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.<ref name="Obituary" /><ref name="Who-s-Who" /><ref name="BEA" /> He is known for his catalogues of meteor radiants, observations of Jupiter's red spot, and for the discovery of five comets.<ref name="MPC-object" /> Outside astronomy, as a young man, Denning showed prowess at cricket to the extent W G Grace invited him to play for Gloucestershire. However Denning's retiring nature made him decline the offer.<ref name="Obituary" />

Career

Denning devoted a great deal of time to searching for comets, and discovered five of them, including the periodic comets 72P/Denning–Fujikawa and 489P/Denning. The latter was the last comet discovered on British soil until the discoveries of George Alcock, and its recovery was announced by the Minor Planet Center with MPEC 2024-Q14.

Denning also studied meteors and novae, discovering Nova Cygni 1920 (V476 Cyg). From 1869 Denning held the combined post of secretary and treasurer of the short-lived Observing Astronomical Society.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Denning was elected to the Royal Astronomical Society on 8 June 1877.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> He was first elected to the British Astronomical Association on 24 June 1891 and rejoined in 1898, being elected as a member on 16 October of that year.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> He directed its Comet Section (1891–1893) and Meteor Section (1899–1900).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> He won the Prix Valz of the French Academy of Sciences for 1895.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

During his life, Denning published 1179 articles<ref name=Beech>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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.<ref name=ADS>Template:Cite web</ref>

Awards and honors

• In 1898, Denning won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society.<ref name="Who-s-Who" />
• He also won the Donohoe Comet Medal for his July 23, 1890 discovery of a comet.<ref name="ASP-Awards" /><ref name="Denning-1890" />
• Such was his standing in the astronomical community that following his death a memorial tablet was fixed to his house.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
• Crater Denning on the Moon as well as the Martian crater Denning were named after him in 1970 and 1973, respectively.<ref>Template:GPN</ref><ref>Template:GPN</ref>
• Asteroid 71885 Denning, discovered by the Spacewatch program in 2000, was named in his memory.<ref name="MPC-object" /> The official Template:MoMP was published by the Minor Planet Center on 4 October 2009 (Template:Small).<ref name="MPC-Circulars-Archive" />

References

• Phil Williams (July 2015) "William Frederick Denning F.R.A.S." Liverpool Astronomical Society Newsletter (July 2015, pp,4–6)

External links

• Template:Wikisource author-inline
• Telescopic work for starlight evenings Cornell University Library Historical Monographs Collection.
• W. F. Denning – The Doyen of Amateur Astronomers Short biography by Martin Beech, Campion College, The University of Regina, Canada