William Huggins

Template:Short description Template:Other people Template:EngvarB Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox scientist Sir William Huggins (7 February 1824 – 12 May 1910) was a British astronomer best known for his pioneering work in astronomical spectroscopy together with his wife, Margaret.<ref>Template:Cite DNB12</ref>

Biography

File:Huggins William 1910.jpg

William Huggins (1910)

William Huggins was born at Cornhill, Middlesex, in 1824. In 1875, he married Margaret Lindsay, daughter of John Murray of Dublin, who also had an interest in astronomy and scientific research.<ref name=Becker4> Template:Citation </ref>

She encouraged her husband's photography and helped to put their research on a systematic footing.Template:Citation needed

Huggins built a private observatory at 90 Upper Tulse Hill, London, from where he and his wife carried out extensive observations of the spectral emission lines and absorption lines of various celestial objects.Template:Citation needed

On 29 August 1864, Huggins was the first to take the spectrum of a planetary nebula when he analysed NGC 6543.<ref>Template:Cite journal See p. 438, "No. 4373".</ref><ref name=Kwok1>Template:Citation</ref>

He was also the first to distinguish between nebulae and galaxies by showing that some (like the Orion Nebula) had pure emission spectra characteristic of gas, while others like the Andromeda Galaxy had the spectral characteristics of stars.Template:Citation needed

Huggins was assisted in the analysis of spectra by his neighbor, the chemist William Allen Miller. Huggins was also the first to adopt dry plate photography in imaging astronomical objects.<ref name=Becker4 />

With observations of Sirius showing a redshift in 1868, Huggins hypothesized that a radial velocity of the star could be computed.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Huggins won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1867, jointly with William Allen Miller. He later served as President of the Royal Astronomical Society from 1876 to 1878, and received the Gold Medal again (this time alone) in 1885. He served as an officer of the Royal Astronomical Society for a total of 37 years, more than any other person.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Huggins was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in June 1865, was awarded their Royal Medal (1866), Rumford Medal (1880) and Copley Medal (1898) and delivered their Bakerian Lecture in 1885.

He then served as President of the Royal Society from 1900 to 1905. For example, his Presidential Address in 1904 praised the fallen Fellows and distributed the prizes of that year.<ref>Wm Huggins (30 November 1904) Huggins Presidential Address, link from Internet Archive</ref>

He died at his home in Tulse Hill, London, after an operation for a hernia in 1910 and was buried at Golders Green Crematorium.

Telescopes

In 1856 Huggins acquired a 5-inch diameter aperture telescope by Dollond.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=":0" /> In 1858 an 8-inch telescope by Clark was added.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=":1" /> These were both refracting telescopes.<ref name=":0" /> They had glass objectives.

In 1871 Huggins acquired an Template:Convert speculum reflecting telescope from the Grubb Telescope Company.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":0"/>

Honours and awards

Honours

• Elected to Honorary membership of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society<ref>Memoirs and proceedings of the Manchester Literary & Philosophical Society FOURTH SERIES Eighth VOLUME 1894</ref> in 1869.
• Elected an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1892.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Elected an International Member of the American Philosophical Society in 1895.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the 1897 Diamond Jubilee Honours list on 22 June 1897.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
• Huggins was among the original recipients of the Order of Merit (OM) in the 1902 Coronation Honours list published on 26 June 1902,<ref>Template:Cite newspaper The Times</ref> and received the order from King Edward VII at Buckingham Palace on 8 August 1902.<ref>Template:Cite newspaper The Times</ref><ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>
• Elected an International Member of the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1904.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Awards

• Royal Medal (1866)
• Lalande Prize (1870)
• Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (jointly with William Allen Miller in 1867, solo in 1885)
• Rumford Medal (1880)
• Valz Prize (1882)<ref name=Popular>Template:Cite journal</ref>
• Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (1883)
• Janssen Medal (1888)
• Copley Medal (1898)
• Henry Draper Medal from the National Academy of Sciences (1901)<ref name=Draper>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Bruce Medal (1904)

Named after him

• Huggins (lunar crater)
• Huggins (Martian crater)
• Asteroid 2635 Huggins

Publications

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Caricature of Huggins by Leslie Ward in Vanity Fair

• 1870: Spectrum analysis in its application to the heavenly bodies. Manchester, (Science lectures for the work

people; series 2, no. 3)

• 1872: (editor) Spectrum analysis in its application to terrestrial substances and the physical constitution of heavenly bodies by H. Schellen, translated by Jane and Caroline Lassell, link from HathiTrust.
• 1899: (with Lady Huggins): An Atlas of Representative Stellar Spectra from <math>\lambda</math>4870 to <math>\lambda</math>3300, together with a discussion of the evolution order of the stars, and the interpretation of their spectra; preceded by a short history of the observatory. London, (Publications of Sir William Huggins's Observatory; v. 1)
• 1906: The Royal Society, or, Science in the state and in the schools. London.
• 1909: The Scientific Papers of Sir William Huggins; edited by Sir William and Lady Huggins. London, (Publications of Sir William Huggins's Observatory; v. 2)

See also

• Planetary nebula#Observations
• Timeline of knowledge about the interstellar and intergalactic medium
• List of presidents of the Royal Society

External links

• Huggins, Sir William (1824–1910) Barbara J. Becker, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004 (subscription required)
• Template:Cite EB1911
• Audio description of Huggins' work
• Eclecticism, Opportunism, and the Evolution of a New Research Agenda: William and Margaret Huggins and the Origins of Astrophysics Barbara J. Becker
• William Wallace Campbell Sir William Huggins, K.C.B.,O.M., Astronomical Society of the Pacific link from Internet Archive.