Charles Mason

Charles Mason (* 1728, † 1786) was an English astronomer.

At the beginning of his career he worked at the Greenwich Observatory near London. Later he surveyed with his partner, Jeremiah Dixon named after them Mason - Dixon line in the period 1763-1769.

Previously, both had traveled around the Cape of Good Hope to observe the passage of the planet Venus.

The American author Thomas Pynchon put the two in his 1997 novel Mason & Dixon a literary monument. The title song of the Mark Knopfler - Sailing to Philadelphia album is about Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon.

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