John Goodricke
Template:Short description Template:Other people Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox scientist John Goodricke FRS (17 September 1764 – 20 April 1786) was an English amateur astronomer. He is best known for his observations of the variable star Algol (Beta Persei) in 1782.
Life and work
John Goodricke, named after his great-grandfather Sir John Goodricke 1617–1670 (see Goodricke baronets of Ribston Hall), was born in Groningen in the Netherlands, but lived most of his life in England. He became deaf in early childhood due to a severe illness.<ref name="bbc" /> His parents sent him to Thomas Braidwood's Academy, a school for deaf pupils in Edinburgh, and in 1778 to the Warrington Academy.
After leaving Warrington, Goodricke returned to live with his parents in York. There, he became friends with his neighbour Edward Pigott, whose father Nathaniel Pigott had built a sophisticated private observatory. Edward was already interested in variable stars and gave Goodricke a list of those that he thought were worthy of observation.
Goodricke is credited with discovering the periodic variation of β Lyrae<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and δ Cephei, the prototypical example of the Cepheid variable stars.<ref name="jha10_23" />
Although several stars were already known to vary in apparent magnitude, Goodricke was the first to propose a mechanism to account for this. He suggested that Algol is what is now known as an eclipsing binary. He presented his findings to the Royal Society in May 1783, and for this work, the Society awarded him the Copley Medal for that year. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 16 April 1786. He never learned of this honour however, as he died four days later from pneumonia.<ref name="surveyor" /> He never married.
Goodricke in Yorkshire
Goodricke was buried at Hunsingore Church, then in West Yorkshire, along with many of his relatives.<ref name="letter" />
Today there is a marker in York near the site of John Goodricke's observatory.
In 1949, Sidney Melmore<ref name="melmore" /> showed that Goodricke worked from the Treasurer's House (now owned by the National Trust) very near York Minster, and concluded that he had observed from the north window of the top floor of the south-east wing, looking south towards the Minster. However, records indicate that the Goodricke family had rented rooms from Edward Topham, the then owner of the northwest wing of the house.<ref name="french" />
Goodricke College at the University of York is named after Goodricke. There is also a modern sculpture named Algol in the grounds.
Honours
Asteroid 3116 Goodricke is named for John Goodricke.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The University of York has a Goodricke College named after John Goodricke.<ref name="college">Template:Cite web</ref>
The Goodricke-Pigott Observatory is a private astronomical observatory in Tucson, Arizona, named after both Goodricke and Pigott. It was formally dedicated on 26 October 1996.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
References
Further reading
External links
- Template:Cite web Features animations of different types of variable stars.
- Template:Cite web
- Template:Cite web Features scans of his notes retrieved from the York City Archives and other biographical information. Website in Norwegian, scans in English.
- Template:Find a Grave
- See also John Burnside's poem, 'Sense Data', a tribute to Goodricke in Burnside's collection, The Asylum Dance, Cape (2000)
Template:Authority control Template:Copley Medallists 1751–1800
- Pages with broken file links
- 1764 births
- 1786 deaths
- Scientists from Groningen (city)
- 18th-century English astronomers
- Recipients of the Copley Medal
- Fellows of the Royal Society
- Enlightenment scientists
- Deaths from pneumonia in the United Kingdom
- English deaf people
- Scientists from Yorkshire
- British scientists with disabilities