccas, or Sakkas (175?–242), Greek theosophist and philosopher; often called the founder of the neo-Platonic school. established the Neoplatonic School at Alexandria in 193,  where he became the teacher of Clement, Origen, and Plotinus;
Also Ammonius Hermiae (c. 550), Greek philosopher; his teachings dealt primarily with logic and science. He wrote many critical works on Aristotle, including Commentaria in categorias Aristotelis. A student with Proclus, he was later appointed the head of the Alexandrian school.

Amontons

5.3S

46.8E

2

Guillaume ~ (1663-1705), French physicist; despite being deaf since childhood, he invented and perfected various scientific instruments, including the hygrometer, an improved barometer and a constant-volume air thermometer. Observed that equal drops in temperature resulted in equal drops in pressure, and realized that at a low enough temperature the volume and pressure of the air would become zero — an early recognition of the concept of "absolute zero."

Amundsen

84.3S

85.6E

101

Roald Engelbregt Grauning ~ (1872-1928), Norwegian explorer; commanded the Gjöa in the Arctic regions in the first negotiation of the Northwest Passage (1903–19066); the Gjöa was the first single ship to complete the route through the Northwest Passage. Succeeded in flying over the North Pole and the previously unexplored regions of the Arctic Ocean north of Alaska in the dirigible Norge, built and piloted by Umberto Nobile (1926), believed to be the first successful flight over the pole. Died while attempting to rescue Nobile following the crash of the Italia in 1928.

Anaxagoras

73.4N

10.1W

50

~ of Clazomenae (500-428 B.C.E.), Greek natural philosopher and astronomer; noted as the first philosopher of Athens. Remembered for his cosmology and for his discovery of the true cause of eclipses.

Anaximander

66.9N

51.3W

67

~of Miletus (610-c. 546 B.C.), Greek philosopher; conceived the idea that the stars were fixed on a crystalline sphere rotating around the Earth. Believed the Earth to be cylindrical with a diameter three times its height, and that it was the center of the universe. Like his teacher, Thales, he imported ideas from the East, including the sundial.

Anaximenes

72.5N

44.5W

80

~ (585-528 B.C.), Greek astronomer, pupil of Anaximander; the first Greek to distinguish clearly between planets and stars. He believed the primary substance of the universe was air, which could form the other elements of water, earth and fire by rarefaction and condensation. He explained the rainbow as light hitting condensed air.

Anders

41.3S

142.9W

40

William A. ~ (1933- ), American astronaut, born in Hong Kong; aboard Apollo 8 on 21 December 1968, Anders, James Lovell and Frank Borman (qq.v.) became the first men to leave Earth's gravity and orbit the Moon.

Anderson

15.8N

171.1E

109

John A. ~ (1876-1959), American physicist; adapted Michelson's interferometric method for close double stars.

Andersson

49.7S

95.3W

13

Leif Erland ~ (1943-1979), Swedish-American astronomer; calculated the observable transits and occultations of Pluto and its moon, Charon. Died of lymphatic cancer in 1979 at age 35, several years before the results of his research became evident.

Andronov

22.7S

146.1E

16

Aleksandr Aleksandrovich ~ (1901-1952), Soviet physicist; a principle in the development of control engineering and non-linear dynamics. Co-author of Theory of Oscillators (with Vitt and Khaikin).

Andvel

10.4S

12.4E

35

Karel ~ (1884-1947), Czechoslovakian astronomer.

Ango

20.5N

32.3W

1

African male name.

Ångström

29.9N

41.6W

9

Anders Jonas ~ (1814-1874), Swedish physicist; noted as the "father of the spectral analysis." The Angstrom Unit, used especially to specify radiation wavelengths, is a length equal to one hundred-millionth of a centimeter, and was named in his honor.

Ann

25.1N

0.1W

3

Hebrew female name.

Annegrit

29.4N

25.6W

1

German female name.

Ansgarius

12.7S

79.7E

94

St. Ansgar, or St. Anskar, or ~ (801-864), German theologian, Patron of Scandinavia; the first Christian missionary in Scandinavia, he built the first Christian Church in Sweden. Called "the Apostle of the North."

Antoniadi

69.7S

172.0W

143

Eugène Michael ~ (1870-1944), French astronomer, born in Greece; a leading and decisive critic of the canal hypothesis of Mars, in his magnum opus, La planète Mars (1930), he presented a state-of-the-art summary of Martian topography and helped set the scene for the modern investigation of the planet. Antoniadi Ridge on Mercury, as well as this Lunar crater and another on Mars, were named in his honor.

