| Sir Frank Watson Dyson | |
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| Born | 8 January 1868 Measham, nr Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, England |
| Died | 25 May 1939 (aged 71) At sea |
| Known for | Astronomer Royal |
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Sir Frank Watson Dyson, KBE, FRS (8 January 1868 – 25 May 1939) was an English astronomer and Astronomer Royal who is remembered today largely for introducing time signals ("pips") from Greenwich, England, and for the role he played in testing Einstein's theory of general relativity.
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Biography
Dyson was born in Measham, near Ashby-de-la-Zouch, England. He attended Heath Grammar School, Halifax, and subsequently won scholarships to Bradford Grammar School and Trinity College, Cambridge University, where he studied mathematics and astronomy, being placed Second Wrangler in 1889.[1] He was Astronomer Royal for Scotland from 1905 to 1910, and Astronomer Royal (and director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory) from 1910 to 1933. In 1928, he introduced a new free-pendulum clock in the Observatory. This wireless transmission meant that Greenwich Mean Time was more accurate. He also invented the "six pips", in 1924.
Dyson was noted for his study of solar eclipses and was an authority on the spectrum of the corona and on the chromosphere. He is credited with organizing expeditions to observe the 1919 solar eclipse at Brazil and Principe, observations from which confirmed Einstein's theory of the effect of gravity on light.
Dyson died while traveling from Australia to England in 1939, and was buried at sea
Honors and memorials
- Fellow of the Royal Society - 1901
- President, Royal Astronomical Society - 1911–1913
- Knighted - 1915
- President, British Astronomical Association, 1916–1918
- Royal Medal of the Royal Society - 1921
- Bruce Medal - 1922
- Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society - 1925
- KBE - 1926
- Between 1894–1906, Dyson lived at 6 Vanbrugh Hill, Blackheath, London SE3, in a house now marked by a blue plaque.
- The crater Dyson on the Moon is named after him, as is the asteroid 1241 Dysona.
Frank Dyson and Freeman Dyson are not related. However, the latter does credit Sir Frank with sparking his interest in astronomy; because they shared the same last name, Sir Frank's achievements were discussed by Freeman Dyson's family when he was a young boy. Inspired, Dyson's first attempt at writing was a 1931 piece of juvenilia entitled "Sir Phillip Robert's Erolunar Collision" — Sir Philip being a thinly disguised version of Sir Frank.
Selected writings
- A Determination of the Deflection of Light by the Sun's Gravitational Field, from Observations Made at the Total Eclipse of May 29, 1919 by F. W. Dyson, A. S. Eddington, and C. Davidson, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Containing Papers of a Math. or Phys. Character, vol. 220, pp. 291 - 333, 1920
- Astronomy, Frank Dyson, London, Dent, 1910
References
- ^ Frank Watson Dyson in Venn, J. & J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge University Press, 10 vols, 1922–1958.
- ^ Dyson, F. W.; Eddington, A. S.; Davidson, C. (1920), "A Determination of the Deflection of Light by the Sun's Gravitational Field, from Observations Made at the Total Eclipse of May 29, 1919", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Containing Papers of a Math. Or Phys. Character 220: 291–333, doi:, http://www.journals.royalsoc.ac.uk/content/l30l04qu5m012r87/fulltext.pdf
External links
- Online catalogue of Dyson's working papers (part of the Royal Greenwich Observatory Archives held at Cambridge University Library)
- Bruce Medal page
- Awarding of Bruce Medal: PASP 34 (1922) 2
- Awarding of RAS gold medal: MNRAS 85 (1925) 672
- Astronomische Nachrichten 268 (1939) 395/396 (one line)
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 100 (1940) 238
- The Observatory 62 (1939) 179
- Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 51 (1939) 336
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