Dava Sobel

Dava Sobel

female, 62 years old
British Book of the Year, Science writer, American, University of Chicago, Antioch College alumni, Binghamton University alumni…longitude prize, longitude
Dava Sobel (born 1947) is a writer of popular expositions of scientific topics. She graduated from the Bronx High School of Science and Binghamton...
John Harrison

John Harrison

male, deceased (1776)
Yorkshireman, marine chronometer, Watchmaker, From West Yorkshire, From Yorkshire, GBP…longitude
John Harrison was an English clockmaker who revolutionised and extended the possibility of safe long distance sea travel in the Age of Sail by...
Eratosthenes

Eratosthenes

male
death by starvation, circumference of the earth, Geometer, Egyptian, Hellenistic Egyptian, Librarian of Alexandria…longitude
Eratosthenes (Greek ; 276 BC - 194 BC) was a Greek mathematician, geographer and astronomer. His contemporaries nicknamed him "beta" (Greek for...
Tobias Mayer

Tobias Mayer

male, deceased (1762)
Astronomer, mapmaking, J.B. Homann, lunar tables, Kosmographische Nachrichten, Theoria lunae juxta systema Newtonianum…longitude
Tobias Mayer was a German astronomer famous for his studies of the Moon. He was born at Marbach, in Württemberg, and brought up at Esslingen in p...
Gemma Frisius

Gemma Frisius

male, deceased (1555)
From Friesland, dutch, Reiner Gemma, Dokkum, triangulation, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven…longitude
Gemma Frisius (or Reiner Gemma, December 9, 1508 - May 25, 1555) was a mathematician, cartographer and instrument maker. He created important...

Timocharis

male
ancient greek, Alexandria, precession of the equinoxes, star catalogue, 3rd century BC, hipparchus…longitude
Timocharis of Alexandria (ca. 320 BC - 260 BC) was a Greek astronomer and philosopher. Likely born in Alexandria, he was a contemporary of Euclid....
Alexander MacKenzie

Alexander MacKenzie

male, deceased (1820)
Scottish migrant to Quebec, Explorer of North America, immigrant to Canada, Explorer of British Columbia, Explorer of Canada, fraser river…longitude
Sir Alexander MacKenzie (1764 - March 11, 1820) was a Scottish-Canadian explorer. MacKenzie was born in Stornoway on the isle of Lewis in the Outer...
Rupert Gould

Rupert Gould

male, deceased (1948)
marine chronometer, Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, cecil, midshipman, longitude, mediterranean
Rupert Thomas Gould (November 16, 1890 - October 5, 1948), was a Lieutenant Commander in the British Royal Navy. He grew up in Southsea, near...
Giovanni Domenico Cassini

Giovanni Domenico Cassini

male, deceased (1712)
great-grand-son, professor, Sidera Lodoicea, Panzano Observatory, differential rotation, saturn…longitude
Giovanni Domenico Cassini (June 8, 1625-September 14, 1712) was an Italian-French astronomer, engineer, and astrologer. Cassini, also known as...
Friedrich Bessel

Friedrich Bessel

male, deceased (1846)
craters of the Moon named after them, Halley's comet, Lalande Prize, Institut de France, Königsberg Observatory, Lilienthal…longitude
Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel was a German mathematician, astronomer, and systematizer of the Bessel functions (which were discovered by Daniel...