Anuchin

49.0S

101.3E

57

Dmitrii Nikolaevich ~ (1843-1923), Russian geographer, zoologist and academician.

Anville

1.9N

49.5E

10

Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville (1697-1782), French cartographer; as geographer to the king of France beginning in 1719, he improved maps of Italy, Asia, and Africa.

Apianus

26.9S

7.9E

63

Peter Bienewitz, Latinized to Petrus ~ (1495-1552), German mathematician, cosmographer and astronomer; professor of mathematics at Ingolstadt, noted for his knowledge of astronomy. Principle among his writings is Cosmographia (1524), which includes some of the earliest maps of the Americas.

Apollo

36.1S

151.8W

537

Named to honor the U.S. Apollo missions.

Apollonius

4.5N

61.1E

53

Apollonius of Perga (ca. 262-ca. 190 B.C.), Greek mathematician and geometer; postulated that the planets revolved around the Sun and the Sun revolves around the Earth. Believed to be the inventor of the system of epicycles and eccentric circles. Also wrote a monumental treatise on conic sections, On Conics. In this treatise, the term ellipse was first used.

Appleton

37.2N

158.3E

63

Sir Edward Victor ~ (1892-1965), British physicist; Wheatstone Professor of Physics, University of London (1924-1936), Jacksonian Professor of Natural Philosophy (1936-1939). Appointed to the post of Secretary of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, the senior British Government post concerned with physical science (1939). In 1924 Appleton began a series of experiments which proved the existence of the ionosphere. With the cooperation of the BBC, he applied FM to the Bournemouth transmitter and observed a beat between the signal reflected from what he later called the E layer and the outgoing signal, thus proving conclusively the existence of the ionosphere, as well as measuring its height. In 1926 he discovered an upper layer which he subsequently called the F layer. In 1932, he set forth the now classical magneto-ionic theory which quantitatively describes radio-wave propagation in the ionosphere. Awarded the 1947 Nobel Prize in physics "for his investigations of the physics of the upper atmosphere especially for the discovery of the so-called Appleton layer."

Arago

6.2N

21.4E

26

Dominique François Jean ~ (1786-1853), French astronomer; became professor of analytical geometry at the École Polytechnique at the age of 23, and later became director of the Paris Observatory. Served for many years as secretary of the Académie des Sciences and was active politically for the Republican cause. Working with Fresnel (q.v.), he discovered that two beams of light polarized in perpendicular directions do not interfere, leading to the transverse theory of light waves. Working with Biot (q.v.), Arago made measurements of arc length on the Earth which led to the standardization of the metric system of lengths.

Aratus

23.6N

4.5E

10

~ of Soli (fl. 315-240 B.C.), Greek poet, philosopher, mathematician and astronomer; wrote an astronomical treatise, Phenomena, which was quoted by Paul at Athens.

Archimedes

29.7N

4.0W

82

~ of Syracuse (c. 287-212 B.C.), Greek physicist and mathematician; generally considered to be the greatest mathematician of ancient times. His fame is linked to "Archimedes' principle," by which a body immersed in a liquid receives an upward thrust from the bottom towards the top equal to the weight of the displaced liquid. The importance of Archimedes' contribution to the history of scientific thought derives above all from the influence exercised by him on the formation and development of a method of quantitative mathematics, which was affirmed by physics at the beginning of the Modern Age.

Archytas

58.7N

5.0E

31

~ of Tarentum (c. 428-350 B.C.?), Greek statesman, military commander, leading Pythagorean mathematician and philosopher; often called "the father of mathematical mechanics." Aristotle wrote a special treatise on his work, entitled The Philosophy of Archytas. His theories on the exact sciences were based on two principles: that there is no absolute difference between the organic and the inorganic world; and that the law of causality cannot interpret phenomena. In mathematics, Archytas was the first to distinguish between arithmetic and geometric progressions; he also found a solution to the problem of doubling the cube. He is believed to be the inventor of the screw and the pulley, and is considered a forefather of mechanical flight.

Argelander

16.5S

5.8E

34

Friedrich Wilhelm August (F.W.A.) ~ (1799-1875), German astronomer; a student of Bessel (q.v.) and his assistant at the Königsberg observatory. in Finnland. Became director of the university observatory at Turku (Åbo), Finland, in 1823, and professor of astronomy at the university in 1828; the university and observatory were relocated to Helsinki in 1832. With the patronage of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, he planned and built the observatory at Bonn, Germany (1845). Authored several catalogs of visible stars, including the Uranometria nova and Bonner Durchmusterung (Bonn Survey). The Argelander Method for Visual Variable Star Brightness Estimation, which he devised, was named in his honor.

