George Phillips Bond

This article is about the astronomer. For the Methodist missionary, see George John Bond.
George Phillips Bond
Born (1825-05-20)May 20, 1825
Died February 17, 1865(1865-02-17) (aged 39)
Nationality United States
Fields astronomy
Known for astrophotography

George Phillips Bond (May 20, 1825  February 17, 1865) was an American astronomer. He was the son of William Cranch Bond. Some sources give his year of birth as 1826.

His early interest was in nature and birds, but after his elder brother William Cranch Bond Jr. died, he felt obliged to follow his father into the field of astronomy. He succeeded his father as director of Harvard College Observatory from 1859 until his death. His cousin was Edward Singleton Holden, first director of Lick Observatory.

Bond took the first photograph of a star in 1850 (Vega) and of a double star in 1857 (Mizar); suggested photography could be used to measure a star's magnitude; and discovered numerous comets and calculated their orbits. Bond also studied Saturn and the Orion Nebula. He and his father jointly discovered Saturn's moon, Hyperion (which was also independently discovered by William Lassell). In addition to his astronomical contributions, Bond also surveyed the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

He died of tuberculosis.

Honors

External links


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, February 05, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.