William Lassell (1799-1880), by Gerard Gilligan - 2021-05-10
Channel: Cork Astronomy Club
Date: 2021-12-28

Gerard Gilligan is a member of Liverpool Astronomical Society, and, since 2014, has been Chairman of the Society for the History of Astronomy (SHA, https://societyforthehistoryofastronomy.com/), based in Birmingham, England.

In this Lockdown Lecture to Cork Astronomy Club via Zoom, he reprises the life and career of the 19th century English astronomer, William Lassell (1799-1880, https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900/Lassell,_William). Lassell is best known for constructing two large equatorially mounted reflecting telescopes, of 24 inch (0.61 m) aperture in Liverpool, England, and 48 inch (1.22 m) aperture in Valetta, Malta, and as the discoverer (1846) of Triton, the largest moon of Neptune; two moons of Uranus, Ariel and Umbriel (1851); and as co-discoverer of Hyperion (1848), one of the moons of Saturn.