Ariadaeus

4.6N

17.3E

11

Philipus III Arrhidaeus, or ~ (?-317 B.C.) King of Babylon and patron of astronomy; half-brother and successor of Alexander the Great (q.v.).

Ariosto

3.6S

95.6E

23

Ludovico ~ (1474-1533), Italian nobleman, poet, playwright and familiare to Roman Catholic cardinals; his Orlando Furioso (1532) was the most celebrated narrative poem of the Italian Renaissance.

Aristarchus

23.7N

47.4W

40

~ of Samos  (c. 310-230 B.C.), Greek astronomer; first to assert that the Earth rotates and revolves around the Sun. Also found a more precise value for the length of the solar year.

Aristillus

33.9N

1.2E

55

~ (fl. c. 280 B.C.), Greek philosopher and astronomer; with Timocharis (q.v.), prepared the first known star catalog in the third century B.C.

Aristoteles

50.2N

17.4E

87

~ (383-322 B.C.), Greek astronomer, mathematician and philosopher; considered, along with his teacher, Plato, the most influential philosopher of the western tradition. At age 17, he entered Plato's academy in Athens, and remained there until Plato's death. Served as tutor to the young Alexander the Great. In 335 he returned to Athens where he founded the Lyceum. Here he organized and conducted research on many subjects, and built the first great library of antiquity. Aristoteles wrote on many subjects, including logic, physics, psychology, natural history, ethics, sleep, dreams and meteorology.

Armiński

16.4S

154.2E

26

Franciszek ~ (1789-1848), Polish astronomer; founder of the Astronomical Observatory at Warsaw University 

Armstrong

1.4N

25.0E

4

Neil Alden ~ (1930- ), American naval aviator, test pilot and astronaut; made his first flight in space aboard Gemini 8 (1966), during which he and fellow astronaut David Scott successfully performed the first docking in space between two spacecraft. In July 1969, Neil Armstrong was the commander of Apollo 11, the first attempt to land a manned vehicle on the Moon. On July 20, 1969, he and fellow astronaut Edwin Aldrin (q.v.) successfully touched down on the lunar surface. As the first person to touch the Moon's surface, Armstrong spoke the phrase, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." He and Aldrin explored the Moon's surface for 2.5 hours. Armstrong was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of his accomplishments and his contributions to the space program.

Arnold

66.8N

35.9E

94

Christoph ~ (1650-1695), German farmer and astronomer; discovered the Great Comet of 1683 eight days before Hevelius and observed the great Comet of 1686. For his observation of the transit of Mercury in front of the Sun in 1690, he received an amount of money and a tax exemption from the town of Leipzig.

Arrhenius

55.6S

91.3W

40

Svante August ~ (1859-1927), Swedish chemist; awarded the 1903 Nobel Award in chemistry "in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered to the advancement of chemistry by his electrolytic theory of dissociation."

Artamonov

25.5N

103.5E

60

Nikolaj N. ~ (1906-1965), Soviet rocket scientist.

Artem'ev

10.8N

144.4W

67

Vladimir A. ~ (1885-1962), Soviet rocket scientist.

Artemis

25.0N

25.4W

2

Greek goddess of the Moon.

Artsimovich

27.6N

36.6W

8

Lev Andreyevich ~ (1909-1973), Soviet physicist and educator; professor at the universities of Leningrad and Moscow, he also invented the Tokamak, the device that has come closest to demonstrating the feasibility of controlled thermonuclear energy production. Director of the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy; member of the Presidium of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences and Academician-Secretary of its Division of General Physics and Astronomy; President of the National Committee of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics; delegate on the Council of the European Physical Society; President of the National Committee of Soviet Physicists; member of the Commission on disarmament problems of the Presidium of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences; and member of the International Continuing Committee of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs.

Aryabhata

6.2N

35.1E

22

~ I, or ~ the Elder (476-c. 550), Indian astronomer and mathematician; his masterpiece, the Aryabhatiya, is a small astronomical treatise written in 118 verses giving a summary of Hindu mathematics up to that time. India's first satellite, launched in 1975, was named for him;
Also ~ II (c. 920-c. 1000), Indian mathematician; his Mahasiddhanta, a treatise on mathematical astronomy written in Sanskrit verse, covers the longitudes of the planets, eclipses of the Sun and Moon, the projection of eclipses, the lunar crescent, the rising and setting of the planets, and conjunctions of the planets with each other and with the stars.

