Talk:James Bradley

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Latest comment: 17 years ago2 comments2 people in discussion

Superslum read the following words in the New International Encyclopedia.

Aberration was discovered by James Bradley in 1725. Hooke had reported the discovery of large parallax in the case of the star γ Draconis, and accordingly, in 1725, Bradley undertook a series of measurements on the star with a zenith sector for the purpose of verifying Hooke's observation. He found that the latitude of the star underwent small periodic variations during the course of the year, and, moreover, that the displacement was greatest when the parallactic displacement should have been zero. He therefore abandoned all attempts to explain the phenomenon as due to parallax, although its annual recurrence led him to infer that it was in some way connected the motion of the earth about the sun. It is said that the true explanation was suggested to him in 1728 while sailing on the Thames. He observed that the wind seemed to shift whenever the boat was put about, and was told, on questioning the boatman, that the direction of the wind vane at the head of the mast was due to the motion of the boat as well as to the direction of the wind. This gave him the desired clue, and shortly after, in 1729, he announced his discovery to the Royal Society.

Superslum 18:42, 11 August 2006 (UTC)Reply

Hmm, interesting! At least γ Dra and such details should be added to the text. L8R! I need to logo the text with constellation task force for categorizing astrometry to constellations articles. Said: Rursus 19:07, 23 April 2007 (UTC)Reply

Laplace quote

Latest comment: 11 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

The article already has a good quote, but in case this article is ever expanded and another is needed: Laplace, in his book "Exposition du système du monde" (1813) says: "Bradley, the model astronomer, is forever famous because of two of the most most beautiful discoveries ever made in astronomy, the aberration of the fixed stars, and the nutation of the Earth's axis." BlankAxolotl (talk) 23:53, 13 June 2013 (UTC)Reply

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