Sir William Huggins As An Astronomers

Many discoveries in our vast universe can be attributed to amateur astronomers. I remember my first time discovering the moon with a simple telescope. Dr. William Huggins is what we can call an amateur. He is by far one of the wealthiest “amateurs” and influential astronomers of his time. Sir William Huggins was born in Stoke Newington, England on Feb. 7, 1824. Dr. William was born into a wealthy family and spent most of his time not having to work. He took advantage of this and worked with private tutors in the fields of mathematics, physics, and chemistry. Sir Williams was a self-motivated learner. Even at younger ages he showed interest in many studies. He built apparatuses little by little to conduct his experiments. At the age of 28 he was appointed to the Microscopical Society for his studies of plants and animals physiology. During this period of his life, Sir Williams was not much of an Astronomer. He spent much of his time working at his parent’s business located in London.

After retiring from his business at a fairly young age, Sir William was undecided in what his next ventures would be. Would he continue his workings of animals and plants physiology under a microscope or would he explore the heavens? It was not until 1856 that he decided to build his private observatory in Tulse Hill, South London. Dr. William spent most of his lifetime residing within the city of London. He built his private observatory and first started with telescopes, viewing planets such as Mars. He would draw many of his early observations, and it was not until the published works of Gustav Kirchhoff, a physicists and Robert Bunsen, a chemist. Kirchhoff and Bunsen’s published writings were on the analysis and interpretation of spectral lines. B...

... middle of paper ...

...to find a spectrum of a star, he determined that Draco was not formed by the collection of stars, but consisted of hot gases. Dr. Williams observations and experiments with the Spectroscope were even more truly revolutionary by his findings of Doppler Shifts in spectra lines. Using spectral line shifts of a star, he measured the radial velocity of Sirius. For his many accomplishments, Sir Williams was given many awards. His first major award was the Royal Medal from the Royal Society after becoming a fellow. He later earned the Gold Medal in 1867 from the Royal Astronomical Society along with the Rumford Medal (1880), and Copley Medal (1898). After many years and awards in the Royal Society, Sir Williams became their president from 1900 to 1905. Following his retirement, Sir Williams died in Tulse Hill, London following an operation on May 12, 1910 at the age of 86.