Arzachel

18.2S

1.9W

96

al-Zarkala, or ~ (c. 1028-1087), Spanish-Arabic astronomer and geographer; determined the meridian distance between his observatory in Toledo and Baghdad to amount to 51° 30’, an error of only 3° as compared with Ptolemy’s error of 18°.

Asada

7.3N

49.9E

12

Goryu ~ (1734-1799), Japanese physician and astronomer; helped to introduce modern astronomical instruments and methods into Japan. Often credited with the independent discovery of Kepler’s third law.

Asclepi

55.1S

25.4E

42

Giuseppe Maria ~ (1706-1776), Italian Jesuit astronomer; director of the observatory at the Collegio Romano. His most famous work was De veneris per solem transitu exercitatio astronomica habita in Collegio Romano anno 1761.

Ashbrook

81.4S

112.5W

156

Joseph ~, Ph.D. (1918-1980), American astronomer; a Harvard-educated Yale astronomer, he co-discovered the comet 47P/Ashbrook-Jackson while studying minor planets from Lowell Observatory (Arizona, USA).

Aston

32.9N

87.7W

43

Francis William ~ (1877-1945), British chemist and physicist; awarded the 1922 Nobel Prize in chemistry "for his discovery, by means of his mass spectrograph, of isotopes, in a large number of non-radioactive elements, and for his enunciation of the whole-number rule."

Atlas

46.7N

44.4E

87

Mythological Greek Titan.

Atwood

5.8S

57.7E

29

George ~ (1745-1807), British mathematician, physicist and engineer; best known for his textbook on Newtonian mechanics, A Treatise on the Rectilinear Motion (1784), in which he describes a machine, now known as Atwood's machine, to demonstrate the laws of uniformly accelerated motion due to gravity. He also wrote on the construction of arches and on the design of a new iron London Bridge over the Thames.

Austen

9.0S

0.0E

28

Jane ~ (1775-1817), British author; best known for her novels Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma and Persuasion, and for her wit and social observations.

Autolycus

30.7N

1.5E

39

~ of Pitane (c. 360-c. 290 B.C.), Greek mathematician, academic and astronomer; two of his books (On the Moving Sphere, a work on the geometry of the sphere, and On Risings and Settings, on observational astronomy) have endured in the original Greek and are believed to be the earliest mathematics works to have survived.

Auwers

15.1N

17.2E

20

Georg Friedrich Julius Arthur ~ (1838-1915), German astronomer; helped found the Potsdam Astrophysical Observatory. Began the project of unifying all of the world’s celestial catalogs from 1750 on, a task not completed until 1966. Secretary of the Berlin Academy (1866-1915). Awarded the 1899 Bruce Medal.

Auzout

10.3N

64.1E

32

Adrien ~ (1622-1691), French astronomer and physicist; founding member of the French Royal Observatory. Also made a significant contribution to the final development of the micrometer and to the replacement of open sights by telescopic sights. He wrote a memoir on the measurement of the Earth in which he advised the attachment of telescopes to surveying instruments.

Avery

1.4S

81.4E

9

Oswald Theodore ~ (1877-1955), Canadian-American bacteriologist; worked on many strains of bacteria, applying different immunological and chemical methods. Published a vital clinical study of the tuberculosis bacterium in 1913.

Avicenna

39.7N

97.2W

74

Abu Ali al-Hussain Ibn Abdallah Ibn Sina, or ~ (980-1037 C.E.), Persian philosopher and physician; the most famous physician, philosopher, encyclopaedist, mathematician and astronomer of his time. His major contribution to medical science was the al-Qanun, known as the "Canon" in the West. The Qanun fi al-Tibb is an immense encyclopedia of medicine of over a million words, surveying the entire medical knowledge available from ancient and Muslim sources.

Avogadro

63.1N

164.9E

139

Amedeo ~, Conte di Quaregna (1776-1856), Italian physicist and academician; advanced the hypothesis, today known as Avogadro’s law, that equal volumes of gases under identical conditions of pressure and temperature contain the same number of molecules. The hypothesis, though not accepted for some fifty years after its introduction, is now one of the fundamental concepts of the atomic theory of matter.

Azophi

22.1S

12.7E

47

'Abd al-Rahman Al-Sufi, or al-Suphi, or ~ (903-986), Persian astronomer; the first astronomer to describe the 'nebulosity' of the nebula in Andromeda in his book of constellations. His book Kitab al-Kawatib al-Thabit al-Musawwar was a masterpiece on stellar astronomy and is considered important even now for the study of proper motions and long period variables.